
author
1802–1885
A giant of French Romanticism, this poet, novelist, and playwright gave the world Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. His work pairs sweeping emotion with a fierce sense of justice, which helps explain why readers still return to him nearly two centuries later.

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Pierre Dufay, Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo, Julius Moritzen
Born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, Victor Hugo became one of the defining writers of the 19th century. He worked across poetry, fiction, drama, and essays, and he is widely remembered for the power and range of his imagination as much as for the scale of his storytelling.
His best-known novels, Notre-Dame de Paris (often known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and Les Misérables, made him famous far beyond France. Alongside his literary career, he was also deeply involved in public life, speaking out on political and human rights issues and spending years in exile after opposing Napoleon III.
Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. His influence on literature has been enormous, but what keeps his work alive is its human warmth: even at its grandest, it stays close to ordinary people, moral struggle, and the hope that society can become more just.