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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
una tragedia così non me la aspettavo ma sono contenta che la capra Djali si sia salvata miglior personaggio
NOTE: This is a super short, Illustrated "children's" version of The Hunchback. It's only something like 120 pages long, but although it's obviously HUGELY edited down from the original it sticks to the original plot unlike some *cough-Disney-cough* versions. I loved the story so much that I started reading the full, 1200 page version... God I hate wading through the mass of words in 19th century books. Still, it was good until I fell asleep on the GO train one day and then woke up with a start and hopped of the train without my book. I think I was about 50 pages into it and they still hadn't even introduced the Hunchback yet :)
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
Usually I dislike a novel full of so many one-dimensional characters containing so many lengthy tangents going over descriptions that do not contribute to the plot or character development; unless one considers the architecture of the City of Paris to be a character in the novel. Somehow, Hugo defies my usual criteria for a good book and produced a novel deserving of its place among the greats of literature; a tragedy which can hold up against the best of Shakespeare.
I was not familiar with the story before reading the novel so I found much that surprised me in the plot. The novel starts out fairly light and humorous and sets the reader up for a happy ending. Alas, it was not to be as the story becomes darker, the characters become more desperate, and the plot eventually culminates in an unhappy end for all (almost all at least).
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is peopled with wooden characters with a single tragic character flaw apiece. There is no character development in the novel and almost all of the characters have a single unhealthy obsession which ultimately becomes their tragic flaw. I normally don't have an issue with such characterization for shorter works like a Shakespeare play but usually find it boring and predictable in longer works like this 500+ page novel. The way that Hugo manages to avoid this fate is through the character of Quasimodo. He is as one-dimensional as the rest but unlike the others, he engenders a genuine sympathy in the reader. I had a similar feeling of empathy with the tragic character of Frankenstein's Monster.
Like Melville's Moby Dick, Hugo takes the reader on some descriptive and philosophical tangents. There are long sections of the book which contain lengthy descriptions of Parisian architecture, the architecture of Notre-Dane itself, the supremacy of Gothic architecture over all that came before and after, and a building as an expression of ideas. These tangents add nothing to the plot nor character development unless one considers the city itself as a character for which one could make a good argument.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good tragedy. For those who like audio books, the LibreVox recording is well done.
I was not familiar with the story before reading the novel so I found much that surprised me in the plot. The novel starts out fairly light and humorous and sets the reader up for a happy ending. Alas, it was not to be as the story becomes darker, the characters become more desperate, and the plot eventually culminates in an unhappy end for all (almost all at least).
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is peopled with wooden characters with a single tragic character flaw apiece. There is no character development in the novel and almost all of the characters have a single unhealthy obsession which ultimately becomes their tragic flaw. I normally don't have an issue with such characterization for shorter works like a Shakespeare play but usually find it boring and predictable in longer works like this 500+ page novel. The way that Hugo manages to avoid this fate is through the character of Quasimodo. He is as one-dimensional as the rest but unlike the others, he engenders a genuine sympathy in the reader. I had a similar feeling of empathy with the tragic character of Frankenstein's Monster.
Like Melville's Moby Dick, Hugo takes the reader on some descriptive and philosophical tangents. There are long sections of the book which contain lengthy descriptions of Parisian architecture, the architecture of Notre-Dane itself, the supremacy of Gothic architecture over all that came before and after, and a building as an expression of ideas. These tangents add nothing to the plot nor character development unless one considers the city itself as a character for which one could make a good argument.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good tragedy. For those who like audio books, the LibreVox recording is well done.
slow-paced
Die Weitschweifigkeit war mir dann doch zu mühsam. Musste das Buch abbrechen, obwohl die Geschichte (Kurzfassung auf Wikipedia...) sehr spannend klang... Schade!
Hat mich leider nicht überzeugt. Natürlich ist es nicht Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen so wie im Disney Film aber es war mir einfach zu brutal. Ausserdem gibt es Kapitel in denen so gut wie gar nichts passiert. Zum Beispiel als es gefühlte 20 Seiten nur um Paris und die Umgebung ging. Schade.
UPDATE 19/03/2023:
Habe es nochmal gelesen. Und finde es immer noch nicht geil. So langweilig, so viele Charaktere die nur ein Mal erwähnt werden, so viele unnötige Beschreibungen und Abschweifungen (32 SEITEN ÜBER PARIS AUS DER VOGEL PERSPEKTIVE). Erst gegen Ende hin wurde es gut.
UPDATE 19/03/2023:
Habe es nochmal gelesen. Und finde es immer noch nicht geil. So langweilig, so viele Charaktere die nur ein Mal erwähnt werden, so viele unnötige Beschreibungen und Abschweifungen (32 SEITEN ÜBER PARIS AUS DER VOGEL PERSPEKTIVE). Erst gegen Ende hin wurde es gut.