Major screenwriter of Franco-Belgian comics with Travis in particular, Fred Duval knows again success with Hauteville House. The last volume Mélancholia was released by Delcourt.
New hit series
Mélancholia marks the beginning of a new cycle and allows us to take along the way this series with a very original concept. As its name suggests, the centre of the series is Victor Hugo's actual residence in Guernsey but the sequel, totally fictional, gives a totally new image of this monument of literature. Exiled by Napoleon III, Hugo became an important member of a resistance network. The basement is dedicated to these secret missions with a basin for submarines. His granddaughter was an active spy against Napoleon III. The neophyte can discover this volume separately even if it lacks elements.
Literary steampunk
Hauteville House is an excellent illustration of a very rich genre – steampunk where the world invented by Jules Vernes became real. This reinvented past is exotic with steam cars, propeller airships… Thierry Gioux's drawing presents us very well these decorations both old and futuristic even if the faces are more simplified. This genre is also a good way to discover the past. In this volume, Duval recounts the exploitation of the natives in the colonies, the role of the Saint-Simonians at the École Centrale, and the tensions between the United Kingdom and France. The characters are not caricatured – the natives manipulate the settlers into believing that they had a single god.
The title comes from a poem by Hugo shows that this volume is also a tribute to nineteenth-century literature. Throughout the pages, we meet Hugo but also Théophile Gautier, Paul Verlaine and Parnassus
Espionage and curse
This general framework would be nothing without a good story. The reader travels several continents through two parallel investigations in the Transvaal and Paris. The volume opens with the discovery of a huge gold reserve in South Africa but all the miners are transformed into gilded statues. Soldiers are trying to unravel this mystery. At the same time, Hugo's daughter visits an asylum where an immortal announces to the heroine that her sister Adele is alive. Melancholia balances between a story of espionage between the France and the United Kingdom and magical threats.
Melancholia is therefore a new step in the construction of Hauteville House's strangely futuristic past. The scenario is still original. This story in several volumes ends on a cliffhanger that quickly makes you want to read more.
