biography of victor hugo in english

Victor Hugo

(1802-1885)

Who Was Victor Hugo?

Victor Hugo was a French poet and novelist who, after training as a lawyer, embarked on the literary career. He became one of the most important French Romantic poets, novelists and dramatists of his time, having assembled a massive body of work while living in Paris, Brussels and the Channel Islands. Hugo died on May 22, 1885, in Paris.

Victor-Marie Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, to mother Sophie Trébuche and father Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo. His father was a military officer who later served as a general under Napoleon.

'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'

Hugo studied law between 1815 and 1818, though he never committed himself to legal practice. Encouraged by his mother, Hugo embarked on a career in literature. He founded the Conservateur Litteraire , a journal in which he published his own poetry and the work of his friends. His mother died in 1821. The same year, Hugo married Adèle Foucher and published his first book of poetry, Odes et poésies diverses . His first novel was published in 1823, followed by a number of plays.

Hugo's innovative brand of Romanticism developed over the first decade of his career.

In 1831, he published one of his most enduring works, Notre-Dame de Paris ( The Hunchback of Notre Dame ). Set in the medieval period, the novel presents a harsh criticism of the society that degrades and shuns the hunchback, Quasimodo. This was Hugo's most celebrated work to date and paved the way for his subsequent political writing.

'Les Misérables'

A prolific writer, Hugo was established as one of the most celebrated literary figures in France by the 1840s. In 1841, he was elected to the French Academy and nominated for the Chamber of Peers. He stepped back from publishing his work following the accidental drowning of his daughter and her husband in 1843. In private, he began work on a piece of writing that would become Les Misérables.

Hugo fled to Brussels following a coup in 1851. He lived in Brussels and in Britain until his return to France in 1870. Much of the work that Hugo published during this period conveys biting sarcasm and fierce social criticism. Among these works is the novel Les Misérables , which was finally published in 1862. The book was an immediate success in Europe and the United States. Later reinterpreted as a theatrical musical and a film, Les Misérables remains one of the best-known works of 19th-century literature.

Death and Legacy

Though Hugo returned to France after 1870 as a symbol of republican triumph, his later years were largely sad. He lost two sons between 1871 and 1873. His later works are somewhat darker than his earlier writing, focusing on themes of God, Satan and death.

In 1878, he was stricken with cerebral congestion. Hugo and his mistress, Juliette, continued to live in Paris for the rest of their lives. The street on which he lived was renamed Avenue Victor Hugo on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1882. Juliette died the following year and Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. He received a hero's funeral. His body lay in state beneath the Arc de Triomphe before burial in the Panthéon.

Hugo remains one of the giants of French literature. Although French audiences celebrate him primarily as a poet, he is better known as a novelist in English-speaking countries.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Victor
• Birth Year: 1802
• Birth date: February 26, 1802
• Birth City: Besançon
• Birth Country: France
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Victor Hugo is a celebrated French Romantic author best known for his poetry and his novels, including 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and 'Les Misérables.'
• Fiction and Poetry
• Theater and Dance
• Astrological Sign: Pisces
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1885
• Death date: May 22, 1885
• Death City: Paris
• Death Country: France

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Victor Hugo Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/victor-hugo
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 1, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
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Biography of Victor Hugo, French Writer

Poet, novelist, and voice of the French Romantic Movement

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Victor Hugo (February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885) was a French poet and novelist during the Romantic Movement. Among French readers, Hugo is best known as a poet, but to readers outside of France, he’s best known for his epic novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables .

Fast Facts: Victor Hugo

• Full Name:  Victor Marie Hugo
• Known For:  French poet and author
• Born:  February 26, 1802 in Besançon, Doubs, France
• Parents:  Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet
• Died:  May 22, 1885 in Paris, France
• Spouse:  Adèle Foucher (m. 1822-1868)
• Children:  Léopold Hugo (1823), Léopoldine Hugo (1824-1843), Charles Hugo (b. 1826), François-Victor Hugo (1828-1873), Adèle Hugo (1830-1915)
• Selected Works:   Odes et Ballades (1826), Cromwell (1827), Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), Les Misérables (1862), Quatre-vingt-treize (1874)
• Notable Quote:  “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved—loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”

Born in Besançon in Franche-Comté, a region in eastern France, Hugo was the third son born to Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet Hugo. He had two older brothers: Abel Joseph Hugo (born 1798) and Eugène Hugo (born 1800). Hugo’s father was a general in the French army and a fervent supporter of Napoleon . As a result of his military career, the family moved frequently, including stints in Naples and Rome. For the most part, though, he spent his early years in Paris with his mother.

Hugo’s childhood was a time of immense political and military turmoil in France. In 1804, when Hugo was 2 years old, Napoleon was proclaimed emperor of France ; a little over a decade later, the monarchy of the House of Bourbon was restored . These tensions were represented in Hugo’s own family: his father was a general with republican beliefs and a supporter of Napoleon, while his mother was Catholic and fervently royalist; her lover (and Hugo’s godfather) General Victor Lahorie was executed for conspiracies against Napoleon. Hugo’s mother was primarily responsible for his upbringing, and as a result, his early education was both intensely religious and strongly biased towards pro-monarchy sentiments.

As a young man, Hugo fell in love with Adèle Foucher, his childhood friend. They were well-matched in personality and in age (Foucher was only one year younger than Hugo), but his mother strongly disapproved of their relationship. Because of this, Hugo would not marry anyone else, but would not marry Foucher while his mother was still alive, either. Sophie Hugo died in 1821, and the couple were able to marry the following year, when Hugo was 21. They had their first child, Leopold, in 1823, but he died in infancy. Eventually, they were the parents of four children: two daughters (Leopoldine and Adele) and two sons (Charles and François-Victor).

Early Poetry and Plays (1822-1830)

• Odes et poésies diverses  (1822)
• Odes  (1823)
• Han d'Islande  (1823)
• Nouvelles Odes  (1824)
• Bug-Jargal  (1826)
• Odes et Ballades  (1826)
• Cromwell  (1827)
• Le Dernier jour d'un condamné  (1829)
• Hernani  (1830)

Hugo began writing as a very young man, with his first publication coming in 1822, the same year as his marriage. His first collection of poetry, titled Odes et poésies diverses was published when he was only 20 years old. The poems were so admired for their elegant language and passion that they came to the attention of the king, Louis XVIII , and earned Hugo a royal pension. He also published his first novel, Han d'Islande , in 1823.

In these early days—and, indeed, through much of his writing career—Hugo was heavily influenced by one of his predecessors, French writer François-René de Chateaubriand, who was one of the preeminent literary figures in the Romantic Movement and one of France's most visible writers during the early 19th century. As a young man, Hugo vowed to be "Chateaubriand or nothing," and in many ways, he got his wish. Like his hero, Hugo became both an icon of Romanticism and an involved party in politics, which eventually led to his exile from his homeland.

Although the youthful, spontaneous nature of his early poems put him on the map, Hugo’s later work soon evolved to show off his remarkable skill and craftsmanship. In 1826, he published his second volume of poetry, this one titled Odes et Ballades . This work, in contrast to his more precocious first work, was more technically skillful and contained several well-received ballads and more.

Hugo’s early writings were not solely confined to poetry, though. He became a leader in the Romantic Movement with several plays during this time as well. His plays Cromwell (1827) and Hernani (1830) were at the epicenter of literary debates about the Romantic Movement’s tenets versus the rules of neoclassical writing. Hernani , in particular, sparked intense debate between traditionalists and Romantics; it came to be considered the vanguard of French Romantic drama. Hugo’s first work of prose fiction was also published during this time. Le Dernier jour d'un condamné ( The Last Day of a Condemned Man ) was published in 1829. Telling the story of a man condemned to death, the short novel was the first appearance of the strong social conscience that Hugo’s later works would be known for.

First Novel and Further Writing (1831-1850)

• Notre-Dame de Paris  (1831)
• Le roi s'amuse  (1832)
• Lucrezia Borgia  (1833)
• Marie Tudor  (1833)
• Ruy Blas  (1838)
• Les Rayons et les Ombres  (1840)
• Le Rhin  (1842)
• Les Burgraves  (1843)

In 1831, Notre-Dame de Paris , known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame , was published; it was Hugo’s first full-length novel. It became a huge hit and was quickly translated into other languages for readers across Europe. The novel’s biggest legacy, though, was much more than literary. Its popularity led to a surge of interest in the real Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which had fallen into disrepair as a result of ongoing neglect.

Because of the stream of tourists who loved the novel and wanted to visit the real cathedral , the city of Paris began a major renovation project in 1844. The renovations and restorations lasted for 20 years and included the replacement of the famous spire; the spire built during this period stood for nearly 200 years, until it was destroyed in the 2019 Notre Dame fire. On a broader scale, the novel led to a renewed interest in pre-Renaissance buildings, which began to be cared for and restored more than they had in the past.

Hugo’s life during this period was also subject to some immense personal tragedy, which influenced his writing for some time. In 1843, his oldest (and favorite) daughter, Leopoldine, drowned in a boating accident when she was a 19-year-old newlywed. Her husband also died while trying to save her. Hugo wrote "À Villequier,” one of his most famous poems, in mourning for his daughter.

During this period, Hugo also spent some time in political life. After three attempts, he was finally elected to the Académie française (a council on French arts and letters) in 1841 and spoke in defense of the Romantic Movement. In 1845, he was raised to the peerage by King Louis Philippe I and spent his career in the Higher Chamber speaking out for issues of social justice— against the death penalty , for freedom of the press. He continued his political career via election to the National Assembly of the Second Republic in 1848, where he broke ranks with his fellow conservatives to denounce widespread poverty and to advocate for universal suffrage , the abolition of the death penalty , and free education for all children. However, his political career came to an abrupt end in 1851, when Napoleon III took over in a coup . Hugo strongly opposed Napoleon III’s reign, calling him a traitor, and as a result, he lived in exile outside of France.

Writing While in Exile (1851-1874)

• Les Châtiments  (1853)
• Les Contemplations  (1856
• Les Misérables  (1862)
• Les Travailleurs de la Mer  (1866)
• L'Homme qui rit  (1869)
• Quatre-vingt-treize  ( Ninety-Three ) (1874)

Hugo eventually settled in Guernsey, a small island under British jurisdiction in the English Channel off the French coast of Normandy. Although he did continue to write political content, including several anti-Napoleon pamphlets that were banned in France yet still managed to make an impact, Hugo went back to his roots with poetry. He produced three volumes of poetry: Les Châtiments in 1853, Les Contemplations in 1856, and La Légende des siècles in 1859.

For many years, Hugo had planned a novel about social injustices and the misery suffered by the poor. It wasn’t until 1862 that this novel was published: Les Misérables . The novel sprawls over a few decades, interweaving stories of an escaped parolee, a dogged policeman, an abused factory worker, a rebellious young rich man, and more, all leading up to the June Rebellion of 1832, a historical populist uprising that Hugo had witnessed himself. Hugo believed the novel to be the pinnacle of his work, and it became immensely popular among readers almost instantly. However, the critical establishment was much harsher, with almost universally negative reviews. In the end, it was the readers who won out: Les Mis became a genuine phenomenon which remains popular in the modern day, and has been translated into many languages and adapted into several other mediums.

In 1866, Hugo published Les Travailleurs de la Mer ( The Toilers of the Sea ), which pivoted away from the themes of social justice in his previous novel. Instead, it told a quasi-mythic tale about a young man trying to bring home a ship to impress his father, while battling natural forces and a giant sea monster. The book was dedicated to Guernsey, where he lived for 15 years. He also produced two more novels, which returned to more political and social themes. L'Homme Qui Rit ( The Man Who Laughs ) was published in 1869 and took a critical view of the aristocracy, while Quatre-vingt-treize ( Ninety-Three ) was published in 1874 and dealt with the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. By this time, realism and naturalism were coming into vogue, and Hugo’s Romantic style decreased in popularity. Quatre-vingt-treize would be his last novel.

Literary Styles and Themes

Hugo covered a wide variety of literary themes throughout his career, ranging from politically charged content to much more personal writings. In the latter category, he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems about his daughter’s untimely death and his own grief. He expressed his concerns for the welfare of others and of historical institutions, with themes reflecting his own republican beliefs and his anger at injustices and inequality.

Hugo was one of the most notable representatives of romanticism in France, from his prose to his poetry and plays. As such, his works largely embraced Romantic ideals of individualism, intense emotions, and a focus on heroic characters and actions. These ideals can be seen in many of his works, including some of his most notable ones. Sweeping emotion is a hallmark of Hugo’s novels, with language that drops the reader into the intense feelings of passionate, complicated characters. Even his most famous villains—Archdeacon Frollo and Inspector Javert—are permitted inner turmoil and strong feelings. In some cases, in his novels, Hugo’s narrative voice goes into immense detail about specific ideas or places, with intensely descriptive language.

