Hunchback of Notre Dame

by
Victor Hugo

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Hunchback of Notre Dame

by Victor Hugo

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 59,298 ratings · 1,558 reviews

The story and characters in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame have resonated with succeeding generations since its publication in 1831. It has tempted filmmakers, and most recently animators, who have exploited its dramatic content to good effect but have inevitably lost some of the grays that make the original text so compelling.
From Victor Hugo's flamboyant imag...more The story and characters in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame have resonated with succeeding generations since its publication in 1831. It has tempted filmmakers, and most recently animators, who have exploited its dramatic content to good effect but have inevitably lost some of the grays that make the original text so compelling.
From Victor Hugo's flamboyant imagination came Quasimodo, the grotesque bell ringer; La Esmeralda, the sensuous gypsy dancer; and the haunted archdeacon Claude Frollo. Hugo set his epic tale in the Paris of 1482 under Louis XI and meticulously re-created the
day-to-day life of its highest and lowest inhabitants. Written at a time of perennial political upheaval in France, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is the product of an emerging democratic sensibility and prefigures the teeming masterpiece Les Misé rables, which Hugo would write thirty years later.
He made the cathedral the centerpiece of the novel and called it Notre-Dame de Paris. (It received its popular English title at the time of its second translation in 1833.) Hugo wrote that his inspiration came from a carving of the word "fatality" in Greek that he had found in the cathedral. The inscription had been eradicated by the time the book was published, and Hugo feared that Notre-Dame's Gothic splendor might soon be lost to the contemporary fad for tearing down old buildings. Notre-Dame has survived as one of the great monuments of Paris, and Hugo's novel is a fitting celebration of it, a popular classic that is proving to be just as enduring.
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was foundedin 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
Jacket paintings: (front) detail from Notre Dame by Paul Lecomte, courtesy of David David Gallery/SuperStock; (spine) Victor Hugo, 1833, by Louis Boulanger of Giraudon/Art Resource, N.Y.(less)

Hardcover

Published August 1st 1995 by Turtleback Books (first published 1831)

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Sep 13, 2008 Melissa Rudder rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have officially been wooed by nineteenth century French literature. First Dumas and now this. I just finished reading Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and it was fantastic. The characters, the themes, the literary structures… Ahhh… *swoons*

Before I proclaim my love affair with Victor Hugo, I have to mention some negatives. First off: very, very difficult book to get into. I struggled through at least the first hundred pages, and I’m not that hard to please. Secondly, up until this po...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-francese

« Fatto che si abbia il male, bisogna farlo tutto quanto. È da pazzi sperare di fermarsi a un punto qualunque nel mostruoso! Il delitto spinto all’estremo ha deliri di gioia. »

Avete presente quando, al mattino, vi svegliate con le migliori intenzioni e appoggiando il piede sul tappeto vi si stampa in faccia un’espressione di trionfo? Sentite che quella sarà una giornata straordinaria. Sentite che potete fare tutto. Poi infilate le ciabatte, andate in bagno e scoprite, per esempio, che lo scarico...more « Fatto che si abbia il male, bisogna farlo tutto quanto. È da pazzi sperare di fermarsi a un punto qualunque nel mostruoso! Il delitto spinto all’estremo ha deliri di gioia. »

Avete presente quando, al mattino, vi svegliate con le migliori intenzioni e appoggiando il piede sul tappeto vi si stampa in faccia un’espressione di trionfo? Sentite che quella sarà una giornata straordinaria. Sentite che potete fare tutto. Poi infilate le ciabatte, andate in bagno e scoprite, per esempio, che lo scarico non funziona. O dalla doccia viene solo acqua fredda. Poi la caffettiera esplode macchiando tutta la cucina. E per tutto il tempo non potete fare a meno di dirvi, « Io m’ero svegliato con le migliori intenzioni, ma porca puttana ».
Ecco, questa è la triste storia del mio rapporto con Notre-Dame de Paris. Ho divorato la prima metà (a detta di tutti, la più noiosa) in tre giorni; arrivata alla seconda metà (a detta di tutti, la più appassionante) ho cominciato a scivolare per una china di scetticismo, di perplessità, di trasecolamento.
Non nego che Notre-Dame de Paris possa essere, per qualcuno, un ottimo e un piacevolissimo romanzo. Potrà essere il libro preferito di qualcuno. Potrà far ridere e far piangere. E non dico che occorra buttarlo giù dallo scaffale dei classici per far posto ad altro. Dico solo che a me non è piaciuto e vorrei spiegare il perché.

Innanzitutto, non si deve pensare che non l’abbia apprezzato in qualche punto. Anzi, i punti che ho apprezzato li ho apprezzati talmente che mi ero illusa di accecarmi per non vedere tutto il resto.
Quello che più colpisce di Notre-Dame è la grande forza potenziale del suo contenuto. Un contenuto denso come questo – un contenuto di scavo morale e spirituale – sarebbe fiorito, in mano a un altro scrittore, in un bocciolo fresco, sovversivo e profumato da star male. Penso a un Hawthorne, penso a un Dostoevskij, due penne che avrebbero fatto di questo nodo di peccato e perversione una scintilla per scuotere le viscere. Hugo ci prova, niente da dire, ma il tentativo non gli riesce fino in fondo. L’unica figura per la quale valga la pena di leggere Notre-Dame de Paris – vale a dire l’arcidiacono Frollo – avrebbe meritato un approfondimento e una diffusione di sentimento ben maggiori, ben più accurate. Un bravo scrittore, uno scrittore eccellente avrebbe raccolto Frollo, lo avrebbe cullato tra le braccia e, tenendolo sollevato così, gli avrebbe impedito di infradiciarsi la tonaca nel pantano di infidi cliché. Quanto mi dispiace per Frollo, quanto sinceramente mi dispiace per Frollo.
Proviamo a consolarci così: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWCc2w...

