| Victor Hugo 26th February 1802 - 22nd May 1885
 |
Novelist, poet and dramatist. Victor Hugo was born in Besancon, the son of a general in Napoleon’s army. After the marriage of his parents collapsed, he was raised by his mother, Sophie. From 1815 to 1818 Hugo attended the Lycee Louis-le Grand in Paris. In early adolescence he began to write verse tragedies and poetry, and also translated Virgil.
His first published collection, Odes et Poesies Diverses (1822), gained him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. His first novel, Han D’Islande (1823), was published anonymously. He married Adele Foucher in 1822, with whom his brother, Eugene, was in love. Eugene suffered from mental problems and lost his mind on their wedding day, after which he spent the rest of his life in an institution. Hugo’s fame increased in the 1830s with the publication of his famous historical work Notre Dame de Paris (1831). In his later life Hugo became involved in politics as a supporter of the republican movement. His daughter was tragically killed in 1843, and Hugo did not publish another book for ten years. In 1851, believing his life to be in danger, he fled to Brussels and then to Jersey, he was expelled from the island, and moved, with his family to Guernsey in the English Channel.
During this period he wrote some of his best works, including Les Chatiments (1853) and the epic Les Miserables (1862). After political upheavals and the proclamation of the Third Republic, Hugo finally returned to France. The unpopular Napoleon III fell from power and The Republic was formed. In 1870 he witnessed the Siege of Paris. In 1871, during the period of the Paris Commune, Hugo lived in Brussels, but was expelled for sheltering revolutionaries. After a short time in Luxembourg, he returned to Paris and was elected as a senator in 1876. He suffered a mild stroke in June 1878. Hugo died in Paris on May 22nd, 1885. He was given a national funeral, which was attended by two million people. |
|
