Take a photo of a barcode or cover
calarco 's review for:
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by Victor Hugo
As far as French gothic narratives go, you will be hard-pressed to find one as iconic as Victor Hugo’s [b:The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|30597|The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388342667l/30597._SY75_.jpg|3043569]. Hard to describe, this book is so many things that encapsulates the drama at the very heart of Paris.
Growing up as a kid in the 90’s, the 1996 Disney film adaptation was my introduction to this material, and now I know it was pretty much all lies. Not unlike Sleeping Beauty, many liberties were taken to adapt the text into a family-friendly tale that could be marketed at large, and much of the dark absurdism of the original piece was lost in the process. Not to mention that this book is also wholly inappropriate for young children.
Admittedly, many of the story elements really do not hold up. This includes the representation of the “hunchback” Quasimodo, the Romani as baby snatchers, the 16-year-old Esmerelda as a naïve fool, her mother as a ragging lunatic, who are all rounded out by an additional cast of terrible, self-interested individuals. While there was certainly plenty of drama here, this story read like a slow-moving soap opera. I really did not feel invested in anyone’s outcome after all the twists and turns were done unravelling.
What is interesting and noteworthy about this novel though, is Victor Hugo’s incorporation of the Notre-Dame cathedral almost as more of a character than a setting. In general, his thoughts on the importance and resonance of architecture are infinitely more insightful than the actual plot of the book. This includes his musings that:
“…the greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation’s effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius; the deposit left by a whole people; the heaps accumulated by centuries; the residue of successive evaporations of human society – in a word, species of formations. Each wave of time contributes its alluvium, each race deposits its layer on the monument, each individual brings his stone. Thus do the beavers, thus do the bees, thus do men. The great symbol of architecture, Babel, is a hive.”
This seems to be particularly relevant with the 2019 fire that broke out at the Norte-Dame cathedral, as well as the subsequent national response. I have long felt that it is a people that give cultural meaning to any landmark, rather than vice-versa. Each generation shapes and gives life to a city and its buildings, that go beyond the artistic assembly of a stack of bricks. My New York sensibilities may be shining through here, as every building in the city has a long and complicated history (and I don’t just mean the haunted ones). So, it was fascinating to see Hugo use this premise within a crazy soap opera narrative.
He also expands on how the role of books can shape public perception about key architectural structures, somewhat breaking the fourth wall if you will:
“…which constantly superposes itself without a break, without a gap, upon the human race, which walks a monster with a thousand legs?—Architecture or printing? It is printing. Let the reader make no mistake; architecture is dead, irretrievably slain by the printed book,—slain because it endures for a shorter time,—slain because it costs more. Every cathedral represents millions…A book is so soon made, costs so little, and can go so far!...The grand poem, the grand edifice, the grand work of humanity will no longer be built: it will be printed. And henceforth, if architecture should arise again accidentally, it will no longer be mistress. It will be subservient to the law of literature, which formerly received the law from it. The respective positions of the two arts will be inverted.”
This twisted tale of how the disenfranchised are exploited and crushed by those in power, all under the eye of grand church, I think is quite telling of how grandeur means nothing if the spirituality of those worshiping inside does not represent true justice. It’s just so sad that this kinda boring story is what comes from such a promising seed of thought.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed this book and am happy that I (finally) read it. Feel free to pick up a copy and decide for yourself!
Growing up as a kid in the 90’s, the 1996 Disney film adaptation was my introduction to this material, and now I know it was pretty much all lies. Not unlike Sleeping Beauty, many liberties were taken to adapt the text into a family-friendly tale that could be marketed at large, and much of the dark absurdism of the original piece was lost in the process. Not to mention that this book is also wholly inappropriate for young children.
Admittedly, many of the story elements really do not hold up. This includes the representation of the “hunchback” Quasimodo, the Romani as baby snatchers, the 16-year-old Esmerelda as a naïve fool, her mother as a ragging lunatic, who are all rounded out by an additional cast of terrible, self-interested individuals. While there was certainly plenty of drama here, this story read like a slow-moving soap opera. I really did not feel invested in anyone’s outcome after all the twists and turns were done unravelling.
What is interesting and noteworthy about this novel though, is Victor Hugo’s incorporation of the Notre-Dame cathedral almost as more of a character than a setting. In general, his thoughts on the importance and resonance of architecture are infinitely more insightful than the actual plot of the book. This includes his musings that:
“…the greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation’s effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius; the deposit left by a whole people; the heaps accumulated by centuries; the residue of successive evaporations of human society – in a word, species of formations. Each wave of time contributes its alluvium, each race deposits its layer on the monument, each individual brings his stone. Thus do the beavers, thus do the bees, thus do men. The great symbol of architecture, Babel, is a hive.”
This seems to be particularly relevant with the 2019 fire that broke out at the Norte-Dame cathedral, as well as the subsequent national response. I have long felt that it is a people that give cultural meaning to any landmark, rather than vice-versa. Each generation shapes and gives life to a city and its buildings, that go beyond the artistic assembly of a stack of bricks. My New York sensibilities may be shining through here, as every building in the city has a long and complicated history (and I don’t just mean the haunted ones). So, it was fascinating to see Hugo use this premise within a crazy soap opera narrative.
He also expands on how the role of books can shape public perception about key architectural structures, somewhat breaking the fourth wall if you will:
“…which constantly superposes itself without a break, without a gap, upon the human race, which walks a monster with a thousand legs?—Architecture or printing? It is printing. Let the reader make no mistake; architecture is dead, irretrievably slain by the printed book,—slain because it endures for a shorter time,—slain because it costs more. Every cathedral represents millions…A book is so soon made, costs so little, and can go so far!...The grand poem, the grand edifice, the grand work of humanity will no longer be built: it will be printed. And henceforth, if architecture should arise again accidentally, it will no longer be mistress. It will be subservient to the law of literature, which formerly received the law from it. The respective positions of the two arts will be inverted.”
This twisted tale of how the disenfranchised are exploited and crushed by those in power, all under the eye of grand church, I think is quite telling of how grandeur means nothing if the spirituality of those worshiping inside does not represent true justice. It’s just so sad that this kinda boring story is what comes from such a promising seed of thought.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed this book and am happy that I (finally) read it. Feel free to pick up a copy and decide for yourself!