The Hunchback of Notre Dame

 I had received the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame from Brett several Christmas' ago.  He knew how much I had enjoyed reading Les Miserables, so he thought that I would like reading this Victor Hugo classic as well.  I had a couple of other books on my reading list to finish first, but finally got a chance to start The Hunchback this fall.  I knew nothing about the book and assumed that it was the feel good story of hero Quasimodo saving the life of beloved gypsy Esmerelda as portrayed in the animated Disney movie of the 1990s.  Wow, was I ever wrong.

As I started The Hunchback of Notre Dame I was incredibly glad that I had read Les Miserable first.  Even though it was written thirty years before, Hugo used the same style of writing in both books.  Brett had told me that  the author was part of the realist movement which was why I so enjoyed his descriptive scenes and historical views of his time period.  When I read Les Miserable I felt as though I was traveling back to  nineteenth century Paris.  The Hunchback was even more interesting historically as it told a story from the late 1400s while also referencing Paris of the 1860s.  In the beginning there was a thirty page chapter describing the view of Paris from the rooftop of Notre Dame including the intricate details of the streets of the city.  Meg asked me how I could stand reading that much detail.  I reminded her that I was actually a history major in college, so I found learning about the architecture of the time period fascinating.  It also set up the rest of the story as I could envision the characters movements throughout the streets of Paris, along the Seine river and through the cathedral without Hugo having to describe them once again later in the story.  If it had been Ernest Hemingway describing a mountain in Spain or Joseph Conrad detailing the leaves of the trees along the Congo, that would be a different story.  Hugo's descriptions had purpose.  Theirs was just to show off their literary talents while boring the reader to tears.

Once the scene was set and the characters were introduced, the story started to unfold.  I was surprised by how little the Hunchback actually appeared in the first 3/4 of the book.  I was even more shocked with how dark the book was.  I texted Brett several times during the past month "They made a Disney movie out of this??"  An Archdeacon obsessed with a young gypsy woman, a cavalier captain willing to through the gypsy's life away for a secret randevu, a mad woman yearning for her long lost daughter, a poet who was willing to save the life of a goat instead of his wife, a king that dismissed the cries of his people and a drunken college student who squandered his family's money to the point of vagrancy.  All of these characters were given more time in the book than Quasimodo, the namesake of the novel.  The Hunchback also wasn't the insecure, loveable, empathic character that he was in Disney's version.  He was more monster than man, caring for very little except for the Archdeacon, Esmerelda and his beloved bells.  In the end I told Brett that it reminded me more of Phantom of the Opera with its dark, evil and sinister plot line.  Even though it was drastically different from what I thought it was, I absolutely loved it.