The Story of Adele H.

In 1863, Adèle Hugo arrives in Halifax amid the Civil War. She travels under the pseudonym Miss Lewly and finds a boarding house run by Mr. and Mrs. Saunders. This marks the start of her intense fixation on Lieutenant Pinson.

She learns about Lieutenant Albert Pinson and spots him at a local bookshop after consulting a notary. The encounter sparks the initial stirrings of her love and a plan to contact him.

Adèle asks Mr. Saunders to deliver a love letter to Pinson, hoping to announce her arrival and intentions. Saunders returns from a military dinner and admits he did not open the letter. The message remains unread by Pinson.

The next day she writes to her parents claiming she must be with Pinson and that they intend to marry, while awaiting formal consent. She continues to chronicle her life and love in her journal.

Pinson visits the boarding house and orders Adèle to stop following him and to leave Halifax. He tells her that her father would never approve their marriage. He remains unmoved by her pleas.

One night Adèle follows Pinson to the home of his much older mistress and witnesses their sexual arrangement. The discovery deepens her obsession and pushes her behavior toward instability.

Mr. Whistler, a kind bookseller, shows interest in Adèle and begins supplying her with writing paper. He later visits the boarding house to check on her and offers quiet, concerned companionship.

Dr. Murdock visits to examine Adèle and notices a letter addressed to Victor Hugo, informing Mrs. Saunders of Adèle's true identity. The revelation ties Adèle to her famous father and complicates her situation.

Victor Hugo sends a letter stating the family’s consent to Adèle’s marriage to Pinson. Adèle shows it to Pinson, but he still refuses to marry. Hugo's involvement injects new tension into the affair.

Adèle writes that she has married Pinson, prompting Hugo to publish a local announcement. The news reaches Pinson's colonel, and Pinson writes to Hugo explaining he will not marry. Hugo urges Adèle to return home.

Driven by despair, Adèle contemplates extreme acts, including hiring a prostitute as a gift for Pinson and even considering a hypnotist. She discovers that the supposed healer is a charlatan and remains trapped by her fantasies.

She visits the father of Pinson's fiancée and claims marriage and pregnancy to force an outcome, prompting the engagement to end. Her father pleads for her return, and her mother falls ill and dies soon after.

In February 1864, Pinson is shipped to Barbados and Adèle follows, now claiming to be his wife. He learns of her presence in Barbados and searches for her, but she does not acknowledge him, and he finds her wandering in ragged clothes.

Helped by a kind former slave, Adèle returns to Paris where the French Third Republic has been established. Her father places her in an asylum at Saint-Mandé, where she lives for about forty years, gardening, playing piano, and writing in her journal. She dies in Paris in 1915 at age 85.