Un punto di forza di Hugo è quando si mette in testa di riuscire simpatico. Le scenette comiche, le macchiette, strappare una risata al lettore, questo è quello che gli riesce meglio. Ma in una tragedia non si suppone che sia la cosa che si apprezza maggiormente, no? È tanto bravo nella sua ironia che, anche nel dipingere gli ultimi drammatici istanti, non gli sfugge quel tocco di grottesco che spinge il lettore a chiedersi, « ma mi stai prendendo per il culo? ». Sono consapevole, acutamente consapevole di star dissacrando il sacro e vogliate capire che non lo faccio per divertimento. Lo faccio perché lo penso, il che mi rende ancora più spregevole. Particolarmente riusciti, in questo senso, sono i personaggi del capitano Febo e del poeta Gringoire, due maschioni meschini come non si poteva sceglierli meglio, ma così convincenti e volgari e divertiti dalla propria meschinità che in realtà mi sono sentita di parteggiare per loro. E sono poi loro, nella loro piccolezza, gli unici a non uscirne con le ossa rotte, come se Hugo stesse trasmettendo un velato messaggio subliminale: ‘o siete anime grandi e allora guarda la fine che fate; o siete anime piccine e tonte e allora vivete contente’. A pensarci bene, forse è il messaggio che vuol trasmettere. Se è così, Notre-Dame diventa un affresco tragico della contemporaneità.

Due parole vanno spese sulla tanto celebre Esmeralda. Siamo sinceri: confessiamo tutti di averla vista nel cartone della Disney. Ecco, adesso dimentichiamola. Quella è un’altra storia.
La Esmeralda di questa storia è una donna il cui unico pregio, a dirla tutta, è una grande e sensuale bellezza. Esmeralda è tutta bellezza, nient’altro. Per il resto una foglia sarebbe più spessa del suo spessore psicologico. Ai giorni nostri, Esmeralda sarebbe la ragazzina bella e svampita che fa girare le teste di tutti gli uomini un minimo sensibili – e di tutti quegli uomini ‘sensibili’ che pensano che dietro un bel faccino si nasconda sempre una bella anima. Ma questa ragazzina, che ve lo dico a fare, non è punto sensibile al fascino di nessuna anima grande con cui viene a contatto. Per Esmeralda l’amore della vita deve avere un solo requisito: deve essere bello. Esmeralda ama solo le cose che brillano, perché non ha unghie sufficientemente lunghe per grattar via la patina dalle cose opache. Non so se sia il più sincero e spietato ritratto femminile che sia mai stato dato o la punta estrema della misoginia. In questo senso, potremmo dire che la tragedia al cuore di Notre-Dame è anche un problema di immagine. E, se il cuore di questo romanzo è un problema d’immagine, capiamo anche quale sia il ruolo di Quasimodo.
Per Quasimodo il lettore prova alternativamente pena e disprezzo. Hugo non è tenero con lui. Qualche volta indulge al patetico, ma è sempre troppo schietto per ammettere, « ma dai, anche se sei gobbo, hai un occhio solo, sei sordo, deforme e cattivo, ti voglio bene come personaggio ». Neanche Hugo è così ipocrita per questo. E la mancanza di ipocrisia, c’è da dirlo, è uno dei punti a favore di questo romanzo.

Altre notarelle conclusive. Gli espedienti letterari prevedibilissimi, con travestimenti e agnizioni da tutte le parti. La pesantezza, in certi punti, del giudizio del narratore (caro Hugo, se scrivi un’altra volta ‘la sciagurata’, ti mettiamo dritto dritto sullo scaffale vicino ai Promessi Sposi, aperti sul formidabile inciso ‘La sventurata rispose’!). La critica incapacità di descrivere scene d’azione credibili.
La parte che mi è piaciuta di più? Il capitolo sull’architettura come forma originaria di trasmissione del sapere umano. Quello lo farei studiare nelle scuole all’ora di storia dell’arte.
Se prima pensavate che non avessi tutte le rotelle a posto, adesso potete star tranquilli. Avevate ragione.
(less)

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Sep 15, 2011 Nemo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: harvard-classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Historian, Philosopher and Poet

If I can quote one passage from Hugo's books that best reflects the author, the focus of his passions, the style and architecture of his novels, it would be the following:

"There he was, serious, motionless, absorbed - all eye, all ear, all thought. All Paris was at his feet, with the thousand spires of its buildings, and its circular horizon of gentle hills, with its river winding beneath its bridges and its people pouring through its streets, its cloud of smoke, a...more

