Frog & Fog (31)
Unlike the dead, the living kept moving house according to changing circumstances. Writers in particular might not even have a fixed residence before becoming famous. Balzac moved at least nine times. His residence by the Seine was purchased in 1848, and he had planned to marry Ewelina Hańska there. Sadly, five months after marrying her, he died of illness in 1850. That house by the Seine thus became his final residence.
Alexandre Dumas was another case entirely. After becoming famous overnight in 1844 because of Count of Monte Cristo, he built the Château de Monte-Cristo in a small forest. He lived extravagantly throughout his life, frequently hosting lavish banquets at the château and spending money like water. Within a few years, he had squandered all his wealth and was ultimately forced to auction the château off to someone else at a very low price.
He lived until 1870 and had countless lovers in his lifetime. As Balzac put it, being a lover was easier than being a husband. Before the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Alexandre Dumas fils took Alexandre Dumas to their seaside villa in Normandy before the Prussian army surrounded Paris. Though that seaside villa was not as harsh as the prison Count of Monte Cristo had once been confined in, Alexandre Dumas ultimately died there as well.
Victor Hugo's situation was more complicated. After becoming famous for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1831, he lived in that house at Place des Vosges for sixteen years. After the June Revolution in 1848, Hugo gradually shifted toward republicanism. In the presidential election, Hugo voted for Napoleon III. In 1851, Hugo was forced into exile overseas for nineteen years, only returning to France in 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War ended and Napoleon III fell from power.
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