Notre-Dame de Paris - World Youth Literature Classics Collection

Author: (French) Victor Hugo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a milestone in Hugo's novelistic creation. The story takes place in 15th-century Paris under the reign of Louis XI. Esmeralda, a beautiful and innocent Gypsy girl, is a wandering performer. The Archdeacon Claude Frollo becomes infatuated with her and orders his adopted son, the deformed bell ringer Quasimodo, to kidnap her. Esmeralda is rescued by Captain Phoebus, the King's guard, and soon falls in love with this frivolous and faithless officer. While the couple is having a secret rendezvous, Frollo stabs Phoebus and frames Esmeralda for the crime. Esmeralda is sentenced to death by hanging. Quasimodo, too, harbors affection for her, and thus rescues her from the gallows, hiding her in the sanctuary of Notre-Dame. The beggars and outcasts of Paris's lower society, seeking to save Esmeralda, storm the cathedral. The King sends Phoebus with troops to suppress the uprising. In the chaos, Frollo abducts Esmeralda, forcing her to succumb to his lust. After she resists him fiercely, he hands her over to the pursuing guards and watches with a cruel smile as she is hanged from the bell tower. In despair, Quasimodo realizes the Archdeacon's monstrous nature and, in a fit of rage, pushes him off the tower, killing him instantly. Quasimodo then takes his own life, embracing Esmeralda's body. This novel, with its gripping plot, vivid medieval social scenes, and strikingly exaggerated and contrasting characters, has become a masterpiece of Romantic literature.