24 Comments
Jan 22Liked by Allison Epstein

A proper dirtbag was M. Hugo, that he was. No comment but I lived in Paris for a year and can vouch for there being something in the water of that city (oh, I guess I did comment, sorry)

BTW, I do have a street named after my family in my hometown in my country... that's a story in itself :). But I never moved there. I probably should.

Expand full comment
Jan 22Liked by Allison Epstein

The Taylor Swift comparison and the description of his godfather as “Royalist Shack Man” absolutely made this for me.

Expand full comment
Jan 22Liked by Allison Epstein

Wow, there’s so much to unpack with this one. Those photos! I don’t think I’ll ever get them out of my head, especially the one with him posing on the rocks. And honestly, how did he write such dire stories when he was having so much sex? I feel like there’s a disconnect somewhere.

As for the Prussia thing, I am totally on board with that. Studying all that just about killed me in AP European history in high school. And I drowned in massive tomes about the subject in grad school. It is as dreadfully boring as you suggest.

Expand full comment
Jan 22Liked by Allison Epstein

I am in your Venn Diagram, I confess, because I knew who Amy Robsart was. But which of Hugo's novels has the anarchist polycule? I got bogged down in the first chapters of Les Mis because he spent what felt like 100 pages describing the priest from whom Valjean steals the candlesticks.

Expand full comment
Jan 24Liked by Allison Epstein

If you're looking for a true Prussian Dirtbag, you could do no worse than Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt. He was the guy that helped Wellington defeat Napoleon. Notorious womanizer and gambler, he staged a mock execution of a priest for laughs, and if you think that's not bad enough have a look at what he got up to at Waterloo...

Expand full comment
Jan 24Liked by Allison Epstein

"Unless someone suggests a dirtbag so absolutely scandalous that it becomes worth my while to learn what Prussia is and why, this status quo will continue."

Kaiser Wilhelm II has entered the chat.

Expand full comment

Another hilarious piece. Thx for making me laugh on this dreary rainy day-- yes, Seattle.

I do love the musical, Les Mis-- abbreviated probably because no one wants to put on their HS French accent.

Expand full comment

The rock pose 😂 I die

Expand full comment

Was he the one who wrote a letter to the actress Rachel being like "I would like to join your union of lovers" and she sent it back being like "Rachel is no longer at this address" and then he hated her forever?? Or was that Alexandre Dumas. Based on what I've just read, I have to think it was Vicky H.

Expand full comment

God I love Victor Huge so much. So glad I got that 24601 tattoo....

Expand full comment

Well Prussians were famous for ascetically not being distracted from their main interest in life, which was war, Prussia being an army with a small country attached to it. But for instance their foes in the 7 year war, the Saxonians, were famous for their being the satyrical opposite to that. I guess you‘d find an interesting dirtbag there in Sacony, but dirtbags they were all of them. It‘s just that the Prussians were stiff ones.

Expand full comment

This was a true delight.

Though I continue to live in outrage at my parents for getting everything backwards and naming me after a street. No we did not live there.

Expand full comment

My god what a man. I lost it at the state funeral and the mourning period for the loss of the greatest client the streets of Paris have ever seen. Best read of the day!! looking forward to Friedrich Nietzsche :)

Expand full comment

You are FAB

Expand full comment

“Now, to be clear this is not a sentence I enjoyed writing, but: Victor Hugo was convinced his parents conceived him on June 24th, 1801. A number you would write, European-style, as 24-6-01. The prison number he famously gave the protagonist of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean.” Um, this is absolutely something I would do. I even know I was four weeks late coming into the world. I mean, I would be giggling at someone writing a musical and then shouting out this number at the climax of the song. Pun absolute,y intended. Hope this doesn’t make me a dirtbag...

Expand full comment

Well it's not just me. Having lived in and around Chicago, it's the crabbiest vortex center of the Midwest.

Expand full comment