After training as a lawyer, Victor Hugo embarked on the literary career. He became one of the most important French Romantic poets, novelists and dramatists of his time, having assembled a massive body of work while living in Paris, Brussels and the Channel Islands.

All writers suffer from blockage from time to time. Hugo was not an exception. Quite the contrary, it is well known that when he was writing Les Miserables, he had to battle with “writer’s block” several times. It is a known condition to writers and everyone copes with it differently. But the French novelist had a unique way of coping with the condition. He took all his clothes off, locked himself in a room with a pen and paper, and wrote. Hugo famously claimed that he wanted to be in a room where not even clothes distract him. He was forcing himself to write and ordered his servants not to bring him clothes until he has finished writing a chapter. Hugo worked on Les Miserables for more than 20 years. He first got the idea in the 1830s, started working in the 1840s and finished the book in 1862.

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