Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was the most important of all French Romantic authors. His major works include the novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables, and a large body of poetry. In his epic poem, La Légende des Siècles, he attempts, by reference to historical events, to depict humanity's struggle to emerge from obscurity into enlightenment. As a novelist Hugo made his debut with gothic novels such as Han D'Islande (1823) followed by Bug-Jargal (1826). His The Man Who Laughs (1869), about a man whose deformity causes him to always smile, was adapted into a 1928 film starring Conrad Veidt which inspired the creation of Batman's The Joker.   stage play: Frankenstein Meets the Hunchback of Notre-Dame (2005)