Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo

Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025. Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France’s most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper. Review of the exhibition: "... the Royal Academy does something unexpectedly moving. It takes you into the secret heart of a man we tend to think of only as a classic." - The Guardian "It’s estimated that Hugo made 4000 drawings, of which about 3000 survive; 77 are shown in Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo (until 29 June)." - London Review of Books

The novelist, poet and politician, Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a towering figure in French 19th-century public life. The author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame became a symbol of the French Republic’s ideals of equality and freedom during his long exile in the Channel Islands. His ink-and-wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes may be less well known than his writings, but they inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists, including the Surrealists; Vincent van Gogh compared them to ‘astonishing things’.

This handsome book – the catalogue of an exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Musées – Maison de Victor Hugo and the Bibliothèque nationale de France – includes new texts by leading authorities on Hugo and reproductions of many of his finest works on paper, from early caricatures and travel drawings to dramatic landscapes and experiments in abstraction.

• | Author: Gerard Audinet, Thomas Cazentre, Sarah Lea, Rose Thompson
• | Publisher: Royal Academy of Arts
• | Publication Date: Feb 21, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781915815118
• | ISBN-10: 1915815118