Hunchback of Notre Dame, The: Week 1 - Book 1

[MadgeUK]

I find books with dialogue a much slower read than those which are descriptive, like this one. Dialogue breaks up the flow of good writing and (for me) intrudes more than the authorial voice does.

I much prefer passages like this one, which introduces us to Quasimodo's 'perfect ugliness' in Chapter V, than the bitty one-liner dialogue which follows it:-

'Or rather, his whole person was a grimace. A huge head, bristling with red hair; between his shoulders an enormous hump, a counterpart perceptible in front; a system of thighs and legs so strangely astray that they could touch each other only at the knees, and, viewed from the front, resembled the crescents of two scythes joined by the handles; large feet, monstrous hands; and, with all this deformity, an indescribable and redoubtable air of vigor, agility, and courage,--strange exception to the eternal rule which wills that force as well as beauty shall be the result of harmony. Such was the pope whom the fools had just chosen for themselves.......One would have pronounced him a giant who had been broken and badly put together again......When this species of cyclops appeared on the threshold of the chapel, motionless, squat, and almost as broad as he was tall; squared on the base, as a great man says; with his doublet half red, half violet, sown with silver bells, and, above all, in the perfection of his ugliness, the populace recognized him on the instant, and shouted with one voice,-'

In our society today we treat the disadvantaged with more kindness and I expect that most of us reading this description will not have been struck with horror by Quasimodo's appearance but will feel immediate sympathy for him. Hugo's Parisians however, saw Quasimodo just as the medieval Parisians did, as a devil incarnate. Will future chapters show us that his character belies his appearance? And what of the contrasting beauty of Esmeralda, described earlier - the beauty against the beast - will that be borne out by her future actions or will the fact of her being a gipsy damn her?

[Loretta]

MadgeUK wrote: "I find books with dialogue a much slower read than those which are descriptive, like this one. Dialogue breaks up the flow of good writing and (for me) intrudes more than the authorial voice does...."

Madge, you make a very interesting point here.

I, as you suspected, immediately felt sympathy for Quasimodo at his introduction. And, with my modern sensibilities, I assumed that Hugo felt similar sympathy for the character (perhaps underscored by the monstrous way he was treated by the crowd upon first seeing him--surely, we're supposed to sympathize with someone receiving that much scorn?).

But of course I neglected to take into account the mindset of the 1830s. I can't honestly say for sure whether Hugo's contemporaries would think like I do (probably not, it seems) or like the characters in the novel (this seems more likely, and yet I find it unsettling).

Thanks for raising this point.