Victor Hugo

French writer, poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, gifted painter, architect and critic who, as an eclectic genius, was hard-working, politically active and a humanitarian. His works include "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," 1831, the play "Lucrezia Borgia," 1833 and the novel "Les Miserable," 1862. Hugo's father, an officer in Napoleon's army, did not get along well with his mother. Most of his early years from age two were spent in Paris where his mother preferred to live. He and his two brothers knew their father from occasional visits. At age seven he traveled with brother Eugene to Italy where their father was a military governor. In 1811-12 the boys visited their father who was a general by now, in Spain where he was governor of Madrid. Educated in Paris and Madrid, Hugo wrote his first play at the age of 14, won many poetry prizes in school and helped found a magazine, which failed in 1821. Hugo's mother died the same year. After a period of extreme poverty, he was awarded an annual pension by Louis XVIII and went on to become the most prolific French writer of the 19th century. Always seeking to achieve the maximum literary beauty, he believed in the importance of the French language. Between 1822 and 1832 he became a leader in the literary rebellion called the Romantic movement. Hugo took part in the movement to secure France's architectural heritage in the 1820's and vehemently denounced vandalism. In 1832 he wrote "Le Roi S'Amuse" or "The King's Diversion" on which Verdi later based his opera "Rigoletto." Many of his works were criticisms of social and political injustice. One of the reasons for writing the plays was to provide parts for the young actress Juliette Drouet who had become his mistress in 1833 and was to be his companion for the rest of her life. Hugo was a lusty man and Juliette was not his only mistress, but she was his most faithful. He recorded his many sexual encounters, the last of which took place in the spring of 1885 seven weeks before his death. In 1841 Hugo was elected to the French Academy and in 1849 became a member of the National Assembly and joined the Democratic Republicans. The left wing Republicans grew tired of hearing about his anti-Napoleon III literature, which he had produced in 1848 as he was an outspoken political opponent of Napoleon III. In 1851 after the coup, he fled into exile in Brussels. In 1852 he moved to the Channel Islands where he wrote several major works of poetry and "Les Miserable" which through his keen commercial sense and ad campaign became a best seller from St. Petersburg, Russia, across Europe and to the United States. Thousands of copies of "Les Miserable" sold in Paris shops within hours and there were 21 illegal editions in circulation. Hugo returned to Paris in 1870 after the fall of the Empire and was made a senator in 1876. He persistently campaigned against the death penalty, only one of his many causes. During much of his long life he wrote 100 lines of verse or 20 pages of prose each day. On his 80th birthday huge crowds gathered at his home and cheered. In his 81st year the street of his residence was renamed Avenue Victor Hugo and remains so today. He was one of the most famous men in the world at that time and was a millionaire when he died. Hugo married his childhood sweetheart, Adele Foucher, in 1822 and fathered four children. His daughter Adele went insane after being abandoned by a lover and daughter Leopoldine was drowned while boating on the Seine. His wife died in 1868 and Juliette Drouet moved into his home. She remained with him until she died in his arms on 5/11/1883. Hugo never recovered from the loss seeming to be indifferent to life around him. On 5/14/1885 Hugo was taken ill, a man whom some thought had outlived his time. Royalists and Bonapartist deputies regarded him as their established enemy and the Catholics considered him not of their church as he refused their prayers, but he was adored by the people. Crowds of people gathered outside his house daily for reports of his health and to see the famous individuals that went in to see him. His last words written, "To love is to act" were committed to paper on May 19. His grandchildren were brought to him, he kissed them and lapsed into a coma. He died on 5/22/1885 at 1:27 PM of general disability of old age and pneumonia. The night before his funeral his sarcophagus was placed under the Arc de Triomphe veiled in black crepe. The next day his body was placed on the hearse of the poor and carried through the streets. Crowds were so vast 10,000 police were needed to hold them back. Even people from the countryside came to mourn, brothels were closed and drunken bodies littered the Champs-Elysees. The Pantheon, resting place for National Heroes, was withdrawn from church control so that Hugo could be laid to rest there. He was laid to rest beside Rousseau. Link to Wikipedia biography