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Nov 20, 2009 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What happened to the beginning of this unabridged story!? For 300 pages, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was scribed like a meandering storyline over a checkerboard, each square representing a chapter of the book. The few squares scribed directly by the line told fleeting, but essential parts of the story (about Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Frollo). The more numerous squares adjacent to the scribed storyline told even less essential bits of the story. And, the majority of squares, several dozen chapter...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Ali Sallam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

من روائع الأدب الفرنسي

تأخذك بشكل ساحر إلى باريس في العصور الوسطى

فتحبس أنفاسك بين دوامة من مشاعر الخيانة والحب والأمل

بين كوازيمودو : قارع أجراس كاتدرائية نوتردام القبيح

وكلود فرولو ؛ رئيس الشماسه المعذب

وازميرالدا ؛ الراقصة الغجرية الفاتنة

والقائد فيبس ؛ الذي يخدع ازميرالدا ويوهمها بحبه لها

من روائع القصص العالمية

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Jan 30, 2011 ♔ Leah. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: waterworks-like-the-niagara-falls, classics-i-adore

This is definitely my favourite classic, I loved the dark atmosphere of the book, and the setting being Notre-Dame, which is one of my favourite places in Paris. It's not entirely dark and horrible, there are times when it can be humorous, but it's brutal in terms of showing what obsession can become when it's misunderstood as love and the true form of love shown by other characters.

When starting this book, it was really difficult to get into which is why I had to force myself to keep reading u...more This is definitely my favourite classic, I loved the dark atmosphere of the book, and the setting being Notre-Dame, which is one of my favourite places in Paris. It's not entirely dark and horrible, there are times when it can be humorous, but it's brutal in terms of showing what obsession can become when it's misunderstood as love and the true form of love shown by other characters.

When starting this book, it was really difficult to get into which is why I had to force myself to keep reading until about 60 pages in (with the introduction) when I got into the plot. The story follows different characters, as well as flashbacks and Hugo's knowledge of Notre-Dame and Paris as a city. I also love how the cathedral is a metaphor for beauty and the beast as a balanced whole— the gargoyles being a representation of Quasimodo and the famous Rose window being Esmeralda, 2 distinct features of the cathedral.
*spoilers ahead*
I didn't like Frollo at all, I found him to be a fucking creeper and I didn't sympathize at all with him, and I'm baffled as how people could love him. the stuff he did was sickening:— the attempted rape of Esmeralda, forcing her to love him, laughing when she was hanged, not even caring for his adopted son, Quasimodo, when he was being jeered by the crowd. He was nasty and I didn't feel for him at all, because he didn't deserve to be sympathized with.

Esmeralda, as much as I liked her for being compassionate towards Quasimodo, was shallow and naive. I could have played a drinking game as to how many times she says Phoebus' name during her scenes. She was foolish and pathetically in love with Phoebus because he was handsome when really he was cold and lecherous and only wanted to get in her pants. Like Frollo, she thought that lust was love, when really it was not.

The story was heart-breaking and tragic, it really showed how appearances and social positions in society can be deceiving, and how cruel it could be for individuals who were good.

Overall rating is 4.5(less)

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Jul 17, 2008 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, top-20

"Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." This has created a theme that stories have focussed on for centuries. It is one that we try to teach different ways with more unique characters.

When one first reads a synopsis of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", they would easily assume they will be reading another author's method of bringing this theme into their story. However, very shortly into the novel one finds that Quasimodo is not orginally this fully rejected outcast...more "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." This has created a theme that stories have focussed on for centuries. It is one that we try to teach different ways with more unique characters.

When one first reads a synopsis of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", they would easily assume they will be reading another author's method of bringing this theme into their story. However, very shortly into the novel one finds that Quasimodo is not orginally this fully rejected outcast for his appearance. At the beginning of the novel he is actually being praised by a large crowd. His rejection comes as different incidences are misinterpreted and people begin to make the wrong assumptions.

As the story continues on this happens to more characters than only Quasimodo. And other characters make mistakes by acting too quickly. It turns out that this story is about making the wrong judgements based on appearences. Only, it's not about the appearences of the characters, it's about the appearences of what is happening around our characters.

When I noticed this, I realized that the whole book turned out to be about ignorance (the ignorance of the characters in what they were doing and the assumptions they made). If any of the characters would stop and figure out what had truly been happening, things would have been solved, but everytime this was a possibility they would make a new assumption and the problems would escalate. To me, the most stunning aspect of this was that the consequences did not only take effect on those that had been ignorant.

In the same way, the end of the novel was only that upsetting if we remain ignorant of the fact that everything is finally brought to a close and those characters we care most about wanted something they could only come closest to through the way the novel ended (Hugo knew what he was doing in the titles of the chapters). Though it may be one of the most disturbing novels I've read, it has also taken it's place among my top ten favorites.(less)

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Sep 22, 2008 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The writing is brilliant, the plot is unusual. But-- perhaps like in life-- where are the good guys? Esmerelda doesn't say much other than "Oh Pheobus!" She's a very flat character, imho. The book seems to be a study in love gone wrong-- romantic love, parental love, all gone wrong. There are examples of charitable love toward Quasimoto, and in the end he performs a selfless act for Esmerelda, but overall it was a very depressing look at love vs lust, and a study in what not to do. five stars fo...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Chelsea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chelsea by: mary howe

ok... i'll be honest. i hated the first 150 pages and had i not been reading it for book club i would have abandoned it. about 300 pages in i started to think it was okay. around 400... i really liked it. at page 450 i couldn't put it down. i stayed up till 2am last night finishing it.

