English dress, though still young, has distinguished himself in almost every walk of imaginative literature: disputing the prize with the best lyric poets of the day; occupying one of the most eminent positions on the stage; and holding the very first place among the contemporary novelists of France. Of such a writer, the following particulars, brief though they be, will, it is presumed, form an acceptable Introduction to the attempt to transfuse the acknowledged master-piece of his pen into our native language. VICTOR HUGO was born on the 26 th of February, 1802, at Besancon. At the age of five years he accompanied his father, then a colonel in the French army, to I taly, where this officer was afterwards appointed commandant of a province, and was engaged in suppressing the hordes of banditti which then infested that country, and, among others, the daring Fra Diavolo. Two years afterwards, young Hugo, having returned to Paris, received his first instructions from his mother, who belonged to a family of La Vendee, assisted by a royalist who was concealed in her house, and who afterwards suffered death with Mallet, and an ecclesiastic. A mong the first books that he read were the works of Polybius and Tacitus.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org - from Amzon