Victor Hugo's Birthday
Next: February 26, 2027
Words for common joys and sorrows.
The story
Where it comes from
Victor Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on 26 February 1802, and this Story marks his birthday. He became the most important of the French Romantic writers: a poet, playwright and novelist whose output was enormous. In France he is honoured above all as a poet, but readers abroad know him for two novels, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and Les Misérables (1862). He is remembered as a writer of the people, who wrote with simplicity and power about everyday joys and sorrows.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but readers, teachers and theatre lovers mark the day in their own way. Read a chapter of Les Misérables, listen to a song from one of the many stage and screen versions of his stories, or copy out a few lines of his poetry for a friend. It is also a good day to start a book that has been waiting on the shelf.
Did you know
- Hugo wrote 100 lines of verse or 20 pages of prose each morning.
- His banned play Le Roi s'amuse later became the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto.
- Memories of his own life as a poor student inspired the character of Marius in Les Misérables.
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