The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
1831 novel by Victor Hugo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1831 novel by Victor Hugo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris, lit. 'Our Lady of Paris', originally titled Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482) is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Roma street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th-century Paris. All its elements—the Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs and marginalised characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism.
1st edition cover | |
| Author | Victor Hugo |
|---|---|
| Original title | Notre-Dame de Paris |
| Translator | Frederic Shoberl (English) |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Romanticism, Gothic fiction |
| Set in | Paris, 1482 |
| Publisher | Gosselin |
Publication date | 16 March 1831 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1833 |
| Media type | Hardback |
| Pages | 940, in 3 volumes |
| 843.7 | |
| Followed by | La Esmeralda (libretto only) |
The novel is considered a classic of French literature[1] and has been adapted repeatedly for film, stage and television. Some prominent examples include a 1923 silent film with Lon Chaney, a 1939 sound film with Charles Laughton, a 1956 film with Anthony Quinn and a 1996 Disney animated film with Tom Hulce.
Written during a time of cultural upheaval, the novel champions historical preservation. Hugo solidified Notre-Dame de Paris as a national icon, arguing for the preservation of Gothic architecture as an element of France's cultural heritage.[2]
The novel's French title, Notre-Dame de Paris, refers to Notre-Dame Cathedral. Frederic Shoberl's 1833 English translation was published as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. This became the generally used title in English, referring to Quasimodo, Notre-Dame's bell-ringer.
Victor Hugo initially agreed to write Notre-Dame de Paris in 1828. Due to Hugo's other literary projects, the novel fell by the wayside until 1830. A primary theme of the novel is that of the value of Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style. For instance, the medieval stained glass panels of Notre-Dame de Paris had been replaced by white glass to let more light into the church.[3] A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs (War [declared] on the Demolishers) specifically aimed at saving Paris's medieval architecture.[4] The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year, but Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. In the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded that Hugo complete the book by February 1831. Beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked nonstop on the project thereafter.
Legend has it that Hugo locked himself in his room, getting rid of his clothes to write the novel on time, the idea being he could not go outside without clothes.[5]
In 1482 Paris, during the 21st year of the reign of Louis XI, 10 years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, sixteen-year-old Roma dancer Esmeralda is the romantic and sexual interest of many men, including Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers; poet Pierre Gringoire; the deformed cathedral bell-ringer Quasimodo, and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of Notre-Dame Cathedral. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but Quasimodo is captured by Phoebus and his guards. After he saves her, Esmeralda becomes infatuated with Phoebus. Gringoire, who attempted to help Esmeralda but was knocked out by Quasimodo, unwittingly wanders into the "Court of Miracles", populated by the Roma and the truands (beggars). They are about to hang him for being an outsider, but Esmeralda saves him by agreeing to marry him. She only does it to save his life, however, and much to Gringoire's annoyance, refuses to allow him to touch her.
The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for two hours, followed by another hour's public exposure. He calls for water. Seeing his thirst, Esmeralda approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart.
Frollo learns from Gringoire, with whom he has a passing acquaintance, that Esmeralda has taught her pet goat, Djali, who sometimes performs with her on stage, to spell "PHOEBUS" using movable letters, and that she often whispers the name Phoebus when she thinks she is alone. Frollo suspects Phoebus may be a name. As it happens, Phoebus is a drinking companion of Frollo's dissolute younger brother, Jehan. After seeing them set out for a local tavern, Frollo follows them. He learns that Phoebus has arranged an assignation with Esmeralda at a local boarding-house, and follows Phoebus there. He observes the meeting from an adjoining room. Esmeralda begs Phoebus to marry her, but Phoebus only wants to lie with her, and eventually seduces her. Inflamed with jealousy, Frollo stabs Phoebus, though not fatally. Esmeralda briefly faints, though not before she has caught a glimpse of Frollo. When she recovers, Frollo has fled, and she is found near Phoebus' body. Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus and also with witchcraft, and is sentenced to death by hanging. The prison's torturer hurts her so badly that she falsely confesses to Phoebus' murder. While imprisoned, awaiting her execution, Esmeralda is visited by Frollo. The Archdeacon professes his love for her and promises to help her escape if she reciprocates. However, recognising him as Phoebus' true attacker, she angrily rebuffs him. As Esmeralda is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down from Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral, temporarily protecting her – under the law of sanctuary – from arrest.
Frollo delves deeper into his obsession and gets frustrated with his plan failing. Upon seeing Esmeralda and Quasimodo when going to meet the latter, he grows jealous. That night he breaks into Esmeralda's cell with his master-key and attempts to rape her. Quasimodo intervenes and beats him, almost throwing him off the cathedral before the moonlight reveals his identity. Frollo kicks Quasimodo and declares to Esmeralda that if he cannot have her, no one shall.
Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be executed. Clopin Trouillefou, the leader of the Roma, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the Court of Miracles to charge Notre-Dame and rescue Esmeralda.
Quasimodo incorrectly assumes the approaching Roma intend to harm Esmeralda and drives them off. As Quasimodo defends the cathedral against the invaders, the uproar reaches the king, who is incorrectly informed that those attacking the cathedral are eager for Esmeralda's hanging rather than trying to rescue her. The king orders the authorities to dispatch the invaders and calls for Esmeralda's immediate execution to settle the unrest. In the chaos, Esmeralda is taken from the cathedral by Frollo and Gringoire.