Later in his career, Hugo became notable for his focus on themes of justice and suffering. His anti-monarchical views were on display in The Man Who Laughs , which turned a harsh eye on the aristocratic establishment. Most famously, of course, he focused Les Misérables on the plight of the poor and the horrors of injustice, which are depicted both on an individual scale (the journey of Jean Valjean) and a societal one (the June Rebellion). Hugo himself, in the voice of his narrator, describes the book thusly towards the end of the novel: “The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details ... a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul.”

Hugo returned to France in 1870, but his life was never quite the same. He suffered a series of personal tragedies: the death of his wife and two sons, the loss of his daughter to an asylum, the death of his mistress, and he suffered a stroke himself. In 1881, he was honored for his contributions to French society; a street in Paris was even renamed for him and bears his name to this day.

On May 20, 1885, Hugo died of pneumonia at the age of 83. His death sparked mourning across France due to his immense influence and the affection the French held for him. He had requested a quiet funeral but was instead given a state funeral, with over 2 million mourners joining the funeral procession in Paris. He was buried in the Panthéon, in the same crypt as Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola, and left 50,000 francs to the poor in his will.

Victor Hugo is widely considered an icon of French literature and culture, to the point where many French cities have streets or squares named after him. He is, certainly, among the most recognizable French writers , and his works continue to be widely read, studied, and adapted in the modern day. In particular, his novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables have had a long and popular life, with multiple adaptations and entry into mainstream popular culture.

Even in his own time, Hugo’s work had influence beyond just literary audiences. His work was a strong influence in the music world, especially given his friendship with composers Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, and many operas and other musical works were inspired by his writing—a trend which continues into the contemporary world, with the musical version of Les Misérables becoming one of the most popular musicals of all time. Hugo lived through a time of intense upheaval and societal change, and he managed to stand out as one of the most notable figures of a notable time.

• Davidson, A.F.  Victor Hugo: His Life and Work . University Press of the Pacific, 1912.
• Frey, John Andrew.  A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia . Greenwood Press, 1999.
• Robb, Graham. Victor Hugo: A Biography . W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
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Victor Hugo

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Victor Hugo was horn on February 26, 1802, the son of a Breton mother and a father from northeastern France. His works show the influence of both racial strains: the poetic mysticism which marks Celtic literature from the Arthurian romances to Chateaubriand and the earthy vigor of the peasant of Lorraine.

Although Hugo later claimed he descended from a family of the minor nobility, his father, General Joseph Léopold Hugo, was the son of a carpenter, and like many men of the Napoleonic era, he rose through valor and merit to power and influence in Napoleon's citizen army.

General Hugo was attached to the entourage of Joseph Bonaparte, and his duties took him to Naples and to Spain. Victor visited him in Italy at the age of five and went to school in Madrid in 1811. Traces of these exotic memories will be found in his later poetry and plays. However, Mme. Hugo, a strong-minded and independent personality, did not like the unstable existence of an army wife and in 1812 settled in Paris. Here her three sons, of whom Victor was the youngest, received their first orderly education.

As a result of this estrangement, General Hugo formed a liaison that took on a permanent character, and after Waterloo the Hugos arranged a separation. General Hugo, however, refused to leave his sons with their mother and sent them to a boarding school.

Victor Hugo suffered, but not acutely, from this separation from his mother. He was already, at fifteen, in love with a neighbor's daughter, Adéle Foucher, and was planning a brilliant literary career so that he could marry her. An excellent student in literature and mathematics, in 1817 he received an honorable mention from the Académie Française for a poem entered in a competition, and in 1819 he won first place in another national poetry contest.

When his mother died in 1821, he refused to accept any financial support from his father and endured a year of acute poverty, but in 1822, his first volume of verse, Odes at Po é sies diverses, won him a pension of 1,000 francs a year from Louis XVIII. On the strength of this he promptly married Adéle, and during the following years four children were born to the Hugos.

Already in 1824, Hugo was a member of the group of Romantic rebels who were attempting to overthrow the domination of classical literature, and in 1830, he became one of the leaders when his historical drama Hernani won the theater audience and broke the stranglehold of the classical format on the stage. It also made him rich, and during the next fifteen years, six plays, four volumes of verse, and the novel Notre Dame de Paris ( The Hunchback of Notre Dame ) established his position as the leading writer of France.

His connection with the stage also had effects on his personal life. In 1831, a rupture developed in the Hugo household when Sainte-Beuve, one of Hugo's closest friends and a well-known Romantic critic, fell in love with Adéle Hugo and received some encouragement. The next year, Hugo met a young actress, Juliette Drouet, who in 1833 became his mistress and quit the stage. Supported by a modest pension from Hugo, she became for the next fifty years his unpaid secretary and traveling companion.

In 1843, the failure of Hugo's last drama, Les Burgraves, and the death of his eldest daughter, drowned on her honeymoon, caused him to abandon poetry temporarily for politics. This sharp change of direction in Hugo's career was paralleled in the lives of a number of other Romantic authors — for instance, Lamartine and George Sand. In the face of a rapidly growing and changing French society, plagued by social problems of all kinds, many writers came to feel that it was not enough simply to write beautiful and moving works of art but that their talents should be more directly applied in helping the poor and oppressed. In effect, this changing mood marks the end of the Romantic era in French literature and the opening of the Realistic-Naturalistic period.

Originally a royalist like his mother, Hugo's reconciliation with his father in 1822 broadened his political views, and he was, by this time, a moderate republican. He was made a peer of France in 1845 and made a number of speeches on social questions of the time.

With the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second Republic, Hugo was elected deputy to the Constitutional Assembly. Three years later, when Louis Napoleon abolished the republic by a coup d'etat and reestablished the empire, Hugo risked his life trying vainly to rally the workers of Paris against the new emperor and had to flee to Brussels disguised as a workman.

The next nineteen years of Hugo's life were spent in exile, first on the island of Jersey, then on Guernsey. His family and Mlle. Drouet accompanied him into exile. From his island in the English channel Hugo continued to inveigh against the man he considered the perverter of republican liberties, and 1852 and 1853 saw the writing of the satires Napoléon le Petit and Les Châtiments. He also turned again to poetry and the novel, publishing the philosophical Les Contemplations and the remarkable "history of man's conscience," La Légende des Siecles. Three novels also occupied him: Les Misérables, first begun many years before; Les Travailleurs de la Mer (1866), and L'Homme qui rit (1869).

