Q 01/05

Who is the hero of Les Misérables?

A) Inspector Javert

B) Jean Valjean

C) Marius Pontmercy

D) Thénardier

Answer · why

B) Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean. Sent to the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread, he ends up serving 19 years because each failed escape adds to his sentence.

Q 02/05

The success of an 1831 Hugo novel is credited with inspiring the restoration of which decaying Paris church?

A) Sainte-Chapelle

B) Notre-Dame

C) Saint-Sulpice

D) Saint-Eustache

Answer · why

B) Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame. Hugo wrote the novel partly as a plea to save France's crumbling Gothic buildings, and stopped the story for a whole chapter describing th...

Q 03/05

Hugo was born in which watchmaking city near Switzerland?

A) Strasbourg

B) Besançon

C) Dijon

D) Nancy

Answer · why

B) Besançon

Besançon. In a famous poem Hugo called it an 'old Spanish town' and pictured himself as a newborn so frail that everyone but his mother gave him up.

Q 04/05

What was Hugo's father's profession?

A) Wood merchant in Nancy

B) Provincial lawyer

C) Surgeon in the navy

D) General in Napoleon's army

Answer · why

D) General in Napoleon's army

General in Napoleon's army. Léopold Hugo's postings took the family to Elba, Naples and Madrid, so Victor spent his childhood being uprooted from Pari...

Q 05/05

Prisoner number 24601 in Les Misérables is thought to encode the date of which event in Hugo's life?

A) His baptism

B) His conception

C) His first communion

D) His parents' wedding

Answer · why

B) His conception

His conception. Born slightly premature in February 1802, Hugo always believed he had been conceived on 24 June 1801, which in digits reads 24-6-01.