(1802-1885)
The French poet, dramatist, and novelist Victor Hugo fled to Brussels in December 1851 disguised as a workman and bearing a false passport, a committed opponent of Louis-Napoléon. He wrote L'Histoire d'un crime (The story of a crime) and Napoléon-le-Petit (Napoleon, the small) while residing at Le Pigeon guildhall on the Grand' Place, and he completed Les Misérables in Waterloo. Hugo left Brussels in 1852 for Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. Hugo's wife Adèle died in Brussels on 27 August 1868.
Historical Dictionary of Brussels. Paul F. State.