Where Victor Hugo Found Freedom

He found it on Guernsey. The “rock of hospitality and freedom,” as Hugo proclaimed it in the dedication of “Toilers of the Sea,” his seafaring novel set on the island, would become his home for over 15 years. Undistracted and determined, he poured his creative energy into masterpieces like his epic novel “Les Misérables,” and the decoration of his home, Hauteville House, the only home he ever owned.

“Exile has not only detached me from France, it has almost detached me from the Earth,” he wrote in a letter. In this wild, isolated retreat, a British dependency just 26 miles from the Normandy coast of France, Hugo passed the most productive period of his life.

Today, Guernsey is best known for offering a haven of a different kind: it’s a common overseas tax shelter, thanks to lenient financial laws. But the Guernsey of Victor Hugo — a place of quiet contemplation, vigorous cliff walks and seductive swimming bays — is still palpably present, as are elements of the writer’s life on the isle.

From the minute his boat docked at St. Peter Port, the capital of the 24-square-mile island, Hugo marveled at the beauty. “Even in the rain and mist, the arrival at Guernsey is splendid,” he wrote in a letter to his wife.

Today, travelers who arrive by ferry, from either England, Jersey or France, share this same first glimpse of the port, with its gently bobbing fishing boats and orderly rows of houses stacked along hills. Hugo settled in one of these residences at the top of town, a rambling villa called Hauteville House, surrounded by family and a band of fellow exiles. He installed Juliette Drouet, his mistress of decades, in a modest home down the street.

Already a celebrated writer at the time of his exile, Hugo was drawn to the Channel Islands because of their proximity to France and independent governance. (Though the islands have been linked to Britain for almost 1,000 years, a 1204 charter still guarantees their autonomy.) For Hugo, who spoke no English — “When England wants to chat with me, let her learn my language,” he said with typical grandiosity — the French and Guernsey patois spoken by the island’s Norman descendents were essential to his comfort.

Today, locals speak English more than any other language, but the warmth of their hospitality remains undimmed. “It’s such a small island, everyone knows everyone — in a nice way,” said Mark Pontin, the proprietor of the Ship and Crown, a local pub where Juliette Drouet first stayed when she arrived on Guernsey. “Most locals know the stories about Victor Hugo, and people have plenty of time to talk about the history of the island.”

In his mid-50s when he arrived in Guernsey, Hugo believed that his “present refuge” would eventually become his “probable tomb.” Fueled by these morbid fears — amplified, no doubt, by his remote isolation — he embarked on a staggeringly prolific literary output, as well as his most tangible work of art, the decoration of his home, Hauteville House.

In 1927, Hugo’s granddaughter, Jeanne, and great-grandchildren, Jean, Marguerite and François, donated the property to the city of Paris, which maintains it as a museum, open from April to September. Stepping into the house, which brims with objets d’art and swaths of tapestry, is like entering Hugo’s imagination, filled with hidden symbolism, defiant declarations and winks of humor. “The house is like a journey,” said Cédric Bail, a conservation assistant who led my guided tour last summer.

Hugo spent almost six years decorating the house, scouring the island’s junk shops for functional items that he repurposed into decorative elements. Under his keen eye, dozens of carved wooden sea chests were joined into a towering mantelpiece, and curved Regency chair backs became ornamental window frames. Small faces and words — “bits of propaganda,” Mr. Bail said — are carved into the wall paneling: A sign over the dining room door reads, “Exilium vita est” (“Life is an exile”).