The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

[Corynne]

I thought that finding a book to meet this week's criteria would be tough, but good ol' Wikipedia told me that Hugo was 30 when this was published. I've been meaning to read it for sometime. I took French in high school and I have a friend who loved this book. I used to poke through the Great Illustrated Classics edition as a kid. I figured it was high time I read the source material, rather than rely on Disney's adaptation throughout my adulthood.

[Bana AZ]

It's so different from the Disney version! In Disney, they combined some of the characters of the book into one, so some who seemed like the good guys in Disney are actually irritating and morally questionable in the book.

I hope you got a good translation if you're not reading it in French because some versions can be quite tedious, but the story's pretty enjoyable overall.

Good luck with this one.

[Corynne]

Thanks! Yea, some of the chapters have WAY too much detail for my liking. I get it! They're in Paris!

[misplacedselchie]

I have this picked for "book originally written in another language". Hope it is good!

[Corynne]

I like it when the focus is on the characters. It can get pretty descriptive at times.

[Corynne]

I found out that there were some chapters in my edition that were originally omitted. I can see why. They don't add to the story and make it drag. In regards to the actual story, I loved the cast of characters. Claude Frollo ranks with Severus Snape as most intriguing characters I've read. Glad to have my Disney perceptions of the other characters shattered 3/5