Following the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of the empire in 1870-71, Hugo returned to Paris. It was a triumphal return: He was greeted at the station by an immense crowd and was accompanied through the streets to his hotel amid shouts of "Vive Victor Hugo!" He remained in Paris throughout the siege of the city, and the revenues from the first French publication of Les Châtiments bought two cannons to defend the city. In 1871, the death of one of his sons took him for some time to Brussels; he then returned to Guernsey until the death of another son brought him back to Paris in 1873. He was elected to the Senate in 1876, but two years later poor health forced him to return to the tranquility of Guernsey. His later years were saddened not only by the death of his sons but by that of Mme. Hugo in 1868 and of Mlle. Drouet in 1882.

Hugo himself died in 1885 at the age of eighty-three. His last wishes were, "I leave 50,000 francs to the poor. I wish to be taken to the cemetery in the hearse customarily used for the poor. I refuse the prayers of all churches. I believe in God."

Despite the austerity of his wishes, his funeral was the occasion of a national tribute to France's greatest writer. His body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe guarded by horsemen with flaming torches, and twelve poets watched around his bier. On the day of the funeral, a million spectators followed his cortege, and the Pantheon, a church under Napoleon III, was once again transformed into a national sepulcher to receive his remains. He lies there today, amid France's great men.

Victor Hugo has frequently been criticized for vanity of character and shallowness of mind. The vanity of which he was accused is largely justified by the immense scope of his talents, unparalleled in literary history since Shakespeare and Goethe. It is true that he was not a profound thinker, but his devotion to "the good, the beautiful and the true," if uncritical, was instinctive and sincere. The people of France whom he loved have judged him better than the critics, and he remains to this day one of France's best-loved authors.

Hugo's career, covering as it does most of the nineteenth century, spans both the Romantic and the Realist movements, but it cannot be said — despite Hugo's initial fame as a Romantic poet — to belong to one movement more than the other. His superb use of the colorful and significant detail, which produces exoticism in Les Orientales and local color in Notre Dame de Paris, becomes, when applied to the modern scene in Les Misérables, the sheerest realism. He is never, like Stendhal and Flaubert, objective and impassive in the face of the scene he describes, but he is always more interested in the external world than in the inner world of his own feelings; and the passionate spirit with which he describes what he sees is no more "romantic" than Zola's. If the themes of his poetry are often Romantic, his concern for art and technique makes him a brother to the Parnassians; and the epic quality of all his work links him with Chateaubriand and de Vigny, on the one hand, and with Zola, on the other. Only as a dramatist can he be considered purely a Romantic.

Hugo is among the greatest poets of a century of great poets. He claims this place not only because of the immense volume of his production, spread over nearly sixty years, but because of the variety of his themes and techniques.

Hugo's poems deal with an unusually wide range of themes. Romantic love and the evocation of nature are, of course, among them, but he also deals ably and movingly with current events of the day, descriptions of exotic and historic scenes, philosophy, parenthood and grandparenthood. His satires are as powerful as his lyrics; no strain is foreign to his lyre.

As a poetic technician, Hugo is a great innovator. He is one of the first to move away from the classical tradition of the Alexandrine couplet (which, nevertheless, he can handle magnificently) toward more complex and subtle forms of verse borrowed from the Middle Ages and from his own rich imagination. He reshapes not only the form but the vocabulary of poetry and injects it with a new variety and richness.

In contrast with most poets who are skilled in the use of only two or three poetic devices, Hugo is master of all. He is a splendid rhetorician but is also adept in the music of poetry. And he employs not only the music of skillful phrasing but the sound of the words themselves to awaken and charm the inner ear of the imagination. When in L'Expiation he writes, "Après une plaine blanche, une autre plaine blanche," not only the repetitive phrase but the flat echo of the open vowels call up the image of Russia's endless expanses.

He is also a master of imagery, not only simile and metaphor but symbol. He advises poets to interpret their "interior world of images, thoughts, sentiments, love and burning passion to fecundate this world" through "the other visible universe all around you" ( Pan , 1831); and he can almost always find a vivid and exact natural parallel to the landscape of his soul. In all these respects, he is the precursor and inspiration for the poets who follow: Baudelaire, the Parnassians, and the Symbolists are all to a large extent his disciples and his debtors.

In the preface to Cromwell of 1827-28, Hugo serves as spokesman for the Romantic movement in attacking classical drama and in laying down the precepts of the new drama to be. He condemns the rigidity of both classical format and language: the unities of time, scene, and action, and the false and formal elegance of speech. He calls for a richer and more flexible verse, which will more closely approximate the rhythm of everyday speech, and a more flexible format, which will allow comedy and tragedy to mingle in Shakespearean fashion, just as they do in life itself. Weary of the eternal Greek kings and Roman heroes of the classical stage, he suggests that more recent history may also provide suitable themes for drama and that a bourgeois or a bandit may also sometimes possess enough nobility to transform a stage.

These precepts he exemplified in his own plays, some of which are in prose as well as in verse and which generally deal with some dramatic episode from European history. The subjects of Marie Tudor and Lucrezia Borgia are self-explanatory. Hernani , which quite literally caused a riot at its first performance, sets at odds a noble Spanish bandit and Charles V, Emperor of Spain; in Ruy Blas , a valet, through the love of a queen, temporarily becomes head of state.

We cannot today appreciate Hugo's plays as wholeheartedly as did his contemporaries. His plots, with their disguises and recognitions, seem a little too melodramatic; his daring adventurers and his perfect, passionate, unattainable heroines are two-dimensional. Nevertheless, particularly in their historical accuracy of incident and decor, they represent a great stride toward realism in the drama; in the stage's own terms, some of them are still "marvelous theater."

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Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. He studied law from 1815 to 1818 and graduated from the law faculty in Paris. During this time, he also began a career in literature, founding the journal Conservateur Littéraire in 1819. He published his first book of poems, Odes et poesies diverses (Pélicier), in 1822. Hugo went on to publish numerous poetry collections and is considered one of the great French Romantic poets. However, he is perhaps best known for his novels, which include Les Misérables (Carleton, 1862) and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (R. Bentley, 1833). Also known for his political involvement, Hugo served in Paris’s Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assembly after the Revolution of 1848. After a coup d-etat in 1851, he fled France to live in Belgium and, later, the Channel Islands. In 1871 he returned to Paris, where he was received as a national hero. He died on May 22, 1885, and was buried in the Panthéon.

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Victor Hugo

A prominent literary figure during the nineteenth century Romantic Movement in France was Victor Marie Hugo. He was an eminent French novelist, poet, playwright and essayist. It was his poetry that first earned him fame in the literary world and later his novels and plays brought him recognition. His notable works include Les Contemplations, Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris .

Born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France, Hugo was the son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo, a Napoleon army officer and Sophie Trébuchet, a Catholic Royalist. It was a reign of political chaos and upheaval in his childhood. Two years after his birth Napoleon came to power and his father was a huge supporter of the Emperor. On the contrary, his mother had opposing political and religious views as that of her husband and the perpetual travel entailed by his job deepened the rift in their marriage. Sophie temporarily separated from her husband and moved to Paris with her children. Growing up under his mother care, Hugo’s early poetry and fiction reflect his mother’s firm belief in monarchy and Catholic faith. However, the events preceding the French Revolution of 1848 radically changed his views. He became a strong proponent of Free-thought and Republicanism.

Hugo spent his adolescence years writing verse tragedy and poetry. In 1819, he and his brother founded a periodical, the Conservateur Littéraire . A few years later he published a collection of poems, titled Odes et Poésies Diverses , which earned him royal pension from Louis XVIII. It was not until the publication of Odes et Ballades , that not only the fluency of his poetry was appreciated but he was grown in stature for his expert lyrical craftsmanship. His political stand wavered as he made acquaintance with liberal writers. He soon realized the injustices done by monarchist regime and wrote in favor of the Republicanism.

He married to his childhood friend and lover Adèle Foucher in 1822 and the very next year published his debut novel, Han d’Islande . It was previously published anonymously in the form of four pocket-sized volumes. Shortly afterwards, the book was translated in English and Norwegian language. His second novel, Bug-Jargal , appeared in 1926, which narrates the story of friendship between a French army officer and an enslaved African prince. Similar to young writers of his era, Hugo was highly inspired by the most celebrated literary figure, François-René de Chateaubriand, during nineteenth century Romanticism movement. He aspired to become like his idol and furthered the cause of the literary movement. During late 1820’s he began to produce more mature works including Le Dernier jour d’un condamné . It reflects his acute social conscience that later influenced other pre-eminent literary figures including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Albert Camus and Charles Dickens .

In 1831, one of Hugo’s major works, Notre-Dame de Paris , appeared. The poignant story is set in the 15 th century Paris and centered on the Notre Dame Cathedral. This French Romantic and Gothic novel attained instant success upon its publication and guilted the concerned authority into restoring the beauty of Notre Dame Cathedral. Subsequently, Hugo began to work on major work of fiction that underlines the miserable state of affairs in France and the social injustices faced by the people belonged to lower echelon of society. It took seventeen years for a masterpiece like Les Misérables (1862) to be recognized and published. It became a landmark in the French history for addressing certain issues that were later raised in the National Assembly of France. In 1885, Victor Hugo died of pneumonia at the age of 83.

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Victor Hugo Biography

Born: February 26, 1802 Besançon, France Died: May 22, 1885 Paris, France French author

The French author Victor Hugo, is regarded by many as the supreme poet of French romanticism (a style in the 1800s that emphasized a free form of writing and expressed strong emotions, experiences of common people, and imaginative expressions and passion). He is known for producing large amounts of work, the ability to easily write poetry or novels, and his incredible vision.

Hugo's early years

Victor Marie Vicomte Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, to Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trebuchet. He and his two older brothers, Abel and Eugène, lived with their mother in Paris, France, while their father, a general and the governor of the Italian province of Avellino, lived in Italy. Hugo's mother had a special friendship with General Victor Fanneau Lahorie, who became an enemy of the French government. She let him hide in their house, and it was during this time he became a teacher for the Hugo boys. The boys frequently traveled to see their father and these trips caused breaks in their education. As a young boy, Hugo showed an interest in writing poetry. When he was twelve years old, Victor and his brothers were sent to school at the Pension Cordier. There they studied the sciences and spent their leisure time writing poetry and plays. When Victor was fifteen, he won the poetry contest held by the Académie Française and the next year placed first in the Académie des Jeux Floraux's contest. Victor's reputation as a poet developed early in his life, and he received a royal salary in 1822.

In 1822 Hugo married his childhood sweetheart, Adèle Foucher, one and a half years after the death of his mother, who had opposed their marriage. The couple later had four children. Their apartment in Paris became the meeting place for the ambitious writers of the Romantic Movement. In 1822 Hugo also published his first signed book, Odes et poésies diverses.

Development of romanticism

In 1824 a few of Hugo's friends began a group called Muse française. All were young writers who were beginning to break with neoclassicism (a style of writing that was based on the styles of ancient Greece and Rome in which logical, clear, and well-ordered writing was valued). After his visit to Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) and his discovery of German balladry (putting stories to music in an artistic way), in 1826 Hugo published Odes et ballades, in which his rejection of neoclassicism was clear.

The years 1826 and 1827 were successful ones for the Cénacle, the name given to a group of young romantics who were supporters of Hugo and his poetry. They called him the "prince of poets." Hugo stopped writing flattering odes (poems that express positive emotions and feelings about people or events) to King Charles X (1757–1836) and instead began praising Napoleon I (1769–1821). With the support and advice of friends, Hugo created the attitude of romanticism. This belief was expressed in the preface to his unproduced play, Cromwell, published in October 1827. He felt that poetry should follow nature, mixing the beautiful and the good with the ugly and the displeasing. The Bible, Homer (c. ninth century B.C.E. ), and William Shakespeare (1564–1616) were the inspirational sources of his new literature.

Convinced that romanticism must prove itself in the theater, Hugo followed Cromwell with a number of other plays. On February 25, 1830, the famous "battle of Hernani" took place, with Hugo's supporters out shouting the neoclassicists and antiromantics (people who opposed the romantic movement) who had come to show their disapproval for the play. Hernani was performed forty-five times (an unusual success for those days).

In 1831 Hugo published his novel Notre Dame de Paris, the work for which he is best known in the United States. In this he wished to convey the true spirit of the late Middle Ages through his creation of the Cathedral of Notre Dame and his characters: Frollo the archdeacon, Quasimodo the hunchback, and Esmeralda the gypsy girl. Although some readers were shocked that Frollo (who had taken holy orders) should fall in love with Esmeralda, the tale was a huge success.

