Notre-Dame de Paris: Book Review, Summary, & Analysis
Book Review: Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
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I have received many requests to review the book 'Notre Dame de Paris' which was written by Victor Hugo'. In response, I'm pleased to offer my expert Reviews, Summary, and Analysis in this article.
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Introduction
"Notre Dame de Paris" is the French writer Victor Hugo's first romantic novel that caused a sensation. The novel is set in France under the rule of Louis 11 in the fifteenth century.
Through a story of the brutal persecution of a pure and innocent Bohemian girl, the novel exposes the insidiousness of priests, the brutality of religious courts, the shamelessness of nobles, and the king’s Overbearing and brutal.
The work clearly embodies the anti-feudal and anti-church consciousness and praises the people.
Three extraordinary characters caught in a web of fatal obsession are at the center of Hugo's novel.
The grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of Notre Dame, owes his life to the austere archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion for the gypsy dancer Esmeralda.
She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, empty-headed officer, but an unthinking act of kindness wins Quasimodo's selfless devotion.
Behind the central figures is a pageant of picturesque characters, ranging from the cruel, superstitious king, Louis XI, to the underworld of beggars and petty criminals.
These disreputable trends of night-time assaults on the cathedral are one of the most spectacular set-pieces of Romantic literature. Hugo vividly depicts medieval Paris, where all life is dominated by the massive cathedral.
Book: Notre-Dame de Paris
- Author: Victor Hugo
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication year: 2009-05-28
- Pages: 592
- Finishing: Paperback
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| Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo |
About The Series
For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. most celebrated Romantic.
About the Author: Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
French writer. An important representative of French romantic literature. In 1841, he was elected a member of the French Academy of Languages. Born into an officer's family.
The novel "Notre Dame de Paris" opposes autocracy and the church. From 1861 to 1869, he completed the novel "Les Miserables", which described the evils of capitalist society from a humanitarian point of view. "Labor at Sea" celebrates the great spiritual power of romantic love in fighting against nature and overcoming human weakness.
"The Laughing Man" describes the miserable lives of the people through the tragic experience of wandering artists. In 1874, he completed the novel "Nine Three Years", depicting the moving scenes of the climax of the French Revolution.
Other works include the poem "The Collection of Legends of Past Dynasties", praising the struggle of the people against evil rulers in history. He also wrote political theories and speeches.
Book Summary
Revolution, crowd, city, middle ages, romantic legend, Byronic and Satanic hero, etc., all integrated together, it is a monument of romance and Gothic novels.
I think the greatest thing about "Notre Dame de Paris" is that it writes about human nature and various personalities wherever there are characters, but it always revolves around the topic of what human nature is like.
In the text, you can feel Hugo's passion for the human world. He wants to write a book for everyone! Whether it is Acura or Flogging, he has exhausted his pen power.
This kind of writing is rare now. Maybe there are fewer people who are as passionate as him. Maybe it is too difficult for people to "speak directly".
We are too many. Discussing techniques and techniques...maybe the times are wrong, this is the product of that era, and now it is impossible to produce romanticism.
He can write beauty and ugliness, nobleness, and perversion to the extreme. Victor Hugo has the right to be arrogant.
Book Review & Analysis
"Notre Dame de Paris" was created by Hugo with his heart, which is full of his love and hatred, sustenance and hope, and poured his own deep and sincere feelings.
He used his peculiar imagination to outline exaggerated but thought-provoking scenes, expressing the meaning of beauty and ugliness moving and long.
Not everything in everything is humane beauty. Ugly is next to beauty, deformity is close to beauty, ugliness is hidden behind the sublime, beauty and evil coexist, and darkness and light coexist.
The poet uses the subject word "love" to lead the characters in the book and uses a contrasting technique to show beauty and ugliness vividly. When they wanted to separate him from the bone he was holding, he fell down and turned into dust.
The poet cast Quasimodo with his soul. Among the many so-called men who loved Esmeralda, he was the last one to appear. However, he was the one who shocked my soul the most.
It was precisely because of the contrast with those who were ugly in the heart before, that he had a great attitude towards Esmeralda. His love is especially lofty and great.
At first, perhaps it was a sip of water on the pillar of shame that made him shed the first tear of his life, and since then he is grateful for this gypsy girl. Quasimodo is a loyal and grateful person. The poet describes him and Claude as dogs and their owners.
Although this metaphor is somewhat ironic, it is not difficult for us to understand that the first sip of water was exchanged for his rescue of Esmeralda on the gallows. Later, the initial gratitude turned into worship.
He was intoxicated with her beauty like other men. However, this intoxication was the worship of love, not carnality and possession. He deeply regretted his appearance and the beauty of Esmeralda, but in a silent place, he did everything he could for her.
He is deaf, but he can hear Esmeralda’s whistle; because of her fear, he does not hesitate to climb high to flatten the monster statue opposite the clock tower; he goes to change her with fresh food and water every late night Because he was worried that his appearance frightened her; he watched every night on the cold floor in front of her room, guarding the inviolable angel in his heart.
