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MOST OF US have to give up tree houses, pillow forts and “keep out” signs once we exit puberty. Our homes get outfitted for entertaining, cooking, paying bills—the tasks that come with adulthood. “Keep out” evolves into the self-directed command to “keep up,” infinitely more complicated. Few of us get the opportunity to go back.
A notable exception: Victor Hugo. In 1851, the poet and author of “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” was forced to flee France for opposing the burgeoning authoritarianism of Napoleon III. Finding…