The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1885-05-23
sketch of the Dead Poet.

9AetGn oA kuc 0tha EVtIs
Victor Marie Hugo, yicomte, one Of the
most distinguished French writers OF the
present day, was born February 20, 1902,
at Besancon, where his father was then
commandant Of the garrison. His mother
was native OF Le Vendee, and from her
he imbibed romantic royalist sentiments,
although his fIther was devoted fol.
lower OF Napoleon. His youth was spent
patty with his mother in Paris, partly in
Italy and Spain, where his father held
high appointments. He early acquired
distinction by his poetic effusion, aud be-
fore be was thirty years Of age his pub
lished works were numerous and his name
famous. 0ies and ballads, romances,
dramas, etc, flowed from his prolific pen.
Shortly before the revolution of 1880 q
literary revolution took place, at the head
Of which was Hugo. A band Of young
men, imaginative, ardent and confident,
sought to renoYate French literature by
departing from classic rules and models,
substitutinga varied aud very irregular
verse Tor the monotonous Alexandrines OF
the old school, and making art precisely
conform to nature, which they carried so
far as even to bringinto prominence things
dis agreeable, which nature herself ID dis
pleased with and teaches US to keep out
Of sight. The new school, ia jeune
France" Is they called themselves,
formed the romanticists, and their oppo-
nenta, the classicists. The literary war
lasted several years. Hugo's drama OF
Marion De.orme" was received with en-
thusiasm and he added to his reputation
by the publication Of "Feuilles dan
toiune.n
In 1882 the ministry suspended one Of
his dramas, lie Roi s'Amuse," but his
popularity continued 10 increase, and in
1887 Louis PHILIPPE made him an officer OF
the Legion OF Honor, and in 1915 peer
OF France. After the revolution OF 1878
he was elected to represent Paris both in
the constituent and in the legislatiye'as-
.sembly, in which he manifested Demo-
cratic principles, aud was one of the mem
bers OF the Extreme Left who was ban
ished from France for life by Louis
Napoleon. He went to reside in the
Island Of Jersey. In 1889 he assailed the
ruler Of France in 8 political pamphlet,
Napoleon le Petit, next year in LES
Chatiments,n series Of poems writ
ten in great yerye, in the same
spirit. In 1856 he published his "Con.
temptations" He refused to avail him
self Of the amnesty OF August Is, 1850, but
on the fall o. the Empire hastened back to
his native country, Joined in the Republi
can movement, aud was returned 10 the
National Assembly at Bordeaux, which,
however, he soon quilted in disgust. He
then went to Brussels, but the Belgian
Government expelled him from the coun-
try and he had to seek refuge In Vianden,
a village OF Luxemburg, where U Aimes
ItFtible was composed.
Returning to Paris in July, 1871, he
pleaded earnestly, but without effect, for
the lives Of the Communists. Hugo has
given an account Of his life in .Actes Il Pdr-
OLE, 1870 72. In 1862 Les Aiserables; in
1860 u HomRss qlii Rit; QantreVingt. 7Feiss
inlS74; his Spteches in 1875; the Lednde
des Sieeles in le77; L'Hiaioire dun Crime
1878, and Le Pope, poem, 1873.