16 Interesting Facts About Victor Hugo

Do you want to learn interesting and fun facts about Victor Hugo?

On February 26, 1802, Victor Marie Hugo came into the world. He was Joseph Leopold S. Hugo and Sophie Trebuchet’s third son. Abel and Eugene were his older brothers.

Victor Hugo is not only one of the most well-known French poets but also one of the most well-known authors of all time, thanks to his contributions to the timeless works Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Many stage and screen musicals are based on his works.

While Hugo was gifted in many areas, his ability to write novels, poetry, and plays helped make him famous. François-René de Chateaubriand greatly influenced his work, but Hugo also significantly contributed to Romantic Movement.

RELATED READ: Best Books Of Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo passed away on May 22, 1885, at the ripe old age of 83, from pneumonia-related complications.

Behind the poems, stories, and plays he had written, there are numerous interesting facts about Victor Hugo most people do not know about. Let’s find them out.

16 Interesting Facts About Victor Hugo

1. Victor Hugo was destined for greatness

Leopold and Sophie Hugo were at an altitude of 3,000 feet on Mount Donon in May of 1801 when the idea for their son’s conception came to them. Leopold was very fond of the idea that his son’s life would stand out from the crowd because of this fact.

A stone marker now stands at the spot where Victor Hugo’s conception took place.

2. Hugo stripped naked to overcome writer’s block

Hugo wanted to save Notre Dame but gave into the worst temptation for writers — procrastination. He had promised the novel’s completion to Gosselin, his publisher, in 1829.

Though Hugo had intended to finish The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the summer of 1830, he became sidetracked by other projects. He didn’t get around to it until February of the following year when Gosselin issued an ultimatum.

Probably one of the most interesting facts about Victor Hugo was the way he overcame his writer’s block.

To overcome writer’s block, he would request to be stripped naked and locked in a room. Victor Hugo would get his clothes back only after finishing his writing for the day.

3. Hugo’s book saved the cathedral of Notre Dame

The publication of The Hunchback of Notre Dame intended to draw attention to the deteriorating condition of the Parisian cathedral. Hugo saw the Notre Dame Cathedral as the novel’s protagonist. He additionally emphasized the significance of Gothic-style buildings.

4. Les Misérables is one of the longest books ever written

Victor Hugo used different characters’ points of view when he wrote Les Misérables, most notably Jean Valjean.

The story begins in 1815 and continues for another 17 years until 1832. Hugo worked on this novel for more than 15 years.

There are 365 chapters spread across 1,400 pages (the French version contains 1,900) in this massive five-volume novel. It’s hailed as one of the longest books ever written.

5. Les Misérables was better accepted outside France

Many people in France disliked Les Misérables because of how Victor Hugo portrayed the revolutionaries. The Catholic Church itself issued a ban on the book.

The book met with lukewarm enthusiasm in France, but Hugo’s masterpiece has earned praise in other countries.

6. Hugo was a pillar of the Romantic Movement in France

Hugo’s writing was influential in shaping the Romantic era. He was not the first French artist to employ this style, but the emphasis he placed on emotions and individualism has become a standard for many. Some consider the preface to his play Cromwell to be the manifesto of the French Romantic Movement.

7. Victor Hugo was against the guillotine

Victor Hugo didn’t just write, but he was also into politics. He cared deeply about ending capital punishment and bettering the lives of the poor. Hugo thought it was always brutal and cruel, no matter the circumstances.

He campaigned on a platform that would see the end of the death penalty if he got to the National Assembly.

In addition, he wrote and published the short novel Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man in English), which focused on the final day of a man sentenced to death by guillotine.

8. Hugo’s mother disapproved of his wife

Hugo’s early writing closely reflected his mother’s political and religious beliefs, and he kept a close relationship with her throughout his life.

However, his deep bond with his mother hindered his feelings for Adele Foucher, his future wife whom he had known since childhood.

Sophie Hugo disapproved of Adele, so the couple didn’t get married until 1822 – a full year after Sophie’s death.

9. Hugo was a womanizer

Extremely smitten, Hugo once bragged that he and Adele had nine sex encounters on their wedding night.

Hugo slept with hundreds of women after his wife refused to have any more children several years into their marriage. And if you think that old age slowed him down, you got it wrong.

Hugo had many casual affairs, but at least two were mistresses. Because of his profession, Hugo kept a secret diary in which he detailed his many affairs and sexual encounters with code names and other ciphers.

10. Hugo went on a self-imposed exile

In 1851, Napoleon III assumed absolute power in France. Hugo went into a self-imposed exile to protest the coup d’état in France.

In the years following his time in Brussels, he settled on the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, where he remained until Napoleon III’s overthrow in 1870 and returned home after that.

11. Victor Hugo is given the status of a saint

Cao Dai, a Vietnamese religion with over 5 million believers, has its spiritual epicenter in a temple outside the Ho Chi Minh City. Victor Hugo, Thomas Jefferson, and Joan of Arc were all said to have communicated with the group during séances, elevating them to the status of saints.

12. Hugo was never poor

Victor Hugo never experienced poverty firsthand. Hugo believed so strongly in his worth as a writer that he demanded his publisher pay him more than anyone else had for a book when negotiating the sale of Les Misérables.

According to rumors, he was paid 300,000 francs for his work – the largest sum ever paid for a literary work.

13. Hugo was not modest

Victor Hugo was not the most modest of authors, which is not surprising considering that the street he lived on bore his name while he was still alive while he was still living there.

Hugo would spend his time at dinner parties bragging to his guests about how much better he was than every other French author. He would do this by giving fans pebbles he had stepped on as a memento of their time with him.

14. Hugo’s darkest days

An onslaught of violent tragedies marked Hugo’s final years. His sons passed away, and Adele, his wife, was sent to the asylum. In addition, he had a minor stroke and lost his longtime mistress Juliette Drouet in 1883, only two years before he passed away.

Hugo, however, retained all his vigor and a sense of purpose despite all.

15. He was discouraged from going to his mistress’ funeral

After Juliette Drouet passed away, Hugo wanted to pay his respects at her funeral. However, his surviving relatives discouraged him from doing so out of concern for the scandal it might cause, for she was his mistress.

16. Hugo wanted a pauper’s funeral

Hugo’s tragic consequences stemmed from his growing antipathy toward institutionalized religion. Hugo did not want a priest or crucifix at the funerals of his sons Charles and Francois-Victor.

Instead of a religious blessing as he neared death, he insisted on a pauper’s funeral. Despite his wishes, however, he was granted a state funeral and attended by over two million people.