Victor-Marie Hugo (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] (About this soundlisten); 7 Ventôse year X [26 February 1802] – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.