Victor Hugo

Without exception, the largest funeral ever seen in France was that of Victor Hugo, poet, author, and dramatist, who died at Paris, May 22, 1885, and was buried in the Pantheon, June 1, 1885.

The number of spectators estimated to have been present was placed at one million, of all classes and kinds, each striving with the other to pay the greatest honor to the dead poet; while telegrams of condolence were sent from all parts of the world.

At the head of the funeral procession were three large wagons filled with floral tributes: among others was a beautiful diadem of Irish lilies, with the inscription, "To the World's Greatest Poet," sent by Alfred Tennyson, Poet-Laureate of England.

Victor Hugo was born at Besancon, France, Feb, 26, 1802, and was the youngest of three sons of Gen. Hugo, who served with honor through Napoleon's campaigns in Italy and Spain.

At an early age he entered a preparatory school in Paris, with a view later on to entering the Polytechnic College: he was but fifteen years of age when he aspired to the prize offered by the Academy for the best poem on the advantages of study; and the prize was withheld, only because the dignitaries of that institution took offence at one of the passages in the work, which they considered to be presumptuous. Two years later he carried off two prizes at the Academy of Floral Games; and in 1821 his first volume of lyrical poems appeared, which not only confirmed the high regard in which many of the most eminent men of France held his genius, but also obtained for him a pension of three hundred francs from Louis XVIII.

He married Adele Foucher, a young girl for whom he had had a romantic affection from the time he was five years of age.

In 1841 he was received as a member of the French Academy, and soon after he was raised to the peerage of King Louis Philippe.

In 1851 Victor Hugo refused the amnesty offered by Napoleon III., and went into a voluntary exile for nineteen years: it was during this time that his most brilliant successes were achieved.

On the fall of the Empire he hastened back to France, and entered heartily into the Republican Government: he was also returned to the National Assembly at Bordeaux, which he afterward quitted in disgust, going to Brussels.

The Belgian Government, alarmed by his violent writings and his avowed sympathy with the Communists, expelled him from the country; and he sought seclusion in Vianden in Luxemburg. He returned to Paris in July, 1871, and lived a retired and quiet life until his death.

Among his principal works are the tales "Notre Dame de Paris," "Les Miserables," "Quatre-vingttreize," and "L'Art d'etre Grandpere;" and the plays "Hernani," "Ruy Blas," and "Lucrece Borgia."