Notre-Dame de Paris (Color Illustrations Edition)

Author: (French) Victor Hugo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Hugo (1802–1885), Victor Hugo, French writer. Born on February 26, 1802, in Besan?on, and died on May 22, 1885, in Paris. Hugo traveled to Italy, Spain, and other places with his father, who was a general. His mother was a supporter of the Bourbon monarchy and had a profound influence on his youth. In 1814, Hugo moved to Paris with his family. In 1819, he co-founded La Revue des Arts Conservateurs with the poet Vigny, where he frequently published poems, many of which supported the Bourbon monarchy, praised monarchism, and advocated Catholicism. In 1822, he published the poetry collection Odes and Ballads, which earned him an annual pension from Louis XVIII. Later, he published New Odes and Ballads and Long Poems, making breakthroughs in both content and form. In 1831, his long The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was published. The novel depicts the tragic suffering and persecution of the kind-hearted Gypsy girl Esmeralda under the feudal autocracy of the Middle Ages, reflecting the darkness of the autocratic society, the rampant reactionary church, and the cruelty of the judicial system, highlighting the theme of anti-feudalism. The plot is complex, the characters are exaggerated, and the entire work is written in vivid colors, fully embodying the characteristics of Romanticism. After The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Hugo successively published Romantic dramas such as Lucrèce Borgia, Mary Tudor, and Angelo, poetry collections such as Les Feuilles d'Automne, Les Chansons des Crépuscules, Les Contes de l'?me, and Lumière et Ombre, the novel Claude Goret, and the essay Essais de littérature et de philosophie. The works of this period were filled with anti-feudal and anti-clerical spirit. During his exile, his creative output included financial assets of the July Monarchy, the establishment and consolidation of class rule, which gradually led Hugo to adopt a compromising attitude politically. In 1841, he was elected a member of the French Academy. After that, his literary creation became relatively quiet. After the June Revolution of 1848, he gradually leaned toward a republican stance. In the presidential election, he voted for Louis Napoleon, but soon became his opponent. In 1851, Louis Napoleon launched a coup, declared an empire, and conducted widespread suppression. Hugo was forced into exile abroad for 19 years. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was written in 1831. In this work, the heroine Esmeralda is extraordinarily beautiful, while Quasimodo is extremely ugly but kind-hearted, both embodying the essence of true, good, and beauty. Clodé, however, though cloaked in the guise of religion, represents false, ugly, and evil, and the extreme contradiction between beauty and ugliness creates an extremely exaggerated artistic effect. This novel is the best embodiment of Hugo's artistic thought.