The Happy Bookers

Date: 26 May 2019
Location: Jay & Gina

Notre Dame Cathedral burned on 12 March 2019. So many people were horrified to see this utterly incredible building burn. As the fire was still being put out, the question became how will it be rebuilt? As the discussion raced around the world with the constant attention of the press, I suggested to Bob that maybe we should read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He ran with the idea at the next bookclub meeting. Our discussion was held at our house on May 26, 2019. And then somehow it became my job to write up the report.

This is where I confess, that I haven’t finished reading the book, but have read lots of reviews and I did make this photo. My intention had been to read the entire book before doing the review. However, Bob did ask where was the review and I felt GUILTY. I have read lots of different sections of the book. Does that count?? However, if I remember correctly, Bob was the only one of us to have actually read the book, and did give us a great summation of it when we discussed/reviewed it.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris) was completed in 1831. Hugo wished to call attention to the need for funds to repair the cathedral. He began writing it in 1829, largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the 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 For instance, the medieval stained glass panels of the cathedral had been replaced by white glass to let more light into the church. This explains the large descriptive sections of the book, which far exceed the requirements of the story. A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs (War to the Demolishers) specifically aimed at saving Paris’ medieval architecture. 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.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame tells the story of a poor barefoot Gypsy girl, Esmeralda, and a misshapen bell-ringer, Quasimodo. It begins during the Renaissance in 1482, on the Day of the Festival of Fools, January 6th. ( I DID NOT make up the date or the name – traditional.) which is the Feast of the Three Wise Men and the customary end of the Christmas season.

From Wikipedia

“The Romani Esmeralda (born as Agnes) captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially 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, who save Esmeralda. Gringoire, who attempted to help Esmeralda but was knocked out by Quasimodo, is about to be hanged by beggars when Esmeralda saves him by agreeing to marry him for four years.

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. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart.
Later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo had actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral, temporarily protecting her – under the law of sanctuary – from arrest.

Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda’s right to the sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be killed. Clopin, the leader of the Roma (Gypsies), hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda.

When Quasimodo sees the Roma, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Likewise, he thinks the king’s men want to rescue her, and tries to help them find her. She is rescued by Frollo and Gringoire. But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is being hanged. When Frollo laughs during Esmeralda’s hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the height of Notre Dame to his death. With nothing left to live for, Quasimodo vanishes and is never seen again.

In the original version, Quasimodo’s skeleton is found many years later in the charnel house, a mass grave into which the bodies of the destitute and criminals were indiscriminately thrown, implying that Quasimodo had sought Esmeralda among the decaying corpses and lay beside her, himself to die. As the guards attempt to pull the embracing skeletons apart, they both crumble into dust.”

Since we hadn’t read it, I thought that we needed a summation.

Some of the reviews complained about the length of the descriptions of the town of Paris. However, another reviewer noted that it gave a most loving and detailed depiction of a city, rivaled only by Joyce’s description of Dublin in Ulysses, or Dickens’ portrait of London in Oliver Twist. I found the descriptions fascinating, and looked up old maps trying to identify what was being described and where we were being led. I also regretted that I’m not that familiar with the city.

I also read that letters have been found describing a well known and loved hunchback, a resident of the cathedral’s neighborhood, from Hugo’s time. Was Quasimodo based on this well know personage?

I totally agree with another reviewer that this is a very difficult book to get into – hence our lack of reading it? Should we try to read an abridged version?

Plus Disney ruined the story for us.

— Gina