This rhododendron is an English-bred Knap Hill/Exbury Hybrid, with spectacular scarlet flowers in the spring and brilliant autumn foliage. Raymond Evison chose to plant it in the first section of the garden, announcing its presence from the start, but remaining for the moment in the shade. In the idealised garden of his youth, Les Feuillantines, which this section evokes, Hugo represents himself and his brothers playing near a well in which lived some kind of monster, the ‘sourd’, or ‘deaf one’. In the garden of Hauteville House Hugo replicates this with his own reminder of the evil that existed even in paradise, in the form of a Fountain of Serpents.
Victor Hugo never finished his epic The End of Satan, which he wrote in Guernsey as a companion piece to another long poem entitled God. Hugo explores the nature of evil in The End of Satan, – a title that reflects both meanings of the word – how Satan comes to an end, by finding again God’s grace: ‘Satan is dead – be reborn, celestial Lucifer!’ – and what the purpose of Satan’s existence might be; the human race is also saved through Satan’s own daughter Liberty, who was created from a feather dropped by Satan on his descent in to Hell. Liberty herself goes down into Hell and defeats Satan’s other daughter, the evil Lilith, the Unstoppable Force, Ananke, who was created from darkness, entirely material, soulless. Lilith, of course, had only one fear: of those humans who have sworn to end tyranny, the sons and daughters of the French Revolution.
Victor Hugo greatly admired John Milton, both as a poet and as a person, and here takes ideas from Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. In his play of 1828 Cromwell, which marks the end of the beginning of Hugo’s move away from supporting the monarchy, Hugo gives John Milton, (who, like Homer, was blind and thus for Hugo, like the seers of old, saw more clearly than sighted poets) stirring speeches and the ability to influence and shame Cromwell while advocating on the side of liberty. (Hugo and his wife had both suffered with eye problems, although Hugo seems to have had excellent eyesight. His complaining about his eyes seems to have coincided with episodes of writer’s block and served as a good excuse to take some time off). Neither Cromwell nor Napoleon Bonaparte, although great heroes of Hugo’s, were able to resist the chance of absolute power; is it possible to be the perfect monarch? Will power always corrupt? Should mankind accept any kind of monarch, even a perfect one whose sole ambition is to do good – or is the perfect prince the answer to many of humanity’s problems? Can such a person even exist? Hugo, who had his own political ambitions, like Cromwell wrestled with these questions. In Hugo’s poem, which is imbued throughout with mysticism, Satan’s story plays out against the background of the battle between the forces of darkness and light for humanity’s freedom. How humanity is to progress in freedom while negotiating the problem of evil, the nature of God, free will, the benevolent dictator, are some of the philosophical conundrums that most occupied the thoughts of the poet.