VICTOR HUGO
February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885

"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor."

~ His father, an army general, taught him to admire Napoleon.

~ Hugo's mother grew weary of the constant moving required by the military. She left Hugo's father in 1803 and took Hugo to Paris.

~ Hugo began to write at an early age. His precocious passion and eloquence was quickly noticed.

~ His first collection of poetry was published in 1824, when he was only twenty-two years old. It earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII.

~ Against his mother's wishes, Victor became secretly engaged to his childhood friend.

~ Unusually close to his mother, he didn't feel free to marry Adele until his mother died.

~ The couple lost their first child soon after birth. They went on to have four other children.

~ Between 1829 and 1840, Hugo had five more volumes of poetry published.

~ In 1827, Hugo published the play Cromwell, but it was rejected. In the introduction, he urged his fellow artists to fight the restrictions imposed by the French classical style of theatre. This sparked a fierce debate between French Classicism and Romanticism that would rage for many years.

~ The first play of Hugo's to be accepted for production was initially banned by the censors for its unflattering portrayal of the French monarchy.

~ In 1830 Hugo produced Hernani, which would prove to be a successful and groundbreaking event of nineteenth-century French theatre.

~ Hugo had many romantic affairs in his life, but his mistress, actress Juliette Drouet, became part of the family.

~ Hugo liked to draw and made more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. He kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work.

~ The novel, which attracted thousands of tourists to Notre Dame, sparked the restoration of the neglected cathedral.

~ Hugo planned to write about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for him to complete Les Misérables.

~ His publishing house was ahead of its time. It issued press releases about the novel six months prior to the launch.

~ It initially published only the first part of the novel. I

~ The critics hated the book, but readers ate it up. Installments of the book sold out within hours.

~ It is said Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables was published. He telegraphed his publisher the single-character message: "?" His publisher's response: "!"

~ Hugo became increasingly involved in French politics. After three unsuccessful attempts, he was elected to the Académie française in 1841.

~ When Louis Napoleon seized power in 1851, Hugo openly declared him a traitor of France.

~ He fled to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family on the channel island of Guernsey where he lived in exile until 1870.

~ When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. Despite his popularity Hugo lost his bid for reelection to the National Assembly in 1872.

~ Hugo suffered immense loss in his life. One daughter was committed to an insane asylum. One daughter drowned. Both sons, his wife and his mistress all died before him.

~ Hugo died in Paris at the age of 83. His state funeral was attended by nearly two million people. It took ten thousand police to control the crowds.

~ His grave is in the Pantheon alongside Rousseau and Voltaire.