Melancholy period

Also in 1831 Hugo published one of his most beautiful collections of poetry, Les Feuilles d'automne. Once again, Hugo wrote about private topics. This volume expressed the sadness he felt about events in his past as the poet approached his important thirtieth birthday. It was not only the fact that he was aging that made Hugo depressed; his wife, tired of bearing children and frustrated by the poet's immense selfishness, turned for comfort to the poet's friend, the critic Sainte-Beuve. The sadness of this double betrayal is felt in Feuilles d'automne.

Due to Hugo's loneliness from his wife's rejection, he fell in love with the young actress and prostitute (a person who receives money for performing sexual acts) Juliette Drouet. He took it upon himself to save her. He paid her debts and forced her to live in poverty, with her whole life focused entirely upon him. From this time on she lived solely for the poet and spent her time writing him letters, of which many thousands are in existence.

With the arrival of the July Monarchy, Hugo became wealthy and famous, and for fifteen years he was the official poet of France. During this period a large variety of new works appeared, including three plays: Le Roi s'amuse (1832), Lucrézia Borgia (1833), and the triumph Ruy Blas (1838).

In 1835 came Chants du crépuscule, which included many love lyrics (poems telling of emotion or love) to Juliette. In 1837 came Les Voix intérieures, a memorial of his father, who had been a Napoleonic general. Les Rayons et les ombres (1840) was another of his written works that was a statement of his personal emotions.

Political involvement

Hugo was now seized with a new ambition: he wished to become a statesman. When Louis Philippe was defeated in the Revolution of 1848, he allowed himself to be elected a deputy to the Assembly.

When Louis Napoleon began to achieve fame, Hugo supported him. But his enthusiasm for the new president was short-lived. He made a stirring plea for freedom of the press. At last, in 1849, he broke with Napoleon III (1808–1873).

Louis Napoleon seized power on the night of December 2, 1850, and declared himself emperor. Hugo called for the people to fight back, and many were killed in this process. Hugo's involvement in the events put his life in danger. Juliette saved the poet, found him shelter, and organized his escape to Brussels, Belgium. From there he went to the British Channel islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

In November 1853 Hugo's anti-Napoleonic volume, Les Châtiments, was published in Belgium. Though banned in France, the books were smuggled in and widely distributed. The final edition of Les Châtiments, with numerous additions, was published in 1870, when Hugo returned to Paris after the fall of Napoleon III.

Hugo's mysticism

During Hugo's long absence from France, he explored the dark side of his personality. There were many séances (meetings of people attempting to contact the dead) in his home. He believed that he was communicating with famous spirits. The "visit" that touched him most was that of his favorite daughter, Léopoldine, who had tragically drowned in the Seine with her young husband in 1843.

Indeed, Hugo's family was doomed with many tragedies. While his life in England energized his poetry, his wife and children became depressed. They longed for their friends and the familiar surroundings of Paris. His daughter, Adèle, withdrew into a fantasy world until at last she ran away from home. Hugo continued his experiments with the supernatural until stopped by the fragile mental state of his son, Charles. Hugo's wife left him to live in Brussels, where she died in 1868. Only Juliette remained loyal during the seventeen years the poet spent in England.

In 1856 Hugo published Les Contemplations, a work described as the progression of life from infancy to its end, complete with all of the emotional experiences that happen to a person during this process. Many of these poems predict Hugo's next major work La Légende des siècles (1859), conceived as part of an enormous uncompleted work whose mission was to "express humanity." Hugo dreamed of an all-inclusive vast poem. It would show that man and his soul were basically good and that the human spirit would come out and away from its concern with material things.

In 1862 Hugo published Les Misérables, a major novel, the work of many years. His guiding interest was a social and humanitarian concern for the disadvantaged. The book was not just an adventure story but a love story and a mystery as well. It solidified Hugo's concern for people who were treated unfairly in society and once again amazed the reading public with the range of his literary powers.

When Victor Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885, he was a time-honored man, crowned with worldwide glory, still enthusiastic and emotionally devoted to the last.

For More Information

Maurois, André. Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo. New York: Harper, 1956.

Robb, Graham. Victor Hugo: A Biography. New York: Norton, 1997.

Smith Dow, Leslie. Adèle Hugo: La Misérable. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane, 1993.

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News and features

Major new biography of victor hugo, the man behind les misérables.

Victor Hugo by Étienne Carjat 1876

Press release issued: 21 January 2019

The first major biography in English for over 20 years, detailing the life and work of the iconic 19th-century French writer, Victor Hugo, will be published in February.

Victor Hugo is written by Dr Bradley Stephens from the Department of French at the University of Bristol and published by Reaktion Books for their ‘Critical Lives’ series – ‘beautifully produced and short critical biographies’, according to the Times Literary Supplement , that are targeted at a general audience.

Internationally famous for his classic novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (more commonly known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ), Hugo is a national icon in France, on the same level as Shakespeare and Dickens in the United Kingdom.

His work remains as popular in the 21 st century as it did in his own lifetime. The BBC is currently screening its major new adaptation of Les Misérables while the well-known musical stage-show is on national tours in both the UK and the USA, and both Netflix and Disney have recently announced new live-action film versions of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame . January also sees the return to London of the hit French-Canadian musical Notre-Dame de Paris for a limited run.

The new biography provides a concise but comprehensive study of Hugo’s massive body of work within the context of his highly dramatic life.

Dr Stephens said: “The man behind these much-loved stories has a fascinating story of his own – one that isn’t well known outside of France and is prone to clichés within his home country.

“Hugo achieved huge success not just as a novelist but as a poet and playwright as well. He was also elected to both Houses of the French Parliament and was the first French writer to receive a State funeral, attended by 2 million people in Paris and attracting headlines across the world.

“Whether he was leading the French Romantics against artistic tradition or defying France’s Second Empire in exile, he became synonymous with the progressive ideals of the nineteenth century, including bringing an end to poverty, slavery, and the death penalty.

“His moral principles were shaped by his private life, in which he wrestled with personal tragedies and the pressures of fame while being pulled into the turmoil of his century. These twists of fate stirred his passion for freedom, which he channelled into his writing (inspiring Tolstoy and Verdi, to name but a few) and other outlets like drawing (which Van Gogh described as ‘astonishing’).

