Victor Hugo: The French Poet

...and a bitter opponent of Napoleon III.

Photo of Victor Hugo, by Étienne Carjat (1876)

My book—called “Napoleon: The Revolutionary Hero”—is available now on Amazon.

Les Miserables. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You’ve heard all the stories—whether or not you realize it.

The man who wrote them is none other than Victor Hugo, France’s most famous poet. 

Victor Hugo’s story intersects with that of Napoleon Bonaparte in several interesting ways. His father actually served in Napoleon’s army. Like the great Bonaparte, Victor Hugo was an ardent champion of the French Revolution’s ideals about liberty, equality, and social progress. 

Here’s the biography of France’s most gifted and charismatic novelist. 

Republican Parents

Victor was born in 1802, at a place in eastern France called Besançon. 

His father, Leopold Hugo, was a military general in Napoleon’s Grand Army. Politically, the elder Hugo was an enthusiastic republican. Defending the French Revolutionary government, he was sent to crush a royalist and clerical uprising in 1795. On duty, he met a beautiful dark-eyed woman named Sophie Trébuchet. 

Sophie grew up as an orphan. Raised by her aunt, the young girl was schooled in the Enlightenment liberal and anti-church ideas of Voltaire, rather than the Bible. She and Leopold got married in a secular ceremony, without a priest. Sophie had an affair with General Victor Lahore, who was later executed by firing squad after an attempted coup d’état against Napoleon in October 1812. 

Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother and the King of Spain, was protected by General Hugo. While his father was stationed in Madrid, young Victor was captivated by his foreign Spanish surroundings. After Napoleon’s downfall in 1814, the elder Hugo continued to defend the Spanish city of Thionville against the European Allies. 

The Poet

Gifted from an early age, the 15-year-old Victor Hugo first became famous for submitting a poem to the French Academy. 

He published his first collection of poems, called the Odes, in 1822. It sold 1,500 copies in just four months, earning Hugo 750 francs—equal to two year’s worth of rent. 

Victor married his girlfriend, Adèle Foucher. Not long after, he published his first novel: Hans of Iceland. So popular was it, the book would be eventually translated into English 23 times! 

In 1831, Victor Hugo published his Gothic masterpiece The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Written in the Romantic style, its characters immediately captured the popular imagination (and still does today). Unlike many previous novels, the story took place in a contemporary setting, and directly addressed the social inequalities within French society. It solidified Victor Hugo as a poet for the masses, a man whose sympathy lay with the ordinary people. 

The Lover

Although deeply in love with Adèle, Victor had a fifty-year affair with a mistress named Juliette Drouet. She inspired the character Princess Negroni from one of his plays. A faithful woman, she wrote him two love letters every day. Victor never publicly acknowledged the affair, but everybody in France—including his wife—knew about its existence. 

Hugo had another mistress, a woman named Léonie d’Aunet. Well-educated and fair-haired, it was love at first sight for our French poet! Their romance began not long after the birth of Victor’s beloved daughter Leopoldine. 

Victor’s love for Léonie lasted for over seven years. But when the affair leaked in 1845, it threatened Victor’s political ambitions. As a male, Victor got spared the stigma. But his beloved muse wasn’t so lucky! The poor girl was jailed for two months, and spent another six in a convent. Years after their separation, the French Romantic loyally provided money to his lover. 

The Second French Revolution

Victor Hugo entered politics in the 1840s, a tumultuous time in France’s national history. The country was still under the thumb of an unpopular monarchy, a man named King Louis Philippe. Hugo was very popular in France, and he was able to exert influence on the French King. 

But first, let’s review some of France’s political events leading up to this time.

The French Revolution overthrew King Louis XVI. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804. After a series of wars against the rest of Europe, the grand Bonaparte was forced to abdicate the throne in 1815. The infant Louis XVII died in prison. So King Louis XVIII, the brother of executed King Louis XVI, became the new constitutional king. When King Louis XVIII died in 1824, his brother Charles X became the new King of France. But the July Revolution forced Charles to abdicate the throne. The new leader became King Louis Philippe, the former Duke of Orleans. 

Napoleon’s Nemesis

Fast forward to 1848: a Second French Revolution overthrew the monarchy once again. King Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate. Napoleon’s nephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, was elected as the president of the Second French Republic. He declared himself Emperor, taking the name Napoleon III, in 1852. 

Victor Hugo was always the champion of the everyday people. But because he rejected the use of violence to achieve political goals, Hugo often found himself on the wrong side of the French mob. Despite this, the French novelist used his national fame to exert influence over the country’s leaders, pressuring them to address the needs of everyday citizens. 

Because of his strong opposition to Napoleon III, Victor Hugo was banned from France in 1855. While in exile, the popular poet wrote scathingly criticisms of the French Emperor, including Napoleon The Little and History of A Crime. In the former work, the great French poet mocked Napoleon III as the “Little Napoleon” (Napoleon Le Petit), in contrast to his beloved uncle, the “Great Napoleon” (Napoleon Le Grand). 

Prussian Blunder

Still under the rule of Napoleon III, the French Empire went to war against Prussia in 1870. But the war turned into a disaster for France! The Prussians crushed the French Army, and even captured their Emperor. Unlike his famous uncle, Napoleon III was nothing to brag about on the battlefield! 

The Prussians poured into Paris, imposing a brutal siege. Starvation and death set in. With Napoleon gone, Hugo made his triumphant return after several years of exile. Horrified by the siege he found, the French poet frantically organized relief for the city’s poor people. 

An armistice was signed in 1871, and France set up a new National Assembly. The ever-popular Hugo was elected as one of its members. 

With many French cities burned to the ground, a new government seized power: the Paris Commune. An almost communist regime, the Commune was brutally suppressed by the National Assembly. Hugo vocally condemned the brutal violence on both sides. When he urged the French government to forgive the Communards, Hugo was denounced in the streets as a traitor. 

Legacy

In his final years, Hugo continued to be politically active, although those in power didn’t listen to his socially conscious demands. While his politics were laid aside, Hugo’s plays enjoyed a surge in popularity. 

Hugo died in 1885, at the age of 83. A national hero, he was given a state funeral in the Panthéon of Paris, which was attended by over two million people—the largest in France’s history! 

Today, the great Victor Hugo lives on as one of France’s most widely beloved writers.