A royalist under the Bourbons, an Orléanist under the July Monarchy, and a bourgeois republican under the Second Empire, he witnessed and exploited two monarchies, two republics, two revolutions, two empires, and the civil combat of the Commune all to his advantage. Poet, novelist, playwright, and critic, he was one of the titans in the vanguard of French romanticism. Eighty-three years old at his death, he is frequently considered the single greatest figure of nineteenth-century France: his life not only coincided with but also actively influenced the long passage from the ancien régime to the democratic republicanism of contemporary France. As Nestor observed, "No genius was more vast, bringing together . . . reverie and reality, art and science. . . . Our hopes, our passions, all has been encapsulated by Victor Hugo: we have made an altar of his tomb, and the man . . . has become a symbol."
Victor-Marie Hugo was born 26 February 1802 in Besançon, the third son of Joseph Hugo, an adjutant major under the Consulate, and of Sophie Trébuchet, daughter of royalist sympathizers from the Vendée. The couple lived an unsettled life, moving from garrison to garrison, even after the births of three sons.
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