Ayn Rand called him the greatest novelist in world literature. He was the last great Romanticist, publishing his novels more than a decade after the very, very "end" of the Romantic Movement. His great theme went to the heart of what distinguished Romanticism: the stature, the nobility, of men when they are fighting for their values. How important to the "common man" is art created on this level? More than one million mourners turned out on the streets of Paris to mark Hugo's death. Because Hugo did not believe that there WAS a "common man"--that was, and is, a mental construction by an elite whose lust is to rule. As long as a vision of man like the one projected by Victor Hugo is available in a culture, the notion of a helpless, downtrodden, needy mass of men for whom a "leader" like Barrack Obama must "fight" can never take hold. Nor can it in culture where the vision of Atlas Shrugged has taken hold. And that is the importance of Victor Hugo and the woman who swore to keep his spirit and greatness alive after the death of the Romantic Movement. Now, 128 years later we are left to remember--and to be moved to action by our memory of how it once was.