HUGO, VICTOR MARIE,-Vicomte, one of the most distinguished French writers of the present day, was b. Feb. 26, 1802, at Besarcon, where his father was then commandant of the garrison. His mother was a native of La Vendee. and from her he imbibed romantic royalist sentiments, although his father was a most devoted follower of Napo leon. His youth was spent partly with his mother in Paris, partly in Italy and Spain, where his father held high appointments. He early acquired distinction by his poetic effusions; and before he was 30 years of age his published works were numerous, and in his name famous. Odes and ballads, roaneefi,drarnas, etc., flowed from his prolific pen. Shortly before the revolution of 1830a revolution took place, at the 11(4 of which was lingo. A band of young men, imaginative, ardent, and confident, sought to renovate literature, by departing from classic rules and models, substituting a varied and very irregular verse for the monotonous Alexandrines of the old school, and making art precisely conform to nature, which they carried so far as even to bring into prominence things disagreeable,which nature herself is displeased with, and teaches us to keep out of sight. The new school, la jeune France, as they called themselves, formed the Romanticists, and their opponents, the Classicists.' The literary war lasted several years. Hugo's drama of Marion Delorme was received with enthusiasm; and he added to his reputation by the publication of Fenilrei d' A tomn e. In 1832 the ministry suspended one of his dramas, Le Roi s'amuse; but his popularity continued to increase, and in 1837 Louis Philippe made him an officer of the Legion of Honor. and in 1845 it peer of France. After the revolution of 1848 he was elected to represent Paris, both in
the constituent and in the legislative assembly, in which he manifest «1 democratic prin ciples. and was one of the members of the extreme left who were banished from France for life by Louis Napoleon. He went to reside in the island of Jersey. In 1852 he assailed the ruler of France in a political pamphlet, _Napoleon le Petit; and next year, in Les Claitiments, a series of poems written with great verve, in the same spirit. In 1850 he published his Contemplations. He refused to avail himself of the amnesty of Aug. 15, 1859; but on the fall of the empire, hastened back to his native country, joined in the republican movement, and was returned to the national assembly at Bor deaux, which, however, he soon quitted in disgust. Ile then went to Brussels, but the Belgian government expelled him from the country, and he had to seek refuge in Vian• den. a village of where L'Annee Terrible was Composed. Returning to Paris in July, 1871, he pleaded earnestly, but without effect, for the lives of the Com munists. Hugo has given an account of his life in Ades et Paroles, 1870-72. In 1862 appeared Les Miserables; in 1809, L'Homme gut Rit; Quatrevingt-treize in 1874; his Speeches in 1875; the Legende des Slides, 1877; L'Histoire d'un Crime, 1878; and Le Pape, a poem, 1878. Hugo's writings are often extravagant both in form and substance. and sometimes marred by an affected triviality of images and harshness of versification. Yet they have also great excellences; the command of language shown is wonderful; and as a lyric poet Hugo has, perhaps, never been equaled in France.