The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

About The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris) is an 1831 French novel written by Victor Hugo. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The book tells the story of a poor barefoot Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who was raised by the archdeacon (Claude Frollo). The book was written as a statement to preserve the Notre Dame cathedral and not to 'modernize' it, as Hugo was thoroughly against this.

Hugo began to write Hunchback in 1829. The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year. However, Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. By the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded the book to be completed by February 1831. And so beginning in September of 1830, Hugo worked non-stop on the project; he bought a new bottle of ink, a woolen cloak, and cloistered himself in his room refusing to be bothered or to leave his house (except for nightly visits to the cathedral). The book was finished six months later.

Hugo finished the book just as he was running out of ink. This tempted him to title the work What There Is in a Bottle of Ink. He eventually decided against it and called the book Notre-Dame de Paris. English translations of the book are often titled The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which have led some to believe that Quasimodo is the main character. Hugo never liked this title, preferring the original Notre-Dame de Paris. He gave this title because he considered the cathedral itself to be the main "character" of the story. The story takes place around and inside the church, and Hugo spent much time describing the building as well as decrying its abandonment after the abuse it suffered during the French Revolution; during the Revolution, the church had been viewed as a symbol of the old regime and was pillaged and vandalized by angry mobs.