so... is it worth the painful first half to get to the second half? now that i've done it... i would say so.

victor hugo could have used a good editor. pages and pages of diatribes and descriptions that made me fe...more

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Feb 25, 2009 Paul Dinger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is so much a redone work, that few would ever consider that it began life as a historical novel. Just like Les Miserables is historical so is this. It takes place in medieval times and it tells of a supposedly celibate priest who falls in love with a gypsy, as does everyone else in the novel, inclduding the ugly bellringing hunchback. She is the notorius lady of the title, Hugo's version of Mary Magdeline, a type he would return to in Les Miserables. She is a victim even though everyone sup...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Simona Bartolotta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, ottocento

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Esisteva, tra la vecchia chiesa e lui (Quasimodo), una simpatia istintiva così profonda, un così gran numero di affinità magnetiche, un così gran numero di affinità materiali, ch'egli vi aderiva in certo qual modo come la tartaruga al suo guscio. La rugosa cattedrale era la sua corazza.

Non so da dove iniziare. Mi sembra anche comprensibile, voglio dire, è.. è Notre-Dame, eccheddiamine! Come si fa a parlare di Notre-Dame de Paris senza sminuire, seppur involontariamente, questo capolavoro? Senza cadere in imperdonabili mancanze o senza parlare con inutili fronzoli e giri di parole? Eppure, dire semplicemente 'è bellissimo' è un sacrilegio, scrivere 'meraviglioso' e basta qualcosa di profano.
Ma sento di aver già esagerato, quindi passiamo alla storia:
E' una vicenda, questa, che colpisce per la sua grande varietà. Ci troviamo di tutto, ogni volta che si gira pagina è come aprire gli occhi su uno scenario diverso. Tranne, ovviamente, nelle parti descrittive, che pure sono ricche di fascino e scritte con penna molto più che raffinata. L'unico colpo di scena un po' più banale -ma che dico! Scempio! Non posso parlare di Hugo e scrivere 'banale'!- è quando si viene a sapere che la Gudule è la madre di Esmeralda. Per dire, io me l'ero immaginato sin dall'introduzione della storia della Chantefleurie, ma sicuramente sono io che guardo troppi film. Questo capitolo, devo dire, questo della rivelazione, è uno dei più commoventi di tutto il libro. Stupendo quando la povera madre dice:

«E che me ne importa, a me, del tuo re? Ti dico che è mia figlia!»

E' straziante. Straziante. Ero lì lì per piangere, e non è che abbia esattamente la lacrima facile!
Esmerada, invece, ha suscitato in me emozioni molto differenti, a volte mi ha ispirato una profonda simpatia, altre commossa, altre irritata. Traduzione: ogni volta che pensava a Phoebus e/o faceva qualcosa per attirarne l'attenzione con inevitabili danni a se stessa e chi le stava intorno, avrei voluto prenderla e sbatterla contro ad un muro. Forse mi sarei contenuta per rispetto nei confronti di quel Santo che è Quasimodo! E' semplicemente adorabile! Ditemi se questo non è amore, cioè, era disposto a portarle fin lì il suo stesso rivale pur di farla felice... io le avrei sputato in faccia alla sola richiesta. Sopportare per sedici anni quel cavolo di prete, poi.
Don Claude Frollo, però, mi ha toccato l'anima.

«Ti amo, capisci?» gridò ancora il prete.
«Che amore!» disse la sventurata in un fremito.
«L'amore di un dannato!» riprese lui.

Anche lui è un personaggio che confonde e suscita diverse sensazioni. Disprezzo per il suo amore depravato; pietà per la sua situazione; tenerezza verso un uomo che in fin dei conti non voleva che essere amato e deve vedersela con un rivale col quale non è capace di competere.
Ecco, Phoebus: visto che non voglio essere volgare, di lui non parlo nemmeno.

Insomma, è un romanzo da leggere. Da assaporare al massimo, fino in fondo, goderselo con tutta l'anima. Entra tra i miei preferiti.(less)

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Aug 29, 2011 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french-language, audiobook

I listened to this on a French language audiobook, downloaded at no cost from http://www.litteratureaudio.com/. The English title is The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

It was the first time I have tackled this classic of French literature. I suspect that I appreciate the fact that I made the effort more than I appreciate the work itself. I chose to listen on audiobook so that I would not feel compelled to look up every single word I wasn't sure of in the dictionary. This strategy worked for me. I unde...more

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May 19, 2011 rebellyell666 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame ist ein Sittenbild der damaligen Gesellschaft, dargestellt von Victor Hugo. Er bricht diverse Themen an, die er im Laufe des Buches zu einer Geschichte verwebt. Stark beschäftigen ihn die verfallenen Gebäude und auch die ständigen Wechsel der Architekturperioden – die Menschen verbauen einfach ihren Stil in ein bestehendes Objekt, um der Zeit Herr zu werden. Dass dies ein schwieriges bis mittelschönes Unterfangen ist, teilt er breitgefächert mit.

