On 22 May 1885 Victor Hugo died, prompting international mourning unprecedented for a literary figure. Within an hour the periodical Gil Blas published a special edition, which sold out everywhere, and soon millions flocked to Paris in a spectacular...

No century of French literature has been better represented by a single author than the nineteenth, and no writer better personifies the French nineteenth century than Victor Hugo. His life span corresponds closely to the century's limits; for fully...

Victor Hugo, one of France's most prolific nineteenth-century authors, wrote novels, poems, and dramatic works. His career as a playwright began in 1816 and ended almost sixty years later. The dramas and prefaces that he wrote between 1826 and 1843...

Monarch Notes 01-01-1963 Life And Works Of Victor Hugo Victor Hugo was born in Besancon on February 26, 1802, and died in Paris on May 22, 1885. Thus he dominates French literature during the entire nineteenth century, and the period has been called "The...

ON MEMORIAL DAY a local landmark - Vincent McCaffrey and Thais Coburn's used bookstore Avenue Victor Hugo, on upper Newbury Street since 1975 - will be shuttered forever. Available free at the store's going-out-of-business sale (and at AvenueVictorHugo.com) are copies of "The Crepuscule: Twelve...

Today is Wednesday, June 13, the 164th day of 2007. There are 201 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On June 13, 1966, the Supreme Court issued its landmark Miranda v. Arizona decision, ruling that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional...

Today is Thursday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2007. There are 102 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Sept. 20, 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships on a voyage to find a western...

In the following essay, Denommé examines Hugo's poetic oeuvre, stating that it is representative of the development of French Romanticism. The critic concludes: "Hugo's poetry invites us to strip away the restrictions dictated to us by practical reason and experience in order to view the world more directly with our emotions."

In this excerpt from a review originally published in 1873, Dowden traces Hugo's development as a poet.

In the following excerpt, Brereton surveys Hugo's poetry, comparing his works to those of such other French poets as Charles Baudelaire and Alphonse de Lamartine.

An overview of the life of author, poet, playwright, husband and politician Victor Hugo. Examines his creative life, his private life and his politics.