Recounting the life of a woman who lived in the shadow of a great man The case of Drouet and Hugo

Writing the biography of Juliette Drouet, taking as its main source the 22,000 letters she addressed to Hugo over fifty years, which form a rich personal diary, is to recount the story of a woman prepared to abandon her career to devote herself to a genius, the adventure of an adulterous couple at first stigmatized but ultimately acknowledged, and the history of a tumultuous century, that of Romanticism, revolutions, and the march toward the Republic. What challenges does this trifecta present to the biographer and what scruples must they contend with?