Inmitten dieser baulic...more Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame ist ein Sittenbild der damaligen Gesellschaft, dargestellt von Victor Hugo. Er bricht diverse Themen an, die er im Laufe des Buches zu einer Geschichte verwebt. Stark beschäftigen ihn die verfallenen Gebäude und auch die ständigen Wechsel der Architekturperioden – die Menschen verbauen einfach ihren Stil in ein bestehendes Objekt, um der Zeit Herr zu werden. Dass dies ein schwieriges bis mittelschönes Unterfangen ist, teilt er breitgefächert mit.

Inmitten dieser baulichen Aspekte verflechtet er eine Liebesgeschichte, die komplizierter nicht sein könnte: Die Zigeunerin Agnes, die ob ihrer Schönheit nur Esmeralda (Smaragd) genannt wird, ist unsterblich in den Hauptmann Phoebus verliebt, der aber schon versprochen ist. Im Turm von Notre-Dame de Paris, der berühmten, alten Kathedrale lebt der arme, verunstaltete Glöckner Quasimodo, der zu allem Überfluss auch noch durch das ewige Läuten taub geworden ist.

Meine Meinung:

Ich habe dieses Buch nicht im Glauben angefangen, Disney wäre das Maß aller Dinge. Im Gegenteil: Vielleicht habe ich diesen Film ein Mal als Kind gesehen, vielmehr interessierte er mich aber auch nicht. Von daher kann ich auch gar nichts richtig über diesen sagen, nur in groben Zügen.

Ich las eine ungekürzte Ausgabe des Glöckners von Notre Dame, die ich auch wirklich empfehlen würde, um einen umfassenden Eindruck des Werks zu erhalten. Bereits zu Anfang befindet sich der Leser im Justizpalast von Paris, in dem das Volk sich befindet, um den Narrentag zu feiern. Nun, das ganze Volk Paris’ passt nicht in diesen Palast, drum drängen sich die restlichen Leute um das Gebäude herum, schlagen Fenster ein, um sich einen Blick ins Spektakel zu verschaffen. Hugo geht hier besonders auf den Stil ein und bereits hier merkt man als Leser, dass dieses Werk wohl langatmig werden mag.

Was es ab dem dritten Buch sodann wird – ein sehr gute Einteilung im Übrigen, da man so immer einen bestimmten Erzählabschnitt vor Augen hat. Im dritten Buch also widmet er sich der gesamten Pariser Innenstadt mit allen Feinheiten, welche ich – gebe ich zu – nicht annähernd wiedergeben kann, da ich es ob der anekdotischen Langeweile nur müßig überflogen habe.

Die Geschichte nun mit Esmeralda und Quasimodo ist grundsätzlich eine schöne, keine Frage. Dennoch ist Pierre Gringoire der heimliche Antiheld, wie auch von Wikipedia deklariert, da er sich immer wieder aus nahenden Todesurteilen herauslavieren kann. So belustigt zwar der ein oder andere Charakter den Leser, die Geschichte im Gemeinen ist aber sehr eingefahren und auch in der Weiterentwicklung eher stagnierend als fortkommend. Auch, dass diese Handlung viel zu wenig Beachtung erfährt, ist ein großer Nachteil – obwohl sich diese zum Schluss hin als einen der Hauptgründe für den Leser, dieses Buch weiter zu lesen, entpuppt.

Im Gesamten muss ich sagen, dass ich es gut finde, das Buch gelesen zu haben, es aber nur wenig weiterempfehlen kann, da Disney mir nicht erzählt hat, wie langwierig sich Hugo über Nichtigkeiten auslassen kann.
(less)

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Feb 25, 2012 Melisa Mariani rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, koleksiku-ind, favorites, historical-fiction

“Atau, bisa dikatakan, semua saling menghancurkan melalui perjalanan nasib yang tak dapat dijelaskan…”

Paris, Januari 1482. Perayaan hari Epifani yang diadakan bersamaan dengan Festival Kaum Dungu di alun-alun Paris berlangsung dengan meriah. Hampir semua penduduk Paris larut dalam euforia yang aneh, kecuali mungkin sang penyair dan filsuf Pierre Gringoire, yang pementasan dramanya terganggu dengan kedatangan Kardinal dan rombongannya. Kemudian ada seorang gadis gipsi cantik yang menari dengan l...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Dana Salman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: movies, classics-and-legends, best-books-ever, favorites, library-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Review in the least amount of words: Homo homini monstrum*

If I were to rate this book based on how good it is, I'd give it one star. I say 'good', as in it ends with rainbows and sunshine and happy characters. But it doesn't. It's probably the cruelest, most grotesque book I've ever read. And I'm not rating it based on how it should've ended. I'm rating it based on the hours I spent reading into the night, telling myself this next chapter would be the last and then going back on my promise. The...more Review in the least amount of words: Homo homini monstrum*

If I were to rate this book based on how good it is, I'd give it one star. I say 'good', as in it ends with rainbows and sunshine and happy characters. But it doesn't. It's probably the cruelest, most grotesque book I've ever read. And I'm not rating it based on how it should've ended. I'm rating it based on the hours I spent reading into the night, telling myself this next chapter would be the last and then going back on my promise. The outcome of the story? I hated it. Hate it with all my soul. The story itself?
I loved it.
There's just a few things I want to point out: this book is in no way like the Disney Hunchback. Of course Disney could never bring itself to make a dramatic ending any more than it could bring itself to quit making movies altogether. But I'll treat the two versions, the book and the movie, as two seperate stories, because recently The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has become one of my favorite Disney films. Admittedly now I can never picture in my mind the Disney 'Quasi', Esmeralda, and Pheobus the same way I used to-with admiration and compassion-or without remembering their much darker novel counterparts. But I'm not gonna make comparisons in this review.

