No close family anniversaries. Born in Besançon, France, on this date in 1802: Victor Hugo, prolific author, philosopher, and politician. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his novels, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In these two classics alone, a small fraction of his output, there are more words than in the entire collected works of Shakespeare.
Bust by Auguste Rodin
Hugo was also an accomplished artist and illustrator. Speaking of Shakespeare, below is Victor Hugo’s oil painting of the English bard’s house.
“The House of William Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon”
