Lopoldine Hugo

Personal

Family

French member of noted family, the eldest daughter of novelist, poet, and dramatist Victor Hugo and his wife, Adèle Foucher. The second of their five children, she was named after her paternal grandfather, as was her late brother Léopold (who died barely after his birth.) Léopoldine had many suitors for marriage including her future husband, Charles Vacquerie, whom she met while on holiday in 1839. They married at Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on 15 February 1843, but they both drowned together only a few months later, when their boat capsized on the Seine in Villequier on 4 September 1843. She was 19 years old and pregnant and she died when her wet, heavy skirts pulled her down, and her husband died trying to save her. This tragic event had a great impact on the work and personality of her father, Victor Hugo. He dedicated numerous poems to the memory of his daughter, notably "Demain dès l'aube" and "À Villequier in Pauca Meae," the fourth book of Les Contemplations. Victor Hugo didn't write for several years and he had what can be classified as "clinical depression", for obvious reasons. Link to Wikipedia biography