Hugo is one of those authors that gives us endless descriptions of the scenery, as if they matter, but unlike C.S Lewis I enjoyed reading them (I'll just admit that I did skip a few chapters because I wanted to get back to the story). One of the few of these sort of chapters I did read was Notre-Dame: you could plainly see how opposed Hugo was to what man has done this monstrous structure, defaced it, amputated its spire, knocked over its statues, rendered its interior unrecognizable from the time setting of this story. This I enjoyed reading. Hugo was more than a historian; he was a passionate rebel. He perfectly captures the background of the fifteenth-century, and makes a point of letting the reader know how different society was back then. In the Disney movie, Frollo tells Quasimodo that the world is cruel and evil outside of Notre-Dame, but Esmeralda teaches him that really it isn't, and that gypsies are kind people. But in the book it is evident right away that the people of Paris are every bit as cruel and heartless as the Disney Frollo made them out to be. While Quasimodo is being punished at the pillory not a single heart is moved, except for that of the fair Esmeralda. The Truands, or the beggars, are likewise heartless; Clopin Trouillefou, king of the Truands, enjoys nothing less than slitting throats and hangings. Their superstitions and strong religious beliefs, though got on my nerves at times, also made the medieval folk seem more sinister to me; the mad preist, the deranged recluse; such characters deepened the sense of devilry in the story.
Perhaps the most heart-rending moment for me, though, was Esmeralda crying 'No! No! I don't want to die!' before being executed. Though she is not my favorite heroine in literature, I could blame her naivity on her age; she's only a little girl. And she was hated for crimes she did not commit or didn't even exist, as were alot of people of that time; by being beautiful, a preist falls in love with her and blames her for his damnation; by teaching a goat tricks, she is accused of witchcraft; by being a gypsy, the recluse wants to see her hanged, not knowing that the girl is actually the daughter she has been mourning fifteen years for. (This concept only strengthened my despair for Esmeralda; she finally found her mother, only to watch her die a few hours later and be hanged herself). Near the end of the story I was coming up with a million ways to give it a happy ending, or atleast to save Esmeralda, some of them impossible. My earliest solution was if Quasimodo had not been deaf, he would've known that the Truands had come to rescue the gypsy girl and she would've been saved. But then, if he hadn't been deaf he wouldn't have gotten such a brutal punishment at court at the beginning of the book, and Esmeralda wouldn't have needed to show him pity. Thus, he wouldn't have saved her.
Quasimodo is another interesting character in the story; alot uglier than the cartoon Quasi, described more like an animal than a man, and impassive about most of the things that went on around him. He does not yearn to leave Notre-Dame. Rather he despises humanity that despises him, and he keeps to the cathedral and its bells; he was the very soul of it, as Hugo says. Although he is not the main character of the book, he is an example of *man's inhumanity to man; only by being handicapped, he is looked upon by society as a monstor. The chapter entitled Immanis Pecoris Custos Immanior Ipse was one of my favorites. Hugo did it wonderfully. There are some authors who think they can write, authors that can write, and authors whom it is impossible not to recognize by their style of elaborate and excellent writing. Victor Hugo is strictly in the latter form.

Some of my other favorite chapters:
-The Story of a Cake
-Concerning the Danger of Confiding One's Secret to a Goat
-Deaf
-Earthenware and Crystal
-The Little Shoe(less)

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Mar 06, 2012 Jessica (Books: A true story) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: rorys-book-club-old-school-faves, dusty-bookshelf-2012, own, ebook-challenge-2012, 4-stars, blog, amazon, paperback, kindle

Everything in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a fascinating juxtaposition of the grotesque and the sublime – the speech, the characters, the setting. I felt like the whole point of the story was to show that architecture was the only good thing that came from the Middle Ages so for heaven’s sake, don’t tear those buildings down! We could never build something like that again! This book saved the Notre Dame Cathedral by giving people a reason to care about it and showing how Gothic architecture wa...more

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Aug 28, 2008 Grania O' Malley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 16, 2007 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

When I was in middle school, I'd watched and enjoyed the Disney animated version of the story, totally oblivious to how absolutely horribly Disney had "cleaned it up" for the children. Then one day, on the word of the day mailing list I'm subscribed to, one of the words had an example on its use pulled from the book. Just that one except was enough to totally floor me, I knew Disney really frelled with things, but I never remembered it being so extreme before. I had for some reason assumed the m...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Tyler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing book! Loved the author's view on things. I really felt like I was getting glimpses of a great mind by reading this book. You might want to read it with a highlighter for good quotes. I'm reading Les Miserable right now and again I really like Victor Hugo's writing. There are times where he really goes into depth about history, or something and it is hard to read but if you can get past those parts you will thank yourself because he has some great writing.

