They are fulfilled today, February 26, 216 years since the birth of Victor Hugo. He was born in Besançon and was also a poet and playwright as well as a novelist. It is considered the maximum representative of French Romanticism. He was also a very committed and influential politician and intellectual in the history of his country and in the literature of the XNUMXth century.

Today, in his memory, I select some phrases of his enormous work, especially the one we know best, The Miserables. But I also choose some samples of his poems, that surely we have read less.

A bit of Victor Hugo

And perhaps few know that Victor Hugo lived in Madrid, in the central Calle del Clavel, during his childhood, since his father, a military man, who had been appointed commander-in-chief, was transferred.

In 1815 he settled in Paris with the already clear idea of ​​dedicating himself to literature. Was a very good student and at the age of 15 he was awarded by the French Academy for a lyrical work. This was a prelude to his first great book of poems, Odes and diverse poems. In 1822 he married adele foucher, with whom he had five children. In addition, together with his brothers, also writers, he founded the magazine The Conservative Litteraire. They were years of great literary production with titles such as Cromwell, Our Lady of paris (known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame) or The king has fun.

Very active politically, Victor Hugo was appointed by of France in 1845. His speeches on the misery and other social and political complaints they led him to break with the Conservative Party. In 1851 he denounced the dictatorial ambitions of Napoleon III and, after the coup, fled france. The following year he and his family went to Jersey in the United Kingdom, and in 1856 he moved to Guernsey.

From that twenty-year exile were born The punishments, the trilogy of The end of Satan, God y The legend of the centuries, and his most famous novel, The Miserables. Back in France, after the fall of Napoleon III, Victor Hugo was publicly acclaimed and elected deputy. Died in paris at 83 years old, at the peak of his faculties, with a exceptional work and influences, which made him an emblematic character who was honored by the Third Republic with a state funeral.

Quotes of The Miserables

• The holy law of Jesus Christ governs our civilization; but it doesn't penetrate it yet. Slavery is said to have disappeared from European civilization, and it is a mistake. It still exists; only that it no longer weighs on the woman, and it is called prostitution.
• The first justice is conscience.
• Love is a part of the soul itself, it is of the same nature as her, it is a divine spark; like her, he is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a particle of fire that is in us, that is immortal to infinite, to which nothing can limit, nor cushion.
• What is said about men, true or false, occupies as much place in their destiny, and especially in their lives, as what they do.
• In the world there is almost nothing more important than love.
• No, having love does not lose the light. There is no blindness where there is love.
• Release is not freedom. The prison is over, but it is not sentenced.
• Do not ask the name of those who ask for asylum. It is precisely the person who is most in need of asylum who has the most difficulty in saying his or her name.
• There are two kinds of beings in the world that tremble deeply: the mother who finds her lost son, and the tiger who finds its prey.
• Those who suffer because you love, love even more. To die of love is to live.
• The supreme joy of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves; rather loved in spite of us.
• The strongest force of all is an innocent heart.
• When love is happy it brings the soul to sweetness and goodness.
• Love is like a tree: it bends under its own weight, it takes root deeply in our whole being and sometimes it continues to green in the ruins of a heart.
• Love is a burning forgetfulness of everything.

Three poems

When at last two souls meet

When at last two souls meet,
That for so long they have looked for each other in the crowd,
When they realize that they are couples,
That are understood and correspond,
In a word, they are alike,
then forever arises a union vehement and pure like themselves,
a union that begins on earth and lasts in heaven.
That union is love
authentic love, as very few men can truly conceive,
love that is a religion,
That deifies the loved one whose life emanates
Of fervor and passion and for whom the sacrifices
Greater are the sweetest joys.

To a woman

Girl, if I were king I would give my kingdom,
my throne, my scepter and my kneeling people,
my golden crown, my porphyry pools,
and my fleets, for which the sea would not be enough,
for a look from you.

If I were God, the earth and the waves,
the angels, the demons subject to my law.
And the deep chaos of deep entrails,
eternity, space, heavens, worlds
I would give for a kiss from you!

The fallen woman

Never insult the fallen woman!
No one knows what weight weighed her down
nor how many struggles he endured in life,
Until at last it fell!
Who has not seen breathless women
eagerly cling to virtue,
and resist the harsh wind from vice
with a serene attitude?
Drop of water hanging from a branch
that the wind shakes and makes you shudder;
Pearl that the chalice of the flower sheds,
and that is mud when falling!
But still the pilgrim drop can
its lost purity to regain,
and rise from the dust, crystalline,
and before the light shine.
Let fallen woman love,
leave to the dust its vital warmth,
because everything recovers new life
with light and love.