Victor Hugo - Writer

He wrote the brick of a novel that became the world's most-performed musical, and the cathedral story that made Paris scramble to save Notre-Dame. Hugo's fingerprints are on modern storytelling, human rights arguments, and the French Republic itself.

Writers Politician Politics Theatre Fiction Literature Poetry DJ

A life in dates

1914Victor Hugo Statue, Saint Peter PortTribute7 July 19141891DieuBook published after his deathMore about this, book by Victor Hugo1886Mangeront-ils ?Book published after his deathMore about this, 1886 play written by Victor Hugo1885Died22 May 18851879“For four hundred years the human race has not made a step but what has left its plain vestige behind. We enter now upon great centuries.”In their wordsAddress to the Workman's Congress at Marseille (1879)Read the whole statement

1876Senator of La SeineOffice1876-18851871Member of parliament for the SeineOffice1862“One can no more pray too much than love too much.”In their wordsLes Misérables (1862), page 55, as translated by Charles Wilbour and provided by A.L. Bert Publishers. Source: Shawn Thomas (June 24,Read the whole statement

“The best way to worship God is to love your wife.”In their wordsLes Misérables (1862), page 1190, as translated by Charles Wilbour and provided by A.L. Bert Publishers. Source: Shawn Thomas (June 24,Read the whole statement

“To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. To love is a consummation.”In their wordsLes Misérables (1862), page 1190, as translated by Charles Wilbour and provided by A.L. Bert Publishers. Source: Shawn Thomas (June 24,Read the whole statement

1848“Socialism, or the Red Republic, is all one; for it would tear down the tricolour and set up the red flag. It would make penny pieces out of the Column Vendome.”In their wordsMay 1848Statement of May 1848, as quoted in Paris Under the Commune : Or, Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege (1871) by John LeightonRead the whole statement

Member of parliament for the SeineOffice1848-18511845Member of the Chamber of PeersOffice1845-18481841Member of the Académie françaiseOffice1841-18851840President of the Société des gens de lettresOffice1837Officer of the Legion of HonourAward1825Knight of the Legion of HonourAward1817“I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.”In their wordsWritten at the age of 15 in one of his notebooks (c. 1817), as quoted in The Literary Movement in France During the Nineteenth CenturyRead the whole statement

1802Born26 February 1802

Photos 8

Victor Hugo by Étienne Carjat 1876 - full

A page from history, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, November 16, 1870 MET DP877809

Acte de décès - Victor Hugo

Acte de naissance de Victor Hugo

Album d'Adèle Hugo enfant, 2019.9.1(11)

Album d'Adèle Hugo enfant, 2019.9.1(13)

Alexandre Dumas.- La conscience, drame, 1855, bpt6k6247640j

Allégorie de la République française

In their own words 10

Victor Hugo

10 statements, newest first

For four hundred years the human race has not made a step but what has left its plain vestige behind. We enter now upon great centuries.
1879, Address to the Workman's Congress at Marseille (1879), Own words
Was it possible that Napoleon should win the battle of Waterloo? We answer, No! Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Blücher? No! Because of God!
1878, "The Battle of Waterloo", reported in Oliver Ernesto Branch, ed., The Hamilton Speaker (1878), p. 53, Own words
One can no more pray too much than love too much.
1862, Les Misérables (1862), page 55, as translated by Charles Wilbour and provided by A.L. Bert Publishers. Source: Shawn Thomas (June 24,, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Officer of the Legion of Honour1837

Knight of the Legion of Honour1825

Family

Parents

Victor Hugo

Partners

Spouse Adèle Foucher

Children

Brothers and sisters

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About this person

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, produced over 4,000 drawings, and campaigned against capital punishment and slavery. When he died 22 May 1885, aged 83, over two million people attended his state funeral at the Panthéon - the largest in French history.

Country

France

Writers from France 6

Charles Baudelaire82.2

Honoré de Balzac82.2

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