VICTOR HUGO (en anglais)

                                                                                                                 Victor Hugo

                                                                                                                                                        

Victor Hugo, who was a french poet, novelist and dramatist of the Romantic movement was born in Besançon on February, 26th, 1802. He died on May, 22nd, 1885 in Paris. He was considered as one of the greatest and best known French writers.

His father was an army general, so he was brought up most of the time by his mother, who was a Catholic Royalist. He had two elder brothers, Abel and Eugène. His childhood was a period of national political turmoil because Napoléon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Victor’s birth. When he was nine, he started in the « Collège des Nobles », a boarding school in Madrid. In 1813, he moved to Paris, with his mother, Victor’s parents divorced. Then, he attended the Lycée « Louis Le Grand ». When he studied there, he became famous by writing a collection of poems entitled « Odes » and got a lodging school by the King Louis XVIII.

In 1822, he married his childhood friend Adèle Fourcher and they had five children.

In 1827, he published his first play in verse, « Cromwell » then, « Orientales » and « Hernani »(1830), and also « Le dernier jour d’un condamné »(1829) a novel. In 1831, one of the most famous of his books « Notre Dame de Paris » was published. Seven years later, he wrote « Ruy Blas ». In 1841, he was elected in the « Académie Française ».  Two years later, his daughter Léopoldine died. He started a political career in 1848, when he was elected to the constituant assembly. He was against misery and death penalty, and he was for peace. In 1862, he finished his most successful story « Les Misérables ». He was against the Coup d’état by Napoléon III on 2nd, december, 1851.

He went on exile in Jersey and Belgium, he wrote « Les châtiments » and « Les contemplations ». When he returned to France, he was 60 years old and started to write « La légende des siècles ». He died in 1885, at the age of eighty-three.

Victor Hugo would keep a special diary early as 1821, where he realized his drawings during his trips, because he would dream. He wouldn’t respect the classical codes of literature and theater.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Tharsiny 3e4