Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a French novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist during the age of the Romantics in France. He was actively involved in the political scene of his day, and his interest in national and international politics shows up continually in his writing. His political stands ended up getting him exiled from France, a condition in which he remained even after general amnesty was granted to French exiles.
Hugo's works are as full of religious struggles as they are political turmoil. In his life, his journey in both arenas was equally bumpy. He was raised a Catholic, and eventually became a non-practicing Catholic, and finally declared himself a Freethinker. Hugo's animosity toward organized religion, especially the Catholic church, was closely bound up with his political and social views. He was a social activist in a very difficult era, and this shaped his view of everything else. The spiritual struggles this brought on emerge constantly in his writing, making his work very interesting and engaging for Christian readers. His work struggles against traditional Christian thought as often as it agrees with it, and it is for this reason that it has maintained the attention of Christian readers throughout the years.