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Victor Hugo: A Tumultuous Life
Victor Hugo was the titan of his age.
Not only was he a superb poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, and critic who influenced generations of writers following him, he won a degree of hysterical public worship such as no author had ever received.
But his whole life was a series of paradoxes.
Hugo was pompous, yet possessed a quiet, sweet humility that was startling. He was a penny-pincher who lived like a monarch, and a profligate when it suited his fancy.
He proclaimed the virtues of monogamy, yet in later years had scores of mistresses. At the height of his career, he maintained three separate households at the same time: for his wife, his principal mistress, and a woman who might best be described as an auxiliary mistress.
He imagined himself a man of the people, but so mishandled himself during a political crisis in Paris that he barely escaped lynching by the public.
An aspiring politician whose views ran from orthodox monarchism, through Bonapartism, to liberal republicanism, Hugo yearned for a political career. Although he became a member of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, he failed miserably in his second vocation. But many considered him the most influential political figure of his day, and he played a major role in the downfall of Napoleon III.
The events of his life were not only melodramatic, but often tragic.
His favourite brother went mad at Victor’s wedding, and had to be confined to a sanatorium, where he languished for many years. The eldest of Victor’s daughters, his favourite, was drowned in the Seine, and may have committed suicide. He not only outlived his two sons, but his younger daughter became insane after an abortive elopement with a British army officer and spent the next half-century in an asylum.
The highs and lows that shaped him as a man, also shaped his writing. And his unwavering dedication to giving a voice to the outcasts, the poverty-stricken and the dispossessed helped create his two most famous novels: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Les Miserables’.
Using Hugo’s compelling, and often tragic, life Gerson analyses Hugo’s much-loved novels and gives a fascinating portrait of a remarkable man.
Noel Bertram Gerson (1913-1988) was a prolific American author, who wrote 325 books under his own name and under several pseudonyms. He channeled his own wartime experience in military intelligence into many of his novels, as well as writing widely about American history. His titles include ‘Liner’, ‘Daughter of Earth and Water: A Biography of Mary Shelley’, ‘The Conqueror’s Wife’ and ‘I’ll Storm Hell: A Novel of Mad Anthony Wayne’.
Not only was he a superb poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, and critic who influenced generations of writers following him, he won a degree of hysterical public worship such as no author had ever received.
But his whole life was a series of paradoxes.
Hugo was pompous, yet possessed a quiet, sweet humility that was startling. He was a penny-pincher who lived like a monarch, and a profligate when it suited his fancy.
He proclaimed the virtues of monogamy, yet in later years had scores of mistresses. At the height of his career, he maintained three separate households at the same time: for his wife, his principal mistress, and a woman who might best be described as an auxiliary mistress.
He imagined himself a man of the people, but so mishandled himself during a political crisis in Paris that he barely escaped lynching by the public.
An aspiring politician whose views ran from orthodox monarchism, through Bonapartism, to liberal republicanism, Hugo yearned for a political career. Although he became a member of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, he failed miserably in his second vocation. But many considered him the most influential political figure of his day, and he played a major role in the downfall of Napoleon III.
The events of his life were not only melodramatic, but often tragic.
His favourite brother went mad at Victor’s wedding, and had to be confined to a sanatorium, where he languished for many years. The eldest of Victor’s daughters, his favourite, was drowned in the Seine, and may have committed suicide. He not only outlived his two sons, but his younger daughter became insane after an abortive elopement with a British army officer and spent the next half-century in an asylum.
The highs and lows that shaped him as a man, also shaped his writing. And his unwavering dedication to giving a voice to the outcasts, the poverty-stricken and the dispossessed helped create his two most famous novels: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Les Miserables’.
Using Hugo’s compelling, and often tragic, life Gerson analyses Hugo’s much-loved novels and gives a fascinating portrait of a remarkable man.
Noel Bertram Gerson (1913-1988) was a prolific American author, who wrote 325 books under his own name and under several pseudonyms. He channeled his own wartime experience in military intelligence into many of his novels, as well as writing widely about American history. His titles include ‘Liner’, ‘Daughter of Earth and Water: A Biography of Mary Shelley’, ‘The Conqueror’s Wife’ and ‘I’ll Storm Hell: A Novel of Mad Anthony Wayne’.
- GenresBiography
281 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 24, 2015
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About the author
Noel B. Gerson
130 books25 followersNoel Bertram Gerson (1913-1988) was an American author who wrote 325 books, including several best sellers, among them two screenplay novelizations penned under the pseudonym Samuel Edwards, The Naked Maja, and 55 Days at Peking.
Aside from "Samuel Edwards", which would seem to have been his dedicated by-line for tie-in work, Gerson used the following nine pseudonyms in addition to his own name: Anne Marie Burgess; Michael Burgess; Nicholas Gorham; Paul Lewis; Leon Phillips; Donald Clayton Porter; Dana Fuller Ross; Philip Vail; and Carter A. Vaughan.
Aside from "Samuel Edwards", which would seem to have been his dedicated by-line for tie-in work, Gerson used the following nine pseudonyms in addition to his own name: Anne Marie Burgess; Michael Burgess; Nicholas Gorham; Paul Lewis; Leon Phillips; Donald Clayton Porter; Dana Fuller Ross; Philip Vail; and Carter A. Vaughan.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 24, 2021
Wonderful
I really enjoyed this testimony of Victor's life. The author made of him the true hero he truly was. He was represented as God's gift to mankind.,which he most definitely was.
I really enjoyed this testimony of Victor's life. The author made of him the true hero he truly was. He was represented as God's gift to mankind.,which he most definitely was.
September 10, 2025
One of the greatest biographies I've ever read. Such a fascinating and talented, yet very flawed man who helped shape a nation. This biography was highly detailed as to the person and life of Hugo, but also a strong history of 19th century France.
March 10, 2015
So this is a big, scholarly book, though it's not written as such. Victor Hugo was--and remains--one of the most important novelists to ever take up a pen. His works have been made into films, plays, musicals, and graphic novels. As a little kid growing up in Paris, I used to resent having to memorize entire passages of his work, and now I wish I remembered them.
He did, indeed, live a tumultuous life worth reading about. This offers a glimpse into a superlative writer's head!
He did, indeed, live a tumultuous life worth reading about. This offers a glimpse into a superlative writer's head!
February 21, 2016
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I love Victor Hugo's work so I was very excited for the chance to read this book. I quite enjoyed this book. It was obvious from the beginning that a lot of time and research was spent preparing to write it. I found out a great deal about Victor Hugo that I have never read before. Bravo.
October 2, 2015
This book is published by Endeavour Press.
January 16, 2016
A good well-researched but fairly workaday biography of this giant of French literature.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews