In this blog post, we’ll examine the life and major works of the great French author Victor Hugo and explore how his literary world was shaped by his life experiences and the historical context of his time.
How did his dream of becoming a writer begin?
Victor Hugo, the great French literary figure—a novelist, poet, and playwright—was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. His father, Captain Léopold Hugo, a native of Nancy, became a general under Napoleon in 1809. His mother, Sophie Trébuchet, took a cautious approach to all matters—from politics to her children’s education—but she was constantly at odds with her husband. This domestic discord inevitably had a significant impact on Hugo’s character, casting a shadow over his personality. During his childhood, Hugo often stayed in places such as Italy and Spain, where his father’s army was stationed, but in 1809, he settled in Foix with his mother. There, dreaming of becoming a poet, he discovered the beauty of nature. Around the age of 11, he moved to Paris with his mother, who had finally separated from his father. Under the guidance of his mother, who was very liberal regarding his education, he grew up cultivating a free spirit and a vivid imagination. Because he was often on his own, he was able to read extensively; in particular, he greatly admired Chateaubriand, a leading writer of the time. From the age of 15, he devoted himself to poetry and mathematics, and at his family’s urging, he prepared to enter the École Polytechnique in Paris. Meanwhile, he participated in the “Jeux Floraux” literary competition held in Toulouse, winning prizes twice. As he gradually devoted himself to literature and realized that his calling lay in writing, he decided against attending university. At that time, Hugo wrote the following in his secret notebook: “Become like Chateaubriand. Or be nothing.”
Hugo lost his mother the year he turned 19, and his father remarried that same year. In 1822, he finally published his first collection of poems, ‘Les Odes’, along with several poems that would later form the basis of ‘Les Odes et Ballades’ (1826). That same year, he married Adèle Foucher; two years later, in 1824, they had their first daughter, Léopoldine, and in 1826, their first son, Charles. His “Preface to Cromwell” (La Préface de Cromwell), published in 1827, became the most famous Romantic manifesto, so much so that Théophile Gautier later recalled, “It shone before us like the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.” In this essay, he attacked the “rule of the three unities”—considered the cornerstone of classical theater—and it later served as the foundation for the play ‘Hernani’ (1830), which secured a decisive victory for the Romantics over the Classicists. His father died in 1828, and his second son, François Victor, was born that same year. The following year, he published the verse play ‘Marion de Lorme’, but it was banned by the censors. The play was unbaned following the Revolution of 1830 and became a great theatrical success. ‘Les Orientales’ (1829) reflects his painterly tendencies as well as his thoughts on art. On January 15, 1831, Hugo completed his novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’. Meanwhile, he published a series of romantic lyric poetry collections in succession: ‘Songs of Twilight’ (‘Chants du crépuscule’) (1835), ‘Inner Voices’ (‘Voix intérieures’) (1837), ‘Les Rayons et les ombres’ (1840); these collections contain poems based on themes such as childhood memories, the image of Emperor Napoleon, romance and love, compassion, and nature. In 1841, at the age of 39, he was elected a member of the Académie Française. Just as he was enjoying literary glory, an event occurred that shook his life to its core: his eldest daughter, Léopoldine, drowned along with her husband in the lower reaches of the Seine River in Paris. In 1843, while traveling through the Pyrenees, Hugo happened to come across the news while leafing through a newspaper in a café.
How did exile and political life influence his literature?
Afterward, Hugo stopped writing poetry for a considerable period, and his life entered a political phase. In 1848, he was appointed interim mayor of Paris’s 8th arrondissement. Although he initially supported Louis Napoleon’s presidential candidacy, by 1851 he opposed his policies and, after resisting the coup d’état, went into exile in Belgium. The following year, he was officially expelled from France and was not able to return home until the restoration of the Republic in 1870. During his exile, he published poetry collections such as ‘Les Châtiments’ (1853), ‘Les Contemplations’ (1856), and ‘La Légende des Siècles’ (1859), as well as the novel ‘Les Misérables’ (1862). The satirical poetry collection ‘Les Châtiments’ reveals his indignation at life in exile and his criticism of Napoleon III, while in ‘Les Contemplations’, his tender memories, love, and sorrow for his deceased daughter Léopoldine are expanded to encompass the entirety of human life. In 1859, Napoleon III granted amnesty to those who had been exiled, but Hugo refused to accept it. After publishing his epic series ‘Legends of the Century’ in three installments (1859, 1877, 1883), Hugo completed ‘Les Misérables’ in 1861 at Mont-Saint-Jean, near Waterloo, and left the Channel Islands for the first time since 1852. He actually began writing ‘Les Misérables’ in 1845, suspended work in 1848, resumed writing in 1860, completed it in 1861, and published it in 1862. He was widowed at the age of 66, and two years later, in 1870, he returned to Paris, ending his long exile. The following year, he was elected to the National Assembly as a representative from Paris but resigned during the session. Around the same time, his son Charles died. In 1872, his second daughter, Adèle, was admitted to a mental hospital, and the following year, his second son also died. However, in 1876, he was elected to the Senate by the Paris electoral college. The first issue he addressed as a senator was the amnesty for members of the Paris Commune. He voted in support of the Left, and from that point on, his political views began to be expressed through the magazine ‘Le Rappel’, which had been founded during the late Empire. Hugo’s exile actually began after the coup d’état on December 2, 1851, and lasted for about 18 years until 1870; he spent a significant portion of that time on the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
How is Victor Hugo remembered as a writer?
On May 22, 1885, Victor Hugo died of pulmonary congestion “in the season when the roses are in full bloom,” just as he himself had prophesied 15 years earlier. He was 83 years old at the time—the same age at which Goethe had died. His funeral was the largest in France since Mirabeau’s, and his remains were interred in the Panthéon.
In South Korea, Hugo is commonly known as the novelist who wrote ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’. However, in the history of French literature, he is also described as a representative poet of that era who heralded the triumph of the Romantic literary movement by publishing a collection of lyric poems such as ‘Odes’ in 1822—during the movement’s early stages—and by writing ‘The Preface to Cromwell’ in 1827, the most famous Romantic manifesto. In any case, his literary world is so vast and profound—both in terms of themes and the sheer number of works—that even specialists find it quite difficult to provide a consistent overview of his entire body of work. As stated in the preface, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ is also a book that everyone knows of but few have actually read. Therefore, although this translation may fall short in fully capturing the subtleties of the original work, I am publishing it in the hope that it will serve as a small contribution to understanding Hugo’s literary world. Finally, I sincerely hope that another of Hugo’s works will be introduced, accompanied by a more polished translation.
