Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was one of France's greatest ever writers. He is best known for Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As a young man he was a committed royalist but as he grew older he was increasingly drawn to republicanism. When he returned to Paris after exile in 1870 he was a national hero, but his personal life took a turn for the worse. He suffered a stroke, his daughter was committed to an insane asylum and his two sons died. Isabel F. Hapgood (1851-1928) was an American ecumenist, writer and translator who specialised in Russian and French literature. Her celebrated translations include Leo Tolstoy's Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, Chekov's The Seagull and Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Her own published works include Epic Songs of Russia and Little Russian and St. Petersburg Tales.