The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) - Victor Hugo
Related: historical novel - horror fiction - Victor Hugo - monsters in literature - Notre Dame - grotesque literature - French literature - 1800s literature - 1830s
The fictive date of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is 1482. [Aug 2006]
Other famous stories featuring grotesques who fall in love (beauty and the beast trope) with beautiful women, usually with tragic consequences, include The Phantom of the Opera.
Gypsy women are often treated in European literatures as femme fatales, demanding lovers who inspire men to acts of violence. Carmen, especially the opera by Georges Bizet, and Esmerelda from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame are well known examples of this trope. [Aug 2006]
Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the most celebrated grotesques in literature. Dr. Frankenstein's monster can also be considered a grotesque. [Aug 2006]
"...every thought, either philosophical or religious, is interested in perpetuating itself..."
Description
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (in French, Notre-Dame de Paris) is a novel first published in 1831 by the French literary giant Victor Hugo.
The enormous popularity of the novel in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it helped to preserve Notre Dame Cathedral, where much of the story is based, in its original state. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre Dame [Jan 2006]
Many film adaptations of the novel have simplified the thematic and historical concerns greatly, leading to the most important theme being the mistreatment of Quasimodo for his ugliness, and the moral that one shouldn't judge people by their looks. However, this is a very small part of Hugo's novel (especially as Quasimodo is much less sympathetic than he is in many film adaptations). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre Dame [Jan 2006]
Esmeralda (damsel in distress) is sentenced to die, but is rescued by Quasimodo and escapes to the Cathedral, where she takes refuge. Quasimodo gives his life in saving Esmeralda. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame_%281923_film%29 [Jan 2006]
Some of his novels were banned by the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Esméralda
Esmeralda is the gypsy girl (modeled after Cervantes's La Gitanilla), a Bohemian from Andalusia, central to the plot of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She constantly attracts men with her seductive dances, and is rarely seen without her clever goat Djali (pronounced Dahl-ya). She is often noted to be around 16 years old.
In the original story, she enters a marriage of convenience with poet Pierre Gringore, but truly loves a soldier named Phoebus, who is already engaged to Fleur De Lys. This does not prevent her from inadvertenly gaining the affections of Quasimodo and Frollo, who has her tried for witchcraft .
In the Disney retelling, she has a solo entitled "God Help the Outcasts" and is much older. Her fate varies from tale to tale. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esm%C3%A9ralda [Aug 2006]