The king's men come to Notre-Dame searching for Esmeralda. Quasimodo believes they intend to rescue her and helps them, meaning that if she had still been there, he would have inadvertently betrayed her.
Frollo once again attempts to win Esmeralda's love, but she asserts that she would rather die than be with him. Frollo goes to alert the authorities while trapping Esmeralda with Sister Gudule, a reclusive anchoress who bears an extreme hatred for the Roma, as she believes they cannibalised her infant daughter. However, it is revealed that Gudule is really Esmeralda's birth mother and that Esmeralda is Gudule's long-lost daughter Agnes, abducted and raised by the Roma. The two women's joyous reunion is cut short when the king's men arrive to take Esmeralda to the gallows. A desperate Gudule clings to Esmeralda even as she is taken to the place of execution. The guards pull the old woman off her daughter, and she falls to the pavement and dies from the harsh impact.
From the tower of Notre-Dame, Frollo and Quasimodo witness as Esmeralda is hanged. Upon observing this, Quasimodo pushes the Archdeacon from the height of the cathedral to his death. With nothing left to live for, Quasimodo vanishes and is never seen again.
A deformed skeleton is found many years later embracing another in the charnel house at Montfaucon, implying that Quasimodo had sought Esmeralda among the decaying corpses and laid down to die while holding her. As the guards attempt to pull the skeletons apart, his skeleton crumbles to dust.
 | This section possibly contains original research. (February 2015) |
The novel's original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris, indicates that the cathedral itself is the most significant aspect of the novel, both the main setting and the focus of the story's themes.[6] The building had fallen into disrepair at the time of writing, which was something Hugo felt strongly about. The book portrays the Romantic era as one of extremes in architecture, passion, and religion.[citation needed] The theme of determinism (fate and destiny, as set up in the preface of the novel through the introduction of the word "ANANKE") is explored, as well as revolution and social strife.[7]
Architecture is a major concern of Hugo's in Notre-Dame de Paris, not just as embodied in the cathedral itself, but as representing throughout Paris and the rest of Europe an artistic genre which, Hugo argued, was about to disappear with the arrival of the printing press. Claude Frollo's portentous phrase, "Ceci tuera cela" ("This will kill that", as he looks from a printed book to the cathedral building), sums up this thesis, which is expounded on in Book V, chapter 2. Hugo writes that "quiconque naissant poète se faisait architecte" ("whoever was born a poet became an architect"), arguing that while the written word was heavily censored and difficult to reproduce, architecture was extremely prominent and enjoyed considerable freedom.
Il existe à cette époque, pour la pensée écrite en pierre, un privilège tout-à-fait comparable à notre liberté actuelle de la presse. C'est la liberté de l'architecture. |
There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege comparable to our current freedom of the press. It is the freedom of architecture. |
| —Book V, Chapter 2 |
With the recent introduction of the printing press, it became possible to reproduce one's ideas much more easily on paper, and Hugo considered this period to represent the last flowering of architecture as a great art form. As with many of his books, Hugo was interested in a time that seemed to him to be on the cusp of two types of society.[8]
The major theme of the third book is that over time the cathedral has been repaired but these repairs and additions have made the cathedral worse: "And who put the cold, white panes in the place of those windows" and "...who substituted for the ancient Gothic altar, splendidly encumbered with shrines and reliquaries, that heavy marble sarcophagus, with angels' heads and clouds" are a few examples of this. This chapter also discusses how, after repairs to the cathedral after the French Revolution, there was not a significant style in what was added. It seems as if the new architecture is now uglier and worse than it was before the repair.
Hugo introduced with this work the concept of the novel as Epic Theatre. A giant epic about the history of a whole people, incarnated in the figure of the great cathedral as witness and silent protagonist of that history, and the whole idea of time and life as an ongoing, organic panorama centered on dozens of characters caught in the middle of that history. It is the first novel to have beggars as protagonists.
A significant aspect of Notre-Dame de Paris is that it encompasses the whole of life, from the King of France to Paris sewer rats, in a manner later used by Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and many others, including Charles Dickens. The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation.
In The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest".
In 2010, British archivist Adrian Glew discovered references to a real-life man called "Hunchback" who was a foreman of a government sculpting studio in Paris in the 1820s who worked on post-Revolution restorations to the cathedral.[9]
The name Quasimodo has become synonymous with "a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior".[10]
To date, all the film and TV adaptations have strayed somewhat from the original plot, some going as far as to give it a happy ending, including in the classic 1939 film and the 1996 Disney animated film. The 1956 French film is one of the few versions to end almost exactly like the novel, although it changes other sections of the story. The 1996 Disney version has an ending that is inspired by an opera created by Hugo himself.
Idris Elba is slated to not only play the title character but also to direct and produce music for a modern retelling to be broadcast on Netflix.[11]
A 1934 36-part serial adaptation created by George Edwards was broadcast on Australian radio.[18]
John Carradine starred in an hour-long adaptation broadcast on a 1946 episode of Your Playhouse of Favorites.[19]
The book was twice adapted and broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial:
Artists like Noel Gloesner,[23] Andrew Dickson,[24] Robin Recht,[25] Tim Conrad,[26] Gilbert Bloch,[27] George Evans[28] and Dick Briefer[29] have all created comic strip and book adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Paulo Borges,[30] Gustavo Machado[31] and Dan Spiegle[32] have drawn comic strip versions based on the 1996 Disney movie adaptation.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has been translated into English many times. Translations are often reprinted in various imprints. Some translations have been revised over time.
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