Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26 1802–May 22 1885) was a French author, designer, and artist. He was possibly the most important of the Romantic authors in the French language. His major works include the novels Notre Dame de Paris and Les Misérables, and a large body of poetry.

Life and work

Hugo was born in Besançon, Doubs, in the region of Franche-Comté. He lived in exile during the reign of Napoleon III: in Jersey, 1852–1855, and in Guernsey from 1855 until his return to France in 1870.

Related Topics:
Besançon - Doubs - Region - Franche-Comté - Napoleon III - Jersey - 1852 - 1855 - Guernsey - France - 1870

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Although Hugo is better known to the English-speaking world as a novelist, many consider that it was as a poet that he broke new ground. The French poetic traditions were as well-established in his time as the English ones were before the time of the Romantic poets, and Hugo's contribution may be compared with that of William Wordsworth. He believed that the poet's purpose should be two-fold:

Related Topics:
English - Novel - Poet - Romantic poets - William Wordsworth

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• To echo universal sentiment by revealing his own feelings, uniting the voices of mankind, nature and history.
• To guide the reader: "faire flamboyer l'avenir" — to lead the way.

But what makes Hugo one of the greatest French poets lays less in the content of his works?it is quite usual to denounce the flimsiness of his thought and even his bêtise (foolishness)?than in their form. As André Gide wrote in his Anthologie de la poésie française he is "the greatest image assembler, the best manager of sonoritites, rhythms and symbolic evocation, and the most assured master of our syntax and the forms of our language in French Literature."

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Hugo was also a painter and a designer, and put together some very innovative decor in his homes, notably in St Peter Port. His paintings are said to anticipate impressionism and surrealism by many decades.

Related Topics:
St Peter Port - Impressionism - Surrealism

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In his epic, La Légende des Siècles, he attempts, by reference to historical events, to depict humanity's struggle to emerge from obscurity into enlightenment.

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The term 'United States of Europe' (États-Unis d?Europe), made famous in the 20th century by Winston Churchill and the European Union, was in fact first used by Victor Hugo, at the International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849 and during speeches at the French National Assembly, including those on September 4 1869 and March 1, 1871.

Related Topics:
United States of Europe - 20th century - Winston Churchill - European Union - International Peace Congress - French National Assembly - September 4 - 1869 - March 1 - 1871

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Hugo was the Honorary President and founder of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI) in 1878 in Paris which gave itself the objective of creating an international convention for the protection of literary and artistic properties which was achieved eight years later with the Berne Convention on September 9, 1886.

Related Topics:
Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale - 1878 - Paris - Berne Convention - September 9 - 1886

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Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. His life, and the spontaneous national mourning which followed, inspired the French government to reinvent the Panthéon in Paris as a temple in homage to the great men (and, eventually, women) of France. He is buried in its necropolis.

Related Topics:
Paris - May 22 - 1885 - Panthéon - Paris - Necropolis

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Hugo also became one of the three primary saints worshipped in the Vietnamese religion Cao Dai.

Related Topics:
Saint - Vietnam - Religion - Cao Dai

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