FRANCE AUTHOR · FICTION · HISTORY
Victor Hugo
Also known as: Victor Marie Hugo, Victor Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English also as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). Though a committed conservative royalist when he was young, Hugo grew more liberal as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon.
Most acclaimed
Claude Gueux
Claude Gueux was a short story written by Victor Hugo in 1834. It is considered an early example of "true crime" fiction, and contains Hugo's early thoughts on societal injustice which thirty years later he would flesh out in his novel Les Misérables. The Les Miserables character Jean Valjean is loosely based on the life of Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-convict who became a successful businessman widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. It is believed Vidocq helped Hugo with the research for Claude Gueux.
Ruy Blas
Trois especes de spectateurs composent ce qu'on est convenu d'appeler le public : premierement, les femmes ; deuxiemement, les penseurs ; troisiemement, la foule proprement dite. Ce que la foule demande presque exclusivement a l'oeuvre dramatique, c'est de l'action ; ce que les femmes y veulent avant tout, c'est de la passion ; ce qu'y cherchent plus specialement les penseurs, ce sont des caracteres.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Set in medieval Paris, Victor Hugo's powerful historical romance has resonated with succeeding generations ever since its publication in 1837. It tells the story of the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, condemned as a witch by the tormented archdeacon Claude Frollo, who lusts after her. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, having fallen in love with the kindhearted Esmeralda, tries to save her by hiding her in the cathedral's tower. When a crowd of Parisian peasants, misunderstanding Quasimodo's motives, attacks the church in an attempt to liberate her, the story ends in tragedy.