There is one detail that touched me especially. The girl cared about her lover Philbis day by day, so he went to find him for her. He waited in the square for a whole day before seeing him at midnight, but in the end, he failed to persuade Philip. Biss came to see Esmeralda and ended up with a whip.
He was full of guilt when he saw Esmeralda. Behind his "getaway", I can't imagine how lonely and hurt this man who was originally inferior but loved wholeheartedly was.
He is ugly, and the description of the words is enough to make people unbearable to imagine, but his heart is so beautiful, maybe his life experience and appearance made him grow up in a deformed environment, he is inferior, cruel, and behaves strangely, but his mind is Bright and kind.
He placed two vases for Esmeralda. One was a fine crystal but it had cracks that could not nourish the flowers, and the other was a rough clay pot that made the flowers fragrant and fragrant.
This is Quasimodo's spiritual display to Esmeralda. Such meticulous design implies his inner pain, affection, ideals, and hope. That pure and affectionate heart drew my heart's ups and downs. Let me remember his behavior so far.
After he snatched Esmeralda from the gallows, he was excited and ecstatic to celebrate the triumphant roar on the clock tower. He alone used all kinds of cruel and bloody methods to defeat thousands of homeless people who besieged the Clock Tower.
Resolute, he watched his beloved girl hang The madness in the square, that kind of unworthy love broke his 20 years of loyalty and gratitude to his adoptive father and turned into an impulse of hatred and anger.
All these exaggerated and almost crazy behaviors are the pure heart's best interpretation of love and beauty, but the great beauty and great love are in this ugly bell ringer.
The Gallows Don't Have You Scared Me Many literary critics think that Claude is a morally and carnal beast. I don't think so. He is a victim of religion and Hugo's important role in expressing anti-feudal and anti-religious. He is Quasimodo's adoptive father.
He has raised Quasimodo for 20 years. He said: I adopt him, give him food and clothing, and I love him too. He has become almost everything to me. He has a younger brother.
After the death of his parents, he took care of his younger brother as the top priority, so he chose to be the bishop, and he chose responsibility. He gave all his love to his younger brother and even spoiled his younger brother as a rascal. He respects learning and deeply understands how important knowledge is to him.
Can such a person be said to be a person with low morals and inhumanity? However, there is no doubt that all the conspiracies in the book are designed and operated by him. This is a distorted passion.
After more than 30 years of religious education, he has to suppress his desires and pretend to be a gentleman. He has been struggling with his heart, his morality, doctrine, and love.
The contradiction of fleshly sensuality is always tormenting his soul. He also imagined that he would go to paradise with Esmeralda to live an uncontested life.
He also mistakenly thought that after Esmeralda died, he groaned in pain, but he had to succumb to ANATH ( In destiny), love produces hatred, and the more love, the more hate, so he believes that his pain and his failure are all caused by Esmeralda, so he resorts to despicable and insidious methods time and time again.
This is a pity. The ultimate choice for an abominable person. However, compared with Quasimodo's brilliant image, Claude is particularly ugly. He was jealous. When Esmeralda was put on the gallows naked, his hatred was actually because he felt that Esmeralda’s body was seen by everyone, and he could not tolerate other people’s sharing, not to mention that such sharing was really nonsense.
Talk! Instead, the first thing Quasimodo did when he snatched Esmeralda back was to throw her a bag of clothes and hideaway.
Claude was not happy to see that Esmeralda was not dead but gritted her teeth because she thought she might be with her lover. He is selfish. Every time he expresses love to Esmeralda, he always makes a long story.
It seems to be sincere but a manifestation of selfishness. He doesn't care about Esmeralda's feelings and just wants to possess them.
But Quasimodo used two vases to convey his love. He would rather be tortured by love than see her in pain. He said to Esmeralda: If you want me to fall from the bell tower, you don't even need to write a word, just a quick glance is enough.
A man and a woman merge into an angel and enter heaven This is Esmeralda's interpretation of love, and obviously, Phipps has lived up to this sentence.
The true love that Esmeralda thought was nothing more than the play of the playboy. However, the innocent, simple, kind, and enthusiastic Esmeralda couldn't extricate herself at all.
She was even willing to be the mistress of Phoebus and was despised and despised by others. Until the end, she remained unswerving and unforgettable towards Fibes. Although this kind of pure love makes me feel a little helpless, it is a great extraordinary!
However, the gorgeous and handsome-looking Phoebe is just a man with a heart and beastly. He can flirt with his fiancé indifferently when Esmeralda is hanged, and he does not feel at all for this woman who is willing to give his life Leaving a trace of love and pity. This kind of person is worse than Claude!
The poet also describes other loves in the book, Baggot's love for her daughter, her ecstasy of meeting her daughter again after fifteen years of waiting, and the previous madness instantly turning into a reason to protect her daughter.
