Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was born 26 February 1802 into a France that would convulse through monarchies and revolutions for most of his life. He started as a royalist, then spent decades shifting left until he became a passionate republican, serving as both deputy and senator. His play Cromwell and drama Hernani put him at the forefront of the Romantic literary movement. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame arrived in 1831; Les Misérables in 1862, a novel that inspired Rigoletto and eventually stage musicals that outlasted empires. He wrote poetry collections like Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles…