He
wrote such works as Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, and a whole lot of poetry.
Born
in France on this day in 1802, Victor Hugo grew up at a time when
France was in a fair amount of chaos: Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor
when he was a toddler, and his father was a high-ranking officer in
Napoleon's army. However, Hugo's mom was a Royalist who apparently
hung out with people who tried to oust Napoleon! When Hugo was a
teen, a Bourbon was crowned king once again. Years later Napoleon III
took over as ruler of France in a coup d'etat.
(Napoleon II, son of the Napoleon, never actually ruled
France.) At that point, Hugo exiled himself to Belgium and the
Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. He only left Guernsey when
Napoleon III was kicked out of power.
In
addition to being one of the most famous authors in history, Victor
Hugo is listed as being a visual artist, statesman, human rights
activist, and promoter of the Romantic movement—the revolt of
artists and writers against aristocratic ways and also, to some
extent at least, against the scientific viewpoint of nature.
Read
some of Hugo's words:- “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.”
- “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
- “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.”
- “Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
Celebrate
Hugo!
- KidsFreeSouls offers a short Hugo biography and online versions of his works.
- One of Hugo's most famous books is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Watch the Disney movie...or enjoy these coloring pages from the movie.
Also
on this date:
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