Crude ending of Victor Hugo novel (5)
I believe the answer is:
rough
'crude' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'ending of victor hugo novel' is the wordplay.
'ending of' indicates one should take the final letters.
'novel' is an anagram indicator (letters in a new or novel order).
The last letter of 'victor' is 'r'.
'hugo' with letters rearranged gives 'ough'.
'r'+'ough'='ROUGH'
(Other definitions for rough that I've seen before include "Uneven, harsh" , "Rasping" , "Sketchy" , "Unpolished" , "Ill" .)