Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo[1] (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] ⓘ; 26 February 1802 – 22
May 1885) was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, and politician.
During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of
genres and forms.
His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les
Misérables (1862). In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as Les
Contemplations and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages). Hugo was at
the forefront of the Romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and
drama Hernani. His works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his
death, including the opera Rigoletto and the musicals Les Misérables and Notre-Dame
de Paris. He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for
social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment and slavery.
Although he was a committed royalist when young, Hugo's views changed as the
decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, serving in
politics as both deputy and senator. His work touched upon most of the political and
social issues and the artistic trends of his time. His opposition to absolutism, and his
literary stature, established him as a national hero. Hugo died on 22 May 1885, aged
83. He was given a state funeral in the Panthéon of Paris, which was attended by over 2
million people, the largest in French history.[2]
