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| Birth Name(s) : Victor Hugo |
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Full Victor Hugo Biography
Victor-Marie Hugo (IPA: /vik'tɔʁ ma'ʁi y'go/) (26 February 1802 — 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France.
Though extremely conservative in his youth, Hugo moved to the political left as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time.
The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses) was published in 1824, when Hugo was only twenty two years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed two years later in 1826 (Odes et Ballades) that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.
Hugo did not achieve such quick success with his works for the stage. In 1827, he published the never-staged verse drama Cromwell, which became more famous for the author's project than its own worth (the play's unwieldy length was considered "unfit for acting"). In his introduction to the work, Hugo urged his fellow artists to free themselves from the restrictions imposed by the French classical style of theatre, and thus sparked a fierce debate between French Classicism and Romanticism that would rage for many years. Cromwell was followed in 1828 by the disastrous Amy Robsart, an experimental play from his youth based on the Walter Scott novel Kenilworth, which was produced under the name of his brother-in-law Paul Foucher and managed to survive only one performance before a less-than-appreciative audience.
The first play of Hugo's to be accepted for production under his own name was Marion de Lorme. Though initially banned by the censors for its unflattering portrayal of the French monarchy, it was eventually allowed to premiere uncensored in 1829, but without success. However, the play that Hugo produced the following year — Hernani — would prove to be one of the most successful and groundbreaking events of nineteenth-century French theatre, the opening night of which became known as the "The Battle of Hernani". Today the work is largely forgotten, except as the basis for the Verdi opera Ernani. However, at the time, performances of the work sparked near-riots between opposing camps of French letters and society: Romantics vs. Classicists, Liberals vs. Conformists, and Republicans vs. Royalists. The play was largely condemned by the press, but played to full houses night after night, and all but crowned Hugo as the preeminent leader of French Romanticism. It also signalled that Hugo's concept of Romanticism was growing increasingly politicized: Hugo believed that just as Liberalism in politics would free the country from the tyranny of monarchy and dictatorship, Romanticism would liberate the arts from the constraints of Classicism.Actress Juliette Drouet, Hugo's mistress
Hugo’s Angelo premiered in 1835, to great success. Soon after, the Duke of Orleans (son of King Louis-Philippe, and an admirer of Hugo’s work) founded a new theatre to support new plays. Théâtre de la Renaissance opened in November 1838, with the premiere of Ruy Blas. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, at the time it met with only average success; in 1947 Jean Cocteau adapted it for cinema, with Jean Marais in the title role. Hugo did not produce another play until 1843. The Burgraves played for only 33 nights, losing audiences to a competing drama, and it would be his last work written for the theatre. Though he would later write the short verse drama Torquemada in 1869, it was not published until a few years before his death in 1882, and was never intended for the stage. However, Hugo's interest in the theatre continued, and in 1864, he published a well-received essay on William Shakespeare, whose style he tried to emulate in his own dramas.
Hugo turned away from social/political issues in his next novel, Les Travailleurs de la Mer (Toilers of the Sea), published in 1866. Nonetheless, the book was well received, perhaps due to the previous success of Les Misérables. Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey where he spent 15 years of exile, Hugo’s depiction of Man’s battle with the sea and the horrible creatures lurking beneath its depths spawned an unusual fad in Paris: Squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisiennes became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures, which at the time were still considered by many to be mythical. The Guernsey word used in the book has also been used to refer to the octopus.
Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he evolved into a non-practicing Catholic, and expressed increasingly violent anti-papist and anti-clerical views. He dabbled in Spiritualism during his exile, and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. When a census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, he replied, "No. A Freethinker".Hugo during his "spiritualist" period in Guernsey (1855) |
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