Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon). Victor Hugo. c. 1870. Woodburytype. 14 1/8 × 10 1/16" (35.8 × 25.6 cm). Gift of Ralph Culpepper. 1483.1968. Photography

Posts about Charles Marville written by Dr Marcus Bunyan

Victor Hugo was one of the best-known French authors of all time. Learn about his role in literary history and his great works.

Victor Hugo was perhaps the most famous French writer of his day. Unknown to his legions of fans, however, was an accomplished artist whose innovative use of pen and ink went on to intrigue the art world long after his death. A new exhibit at the Hammer examines this little-known legacy.

Plus, 3 strategies to help you start beating procrastination now.

In general, full-blown Romanticism in France developed later than in Germany or Britain, with a particular flavour that comes from the impact on French writers’ sensibilities of revolutionary turmoil and the Napoleonic odyssey. Acutely conscious of being products of a very particular time and place, French writers wrote into their work their obsession with the burden of history and their subjection to time and change. The terms mal du siècle and enfant du siècle (literally “child of the…