Monday, April 6, 2020

Book Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo


The Hunchback Of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo: Very Good Hardcover ...


Today we’re reviewing a book I’ve sat on for literal months to review. No, seriously, I started reading it months ago and just kept putting it down because it was such a chore to get through. Yes, that probably says something about how much I like it. But I’m not going to just review xenofiction all the time. Once every while I feel like taking a look at a literary book is worth its time.

So, behold, as today, I’m reviewing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. Also, fun fact: Not counting The Holy Bible, this is the oldest book I’ve read so far. Anywho, let’s dive in.



Okay, so I could give a plot synopsis here, but the book kinda goes all over the place. So I’ll just try. We have the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, in which the hunchback Quasimodo was raised by the archdeacon, Frollo. There’s this Romani girl called Esmeralda, and both Quasimodo and Frollo have the hots for her. So does a poet named Pierre.

A whole lot of stuff goes down, but it comes down to Esmeralda not returning the affections to any of these men. This angers Frollo, who wants to get her hanged because of this. Esmeralda ends up in Notre Dame where Quasimodo looks after her, but is she really save there…?

Spoiler alert... because this book is literally over 150 years since this book was published...

No she isn’t. She gets hanged in the end, Frollo dies by being thrown off of Notre Dame while laughing at the sight of her death by Quasimodo, and Quasimodo himself just dies of starvation besides Esmeralda’s body and later his bones turn to dust. Yippee.

The plot wasn’t really too intriguing. It’s basically a love triangle... quartet... quintet if you count Phoebus and there’s a horny archdeacon trying to get the main character killed. Okay, the latter is a bit more interesting, but know one thing about me: I dread love triangles... or quintets in this case. Most media surrounding those I’m bound not to like. The 1996 Disney adaptation of this book is one of the rare exceptions to this, fun fact. But not this book. It just couldn’t really capture my interest, which is why I kept putting it down and took so long to finish it.

One thing I can appreciate about the novel is one of the goals it was trying to accomplish: keeping the important old architecture. Back in the time when Hugo started writing this novel, a lot of old buildings were being replaced with modern ones. Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame to hopefully get people to appreciate the old, medieval architecture. Notre Dame herself was in a state of disrepair.

Literal chapters of the book are dedicated to just describing the beautiful old architecture of Paris. These chapters for me were a bit tough to get through, but back then were very relevant. And it seemingly worked, seeing how Notre Dame’s still in Paris. Been there myself even.

So, yeah, I’m glad Hugo dedicated attention to the architecture in the novel, even if it was hard to get through. It may just have protected Gothic architecture in the long run.

The characters aren’t mightily amazing, but they get the point across.

Despite the commonly-used English title of the book, Esmeralda is actually the main character. I quite enjoyed her, with how she refuses to accept Frollo’s disgusting advances even if her own life is at stake.
Quasimodo, Phoebus and Pierre I didn’t care much about. Pierre I even downright couldn’t stand in the end.
Frollo makes for an intimidating villain. He’s definitely a creep I don’t want after me, and his death felt rather satisfying. I don’t have much to say about him, he’s just a good villain.

The pacing was a little bit on the slower side, especially since we got some chapters just describing the architecture of Paris. So, yeah, if you want a rather quickly-paced book, this just isn’t for you.

Overall, while I do appreciate Notre Dame de Paris for its intention to save medieval architecture and its main character and villain, it just wasn’t for me. The plot is a little bit all-over the place with so many characters to focus on, and the slow pacing just couldn’t keep me engaged for long.

If you want to check out this book for its historical value or simply to read a medieval romance or something along those lines, I guess I can recommend it. But, other than that, I’d give this one a pass.

Rating: 2/5

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