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Nov 08, 2007 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: one and all.

Someone else review it almost as perfectly as you could have. He'd seen the Disney adaptation, and decided that Disney did what Disney does, and cut out a lot of important details. Fortunately I read the book first, and couldn't bear the Disney version, partially cause I was tipsy at the time.

The only part of the book that was extremely difficult to make it through was the 30 page description of Paris. I took about 2 weeks to get through those, and flew through the rest.

I read the title of the...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

I was thinking about this book, because I recently looked at my pictures of my trip to Paris and the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Hugo does get a little bit too detail oriented in the beginning of the book, describing Paris and its architecture down to very minute details. However, if you hang in there, it is a well written tale about outsiders, the hunchback who lives in the cathedral and rings the bells, and Esmerelda, the gypsy who takes refuge there (essentially, if one had committed or been acc...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Erik rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is unrelentingly unhappy. I personally do not enjoy reading such stories. I can find plenty of unrelenting unhappiness in the real world, so when I read I like to read stories that leave me with an uplifted feeling.

The book is generally well written although Hugo goes off on two lengthy tangents that completely stall the plot in the first half of the book. One on the layout of 15th century Paris and another is a philosophical treatise on how the invention of the printing press marked...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Ioana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: college-reads, read-in-2011

I am actually surprised I liked this book. I once tried to read "Les Miserables". That didn't work out. But this? I liked. Minus the history parts or heavy passages of architecture. I really liked, of course, the subtle sarcasm.
A five star in my book.

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May 10, 2011 Sonia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Parti I-II

Mi sono persa nella festa, troppa gente che urlava, troppe persone che spingevano per vedere, ognuno che diceva di guardare là, dall'altra parte, che correva e urlava...

oddio l'ingresso nel romanzo per me è stato traumatico! Non ci capisco nulla: chi parla chi ride chi urla...

E a questo punto mi sono detta: ma chi me lo fa fare di restare in questa storia? L'ho evitata al liceo (linguistico, e Hugo era sempre richiesto!!!) l'ho evitato in seguito, perchè ora devo stare qui???

Chi è ques...more

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Dec 09, 2008 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

Alex Bulmer's dramatisation of Victor Hugo's novel, in which a Gypsy girl captures the heart of Quasimodo, who lives hidden away in the bell towers of Notre Dame. The tale of love, betrayal and bravery is produced in a collaboration between BBC Radio Drama and Graeae, a disabled-led theatre company.

From The Radio Times

The 1939 film version of Victor Hugo's gothic tale of love and betrayal turned deformed, deaf bell-ringer Quasimodo (played by Charles Laughton) into something of an iconic figure,...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This has been on my 'to-read' list ever since I read "Les Miserables" 23 years ago. So glad I finally got around to it, but also glad I waited until I was well into adulthood so I could appreciate Hugo's lengthy descriptions of medieval Paris and his love of Gothic architecture. Living in a city (Los Angeles/Hollywood) where there has been massive building projects and urban reorganization in the last decade, I fully appreciate Hugo's lamentation about what has been lost through growth and disre...more This has been on my 'to-read' list ever since I read "Les Miserables" 23 years ago. So glad I finally got around to it, but also glad I waited until I was well into adulthood so I could appreciate Hugo's lengthy descriptions of medieval Paris and his love of Gothic architecture. Living in a city (Los Angeles/Hollywood) where there has been massive building projects and urban reorganization in the last decade, I fully appreciate Hugo's lamentation about what has been lost through growth and disregard. Had I read this as a teen, I would have skipped past such chapters in order to focus strictly on the plot. However, these now thrill me as I recognize the artistry of a writer masterly describing a subject he loves (like Melville and whaling or Jeanette Winterson and the late-Industrial northern England).
What to say about the plot and the characters? Phoebus and Gringoire are not as charming here as they tend to be in the film versions, but Claude Frollo is not quite as evil. He is terribly flawed and misguided, but he has had humanity in the past and nearly regains it in the end. Esmeralda is lacking, unfortunately, not quite as strong as I was accustomed to seeing in the movies. However, the plot's conclusion is incredibly disturbing and sad. I wish that Esmeralda had not been so blind (or deaf, since that is a recurring theme) to the fact that Phoebus is not a great guy. For me, it undercut her portrayal as acting with true Christian kindness and forgiveness (despite being the only non-Christian) that she continued to worship Phoebus and stayed wary of Quasimodo.
I would have preferred the story to be more focused in the final third of the novel. Just as the plot is kicking into high gear, we have a long digression with Louis XI which I found frustrating. Because of this I almost gave the book 4 stars, but when I took into consideration that Hugo took me to another world which was also seen through the prism of the Catholic Reformation, the French Revolution and the July Revolution (and that I understood whichever axe he had to grind, despite the book being 183 years old), I had to give it 5 stars.
I also appreciated Hugo's assertion that although most of the characters are orphans in some way, there are other forms of makeshift kinship that bond them.
And I love how Quasimodo and Esmeralda end up inventing the world's first rape whistle.(less)

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Jun 05, 2013 Kriztin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Out of all the classics I've read- this truly stands out. It shines with a tragedy that will leave you crying. Literally.

(If you're expecting Disney on paper, then prepared to be defined wrong once you read the book).

