Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fascinating read. I read it in its entirety in one day. The ending was a completely heartbreaking surprise.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Everyone in this book is an idiot. But 18th century French Romances are my jam, so, that's okay.
I can't even find Claude Frollo as terrifying as he is in the movie because he just seems like a blundering nut job more than a calculating horrorific guy. And I can't feel sorry for Esmeralda because she has all the gumption of a wet rag.
You don't have to have gumption but she basically brings about her own death because she continues to be oblivious and be obsessed with the person who would have raped her if he hadn't almost been murdered.
And Gringoire is a comic fool who is apparently in love with a goat. Quasimodo is the only semi-decent character in this book and the only one who truly loved Esmeralda. And of course he gets the short shrift.
Though remembering the actual story makes me even madder at Disney that Esmeralda ended up with Phoebus when he's such a creep in the book. At least she doesn't abhor Quasimodo in the movie, but it's still extra dark when you think about it.
I can't even find Claude Frollo as terrifying as he is in the movie because he just seems like a blundering nut job more than a calculating horrorific guy. And I can't feel sorry for Esmeralda because she has all the gumption of a wet rag.
And Gringoire is a comic fool who is apparently in love with a goat. Quasimodo is the only semi-decent character in this book and the only one who truly loved Esmeralda. And of course he gets the short shrift.
Though remembering the actual story makes me even madder at Disney that Esmeralda ended up with Phoebus when he's such a creep in the book. At least she doesn't abhor Quasimodo in the movie, but it's still extra dark when you think about it.
É um livro grande e interessante. Tem muita coisa triste acontecendo mas não é aquela tristeza que te deixa com lágrimas nos olhos, é mais tristeza e raiva pelas injustiças.
São muitos personagens, muitos mesmo. E o Quasimodo aparece bem pouco até um pouco depois da metade do livro ai eu fui procurar o motivo (porque pra mim não gaz sentido ele aparecer pouco e ter o nome no título) e descobri que o titulo original é só "Notre Dame de Paris" e por algum motivo X, quando traduziram pro inglês é que incluíram ele no nome.
Faz sentido o nome ser só da Catedral porque da pra notar que nenhum dos personagens tem foco o suficiente pra ser protagonista. Ao contrário da Catedral que é o espaço principal da história.
Outra coisa interessante é que as pessoas são bem humanas, ninguém é 100% bom mas tampouco 100% vilão. Uma hora alguém salva uma pessoa pra no minuto depois fazer algo moralmente horrível, e o contrário também acontece, eu achei incrível!
Pra mim, parece que não tem bem uma história principal mas tudo que parece aleatório nas primeiras 600 páginas, consegue se unir pra chegar no evento principal do fim da história.
Fiquei desapontada com alguns personagens, como a Esmeralda mas isso é só da ilusão que eu criei por causa do desenho da Disney.
Não espere nada como a versão Disney, a não ser o Frollo, a Disney representou bem ele.
Como eu disse, é trágico mas da pra rir em algumas partes.
É muito bom, é daqueles clássicos que quando você lê, consegue entender a fama toda.
São muitos personagens, muitos mesmo. E o Quasimodo aparece bem pouco até um pouco depois da metade do livro ai eu fui procurar o motivo (porque pra mim não gaz sentido ele aparecer pouco e ter o nome no título) e descobri que o titulo original é só "Notre Dame de Paris" e por algum motivo X, quando traduziram pro inglês é que incluíram ele no nome.
Faz sentido o nome ser só da Catedral porque da pra notar que nenhum dos personagens tem foco o suficiente pra ser protagonista. Ao contrário da Catedral que é o espaço principal da história.
Outra coisa interessante é que as pessoas são bem humanas, ninguém é 100% bom mas tampouco 100% vilão. Uma hora alguém salva uma pessoa pra no minuto depois fazer algo moralmente horrível, e o contrário também acontece, eu achei incrível!
Pra mim, parece que não tem bem uma história principal mas tudo que parece aleatório nas primeiras 600 páginas, consegue se unir pra chegar no evento principal do fim da história.
Fiquei desapontada com alguns personagens, como a Esmeralda mas isso é só da ilusão que eu criei por causa do desenho da Disney.
Não espere nada como a versão Disney, a não ser o Frollo, a Disney representou bem ele.
Como eu disse, é trágico mas da pra rir em algumas partes.
É muito bom, é daqueles clássicos que quando você lê, consegue entender a fama toda.
From what I've read, Victor Hugo had quite a time writing The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
First, he made an agreement with his publisher to write the book within a certain deadline -- which he missed due to neglecting the work for other projects. Eventually, the publisher told him to get his act together or face financial consequences. From that point, Victor Hugo worked day and night trying to finish this novel.
While his face was buried in his manuscripts, though, his wife went off and got with his friend. I'm not sure if Hugo noticed while he was writing or not, but regardless that has got to be one hell of a time.
