In 1862, Victor Hugo published Les Misérables, a work that remains one of the most noted achievements of his career. That publication represents one point in a working life spent across an unusually broad range of literary and public roles, all conducted in the French language.

Born on 26 February 1802 in Besançon, Hugo was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Lycée Michelet in Vanves, and the University of Paris. He worked as a poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, and journalist, producing across those forms a body of writing that included the novel Notre-Dame de Paris, known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the poetry collection Les Contemplations. Alongside his literary activity, Hugo served as a politician and worked as a human rights activist, making his public presence felt in civic as well as cultural life. He was a French citizen and wrote throughout his career in French.

Hugo received the Officer of the Legion of Honour, a formal recognition from the French state. He died on 22 May 1885 in Paris, more than eight decades after his birth in Besançon, having worked across poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and essay writing over the course of his life.

Les Misérables stands as a notable work in Hugo's output, as do Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Contemplations, and his receipt of the Officer of the Legion of Honour marks one concrete point of formal recognition during his career as a writer, poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist, politician, and human rights activist.