Meurice was born and died in Paris. In 1836, aged eighteen, he was introduced to Hugo by his friend Auguste Vacquerie, and soon became a devoted follower. He had literary ambitions and embarked on a career as playwright.
In 1848, Hugo made him the editor-in-chief of a journal he had just founded, called L'Événement. (This resulted in Meurice's imprisonment in 1851, during Hugo's exile.) Their friendship was very deep: the poet was a witness at Meurice's marriage to Palmyre Granger, daughter of the painter Jean-Pierre Granger. During the twenty years of Hugo's exile, Meurice looked after the financial and literary interests of the proscribed writer.
He meanwhile continued his own literary career, publishing novels, some in collaboration with Alexandre Dumas, for whom he would also ghost-write. He adapted Notre-Dame de Paris, Les Misérables and Quatre-Vingt-Treize for the stage.
With Vacquerie, and Victor Hugo's son Charles, Meurice founded the journal Le Rappel in 1869. On Hugo's death in 1885, Meurice and Vacquerie were made executors of his estate. In this capacity, Meurice compiled some posthumous collections of Hugo's poems. He established the Maison de Victor Hugo in Paris in 1902.
Works
Benvenuto Cellini, play in 5 acts and 8 scenes, music by Adolphe de Groot, Paris, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, 1 April 1852
Schamyl, play in 5 acts and 9 scenes, music by Gondois, Paris, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, 26 June 1854
Paris, play in 5 acts, 26 scenes, prologue and epilogue, Paris, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, 21 July 1855
L'Avocat des pauvres, play in 5 acts, Paris, Théâtre de la Gaîté (boulevard du Temple), 15 October 1856
Fanfan la Tulipe, play in 7 acts, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, 6 November 1858
Le Maître d'école, play in 5 acts, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, 10 March 1859
Le Roi de Bohème et ses sept châteaux, play in 6 acts, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-comique, 22 October 1859
François les Bas-Bleus, play in 5 acts and 7 scenes, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, 31 January 1863
Les Deux Diane, play in 5 acts and 8 scenes, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-comique, 8 March 1865
La Vie nouvelle, comedy in 4 acts, with prologue, Paris, Théâtre de l'Odéon, 8 April 1867
La Brésilienne, play in 6 acts with prologue, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, 9 April 1878
Quatre-vingt-treize, play based on the novel by Victor Hugo, by Paul Meurice, Paris, Théâtre de la Gaîté (rue Papin), 24 December 1881
Le Songe d'une nuit d'été, fairy-tale after Shakespeare (1886)
Struensée, drama, Paris, Comédie-Française, 5 November 1898
Plays written in collaboration
With Auguste Vacquerie : Paroles, comedy based on Shakespeare, Paris, Second Théâtre-Français, 28 February 1843
With Auguste Vacquerie : Antigone, tragedy after Sophocles, Paris, Second Théâtre-Français, 21 May 1844
With Alexandre Dumas : Hamlet, prince de Danemark, play in verse in 5 acts and 8 scenes, after Shakespeare, Paris, Théâtre historique, 15 December 1847
With George Sand : Les Beaux messieurs de Bois-Doré, play in 5 acts, 1862
With George Sand : Le Drac, drame fantastique in 3 acts, 1865
With George Sand : Cadio, play in 5 acts and 8 scenes, 1868
Revision of work by Paul Foucher : Notre-Dame de Paris, play in 5 acts and 12 scenes, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, 1886
With Charles Hugo : Les Misérables, drama, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Paris, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, 27 December 1899
Novels
La Famille Aubry (3 volumes, 1854)
Louspillac et Beautrubin (1854)
Scènes du foyer. La Famille Aubry (1856)
Les Tyrans de village (1857)
Les Chevaliers de l'esprit. Césara (1869)
Le Songe de l'amour (1889)
Correspondence
Correspondance entre Victor Hugo et Paul Meurice, preface by Jules Claretie (1909)
