Memorable Quotations: Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802–85) was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist and 19th-century France's foremost literary figure. The preface to his play Cromwell (1827) positioned him at the lead of the romantic school, and the production of his unusual poetic drama Hernani (1830) produced a riot between defenders of romanticism and classicism. Other plays are Le Roi s'amuse (1832) and Ruy Blas (1838). His major poetic works, e.g., Autumn Leaves (1831), Rays and Shadows (1840), and Contemplations (1856), exhibit his musical strengths and highly personal voice. His two impressive epic novels, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862), for which he is best known in English, depict the sufferings of humanity with great compassion and authority. Initially a monarchist, Hugo later became an enthusiastic republican, and his opposition to Napoleon III led to his exile in 1851. In 1870 he returned in triumph to Paris, where his last years were marked by public adoration; he is buried in the Panthéon.