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Victor Hugo was born in 1802 in France; he had two brothers and their father was a general for Napoleon. By the age of 13, Hugo was writing poetry and some of his earliest poems received mentions from the Academie Francaise.

Although he studied law, Hugo never practiced law, turning to literature instead. Hugo was the founder of Conservateur Litteraire, a journal in which Hugo published his friend’s poetry as well as his own. 1821 was a good year for Hugo, it was the year in which he married Adele Foucher, his sweetheart from his childhood and it was the year his first book of poetry was published. 1823 was the year in which his first novel was published and he published several plays after that. Hugo was well established as a Romantic writer by this time. With the recent theatrical release of Les Miserable, starring Anne Hathaway, Victor Hugo was reintroduced to a completely new audience. Although Les Miserable has been a long-running successful stage play, adapted from Victor Hugo’s epic and lengthy novel, the movie brought Hugo’s epic and often heart wrenching novel to life on the big screen. However before he wrote Les Miserables, he penned what would be another masterpiece, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.Although known mostly for his poetry in France, it is Hugo’s two novels that brought him fame in the United States and Britain.

5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is actually political

Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, published in 1831, was actually written with political motivation. Hugo wrote the novel to criticize society; in the novel, society in general shuns Quasimodo, simply because of his looks. Quasimodo was not just shunned, he was degraded, although the book was well received, many missed the fact that Hugo had written the book to be a reflection of how harsh society is and how he viewed it. This novel was the first of his books that had a political theme to it and it was not the last; Hugo wrote several other political writings after this.

4. He was Humble

Prior to his death, Hugo had made it clear that he desired to be buried in a pauper’s coffin after his death, despite being one of France’s beloved authors. In 1885, Victor Hugo died, and per his desired, he was buried in a pauper’s coffin. However, the French government voted to give him a National Funeral and Hugo’s coffin lay in state while the nation honored him.

3. The Nation Mourned his Death

When he was buried, although it was in a pauper’s coffin, he was buried in the Pantheon, as a national hero, after lying in state under the Arc de Triomphe overnight. Hugo’s funeral procession included roughly 2 million French citizens, who followed behind the official procession, wanting to pay their respects to the author. His funeral procession took six hours due to all of the people.

2. Les Miserables Facts was adapted as a musical

Les Miserables was adapted as a musical in 1985 and opened on October 8th in London at the Barbican Centre. The musical has found long running success and the emblem for the music is young Cosette, using Emile Bayard’s illustration of Cosette as a child. Les Miserables is the longest running musical on West End. Les Miserables has won Tony’s including Best Book of a Musical, since the musical is based on the book. Les Miserables has been performed in 21 languages in at least 42 countries. Hugo began writing Les Miserables in the 1830s but it was such an involved and sweeping novel that it was not finished until 1862, when it was finally published. Les Miserables is considered to be one of the longest novels published. The book itself is broken down into five segments and upon its publication; it was a huge success in both the United States and Europe.

1. Victor Hugo lived in Exile

After a military coup that occurred in 1851, Hugo chose to live in exile in Brussels and then in Britain. Hugo did not return to France until 1870. Hugo’s published works during those years were politically charged with social criticism and heavy sarcasm. Hugo’s return to France was celebrated but he found much tragedy in the three years following his return, namely the death of two sons and his writing after his return was darker, with frequent themes of death, Satan and God. Victor Hugo is, to this day, a celebrated author and considered one of France’s literature giants. A brilliant writer, from his poetry to his novels, to his political satires, Victor Hugo is truly one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. His novels continue to inspire and transport readers to the worlds that he has created. Both of his books have been turned into various movies, and one has been a long running musical. Disney introduced a whole new generation to his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the newest movie based on Les Miserables put Victor Hugo’s epic novel back on the reading list of many.

Final Conclusion:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published in 1831 and remains a much beloved novel. By 1840, Hugo was one of the most celebrated French writers and was elected to the French Academy but he took a break from writing in 1843 after the drowning death of his daughter and her husband.

http://www.elistfive.com/top-5-interesting-facts-victor-hugo/

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Philadelphia Special: Last year, a school librarian was looking through family artifacts when she stumbled upon the first ransom note in American history.

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This article is about the spirit cabinet illusion. However, there would be no spirit cabinet without The Fox Sisters. Margaret and Kate Fox were two young girls living in Hydesville, NY with their parents. In 1848, the two sisters demonstrated that they could communicate with ghostly spirits by having strange rapping sounds manifest in their presence. Their abilities gave birth to a phenomenon/movement that would be known as Spiritualism.

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In 1848, Almond Fisk patented a metal coffin he believed would revolutionize death. One problem: some people thought the burial case with its human contours was creepy as hell.