Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a many-sided man: poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and painter. He is often considered to be France’s greatest poet. His novels, including Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris, stand in almost equally high regard. ... read more

Stephen Monte was born and raised in Philadelphia area. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University (1989); Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale University (1996) and is currently living and teaching in Chicago. His academic work concentrates on 19th- and 20th-century French and American Poetry, modernism in ... read more