Hunchback of Notre-Dame
This extraordinary historical French gothic novel, set in Medieval Paris under the twin towers of its greatest structure and supreme symbol, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the disabled bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, as he struggles to stand up to his ableist guardian Claude Frollo, who also wants to commit genocide against Paris' Romani population.The novel has been described as a key text in French literature[1] and has been adapted for film over a dozen times, in addition to numerous television and stage adaptations, such as a 1923 silent film with Lon Chaney, a 1939 sound film with Charles Laughton, and a 1996 Disney animated film with Tom Hulce (both as Quasimodo).The novel sought to preserve values of French culture in a time period of great change, which resulted in the destruction of many French Gothic structures. The novel made Notre-Dame de Paris a national icon and served as a catalyst for renewed interest in the restoration of Gothic form.
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What Hacker News says
- I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and I loved both of them, can recommend.
Seveneves is an amazing book, just make sure you skip the last part.
If you are into history I can recommend The last days of the Incas by Kim MaqQuarrie, it's just an insanely interesting description on how the Incas was conquered, it feels like you're there man.
If you like evolutionary biology/phsycology then check out The Red Queen - Sex and the evolution of human Nature by Matt Ridley.
- >The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Amazing books....
+100
- > There’s no “done, so we don’t need money any more”
Supposedly this happened to Paris' Notre Dame for many years until Victor Hugo published The Hunchback of Notre-Dame which re-ignited it in the general public's imagination.
* http://archive.is/https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/4/15/1831...
* https://casdinteret.com/2020/05/how-victor-hugo-saved-notre-...
- I'm guessing it's because of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", which if I recall correctly, Victor Hugo wrote to (successfully) stimulate desire to repair/restore the cathedral around 1800.
For me, personally, I think that Gothic architecture is the height of beauty, especially the interior. Notre Dame is one of the first examples, and was built quickly enough to have a consistent architecture (also Chartres and Amiens). Many Gothic cathedrals took 100 years to build and you can see variations in the architectural style in the different pieces which lessons the beauty somewhat. I also like the French circular apse rather than the English square apse (although that does allow for a gorgeous, huge window).
I also think beauty is important, especially in buildings, and Notre Dame is just a great example. It's beautiful inside and out. I've even spent quite a long time just enjoying the beauty of the back side.
- It's a cute thought, and a good point. But the author is exclusively relying on "English major novels" for making this point (even though they ignore things like the very cool long chapters in Hunchback of Notre Dame that are about the Paris sewer system).
For many of us on this website, we'd probably think of Neal Stephenson, who might have long digressions about cryptographic schemes, or Lagrange points, or whatever other "cool science fact" might be tangentially related to the plot.
But the novel, as an art form, is effectively dead. At the high end of the market, it is at the mercy of the industry gatekeepers, and at the bottom end it has been given over to influencers; bring a guaranteed audience, and you get to publish your fanfic (names of characters having been modified to avoid legal action). There's no room anymore for genuine experimentation, and "good writing" is no longer the measure of a potential best-seller. Was that ever the case, anyway? Probably not.
I'd love to see an article like this, but focusing on how to bring the cool parts of novels into some new type of writing, rather than pretend that writing advice might actually affect the success of a novel.
- I certainly don't, at least not in the way that modern society seems to be pushing for it.
A year or two ago a high school was putting on a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and there was a loud minority of students complaining because a white girl was cast as Esmeralda. In the original book, Esmeralda is ethnically French, but Gypsies steal her as an infant and replace her with Quasimodo. Many years later, Esmeralda's mother sees her and rants at her, thinking she is one of the gypsies she hates for stealing her daughter. She hates her own daughter, her own flesh and blood, because of interethnic hatred. The implication of this, and the impact of people like the students complaining because a white girl was cast in the role, are left as an exercise to the reader.
Edit: News article about the high school production https://www.bet.com/article/mq8775/school-cancels-musical-af...
