Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a French writer and prominent figure during Europe’s Romantic movement. As a child, he traveled across the continent due to his father’s position in the Napoleonic army. As a young man, he studied law although his passion was always literature. In 1819, Hugo created Conservateur Littéraire, a periodical that featured works from up-and-coming writers. A few years later he published a collection of poems Odes et Poésies Diverses followed by the novel Han d’Islande in 1825. Hugo has an extensive catalog, yet he’s best known for the classics The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).