Victor Hugo biography
Victor Marie Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, to mother Sophie Trébuche and father Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo, who later served as a general in Napoleon's army. Victor Hugo studied the law before poetry lured him away. While his first publications were mostly verse, his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) was a huge success. In 1862, Hugo published Les Misérables, considered one of the greatest works of the 19th century.