Victor-Marie Hugo, known as Victor Hugo, was a French Romantic writer and politician. He was born on the 26th February 1802 and had a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time.
His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). He died on the 22nd May in 1882.
Below are some examples and price guides of Victor Hugo photographs and some of his books, including Les Miserables and Notre Dame of Paris.
DEATH OF VICTOR HUGO.
HUGO, VICTOR. 1802-1885. Cabinet Card Signed, (“Victor Hugo”), 100 x 58 mm, depicting Hugo standing with arms crossed.
WITH: A medical consultation note signed by three of Hugo’s physicians, Emile Allix, Germain See, and Alfred Vulpian, 1 p, 8vo, Paris, May 20, 1885, in French.
Sold for US$701.25 inc. premium at Bonham’s in 2021
DETAILS
Les Miserables
Victor Hugo, 1862
HUGO, Victor (1802-1885). Les Miserables. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1862.
First authorized edition in English of one of the great novels of the 19th-century, particularly scarce in such excellent condition. Hugo described his masterwork as “a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God”.
Sold for USD 11,875 at Christie’s in 2021
Signed Original Photograph of Victor Hugo. Dedicated, Signed and Dated. Famous Portrait of Hugo that was probably made on the island of Guernesey in 1869. Dedicated to Fr. Poulvier. The inscription H.H. stands for Hauteville House, the mansion Hugo was living in between 1856 and 1870 after being banned from France in 1851. – Slight foxing in the upper margin. Overall well preserved.
Sold for €750 at Jeschke Van Vliet Auctions Berlin GmbH in 2021
Hugo, Victor
Notre Dame of Paris. Paris, Gosselin, 1831. First edition (2 volumes in 1/2 contemporary shagreen)
Notre Dame of Paris .
Paris, Gosselin, 1831 .
2 volumes in-8 (203 x 125 mm). Blue half-shagreen with small corners, decorated smooth spine, marbled edges (contemporary binding ).
Slight rubbing, some marginal foxing, hinges of volume I a little weakened .
ORIGINAL EDITION, IN TIME BINDING.
Vignettes by Tony Johannot to the titles, engraved by Porret.
Edition of 1,100 copies according to Clouzot.
Copy of the second printing, with the fictitious mention of second edition in the title.
Sold for 9,450 EUR at Sotheby’s in 2021