And Gringoire, this typical cowardly greedy for life and death, Esmeralda had a life-saving grace for him, but he trapped her in a tiger's den. He embodies Hugo's contempt for the so-called philosophers and poets in the Middle Ages. Also, in brotherly love, Esmeralda said that friendship is two fingers on the same hand, but soul communication does not merge.
When the gypsy homeless people known as mobs and hooligans learned that their Esmeralda was trapped in the bell tower, they risked their deaths to rescue their sisters, even if the blood ran into rivers. Hugo portrays the Middle Ages under the rule of the church.
"Notre Dame de Paris" is a tragic and brilliant tragedy for innocent and kind people who were persecuted under feudal despotism. Esmeralda and Quasimodo are two upright and beautiful souls. Also persecuted to death by the church and the autocratic dynasty.
But at the same time, he also placed ideals on the characters he loved. There are contrasts everywhere in the book, and almost every two people and every two things can be compared. It is not just the comparison of love for Esmeralda, beauty, and ugliness, good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, reason and lust, democracy and tyranny.
The poet expresses the opposites with extreme exaggeration and makes people feel inward. Strong impact. Although this is a tragedy, the poet does not describe it in a serious tone. On the contrary, many words were full of wit.
He described the diplomat William "lived by digging wells." Fortunately, Louis XI, the most expert in digging walls in Europe, admired him very much. Look, even the king did not let go of joking. Gringoire said when encountering bad luck again and again: If the river is a little warmer, I can drown myself in the river!
This sentence vividly expresses the image of a cowardly and hypocritical pseudo-philosopher. When Quasimodo was tied to the humiliation pole, he was insulted by the people.
The witty you say are humorous but sad. Is this the unique manifestation of the numbness and lack of humanity of the people in the Middle Ages? How is this kind of unprovoked hatred in our society now? I think such ironic scenes are still countless in our current society!
What’s more interesting is that many of the philosophies I thought were modern and contemporary writers are reflected in "Notre Dame de Paris": at least the sister of knowledge will not ridicule you face to face.
If you treat her well, she will always repay you, even if Sometimes the reward is not enough; every hunchback is arrogant, every stutter is eloquent, every deaf person whispers, and he feels a little hard of hearing at best.
How perfect these words are, and feel endless sadness at the end of the book after making people laugh. The book is called "Notre Dame de Paris". Although the focus of this book is not this famous building, the poet's vision of architecture reflects an era.
This makes me really understand in this book why I am in the Palace Museum. There will be such a deep shock and loneliness, every building has its pious calm thoughts. A dynasty is not manifested in words or words, but it is in this brick and tile.
How extensive and profound it is! Regarding "Notre Dame de Paris", I want to say too much. Each of these small topics can be used to show thousands of words. I believe that every time I read it, I will have a different feeling.
The most important thing is that I understand how to distinguish between beauty and ugliness and feel love and hate. This sad song of the religious dynasty, accompanied by Quasimodo's bells and Esmeralda's dancing gestures, will forever resound through human history.
Reading notes
1. There is no bread, no place to live, and when he finds that he does not have everything he needs, he feels double that he needs them. He had already discovered the truth: Jupiter created mankind in a flurry of disgust. Throughout the life of a philosopher, his destiny has always attacked his philosophy. As for him, he has never been subjected to such a comprehensive blockade. He heard his stomach beating, and he was very apprehensive to find that evil had defeated his philosophy by using hunger.
2. I found that I lacked the ability to do anything. Seeing that I couldn't do anything, I decided to become a poet.
3. Time is blind and human beings are stupid.
4. The king would not be willing to show his gratitude until the people rebelled. This is an eternal law. "The loyalty to the emperor, even though it has been destroyed by rebellions many times, still gives the citizens a lot of rights.
5. The people, especially the people in the Middle Ages, are like children in the family in society. They stay in the primitive for a long time. In the state of ignorance, staying in the naive stage of morality and intelligence, you can describe them in words that describe children: At this age, there is no compassion.
6. When the "indictment" is executed, it will be the turn of thousands of private individuals. Revenge. Here, just like in the hall, the women are particularly vigorous. They all have a certain hatred of him, some hate him for treacherous, some hate him for ugliness, and the latter hate him the most.
7. Extreme pain, like extreme joy, will not last long, because it is too fierce. The human heart cannot stay at any extreme for long.
8. The more blind this kind of feeling, the more tenacious, this is really incomprehensible. It is the most resolute when there is no reason.
9. This is life. It is often our friends that make us fall.
10. Kings like Louis XI must be careful after every slaughter. The road is clean.
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About Muhiuddin Alam
Muhiuddin Alam is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ReadingAndThinking.com. He serves as a consistent contributor to various websites and publications, including Medium, Quora, Reddit, Linkedin, Substack, Vocal, Flipboard, and Amazon KDP. Alam personally read numerous books and, for the past 10 years, has been providing book recommendations and reviews. Find Me: About Me & Google Knowledge Panel.