“Importantly, Hugo’s rebellious character and vibrant imagination also suggest that he was too restless to sit comfortably on the pedestal of literary greatness.”

Victor Hugo Biography: The Extraordinary Life Of A Literary Legend

Victor Hugo, born on February 26, 1802, was a renowned French poet, novelist, and playwright. Considered one of the greatest literary figures of his time, Hugo’s works, such as “Les Misérables” and “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” continue to captivate readers worldwide with their profound themes and timeless storytelling. Join us on a journey through the life and legacy of this iconic literary genius.

Biography Of Victor Hugo

Early life of victor hugo.

Victor Hugo Biography was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. He was raised in a family of artists and intellectuals, which greatly influenced his upbringing and creative pursuits. At the age of 13, Hugo’s family moved to Paris, where he would spend the majority of his life. In the bustling artistic and cultural capital, he was exposed to a diverse range of influences, from literature to politics, that would shape his future career as a renowned writer and social activist. Despite facing financial difficulties in his early years, Hugo’s passion for literature and his unwavering determination propelled him to become one of the most influential figures in French literature and a champion for human rights.

Family Details About Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was born to Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet. He had several siblings, including Abel, Eugène, Léopoldine, Charles, François-Victor, Adèle, and Victorine. His father, Joseph Hugo, was an officer in the French army, and his mother, Sophie Trébuchet, was a socialite and artist. The influence of his parents and the unique dynamics with his siblings would later shape Victor Hugo’s life and literary career.

Victor Hugo, one of the most influential French writers of all time, had an intriguing romantic life. Let’s take a look:

Victor Hugo is currently married to Adèle Foucher. They tied the knot on October 12, 1822.

Adèle Foucher was the childhood friend of Victor Hugo, and their friendship blossomed into love. They had known each other since their early years and shared a deep connection. Adèle was known for her intelligence and beauty.

Victor Hugo had some previous relationships before his marriage to Adèle Foucher. Here is a table listing the significant others in his life:

Although these relationships were significant in different periods of his life, it was ultimately with Adèle Foucher that Victor Hugo found his true love and partner.

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Victor Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist. He became famous through his literary works that played an important role in the Romantic movement. Hugo’s career started in the early 1800s when he began publishing volumes of poetry. In 1831, he achieved widespread fame with his novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” which brought him critical acclaim and commercial success.

Victor Hugo’s notable works include novels like “Les Misérables,” “Toilers of the Sea,” and “The Man Who Laughs.” These novels depicted social and political issues of the time, highlighting the struggles of the poor and oppressed. Hugo’s writings had a profound impact on society and helped shape public opinion on various issues.

• Hugo was honored with the French Academy’s highest literary award, the “Grand Prix de Littérature,” in 1862.
• In 1870, he received a national tribute for his immense contribution to French literature.
• Hugo was also appointed to the Belgian Royal Academy in 1845.
• One of the major controversies surrounding Victor Hugo was his political activism. He openly opposed Napoleon III and his authoritarian regime, which resulted in his exile from France for almost two decades.
• Hugo’s novel “Les Misérables” faced criticism from some conservatives who saw it as promoting revolutionary ideas and portraying the Church in a negative light.
• His personal life also raised controversies, including his extramarital affairs and unconventional relationships.

FAQ About Victor Hugo

1. who was victor hugo.

Victor Hugo was a renowned French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the 19th century. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers in French literature.

2. What Are Some Notable Works By Victor Hugo?

Some of Victor Hugo’s most notable works include:

• “Les Misérables” (1862)
• “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” (1831)
• “Ninety-Three” (1874)
• “Toilers of the Sea” (1866)

3. When Was Victor Hugo Born And When Did He Die?

Victor Hugo was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. He passed away on May 22, 1885, in Paris, France.

4. What Is Victor Hugo Best Known For?

Victor Hugo is best known for his epic historical novel “Les Misérables,” which explores themes of social injustice, redemption, and love. This work has been widely adapted into various forms, including musicals and movies.

5. Did Victor Hugo Have Any Political Involvement?

Yes, Victor Hugo was actively involved in politics and held strong republican beliefs. He served as a senator and was a staunch supporter of democracy and social progress.

6. What Was Victor Hugo’s Impact On French Literature?

Victor Hugo played a significant role in the Romantic literary movement and heavily influenced the development of French literature. His works explored complex themes and his use of vivid imagery and poetic language revolutionized storytelling.

7. Did Victor Hugo Receive Any Awards Or Recognition For His Work?

Yes, Victor Hugo received several awards and recognition during his lifetime, including being elected to the Académie Française, the highest honor in French literature. He also received numerous other literary accolades.

8. Can You Visit Any Places Associated With Victor Hugo?

Yes, there are several places associated with Victor Hugo that can be visited. Some notable sites include his house in Guernsey, the Victor Hugo Museum in Paris, and the Victor Hugo House in Besançon.

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Victor Hugo Biography

Victor Hugo, a renowned poet, novelist, and playwright of the Romantic Movement in 19th century France, is widely regarded as one of the greatest French authors of all time. While he was also a political statesman and human rights activist, Hugo is primarily remembered for his literary creations, particularly his poetry and novels. His works, such as ‘Les Contemplations’ and ‘Les Legende des siecles’, have earned him immense admiration in France, with his novels ‘Les Misérables’, ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ (‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’), and ‘Les Travailleurs de la Mer’ being among his most popular. Through his writing, Hugo delved into the political and social issues of his era, and his books have been translated into numerous languages. Additionally, Hugo’s artistic talents extended beyond writing, as he produced over 4,000 beautiful drawings. While he initially embraced the Catholic Royalist faith, he gradually became a freethinking republican during the events leading up to the French Revolution. As a prominent supporter of the Romantic Movement, Hugo also advocated for social causes, including the abolition of capital punishment, and played a significant role in establishing the Third Republic and democracy in France.

Quick Facts

• French Celebrities Born In February
• Also Known As: Victor-Marie Hugo
• Died At Age: 83
• Spouse/Ex-: Adèle Foucher
• Father: Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo
• Mother: Sophie Trébuchet
• Siblings: Abel Joseph Hugo, Eugène Hugo
• Children: Adèle, Charles, François-Victor, Léopold, Léopoldine
• Born Country: France
• Quotes By Victor Hugo
• Died on: May 22, 1885
• Place of death: Paris, France

Childhood & Early Life

Victor Hugo was born on 26 February 1802 in Besancon, France, to Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trebuchet. He was the third-born and the youngest son of the family. His elder siblings were Abel Joseph Hugo and Eugene Hugo.

