The Hunchback of Notre Dame

By Victor Hugo

Published in 1831 in French as "Notre-Dame de Paris", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is a novel written by Victor Hugo that follows both the Gothic and Romantic literary traditions. Overall, this means the novel uses fiction to display aspects of horror, death, and romance. In addition to those traits, Hugo also includes other major themes, like the negatives of the legal system of the day and capital punishment. This viewpoint can clearly be seen in some of the heartbreaking events in the novel that come from wrongful convictions. Overall, the tragic end falls in line with the Gothic tradition.

The novel is set in 15th-century Paris and powerfully evokes medieval life in the city during the reign of Louis XI. Quasimodo is the hunchbacked horribly deformed bell ringer at the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Once beaten and pilloried by an angry mob, he has fallen in love with the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, who took pity on him during this ordeal. When the scheming archdeacon Frollo, who is also obsessed with Esmeralda, discovers that she favours Captain Phoebus, he stabs the captain, and Esmeralda is accused of the crime. Quasimodo attempts to shelter Esmeralda in the cathedral, but...

• Language: English
• Publisher: E-BOOKARAMA
• Release date: Dec 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9788829582167

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a French poet and novelist. Born in Besançon, Hugo was the son of a general who served in the Napoleonic army. Raised on the move, Hugo was taken with his family from one outpost to the next, eventually setting with his mother in Paris in 1803. In 1823, he published his first novel, launching a career that would earn him a reputation as a leading figure of French Romanticism. His Gothic novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) was a bestseller throughout Europe, inspiring the French government to restore the legendary cathedral to its former glory. During the reign of King Louis-Philippe, Hugo was elected to the National Assembly of the French Second Republic, where he spoke out against the death penalty and poverty while calling for public education and universal suffrage. Exiled during the rise of Napoleon III, Hugo lived in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870. During this time, he published his literary masterpiece Les Misérables (1862), a historical novel which has been adapted countless times for theater, film, and television. Towards the end of his life, he advocated for republicanism around Europe and across the globe, cementing his reputation as a defender of the people and earning a place at Paris’ Panthéon, where his remains were interred following his death from pneumonia. His final words, written on a note only days before his death, capture the depth of his belief in humanity: “To love is to act.”