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“Beaver”, “my Toto”… These nicknames that the writers gave themselves in secret

2022-01-21T06:15:36.857Z


Victor Hugo and Juliette Drouet, Sartre and Beauvoir... These mythical couples gave each other sweet names in private.


We know the classics

"my love"

,

"my treasure"

or

"my darling"

.

Some couples set their sights on more singular love names:

"my barley sugar"

,

"my pretty rooster"

,

"my sweet cat"

... French writers were not left out.

They were also men, made of flesh and blood.

In the privacy of an alcove or a letter, they gave and received little love names.

Juliette Drouet's

"

Toto"

"My Juju"

.

To think that Victor Hugo adored Juliette Drouet is an understatement.

More than 23,000 letters were exchanged between them, Juliette being ordered to write her impetuous lover two letters a day.

Scattered with fuss and stormy arguments, their love flowed for fifty years.

Juliette was

"his Juju"

,

"his poor angel of beauty and love"

.

He became

"his admirable Toto"

, his

"good little man"

,

"his beloved big Toto"

.

Sweet as certain amorous nicknames can be, we also find in one of his missives:

“my sublime Toto”

.

Sartre's

"

Beaver"

The

"lovers of the Flore"

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre never married and did not bother with exclusivity, each living on their own. The couple remained no less linked for half a century. She was

"The Beaver"

by Jean-Paul Sartre. This nickname was imagined by René Maheu, fellow student of the student, inspired by the name Beauvoir,

beaver

in English, which means

"beaver"

.

"Beavers go in packs and they have a guiding spirit

," he explains to her. The author of The

Second Sex

ignores sobriety and nicknames Sartre:

"my dear little soul"

,

"my horizon"

,

"my universe"

,

“my little ally”

,

“my life”

... She uses a more maternal tone from time to time:

“my sweet little one”

.

“Gui” and “Lou”

Sometimes a simple diminutive suffices.

When Apollinaire meets the

"big and beautiful doe eyes"

of Louise de Coligny-Châtillon, he does not yet know that he will have to be patient.

They live a passionate love, nourished by regular correspondence.

He is

"Gui"

, she is

"Lou"

.

Sheltered in the trenches, while the Great War was raging, Apollinaire made a ring using shrapnel.

He had it engraved, before sending him:

“Gui loves Lou”

.

"Butterfly", "lobster" and "fly"

The language of love sometimes draws on an astonishing register.

Voltaire was consumed with love for his

"butterfly"

, in the person of Mademoiselle de la Tour du Pin.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline gave

"my lobster"

, and Rabelais, through his creation Pantagruel, was ecstatic in front of his

"tendrette"

, his

"fly"

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-21

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