His father, Joseph was a freethinking republican. He was an important officer in the army of Napoleon and considered him his idol. On the other hand, his mother Sophie was a devoted Catholic Royalist. The political incompatibility of his parents adversely affected their family life.

Joseph’s job required him to move constantly from one place to another. Travelling with his father to different countries, young Hugo developed a liking for nature and beauty. By 1803, his mother was exhausted of travelling and decided to stay back in Paris while his father went to Italy. She took up the responsibility of Victor’s education and successfully imbibed in him the Catholic faith.

Victor Hugo was inspired by François-René de Chateaubriand, the founder of Romanticism in French literature. In 1822 at the age of 20, his first volume of poetry ‘Odes et Poésies Diverses’ was published which established his reputation as a poet and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Four years later, his second collection of poetry ‘Odes et Ballades’ (1826) strengthened his reputation further.

Meanwhile, his first novel ‘Han d’Islande’ was published in 1823, followed by his second novel ‘Bug-Jargal’, published in 1826. From 1829 – 1840, he published five collections of poetry: ‘Les Orientales’ (1829); ‘Les Feuilles d’automne’ (1831); ‘Les Chants du crépuscule’ (1835); ‘Les Voix intérieures’ (1837); and ‘Les Rayons et les ombres’ (1840).

In 1829, he also published a fiction ‘Le Dernier jour d’un condamné’ (The Last Day of a Condemned Man), his first mature work. The work was based upon the real life story of a murderer and reflected the acute social conscience.

His first full-length book was ‘Notre- Dame de Paris’ (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), published in 1831. It was immensely successful and was promptly translated to a number of foreign languages. It made the Cathedral of Notre Dame and other Renaissance buildings popular among the people of Europe and encouraged their preservation.

Around 1830, he embarked on writing the most important novel of his literary career: ‘Les Misérables’. The work explored social misery and injustice. After several years of writing followed by planned marketing campaigns by the Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckh, the novel was finally published in 1862. The success of the novel turned his fortune.

In 1841, after three futile attempts, he was elected to the Académie française. Thereafter, he became more and more involved in French politics, supporting the Republic form of government. King Louis-Philippe promoted him and made him a part of the Higher Chamber as a ‘pair de France’.

After the Revolution of 1848 and the establishment of the Second Republic, he was elected to the Parliament as a conservative. A few years later, when Napoleon III seized power in 1851 and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, he objected openly calling him a traitor. As a result he was exiled; he settled in Guernsey and lived there until 1870.

During his exile, he published two famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, ‘Napoléon le Petit’ and ‘Histoire d’un crime’. Although the pamphlets were banned in France, they managed to create a strong impact there nonetheless.

In 1859, when amnesty was granted to all political exiles by Napoleon III, he chose not to return to France and imposed upon himself a self-exile. He was determined to return only when the Napoleon dynasty was removed from power.

Meanwhile on the literary front, he published his next novel ‘Les Travailleurs de la Mer’ (Toilers of the Sea) in 1866. The story portrayed a man’s battle with the sea and its deadly creatures, a symbolic theme not far removed from the political turmoil prevailing at the moment. The success of his previous novel, ‘Les Misérables’ ensured that ‘Les Travailleurs de la Mer’ was also a success.

With his next novel ‘L’Homme Qui Rit’ (The Man Who Laughs), he again returned to social issues. The book published in 1869, depicted a critical image of the upper class. It, however, failed to secure a distinctive position in French literature.

After the fall of Napoleon III and the establishment of the Third Republic in France, Victor Hugo returned to his country in 1870 and was soon appointed to the National Assembly and the Senate. He also became a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale. Two years later in 1872, he lost the National Assembly election.

The writings of his last few years were murky, highlighting themes like God, Satan, and death. His last novel ‘Quatrevingt-treize’ (Ninety-Three) was published in 1874. The book presented a picture of the atrocities committed during the French Revolution. Regardless of the completely new subject matter, it failed to achieve success.

Major Works

In 1831, Victor Hugo published the Gothic novel, ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The story is set in the late medieval period of Paris, France, and presents a grim picture of the society that humiliates and rejects the hunchback Quasimodo. The novel was immensely successful.

Another of his famous novels, ‘Les Misérables’ was published in 1862 after several years of hard work. The story involving several characters primarily unravels the destiny of a convict Jean Valjean, a victim of the society who had been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. The novel was an instant success and was quickly translated into several languages.

Personal Life & Legacy

Victor Hugo’s education in his childhood was largely supervised by his mother who was a devout Catholic Royalist. Hence his early literary works reflect his commitment to both the King and Faith. Later however, during the events leading up to France’s 1848 Revolution, he began to rebel against the Catholic beliefs and championed Republicanism and Free-thought instead.

Much against his mother’s approval, he got secretly engaged to his childhood sweetheart Adèle Foucher and married her later in 1822, after his mother’s death. The couple had their first child, Léopold in 1823 but the boy did not survive. In August 1824, the couple’s second child, Léopoldine was born followed by Charles in November 1826, François-Victor in October 1828, and Adèle in August 1830.

His daughter Léopoldine died in 1843 at the young age of 19, shortly after her marriage to Charles Vacquerie. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier when her boat overturned; her husband also died trying to save her. Her death left Hugo devastated.

He lost his wife in 1868. In the next decade, he lost two sons between 1871 and 1873. His mistress, Juliet Drouet died in 1883.

In 1878, he began suffering from cerebral congestion. On 22 May 1885 at the age of 83, Victor Hugo breathed his last. His death was lamented by the whole country. His body was rested in state beneath the Arc de Triomphe before burial in the Panthéon.

His residences – Hauteville House, Guernsey and 6, Place des Vosges, Paris have been preserved as museums. The house where he stayed in Vianden, Luxembourg, in 1871 has also become a memorial museum.

To honor his entering his 80th year in 1881, celebrations across France were organized which included the largest parade in French history. Thereafter, several streets and roads all over France were named after him. His portrait was also placed on French Franc banknotes.

He is respected as a saint in the Vietnamese religion of Cao Đài.

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Victor Marie Hugo (French pronunciation: ​[viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo]; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He was buried in the Panthéon.

External Links

Wiki - Victor Hugo

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