In my quest to learn more about him, I also learned that he was also a big ole' cheater himself, and an erotomaniac which I today learned means someone who is deluded into thinking everyone wants to do them. So, as you can see, I had about as much fun researching this author as I did reading the actual book.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is far from the slightly disturbing Disney movie of my childhood. This book is dark and there is not a single happy moment in the entirety of the novel. Although written in the 1830s, the story is actually set in the 1480s, and if you thought life was tough in the 1800s for people with disabilities, you should see what it was like in the 1400s!
Quasimodo, the titular hunchback, is not very significant to the story for the vast majority of it. Instead, the story follows a teenage girl named La Esmeralda and the religious pervert Claude Frollo. Seeing La Esmeralda dance in the streets, Frollo is obsessed with her in the sexually repressed way of a priest and hates and lusts for her in equal measure. In walks classic playboy and overall jackass Phoebus, with whom the silly little girl protagonist immediately falls in love, and there we have the set up for a truly depressing outcome.
Contrary to the powerful woman that the Disney cartoon depicts her to be, La Esmeralda is just a little girl. Sixteen years old, inexperienced, and full of compassion, she easily falls for the handsomeness of a man who doesn't deserve her and allows herself to be carried off down a river of bullshit because of her naivete and inability to speak out.
Quasimodo, too, is a tragic figure. Being disabled as he is, people view him as so ugly and unworthy of common decency that even when he shows himself to be the only person willing to do something kind for La Esmeralda, she can't even bear to look at him most of the time. He's not a saint, by any means, but for him to fall in love with someone who is in her heart kind but who is unable to show him the same love and respect that he gives her is really sad.
One thing about this book that makes it really difficult to get through is that Hugo spends an incredible amount of time simply describing the architecture. Like, thirty plus pages the first time around and I don't even know how long the next few times. I spent the entire time annoyed because I assumed, like most people probably would, that he was getting paid by the page and so wanted to pad it with whatever he could.
While that might be true, apparently the architecture of Paris was the whole point of even writing this book. Hugo's point was that the architecture of Paris, as old as it was, had born witness to countless stories and lifetimes, and that it deserved to be preserved. Knowing that, I can accept the extreme amount of architectural description much better than I would had I not known this. However, be forewarned that you may want to skip certain chapters entirely if descriptions of Paris don't interest you.
First, he made an agreement with his publisher to write the book within a certain deadline -- which he missed due to neglecting the work for other projects. Eventually, the publisher told him to get his act together or face financial consequences. From that point, Victor Hugo worked day and night trying to finish this novel.
While his face was buried in his manuscripts, though, his wife went off and got with his friend. I'm not sure if Hugo noticed while he was writing or not, but regardless that has got to be one hell of a time.
In my quest to learn more about him, I also learned that he was also a big ole' cheater himself, and an erotomaniac which I today learned means someone who is deluded into thinking everyone wants to do them. So, as you can see, I had about as much fun researching this author as I did reading the actual book.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is far from the slightly disturbing Disney movie of my childhood. This book is dark and there is not a single happy moment in the entirety of the novel. Although written in the 1830s, the story is actually set in the 1480s, and if you thought life was tough in the 1800s for people with disabilities, you should see what it was like in the 1400s!
Quasimodo, the titular hunchback, is not very significant to the story for the vast majority of it. Instead, the story follows a teenage girl named La Esmeralda and the religious pervert Claude Frollo. Seeing La Esmeralda dance in the streets, Frollo is obsessed with her in the sexually repressed way of a priest and hates and lusts for her in equal measure. In walks classic playboy and overall jackass Phoebus, with whom the silly little girl protagonist immediately falls in love, and there we have the set up for a truly depressing outcome.
Contrary to the powerful woman that the Disney cartoon depicts her to be, La Esmeralda is just a little girl. Sixteen years old, inexperienced, and full of compassion, she easily falls for the handsomeness of a man who doesn't deserve her and allows herself to be carried off down a river of bullshit because of her naivete and inability to speak out.
Quasimodo, too, is a tragic figure. Being disabled as he is, people view him as so ugly and unworthy of common decency that even when he shows himself to be the only person willing to do something kind for La Esmeralda, she can't even bear to look at him most of the time. He's not a saint, by any means, but for him to fall in love with someone who is in her heart kind but who is unable to show him the same love and respect that he gives her is really sad.
One thing about this book that makes it really difficult to get through is that Hugo spends an incredible amount of time simply describing the architecture. Like, thirty plus pages the first time around and I don't even know how long the next few times. I spent the entire time annoyed because I assumed, like most people probably would, that he was getting paid by the page and so wanted to pad it with whatever he could.
While that might be true, apparently the architecture of Paris was the whole point of even writing this book. Hugo's point was that the architecture of Paris, as old as it was, had born witness to countless stories and lifetimes, and that it deserved to be preserved. Knowing that, I can accept the extreme amount of architectural description much better than I would had I not known this. However, be forewarned that you may want to skip certain chapters entirely if descriptions of Paris don't interest you.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes