Notre Dame de Paris - (High School Version) (Revised Edition)

Author: (French) Victor Hugo
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1982-06-01
Features: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a sensational Romantic novel by Hugo, first published in 1831. At this time, Hugo had shifted from Monarchism to bourgeois liberalism under the influence of the 1830 Revolution, and the work vividly reflects anti-feudal, anti-clerical sentiments and praise for the common people. Set against the backdrop of 15th-century France under the rule of Louis XI, the novel tells the tragic story of a pure and kind Bohemian girl who suffers persecution, exposing the treachery of church officials, the cruelty of the Inquisition, the debauchery of the aristocracy, and the tyranny of the monarchy. The author explicitly states that the persecution of Esmeralda is primarily carried out by the church authorities—Archdeacon of Notre-Dame—whose own sinful desires remain unsatisfied, leading him to cruelly target the innocent girl. religious courts, who, based on prejudice and superstition, torture and create. Additionally, the nobleman Phoebus mentally destroys and crushes this pure soul. , the highest embodiment of the feudal autocracy—the king—personally orders the "hanging of a witch" and brutally suppresses the people who attempt to rescue Esmeralda. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame artistically recreates the historical reality of 400 years ago under King Louis XI, showing how the court and the church colluded to oppress the people and how the people bravely fought against these two forces. The Gypsy rebel Esmeralda and the ugly cripple Quasimodo are presented to readers as embodying true beauty, while in the Archdeacon Frollo and the noble soldier Phoebus, readers see cruel, hollow souls and sinful desires. The author skillfully weaves a moving and dramatic story, making the novel highly readable. The novel is rich in Romanticism and employs the technique of contrast, serving as an artistic model for the application of Romanticism's principle of opposition. Its publication further enhanced Hugo's fame.