Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

20 reviews

sarasreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I attempted to read this as a teenager and quit when I reached a point that was absolutely bogged down with architecture description. I don't judge younger me at all for quitting. It was so boring and had no bearing on the rest of the book at all. If you're into dozens of pages of description about 1400s Paris, boy do I have the book for you!

About halfway through it finally started picking up, and it became a mostly unputdownable book for me, which was a lovely surprise!

Other things that were a surprise:

1. Playwrite marries the prettiest girl in Paris, literally only cares about her goat and basically elopes with it by the end, leaving the 16 year old in the clutches of a total pedo.
2. Phoebus was a bigger douchebag than Frollo, change my mind. At least Frollo was mildly conflicted. "Oh she's been charged for my murder but had nothing to do with the attack I'm still totally alive and well? Eh, let her hang I guess, not my problem." -Phoebus probably.
3. The battle scene in front of the Notre Dame was wild. Probably said "holy crap!" out loud like 7 times.
4. This book is a huge bummer. Towards the end you hope and hope, and then it guts you.

If the first half of the book was much shorter, it would be a 4-4.5 star read for me. I know he was trying to get people to care about older gothic architecture, and the churches specifically, which is probably why we still have the Notre Dame today. So good on him and all, but in the 21st century it's a total snooze fest lol

Content Warnings

cambrand's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris" is the first French Romantic novel and a great representation of it. The original title represents the story better than "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", given the the cathedral is the real center point and symbol of his novel rather than Quasimodo. A great illustration of middle-ages France - its people, politics, religion, and architecture. If you're reading this book based on the Disney's movie, you might be disappointed. Knocking off a star because of the mixed narration in the book that shifts from novel to almost essay-like in some chapters.

I'm sorry to say Frollo is actually the most interesting character and Esmeralda is actually painfully boring and mildly infuriating. Phoebus isn't a knight in shining armor and Quasimodo is somehow both heroic and pathetic.

Content Warnings

reebeee's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

As with any Hugo novel, if you come to the book expecting it to be like its adaptations, you will be disappointed—the novel is much more interested in depicting a historical place and time than focusing on a particular character or storyline. The biggest surprise for me (who otherwise by and large knew what to expect from Hugo) was how morally ambiguous every character was. It's fascinating to compare with its adaptations and consider what goals and effects various changes had.

Also, there's not a specific content warning label for this but I think it's worth noting that this book contains a repeated accusation of blood libel.

Content Warnings

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

hot_water's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

upthestairs's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

seullywillikers's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I'm not sure how to rate a book like this. It is obviously a classic, and for very good reason. It is funny, dark, sad, and suspenseful. But I find it very hard to enjoy something so filled with racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and ableism. Overall, I'm glad to have read it. I'm also fairly amazed at how much the Disney movie kept from the original story-it actually follows the book pretty closely. And, as tragedies are such an important part of human story-telling, this one is true to form.

At times I wasn't sure if the author was denouncing all the above-mentioned isms, or agreeing with them. Maybe both, for different things? I'm not sure. I'll give this a star rating to reflect my enjoyment of the reading, and not so much to reflect that it is a classic. When reading stories like this I try to maintain cultural relativism-it is not my time, my culture, my society, therefore I can't judge it the same way I would my contemporary stories, even as I disagree with so much of the wrongs of that time and place.

Ultimately, I'm glad to have read it.

Content Warnings

mimi_means_secret's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

ninjasunknown's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

caidyn's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've tried to read this book once before, and it didn't work out. I ended up getting a couple hundred pages in, didn't like it, and gave up. This year, I decided I'm going to pick it up again. Guess what? I ended up really enjoying it! My basis for this story is, like many people's, the Disney movie. This is very different than that, but also good. Eventually, I found myself enjoying the random moments where Hugo went off on tangents and showed us different things/characters. It's a good book and, if I were in the mood for it, I'd definitely pick it up again.

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