Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885) is considered the greatest Romanticist poet.[Citation Needed] A prolific writer, he penned the classics Cromwell (1827), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862). Hugo addressed many of the social problems of his time, such as poverty, child labor and women's condition. He was strongly opposed to the death penalty. While he was not blind to their flaws, he admired both the French Revolution and Napoleon.
Christianity animated his work. In his Preface to Cromwell, Hugo wrote:
- Lastly, this threefold poetry flows from three great sources - The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare ... The Bible before the Iliad, the Iliad before Shakespeare.
In Les Miserables, Hugo wrote (Book 5, Chapter 4):
- God is behind everything, but everything hides God.
Both Hunchback and Les Miserables have been made into movies.