The same year, he married Adèle Foucher; they had five children, but the first son, Léopold, died in infancy. Léopoldine, one of their daughters died in a drowning accident when she was 19 years old. His other daughter, Adèle, was insane and lived many years in an asylum. His greatest succes is the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Later in life he became involved in politics and was also interested in Spiritism during his exile years. He evolved into a non-practicing Catholic, expressing anti-clerical views. He was also a prolific painter.

After the coup d'état by Napoleon III he thought that his life was in danger and fled to Brussels, then to Jersey and moved with his family to Guernsey where he lived for 15 years. Although Napoleon III granted a general amnesty to political exiles in 1859, Hugo came back to France only in 1870, where he was hailed as a national hero. He was elected senator in 1876. When he died, in 1885, he was given a national funeral.