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Victor Hugo was born in Besançon as the son of a army general, who taught young Victor to admire Napoleon as a hero. After the separation of his parents, he was raised and educated in Paris by his mother, where the family settled when Hugo was two. From 1815 to 1818 Hugo attended the Lycée Louis-le Grand in Paris. He began in early adolescence to write verse tragedies and poetry, and translated Virgil. Hugo's first collection of poems, Odes Et Poesies Diverses gained him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. As a novelist Hugo made his debut with Han D'Islande (1823) followed by Bug-Jargal (1826). In 1822 Hugo married Adèle Foucher who was the daughter of an officer at the ministry of war.
Hugo gained wider fame with his play Hernani (1830) and with his famous historical work The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1831) which became an instant success. Since its appearance in 1831 the story has became part of popular culture. The novel, set in 15th century Paris, tells a moving story of a gypsy girl Esmeralda and the deformed bell ringer, Quasimodo, who loves her.
In the 1830s Hugo published several volumes of lyric poetry, Hugo's lyrical style was rich, intense and full of powerful sounds and rhythms, and although it followed the bourgeois popular taste of the period it also had bitter personal tones. Among his most ambitious works was an epic poem, "Et nox facta est," ("And There Was Night"), a study of Satan's fall. The poem was never completed.
In his later life Hugo became involved in politics as a supporter of the republican form of government. After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was elected in 1841 to the Académie Francaise. This triumph was shadowed by the death of Hugo's daughter Léopoldine in 1843. It was only after a decade that Hugo again published books. He devoted himself to politics, advocating social justice. After the 1848 revolution, with the formation of the Second Republic, Hugo was elected to the Constitutional Assembly and to the Legislative Assembly.
When the coup d'état by Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) took place in 1851, Hugo believed his life to be in danger. He fled to Brussels and then to Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel. Hugo's partly voluntary exile lasted 20 years. During this time he wrote at Hauteville House some his best works, including Les Chatimets (1853) and Les Misérables (1862), an epic story about social injustice.
The political upheaval in France and the proclamation of the Third Republic made Hugo return to France. During the period of the Paris Commune, Hugo lived in Brussels, from where he was expelled for sheltering defeated revolutionaries. After a short time of living as a refuge in Luxemburg, he returned to Paris and was elected senator. Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. He was given a national funeral, attended by two million people, and buried in the Panthéon.
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I can't stand Hugo's writing style
I'm a huge fan of the musical Les Miserables. I love the music, the story, the characters, and because the movie version is coming out soon, I decided to read the book. I wish I hadn't. When he's writing events that are part of the plot-line, it's interesting, exciting and I'm enjoying it. But he goes on these massive rants about stuff that is both very irrelevant and uninteresting. He spends fourteen chapters on the bishop (in my mind, seven would have been quite enough), he spends fifty pages describing the battle of Waterloo (this is especially irritating because he suddenly throws it in when up until then the reader has no reason whatsoever to believe its connected and really wants n...
Posted By Chilly in Hugo, Victor || 23 Replies
Which is your favourite?
I've read an abridged version of Hunchback and watched the musical of Les Mis but I haven't read full versions of either....
Posted By kelby_lake in Hugo, Victor || 1 Reply
Need Help identifying a Hugo writing
A friend of mine created an advent calendar for me and my new bride. She part of a Victor Hugo writing that she claims is one of his most famous love poems. She claims that it is about lady in a pale blue dress. She doesn't have the entire writing and I am trying to identify it so I can locate it. Once she said it was a love poem, later she said that it wasn't exactly a poem but more of a love letter. Can anyone help???...
Posted By markfrees in Hugo, Victor || 0 Replies
1793
Anyone read it? Did Gavuain had right to free Lantenac?...
Posted By bazarov in Hugo, Victor || 0 Replies
Hugo - greatest writer ever!
yes, sir!...
Posted By star blue in Hugo, Victor || 10 Replies
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