Those of you who have read Deathly Hallows Lectures (and, if you haven’t, please do), know that I think that Ron and Hermione Weasley name their first son ‘Hugo’ as a hat tip to the French poet and novelist Victor Hugo. I discussed this briefly on the PotterCast LiveStream show the Potter Pundits did last Thursday, but I wanted to fill out those comments here.

In brief, Ms. Rowling in bringing up Victor Hugo in the Epilogue to Deathly Hallows, via the name of a child, is completing the circle of her seven book series which begins with a pointed reference to the orphan child of Les Miserables, Cosette, in Harry Potter, the boy who lives in a spider infested space beneath the stairs.

Before I get to that, though, let’s review the Rowling-Hugo connection. Yes, she was a French major at Exeter. But what connections or similarities are there between the Harry Potter novels and Victor Hugo’s work?

Quite a few. [Read more…]