Catherine Axelrad

translated from the French by Philip Terry

Published: 18 July 2024

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2024, listed by Marina Warner.

By the age of fifteen, Célina has lost her father to the sea, a brother to suicide, a sister to tuberculosis, her virginity to a wolfish man at the inn where she was waitressing, and the job at the inn when another servant informed on her. In the Channel Islands of the 1850s, Alderney is not yet the tourist paradise filled with luxury cars it is today. When the chance arises to leave and work in Hauteville House for the Victor Hugo household during their exile in Guernsey, it is Célina's first glimpse of a different kind of life. Axelrad sheds a new light on the complexity of Hugo’s persona, and on the sexual and class dynamics at play in the proprietary, yet strangely tender relationship between the maid and le grand homme.

In Philip Terry’s agile translation, which imaginatively draws on the School of New York Poets, Célina’s mischievous spirit is matched by her vivid language. A fictional recreation based on Hugo’s Guernsey Diaries and on letters from his wife, Célina is a miniature literary monument to a forgotten life cut short.

Exclusive excerpt ‘Meeting Monsieur’ on Bookanista
See reviews in the Irish Times and Spectator

‘A quiet tale of a young servant in Victor Hugo’s household; it pierced me to the heart.’ — Marina Warner, TLS Books of the Year 2024

‘Pitch-perfect, and so light yet so profound. All of Axelrad's books have at their centre a silent, vulnerable young woman, but also one who is tough and resilient, totally unsentimental but deeply responsive and actually very intelligent. How such a person emerges out of such apparent silence is the wonder of her work. Célina is as quiet and devastating a novel as I have read in a long time. Unforgettable.’ — Gabriel Josipovici, author of 100 Days

‘Seen through Célina’s eyes, told with her curiosity, her wonder, her sharp observations, what we witness unfolding here is not so much Victor Hugo’s life as that of the young narrator. We see the intelligence she brings to bear, playing her few cards just so in a time which may be the most patriarchal in our history: the nineteenth century. Catherine Axelrad describes a quiet young woman who nevertheless hears everything, sees everything, silently appraises her lovers, picks and chooses, and escapes submission in her own way. It’s a joyful read.’
— Colombe Schneck, author of The Paris Trilogy

'Living in exile in the Channel Islands, the irrepressibly philandering author of Les Misérables went through what is called his “Chambermaid Period”. In this moving short novel, Catherine Axelrad gives us the great man and his retinue, his house and his mania for Gothic décor, the island and the threatening sea, all through the eyes of a chambermaid—not a fantasy maid, but the real girl from Alderney whose death in 1861 saddened the whole Hugolian establishment. The poverty, ill-health and exploitation of working folk and especially of the young girls who are brought to life here deepen the understanding of what Hugo’s great novel was really about. In this lively translation by Philip Terry, Axelrad’s portrait of a normal yet unique Victorian household seen from “downstairs” is a true gem.'
— David Bellos, author ofThe Novel of the Century. The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables

“In this remarkable book Catherine Axelrad gives speech to a young woman born in poverty and almost lost to history. Célina is restored to life, emerging as lively, courageous, complex, witty, pragmatic, and joyful. There are moments of great tenderness and longing; despite her exploitation (for relations are often complicated, as Axelrad so subtly weaves), there is a real and delicate relation between her and her master, with whom she discovers the possibility of poetic language. Célina and Célina, woman and book, haunt me.”
— Sharon Kivland, author of Reading Nana: An Experimental Novel

Paperback original, with lilac endpages
180 x 120 mm
146 pages
ISBN: 978-1-7397783-7-8

This publication is the recipient of financial support from the Institut français Paris and of a Burgess grant in aid to the translation from the Institut français du Royaume-Uni.