Victor Hugo

Mr Robb has written an enthralling book – one of the great biographies of our time. He contrives not to be dwarfed by his subject, which is some contrivance. He makes of Hugo’s life a story as exciting to read as it was extraordinary to have lived. He has a matchless gift for narrative. His style is epigrammatic and compelling. His judgements seem fair – not something Hugo was used to in life. Every Place Victor Hugo should now have a Café-Bar Graham Robb. He deserves, and will probably get, the Légion d’honneur. -- Allan Massie * Daily Telegraph *
One of the best biographies I have read, ever. -- Selina Hastings
Robb achieves the goal of all good literary biographies by making us long to regain, or savour for the first time, Hugo’s company as a writer. Surely no chronicler of his life or analyst of his work has ever looked this prodigy of nature so unflinchingly in the eye. -- Jonathan Keates * Literary Review *
Graham Robb’s exuberant biography of the French writer blows the cobwebs away from a neglected hero and sets him before us in lurid and quite unforgettable shape. Robb’s jaunty, self-confident style is gloriously appropriate to his subject . . . Robb’s enthusiasm is hugely exhilarating and his biography is a fascinating study in the making of a celebrity. -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *
The best life of the writer available in English (and likely to remain so for some time) . . . His fascinating, totally readable Life will introduce Hugo to many readers who know him only as a name. -- Robin Buss * Independent on Sunday *