English Channel, where he remained Last years (1870–85) REPUBLIQUEALGERIENNE

from 1852 to 1855. When he was expelled DEMOCRATIQUE ET

from there, he moved to the neighbouring The defeat of France in the Franco-German POPULAIRE
island of Guernsey. During this exile of War and the proclamation of the Third
nearly 20 years he produced the most Republic in 1871 brought Hugo back to Lycée la résistance
extensive part of all his writings and the Paris. He became a deputy in the National populaire 1852
most original. Assembly (1871) but resigned the
following month. Though he still fought for
Laghouat
Hugo’s apocalyptic approach to reality his old ideals, he no longer possessed the
was the source of two epic or same energies. The trials of recent years Victor hugo
metaphysical poems, La Fin de Satan had aged him, and there were more to
(“The End of Satan”) and Dieu (“God”), come: in 1868 he had lost his wife, Adèle, a
both of them confrontations of the profound sadness to him; in 1871 one son
problem of evil. Written between 1854 died, as did another in 1873.
and 1860, they were not published until
after his death because his publisher
preferred the little epics based on history Reputation
and legend contained in the first
installment (1859) of the gigantic epic Hugo’s enormous output is unique in
poem La Légende des siècles (The Legend French literature; it is said that he wrote
of the Centuries), whose second and third each morning 100 lines of verse or 20
installments appeared in 1877 and 1883, pages of prose. “The most powerful
respectively. The many poems that make mind of the Romantic movement,” as
up this epic display all his spiritual power he was described in 1830, laureate and
without sacrificing his exuberant capacity peer of France in 1845, he went on to
to tell a story. Hugo’s personal mythology
assume the role of an outlawed sage
of the human struggle between good and
who, with the easy consciousness of
evil lies behind each of the legends: Eve’s
authority, put down his insights and
Réalise par ;
motherhood is exalted in “Le Sacre de la
femme”; mankind liberating itself from prophetic visions in prose and verse,  dsd
all religions in order to attain divine truth becoming at last the genial grandfather
is the theme of “Le Satyre”; and “Plein of popular literary portraiture and the
Ciel” proclaims, through utopian national poet who gave his name to a
prediction of men’s conquest of the air, street in every town in France.
the poet’s conviction of indefinite
progress toward the final unity of science
with moral awareness.

2019-
2020
 Victor Hugo, in full Victor-Marie Hugo, In 1823 he published his first novel, Han play owed less to the plot than to the sound
(born February 26, 1802, Besançon, d’Islande, which in 1825 appeared in an and beat of the verse, which was softened
France—died May 22, 1885, Paris), poet, English translation as Hans of Iceland. The only in the elegiac passages spoken by
novelist, and dramatist who was the most journalist Charles Nodier was enthusiastic Hernani and Doña Sol.
important of the French Romantic writers. about it and drew Hugo into the group of While Hugo had derived his early renown
Though regarded in France as one of that friends, all devotees of Romanticism, who from his plays, he gained wider fame in
country’s greatest poets, he is better known met regularly at the Bibliothèque de 1831 with his historical novel Notre-Dame
abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de L’Arsenal. While frequenting this literary de Paris (Eng. trans. The Hunchback of
Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). circle, which was called the Cénacle, Notre-Dame), an evocation of life in
Early years (1802–30) Hugo emerged as a true Romantic, medieval Paris during the reign of Louis
Victor was the third son of Joseph- however, with the publication in 1827 of XI. The novel condemns a society that, in
Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo, a major and, later, his verse drama Cromwell. The subject of the persons of Frollo the archdeacon and
general in Napoleon’s army. His childhood this play, with its near-contemporary Phoebus the soldier, heaps misery on the
was coloured by his father’s constant overtones, is that of a national leader risen hunchback Quasimodo and the gypsy girl
traveling with the imperial army and by the from the people who seeks to be crowned Esmeralda. The theme touched the public
disagreements that soon alienated his king. consciousness more deeply than had that of
parents from one another. His mother’s Success (1830–51) his previous novel, Le Dernier Jour d’un
royalism and his father’s loyalty to The defense of freedom and the cult of an condamné (1829; The Last Days of a
successive governments—the Convention, idealized Napoleon in such poems as the Condemned), the story of a condemned
the Empire, the Restoration—reflected their ode “À la Colonne” and “Lui” brought man’s last day, in which Hugo launched a
deeper incompatibility. It was a chaotic Hugo into touch with the liberal group of humanitarian protest against the death
time for Victor, continually uprooted writers on the newspaper Le Globe, and his penalty. While Notre-Dame was being
move toward liberalism was strengthened written, Louis-Philippe, a constitutional
from Paris to set out for Elba or Naples
by the French king Charles X’s restrictions king, had been brought to power by the July
or Madrid, yet always returning to Paris Revolution. Hugo composed a poem in
with his mother, whose royalist on the liberty of the press as well as by the
censor’s prohibiting the stage performance honour of this event, Dicté aprés juillet
opinions he initially adopted. The fall of 1830. It was a forerunner of much of his
of his play Marion de Lorme (1829), which
the empire gave him, from 1815 to portrays the character of Louis XIII political verse.
1818, a time of uninterrupted study at unfavourably. Hugo immediately retorted Exile (1851–70)
the Pension Cordier and the Lycée with Hernani, the first performance of Hugo’s exile lasted until the return of
Louis-le-Grand, after which he which, on February 25, 1830, gained liberty and the reconstitution of the republic
graduated from the law faculty at Paris, victory for the young Romantics over the in 1870. Enforced at the beginning, exile
where his studies seem to have been Classicists in what came to be known as later became a voluntary gesture and, after
purposeless and irregular. Memories of the battle of Hernani. In this play Hugo the amnesty of 1859, an act of pride. He
his life as a poor student later inspired extolled the Romantic hero in the form of a remained in Brussels for a year until,
the figure of Marius in his novel Les noble outlaw at war with society, dedicated foreseeing expulsion, he took refuge on
Misérables. to a passionate love and driven on by British territory. He first established
inexorable fate. The actual impact of the himself on the island of Jersey, in the
lay owed less to the plot than to the sound English Channel, where he remained
and beat of the verse, which was softened from 1852 to 1855. When he was
only in the elegiac passages spoken by expelled from there, he moved to the
Hernani and Doña Sol.