Hugo was not only a European but a world celebrity over most of his long life, which began in the Napoleonic Age and ended well into the life of the Third French Republic. He began as a royalist, but gradually drifted to the Left, even the far Left, as is shown by his support for the short-lived Paris Commune of 1870-71; under the quasi-imperialism of Napoleon III he went into exile (not entirely voluntarily) in Brussels and then in the Channel Islands. He was lucky to have not only a devoted wife but an equally devoted mistress, Juliette Drouet, a former actress who followed him faithfully through all the stresses of his up-and-down career. Personal tragedy dogged Hugo; his favourite daughter Leopoldine was drowned with her young husband, his two sons predeceased him, and his surviving daughter lapsed into incurable schizophrenia. Yet he kept his energy and huge literary productivity up to the last years, and his huge funeral procession to the Pantheon in Paris was a national event. This life deserves most of the high praise given to it, but the style is rather high-coloured and also, at times, a little too knowing.