I read and reread this for as much as I can, I love it that much. Set in 15th century Paris, it's unlike any other classic. The way it's written isn't overly garde, but it's the kind of complicated that you'd want it to be. The plot has the right twist and exceeded boundaries in bea...more

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May 30, 2013 05gavinf rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gavin Flitton P5
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
The intended audience of this book could be anyone.
The main issue in the book is Quasimodo and Frollo falling in love with La Esmerelda.
The setting of the book is quite a while ago back when there were kings and queens that ruled the land and in a old day city called Notre Dame. The setting of the book could change, but it would change some of the content of the book as well, but the concept would be the same.
Characters: Quasimodo, Froll...more

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May 24, 2013 Cassy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: faves-i-d-recommend

I picked up this book because in French class, we're reading a condensed version of it in French, and I wanted the full experience of reading all of it in English. Did I ever get it.

Okay, I'll admit, I skipped the chapter where it just described the streets of Paris. I wanted story, can you blame me?

The story is wonderful, and all the little plot twists are shocking and well done. It was remarkably interesting, and I was kept riveted. I have to make myself read most classics, even if I enjoy the...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This book evoked within me feelings of justice, remorse, awe, pity, admiration, and respect. Although Esmerelda attracts attention as the protagonist of this story and Claude Frollo her antogonist, I could not help my mind to return to Quasimodo throughout the book. His solitude, devotion to his work in the belfry, peace with his environment within Notre Dame, fierce, loyal and steadfast love and devotion to Esmerelda, and goodness of character deserve emulation. Indeed, I found myself so spellb...more This book evoked within me feelings of justice, remorse, awe, pity, admiration, and respect. Although Esmerelda attracts attention as the protagonist of this story and Claude Frollo her antogonist, I could not help my mind to return to Quasimodo throughout the book. His solitude, devotion to his work in the belfry, peace with his environment within Notre Dame, fierce, loyal and steadfast love and devotion to Esmerelda, and goodness of character deserve emulation. Indeed, I found myself so spellbound with his character that I feel not unashamed admitting that a reasonable code of ethics might involve the question: what would Quasimodo do? Here, a character ridiculed, forlorn, deaf, capable of seeing out of only one eye, physically deformed, and hideous nevertheless performed his duties without fail and cared for and loved his savior, Esmeralda, in a genuine way unmatched and unparalled by her actual husband, the poet Pierre Gringoire, and by Quasimodo's hypocritical and obsessed foster parent, Claude Frollo. A genuine romance more riveting than most others I have read, this book moved me in a way few others have.

And Victor Hugo's brilliance ends not with the romance and interplay among Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Jehan Frolle, and Pierre Gringoire. Hugo's masterpiece depicts Paris and Notre-Dame in a such a masterful way that the sections on the geography of the landscape left me enthralled with the power of Hugo's pen. Blessed be Hugo's craft; he illimunited Paris's sweeping vistas, its three-pronged city, and its grand cathedral and sanctuary in a way that I myself probably could not have internalized as well viewing those sites myself with my own eyes.

Overall, a beautiful book masterfully crafted.

Some of my favorite passages:

Page 56: "It is impossible to convey any idea of the look of pride and self-complacency which had overspread Quasimodo's dull and hideous countenance during this triumphal procession from the palace to the Greve. It was the first gratification of self-love that he had ever experienced. Hirtherto he had met with nothing but humiliation, contempt for his condition, disgust of his person. Thus, deaf as he was, he enjoyed like a real Pope the acclamations of that crowd which he hated because he know that he was hated by it."

Page 95: "These hybrid structures, as we have observed, are not the less interesting to the artist, the antiquary, and the historian. They show how far architecture is a primitive art, inasmuch as they demonstrate (what is also demonstrated by the Cyclopean remains, the Pyramids of Egypt, the gigantic Hindu pagodas) that the grandest productions of architecture are not so much individual as social works, rather the offspring of nations in labour, than the inventions of genius; the deposit left by a people; the accumulations formed by ages; the residuum of the successive evaporations of human society -- in short, a species of formation. Every wave of time superinduces its alluvium, every generation deposits its stratum upon the structure, every individual brings his stone. Such is the process of the beavers, such that of the bees, such that of men. The greatest emblem of architecture, Babel, is a beehive."

Page 294: " 'Well, then,' replied she smiling, 'tell me why you have saved me?'
He looked steadfastly at her while she spoke.
'I understand,' rejoined he; 'you ask me why I saved you. You have forgotten a wretch who attempted one night to carry you off, a wretch to whom, the very next day, you brought relief on the vile pillory. A draught of water and a look of pity are more than I could repay with my life. You have forgotten that wretch - but he has not forgotten.' "

Page 295: "Time passed on. Tranquillity returned by degrees to the soul of La Esmeralda .Excessive grief, like excessive joy, is too violent to last. The human heart cannot continue long in either extremity."

Page 301: [Quasimodo] contemplated that happiness, the beauty, with bitterness of soul. After all, nature was not silent in the poor fellow, and his vertebral column, confoundedly twisted as it was, nevertheless thrilled like any other. He thought of the misterable portion which Providence had alloted to him; that woman, love, and its pleasures, would be for ever passing before his eyes, but that he should never do more than witness the felicity of others."(less)

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About Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France.

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