Notre Dame de Paris

Author: Victor Hugo Translator: Guan Zhenhu France/France
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-06-01
Features: More appropriately, his entire person was a grotesque figure. A large head with brown-red hair hanging down. A hunchback stood between his two shoulders, balanced by a pigeon chest in front. From the thigh to the foot, the entire lower limbs were twisted in bizarre shapes, with only the knees touching each other. From the front, they resembled two large sickles converging at the handles. Wide feet, giant hands. Such a deformed figure revealed an indescribably terrifying posture: a mixture of vigorous energy, extraordinary agility, and superhuman courage. This was a rare exception: openly defying the eternal law that force and beauty come from harmony. This is the king the ugly people gave themselves! Almost like a haphazardly piled heap of broken giants. Such a Cyclops appearing at the threshold of a small chapel, standing motionless, thick and sturdy, almost as tall as wide, like what some great man said, "the square of the base." Seeing his cloak half-red and half-purple, covered with silver bell-shaped flowers, especially his image of being ugly to perfection, the crowd immediately recognized him and shouted in unison: "This is Quasimodo, the bell ringer! This is Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame! Quasimodo the one-eyed! Quasimodo the lame! Wonderful! Wonderful!" It turned out this poor fellow had many nicknames, and any one of them could be chosen. "Pregnant women should be careful!" the students shouted. "And those who want to get pregnant should be careful too!" John chimed in. The women really covered their faces. One woman said, "Oh, this damn monkey!" Another said, "Ugly and evil!" Another said, "Truly the devil!" "I'm so unlucky to live near Notre-Dame, hearing him crawl through the sewers every night on the rooftops." "With a cat." "He's always on people's roofs." "He pours bad luck into our house through the chimney." "That night, he made a face at me from our window, and I thought it was a man and was terrified!" "I dare say he's a member of the witches' sabbath. Once, he dropped a broom on the roof of my house." "Ah! The hunchback's face!" "Puh-puh-puh!"