Victor Hugo Biography

Victor Hugo was born in 1802 in Besançon, France. His father was a general in Napoléon’s army, and much of his childhood was therefore spent amid the backdrop of Napoléon’s campaigns in Spain and in Italy. At the age of eleven, Hugo returned to live with his mother in Paris, where he became infatuated with books and literature. By the time he was fifteen, he had already submitted one poem to a contest sponsored by the prestigious French Academy.

Hugo wrote prolifically in all genres, but his plays proved to be his earliest critical and commercial successes. France’s 1830 July Revolution opened Hugo’s creative floodgates, and he began producing a steady stream of work, most notably the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). Hugo also began to cultivate his interest in politics and was elected to France’s National Assembly after the revolution of 1848. As Hugo grew older, his politics became increasingly leftist, and he was forced to flee France in 1851 because of his opposition to the monarch Louis Napoléon. Hugo remained in exile until 1870, when he returned to his home country as a national hero. He continued to write until his death in 1885. He was buried with every conceivable honor in one of the grandest funerals in modern French history.

Hugo remains one of the most popular and respected authors in French literature. His writings were cultural fixtures throughout the nineteenth century, and he quickly emerged as one of the leaders of the Romantic Movement in literature. Hugo also developed his own brand of imaginative realism, a literary style that combines realistic elements with exaggerated symbolism. In this style, each character represents a significant social issue of the time. Indeed, political concerns dominate much of Hugo’s writing, and he used his work to champion causes such as universal suffrage and free education. Hugo believed that the modern writer had a mission to defend the less fortunate members of society. Though he often drew criticism for his politics, his passion for documenting injustice ultimately led to widespread praise for both his literary and social achievements.

Victor Hugo Study Guides

Hunchback of Notre Dame

Published

Les Misérables

Published

Victor Hugo Quotes

I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.

You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea.

A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas.

One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo Plays

Hernani

Published 1830

Ruy Blas

Published 1838

Victor Hugo Novels

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Published 1831

Les Misérables

Published 1862

Toilers of the Sea

Published 1866

Victor Hugo Poetry

Les Châtiments

Published 1853

Les Contemplations

Published 1856

La Légende des siècles

Published 1859

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