35 Interesting Facts about French Author Victor Hugo

35 Interesting Facts about French Author Victor Hugo

(Last Updated On: April 16, 2021)

Victor Marie Hugo simply will be the most well-known French author in history. He has gone through several careers, such as Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, Statesman, Peer of France, Senator, Drawer, and Painter during his lifetime. A meaningful life, eventful career, and awesome facts about Victor Hugo are still in the discussion! Let’s learn some Victor Hugo facts! 

His tales have been reproduced into performs, musicals, and feature-length movies, and he has turned into a family title are included in the Victor Hugo facts people are interested in.

In this article, I am going to share 56 awesome facts about Victor Hugo:

Facts about Victor Hugo

1. Born

He was born on Friday, 26 February 1802 at in Besançon which is a city in Eastern France.

2. Parents

He was the youngest son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo, a general in the Napoleonic army, and Sophie Trébuchet, a devout Catholic.

3. Marriage life

He married Adèle Foucher in 1822

4. Children

They had 5 children, Léopold Victor Hugo, Léopoldine Hugo, Charles Hugo, François-Victor Hugo, and Adèle Hugo

5. Brothers

He had two brothers – Abel Joseph Hugo, and Eugène Hugo.

6. First Novel

His first novel (Han d’Islande was published in the following year of his marriage in 1823

7. Romantic literary movement

Among many other qualities, Hugo was a pure romantic, and he was in the driving seat in the Romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and drama Hernani.

8. Separation of parents

When he was 16, his parents went on the separation of their conjugal life.

9. Perfect bride and groom

Hugo had many mistresses all through his life. As well as, even his spouse additionally carried out extramarital affairs.

Regardless of this, the pair lived together for nearly 50 years earlier than Foucher’s demise in 1868.

10. Respect for religion

Hugo recognized himself as a Catholic and held a large amount of respect for the church.

11. First literary work

In 1819, Hugo wrote just the preface of Cromwell, the full work was published in 1822, Odes et poésies diverses

12. City by his name

The city of Hugoton, Kansas is named after Victor Hugo

13. A saint

The Vietnamese religion of Cao Đài, honor Hugo as a saint. Cao Đài is a religion that started in Vietnam in 1926.

14. Political involvements

Political parties: Party of Order (1848–1851), Independent liberal (1871), and Republican Union (1876–1885)

He was additionally concerned in politics and he fought in opposition to social injustice.

He helped to avoid wasting the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and he was a proficient artist as nicely!

He lived a full and fascinating life, and his works proceed to be studied all around the world.

Hugo grew to become concerned in politics within the mid-19th century.

He was actually enthusiastic about enhancing circumstances for the poor and eradicating the demise penalty.

He believed that irrespective of the state of affairs, it was merciless and barbaric.

15. Overcoming ‘writer’s block’

He had an unusual technique for dealing with writer’s block. While he was writing – or trying to write – Les Misérables.

He decided to take off all his clothes, move himself to a room where he only had pens and paper for the company and forced himself to write, without the distraction of clothes, to remove himself from his job.

His servants were ordered not to return his clothes until he doesn’t write something down.

16. Les Misérables

The most popular novel by American Civil War soldiers was Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, published in 1962 an English translation in the United States that happened just before the year was out, and it was a huge blow to the soldiers who fought in the war.

Hugo started planning his most well-known work Les Misérables within the 1830s. It lastly came out in 1862.

The unique musical of Les Misérables opened on the Barbican Heart in London on 8th October 1985.

It has received a number of Tony Awards, together with ‘Best Book of a Musical’.

It has been produced in over 42 nations and has been translated into over 21 languages.

Les Misérables returned his writer over half 1,000,000 francs over six years.

Les Misérables tells the story of many various characters, notably the protagonist Jean Valjean. The story spans over 17 years, starting in 1815, and ending in 1832. Hugo spent over 15 years writing Les Misérables.

17. Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in English) was published successfully in 1830 and was swiftly translated into many different languages. The story is about in 15th century Paris and tells the story of Quasimodo and Esmeralda.

18. Father’s inspiration

His father as soon as advised him that he was conceived in a mountain on the peak.

His father credited his genius with the truth that he was. If we take into account Hugo’s success, it was his father who inspired him from behind.

19. A writer, above all

Victor Hugo was a French poet and novelist who, after pursuing education and career as a lawyer, launched into the literary profession.

He grew to become some of the necessary French Romantic poets, novelists, and dramatists of his time, having assembled a large body of labor whereas dwelling in Paris, Brussels, and the Channel Islands.

20. Flop vs Hit

Initially, Les Misérables was a critical flop. Now widely regarded as Hugo’s masterpiece.

21. Writing in Exile

Victor Hugo’s exile in Guernsey witnessed him write a few of his best works, together with Les Misérables and Toilers of the Sea.

22. Exile for 20 years

He first established himself on the island of Jersey, within the English Channel, the place he remained from 1852 to 1855.

When he was expelled from there, he moved to the neighboring island of Guernsey.

Throughout this exile of practically 20 years, he produced essentially the most in-depth a part of all his writings and essentially the most unique.

23. Love for his own language

For Hugo, who spoke no English — “When England wants to chat with me, let her learn my language,” he mentioned with typical grandiosity —

the French and Guernsey patois spoken by the island’s Norman Descendents had been important to his consolation.

Facts about Victor Hugo

24. A successful poet

Apart from continuous writing successful plays and novels, Hugo was additionally a poet. After he revealed his first 2 novels, he started to dedicate himself to poems. Between 1829 and 1840, he launched 5 volumes of poetry.

25. Reward for poetry

For his book of poetry verses, Hugo was granted a number of items and a 3000 franc pension from King Louis XVIII.

26. A successful artist

Over the course of his lifetime, he produced over 4,000 drawings. Hugo stored these drawings to himself, as he didn’t need them to take his writing out of the highlight.

27. Publication in Lifetime

Victor Hugo published over 55 works throughout his lifetime. These works include Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Toilers of the Sea, and many others.

Happy birthday
The complete inhabitants of France celebrated his eightieth birthday, which is really one of the interesting facts about Victor Hugo.

28. Minor Stroke

In 1878, he had a minor stroke.

29. Refused spiritual rites at his funeral

Regardless of his personal perception of God, Hugo had a well-known aversion to the Catholic Church and non-secular establishments normally.

He notably refused spiritual rites at his deathbed and his funeral.

He was happy with the greater than 740 assaults on the novel present in Catholic publications of the time.

30. Death

He died on Friday, 22 May 1885 from pneumonia at the age of 83 in Paris, France, and was buried at Panthéon.

31. Long Funeral

The funeral procession took six hours to move.

32. Post Death Commemoration

He had a request for a pauper’s funeral before death. However, to commemorate his life, achievements as well as honor his death, he was awarded a state funeral by decree of President Jules Grévy.

One of the mentionable Victor Hugo facts that, more than two million people participated in his funeral procession in the street of Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried.

33. 113 years of death

Conversations with Eternity (1998) was the last publication that was released posthumously, after 113 years of death.

34. Hugo Famous Quotes

He who opens a school door closes a prison.

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.

He who does not weep does not see.

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.

35. Last Words

Hugo put just five sentences as his final will for official declaration:

I leave 50,000 francs to the poor. I wish to be buried in their hearse.
I refuse [funeral] orations from all Churches. I demand a prayer to all souls.
I believe in God.

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