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Victor Hugo Research Paper

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Victor Hugo and French Politics

Victor Hugo grew up in the vast political landscape of post-Revolutionary France. Generally considered one of the greatest French writers in history, he wrote novels, poetry, short stories and plays throughout his life. His works heavily influenced the French Romantic movement, being some of the first works of poetry and novels that emerged in France. Hugo’s involvement in politics had some of the strongest influences on both his writing and his personal life; towards the middle of his life, he became heavily involved in politics, even to the extent of putting a hiatus on his writing to focus on his political career. In the peak of his literary career, Hugo incorporated politics into many of his fictional works, …show more content…

In 1848 he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly and Legislative Assembly, initially with the conservatives. However, he broke with them after giving a speech on the abolition of poverty in France. He supported the freedom of the press, universal suffrage, free education for all children, abolishment of the death penalty, as well as liberty for all. Many of his works involved political discussion; Claude Gueux was a short story and essay about the downfalls of France’s prison system. Les Misérables was perhaps the most significant of his political works; in the novel, he included essays with his thoughts on France’s various revolutions and institutions, as well as letting some of his political views show through characters like Jean Valjean and …show more content…

He initially went to Brussels before travelling to Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel and off the coast of Normandy. He remained there in exile for nineteen years, until the fall of Napoleon III in 1870. Even when Napoleon III offered amnesty to all exiles, Hugo declined the offer, as it meant he was unable to criticize the Napoleonic regime. (State Library Victoria) While in exile, he continued to publish anti-Napoleon III works, such as Napoleon le Petit and Histoire d’un crime. Hugo also published three poetry collections and three novels, The Man Who Laughs and The Toilers of the Sea but by far his most famous work written and published during his exile was Les Misérables, which was published in 1862. (Houston, 1988) He had begun to entertain ideas of writing about poverty and misery in France since the early 1830s, soon after Hugo witnessed the June Rebellion of 1832. Yet it took another thirty years for him to write the novel and publish it. It was published in five parts in France before being translated into several languages and sent around the world. While the novel was scorned by critics, the masses whom consumed the novel found it incredibly popular. One of the shortest messages before the digital age was between Hugo and his publisher, with Hugo writing to ask about the success of Les Misérables

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