Paris, in the 15th Century, is the setting for this book that has become an unlikely success as a children’s movie in 1996. A reading of this book, written in the 19th Century, by one of France’s greatest authors, is like an involvement in the feelings of a monstrously malformed man, a gypsy girl, a mad priest, and various other characters in this story of love in the time of Louis XI.
Why was this book not included in the group of Great Books of the Western World?
The children’s movie is wonderful to watch, but it is vastly different from the actual story told in the book. The real story is a sad one, but it is a fascinating description of life in Paris in the 15th Century. The names of the characters are terrific; anyone who loves the French language will thrill to the sound of names like Madame Aloise de Gondelaurier, Diane de Christeuil, Amelotte de Montmichel, Colombe de Gaillefontaine, Phoebus de Chateaupers, Pierre Gringoire, Clopin Trouillefou, etc.
For the traveler who knows Paris, or one who would love to see it, Victor Hugo’s description of the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Town, City and University of Paris in Book III are surely without equal anywhere. He tells us what everything looked like from atop the cathedral in the 15th Century, and how it has all changed to its "present" condition in the 19th Century. He devotes over thirty pages to this description, and it is worth taking extra time to study it carefully.
The system of jurisprudence in the reign of Louis XI was abominable. In most major squares of the city, there were gibbets (for hanging people), and it wasn’t so important to observe the niceties of verifying evidence in a trial as it was to make sure that the accused was hanged in the end. Poor Esmeralda, the Gypsy girl accused of being a witch. She and her little goat that helped earn her living dancing in the streets never had a chance at her trial. She is subjected to only a small amount of torture (foot crushing) before she "confesses" to the charges and is sentenced to death by hanging. The goat must be hung as well. The description of hers and others’ cells and cages in the Bastille is enough to turn any stomach or turn anyone’s hair white.
The rescue scene where Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, swoops down and saves Esmeralda is magnificent. He brings her inside the Cathedral where she is safe by claiming Sanctuary as long as she doesn’t leave. But leading her there is bringing her even closer to her accuser, Claude Frollo, the mad Archdeacon, who is unable to live with his illicit desire to have her despite his priestly vows. If he cannot convince her to love him, then he wants her dead. Hugo’s description of Frollo is very close to what you see of him as the villain in the 1996 Disney movie for children: The Devil, incarnate.
Frollo succeeds in getting Parliament to override Esmeralda’s claim of sanctuary. He then instigates a Gypsy (Truand) uprising where they try to break into Notre-Dame to save Esmeralda from Parliament’s decree that she be taken and hung. This scene is also rather dramatic. Quasimodo, the disfigured, deaf hunchback who has fallen in love with her, mistakes the Truands’ intentions, and wages a very effective one-man defense of the cathedral, dropping huge beams and stones upon the crowd, and even melting a large quantity of lead and pouring it upon the attackers through the gargoyle-shaped drainpipes of a high balcony. Finally, the King’s cavalry and archers are sent to kill all the Truands and hang Esmeralda. Quasimodo, believing the King’s troops are the good guys, helps them search the cathedral for the girl who he believes is hiding therein. They do not find her there.
Frollo disguises himself, and, assisted by Gringoire, the dunce of a "husband" of the girl, effect her escape in a boat that they row across the Seine river behind Notre-Dame. When they reach shore, Gringoire saves the goat and leaves Esmeralda to Frollo. The mad priest gives her one last chance to agree to love and forgive him, but she chooses death instead. Frollo then leaves her literally in the clutches of a mad Gypsy-hating woman (the Sachet) who has lived 15 years as a recluse in a chamber under the sidewalks nearby. She holds the girl fast with an iron grip while Frollo goes off to find the hangmen who are searching for her.
As the Sachet and Esmeralda exchange stories, it becomes known to both that they are mother and daughter. The circumstances are bizarre, and I'll leave it to the reader to discover the horrors of this story on his own. The army arrives, and the Sachet now makes a brave and heroic attempt to hide and defend the girl, but in the end the old woman is killed and Esmeralda is hanged. Frollo, watching the hanging from a high balcony atop Notre-Dame, is himself being watched by Quasimodo standing right behind him. When Frollo lets out a grotesque laugh at the hanging, Quasimodo pushes Frollo over the edge where he hangs onto a drain spout for a while before falling to his death. Quasimodo, looking down at Frollo and Esmeralda, mourns, "All that I ever loved." He is never seen again by the people of Paris. I will leave it to the reader to discover what is believed to have happened to this hunchback with the big heart.
As far as I can tell, this book didn’t make it to the list of Great Books of the Western World because it is told in a melodramatic sort of way. The characters were probably easily adapted to an animated movie of villain and hero for children. Still, Hugo makes them a little too monstrous to be believable. This, and the fact that Hugo doesn’t put enough religion into the story, probably kept his great work out of the ranks of the Great Works. Such is the opinion of this amateur, anyway. I find it strange that his later work, Les Miserables, is steeped in religion. I personally enjoyed Les Miserables more than I did The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, but I leave it to you, dear reader, to make your own choice between these two very worthwhile books.
© 1997 Herman Fontenot
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My name is Herman, and my e-mail address is: kfonteno@flash.net.
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