I can strongly recommend the exhibition of art by Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy in London at the moment. Not much of this was published or exhibited during his lifetime; he clearly felt a compulsion to draw, but much less of a compulsion to show his drawings off to people – with a couple of exceptions, including his homage to John Brown, L’Homme pendu, which I felt was too gruesome to post here.

There are about 70 of Hugo’s drawings in the exhibition, and a lot of information about his life and travels. There are also a few photographs, particularly of Hauteville House, his home on Guernsey for many years. He put a lot of effort into furnishing the house and muttered that he had missed a career as an interior decorator.

Anyway, these were the pieces that particularly jumped out at me. The exhibition is on until 29 June, so you have plenty of time to get to it.

See also this longer piece by Rebecca Marks.