Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Victor Hugo was a French Romantic novelist, dramatist, poet, and political activist. He was an advocate of human rights and sponsored several social and political causes. An ardent republican, Hugo became extremely active in politics following the French Revolution of 1848 and vehemently protested against the overthrow of the French Second Republic by Napoleon III . Remaining critical of the Second Empire, Hugo went into voluntary exile in protest. Hugo's work as a political writer, activist, and politician influenced the French government and the establishment of the Third Republic. Hugo was born in February 1802 in Besançon to Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet. In 1803, Hugo's parents separated and he was raised mostly by his mother in Paris. Although Hugo came to support republican views, his childhood was influenced by the beliefs of his parents. Hugo's father was a Napoleonic general loyal to the emperor, while his mother was a royalist in favor of the Bourbons. While living in Paris with his mother, Hugo had a Catholic, royalist education and thought such beliefs just. As he grew older, however, and with the onset of the French Revolution and Napoleon I's power, Hugo rejected the ideals of his youth, shifting toward republicanism and the left. Hugo had a prominent literary career and was accepted into the Académie française (French Academy) in 1841. He ... log in or subscribe to read full text