Victor-Marie Hugo was born on 26 February 1802 in Besançon in Eastern France. A writer whose productivity spanned more than 60 years, he is best known for his novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame published in 1831 and Les Misérables, published 31 years later. The latter became a classic that shone a light on social injustice in France and inspired authors such as Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to decry the levels of social injustice in their countries.
Reflecting on the impact of new understandings, Hugo observed, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”
