Victor Hugo's documentary historical novel is an impassioned chronicle of the December 1852 coup d'etat in France engineered by the French President, who called himself "Louis Napoleon." "History of a Crime: The Testimony of an Eye-Witness" offers a fascinating insight into mid nineteenth-century French history and is highly recommended for those with an interest in the subject. Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885) was a French novelist, dramatist, and poet belonging to the Romantic movement. He is widely hailed as one of the most accomplished and well-known French writers, originally achieving renown for his poetical endeavours-the most notable of which are the volumes "Les Contemplations" and "La Légende des siècles". Outside of his native country, Hugo's best-known works are his novels: "Les Misérables" (1862) and "Notre-Dame de Paris" (1831), commonly known as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.