Victor Hugo - Poetry Volume 2: Rare poetry collection from the masterful author of Les Miserables and Hunchback Of Notre Dame among others, translated tnto English.

By Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo is best known most for his epic novels Les Miserables and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. However in his day he was equally famed for his Poetry of which he wrote many volumes. The masterful Hugo loses none of his insightful scope writing on a smaller scale. Indeed, the disciplines and structures of his craft are heightened and the works represent a bold triumph. Readers will be instantly captivated by his words and themes. Portable Poetry is an imprint of Deadtree Publishing bringing the quality selections of poetry from the worlds most accomplished writers to audiobooks and e-book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Aug 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780004631

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a French poet and novelist. Born in Besançon, Hugo was the son of a general who served in the Napoleonic army. Raised on the move, Hugo was taken with his family from one outpost to the next, eventually setting with his mother in Paris in 1803. In 1823, he published his first novel, launching a career that would earn him a reputation as a leading figure of French Romanticism. His Gothic novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) was a bestseller throughout Europe, inspiring the French government to restore the legendary cathedral to its former glory. During the reign of King Louis-Philippe, Hugo was elected to the National Assembly of the French Second Republic, where he spoke out against the death penalty and poverty while calling for public education and universal suffrage. Exiled during the rise of Napoleon III, Hugo lived in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870. During this time, he published his literary masterpiece Les Misérables (1862), a historical novel which has been adapted countless times for theater, film, and television. Towards the end of his life, he advocated for republicanism around Europe and across the globe, cementing his reputation as a defender of the people and earning a place at Paris’ Panthéon, where his remains were interred following his death from pneumonia. His final words, written on a note only days before his death, capture the depth of his belief in humanity: “To love is to act.”

Book preview

The Poetry Of Victor Hugo, Volume 2

Victor Hugo – A Short Biography

Victor Marie Hugo was born on February 26th 1802 and is revered as the greatest of all French writers.   A poet, novelist, dramatist and painter he was a passionate supporter of Republicanism and contributed to the politics of his Country.

Born in Bersancon his life was paralleled by the immense political and social movements of the 19th Century.   When he was 2 Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor but before he was 18 the Bourbon Monarchy was restored.  His father was a high ranking officer and travelled widely, hids mother after some years of this returned with the children to Paris so that stability and education could be more easily administered. She brought him up with devotion to both King and the Catholic faith.   This is reflected in his poetry and early works.

It was only with his Mother’s death that he felt confident enough to marry Adele in 1822, whom he had kept secret from his Mother.  Their first child Leopold was born the following year but died in infancy.  Leopoldine was born the following year followed by three more siblings.  

Hugo published his first novel the year following his marriage (Han d'Islande, 1823), and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry (Les Orientales, 1829; Les Feuilles d'automne, 1831; Les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; Les Voix intérieures, 1837; and Les Rayons et les ombres, 1840), solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.

After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was elected to the Académie française in 1841, cementing his position in the world of French arts and letters. A group of French academicians had managed to delay his election and thereafter he became increasingly involved in French politics.

Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 he entered the Higher Chamber as a pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland.

Hugo's favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843, shortly after her marriage.  She drowned in the Seine at Villequier on September 4th, weighted down by her heavy skirts after a boat overturned.  Her young husband also died trying to save her. The death left her father devastated but he was only to read about it in a newspaper article whilst travelling with his mistress.

In the years leading