Alt+numbers for special characters (e with acute accent, for example)

["David R. Litwin" <presently42@gmail.com>]

I ask this here because I have no idea how to word it for Google. My appologies in advance.

On windows, it is quite easy to insert a special character: For example, e with an acute accent (é) is  accessed via typing Alt+0233.

Simply, how do I do this on Debian?

Thank you kindly in advance.
-- 
—A watched bread-crumb never boils.
—My hover-craft is full of eels.
—[...]and that's the he and the she of it.