Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
shouldn't be called "the hunchback of"!, 7 April 2005
I felt daunted at the prospect of this book. it looked thick and the words were all really tiny, but i took the plunge anyway and my god! first off, it has very little to do with Quasimodo; yes, he plays his role, but it is merely incidental, the real main charecter is Dom Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon. He's not a villian, he's a tragedy, he lost his parents at an early age and took to raising his younger brother alone, unfortunately, irregardless of his efforts his brother declined, and in the face of this personnal failure Frollo turned to religion and the aquisition of knowledge. He gave up his heart for knowledge and turned away from society, in return he was rendered bitter and unforgiving. Upon encountering the infant Quasimodo he sees a chance to redeem his lost loving soul of the mistakes made with his brother and strives to raise a just and caring monster. Enter La'smerelda; to his reason and religion by society's rule she is a heathen and a devil, but to his heart and loins she is his last desperate hope to live. His actions drive the book, his desire fighting against his religious dogma, he knows it would mean his chance at heaven gone if he were to be with Esmerelda, but he chooses to anyway. she, of course, does not. Only the actions of others by chance (including that of Quasimodo) set fate's course from his goal. the other suprise is that the book is hilarious, Gringoire, whom i interpreted as the personification of the author, is a bumbling chancer, a writer and a poet who chooses to live with the city's undesirables to enhanse his cultural cool, again he is incidental, but carries the entire novel along with an easy and greatly readable enjoyment. it took me five days to get through it, is that really all that long? The original edition of the book was published in france as 'Notre Dame De Paris' and that is the real focus, the church itself. it is a syphony to Notre Dame and Paris combined, in many parts a detailed and beautifully written history of the city, both informative and deviod of domp. written by someone with an obvious love for its very stones and mortar. this is truly one of the greatest and most tragic books i have ever read.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Monumental tragedy, 11 Jun 2005
Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris is usually translated into English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, giving the impression that Quasimodo, the hunchback, is the hero of the novel. In truth, this is a story without a true hero or a true villain. The original French title is more apt because the central character is the cathedral itself, overshadowing, shaping and constraining the merely human lives that are played out in and around it. If the story has a villain it is Fate; blind, merciless and unremitting. There is however a heroine, La Esmeralda, and she alone of all the characters makes us laugh and cry.Hugo can be prolix. For what Dickens will say in a sentence, and Dostoevski in a paragraph, Hugo will employ a chapter, when the mood takes him. I hate the idea of abridgements and I would normally never recommend skipping or skimming any part of a great work, but Hugo is a possible exception. The thirty-odd pages devoted to A Bird's Eye View of Paris can be safely skipped over, unless you are a bird. Everything else is essential, or at least worthwhile. Neither does the author skimp on the use of coincidence, and the plot relies on one 'who-should-it-be-but' coincidence in particular which is so convenient and unlikely that most readers will groan when they realize what it is. The charitable interpretation is that the book is after all about Fate and its inevitability. Despite those quibbles, the novel is a resounding 5-star must-read. It is astonishingly imaginative and includes scenes, especially those in the prison, and at the very end, that are as powerful, disturbing and memorable as anything in literature. I will say no more about them, because I hate spoilers even more than I do abridgements. Needless to say, if you think you know the story from movie versions, you don't.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just edges it over Les Miserables, 3 Mar 2001
By A Customer
Quite unbelievable piece of literature and to my mind Hugo's greatest work, with Les Miserables a close second. It tells of how life has dealt Quasimodo numerous kicks in the teeth and of his fight to protect La Esmeralda. The most harrowing scene is where Quasimodo receives a public flogging for no particular reason other than being deaf, after being prosecuted by a deaf judge. A must read for all ages.
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by Gaston Leroux
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