Victor Hugo was a French novelist and poet who wrote two of the most beloved novels in history, Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The latter drew public attention to the neglected, crumbling state of the real Notre-Dame cathedral and helped spark the restoration campaign that saved it. He used his stories to speak out against poverty and injustice in French society. He is remembered as one of France's greatest writers and a passionate defender of human rights, and when he died, roughly two million people lined the streets of Paris for his funeral procession.