Victor Hugo
Complete Edition

A MASTERLY BIOGRAPHY

Victor Hugo is a great, immense writer. The entire world knows him. But what do we know of the man, the spouse, the lover? And firstly of the child, torn between his father the soldier and his mother in Vendee, who tore each other apart to gain custody of their three children.

At twelve years of age Victor wrote his first poems, at fourteen he wants « to be Chateaubriand or nothing », at eighteen he had already been celebrated by the Académie Française and his political outrage had already begun to foretell his future!

He will take part in all combats, condemning the misery of the people, fighting against the death penalty, against injustice, visiting jails, penal colonies… During the coup d’état of December 2, 1851 he climbs up on the barricades. Threatened with death, he has to flee, initially to Belgium and then to Jersey and Guernsey, where he puts his family life back together with, at his side, his faithful mistress Juliette who tirelessly recopies his manuscripts.

Year after year, Victor Hugo unravels the intimate life of the poet & writer, so closely linked to the life of France, with considerable extracts from a work that will become eminent.

A FASCINATING PORTRAIT OF VICTOR HUGO.
ALONG WITH NAPOLEON, DE GAULLE AND FRENCH REVOLUTION,
VICTOR HUGO IS ONE OF THE MAJOR WORKS BY MAX GALLO.

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Max Gallo has always been at the forefront of his career as a novelist, essay writer and historian. With a degree in History, a PhD in Literature, and having taught for a long time, he is the author of many novels and biographies. He became a member of the Académie Française in 2007. Among his publications with XO are: the series on the 2ww, as well as the biographies of Victor Hugo, Julius Caesar and Louis XIV which have been hugely successful.

Sadly Max Gallo left us on the 18th July 2017. “Max will remain the great writer of the French History. He depicted the great moments in French History and above all the men who made it. He had a passion for writing. Max passed away, but he left us a monumental work that will revive him every time a reader will turn the pages of one of his great books.”