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linwearcamenel 's review for:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
by Victor Hugo
It shouldn't take 140 pages for your title character to show up.
And I LIKE long-winded, 19th century literature but there are LIMITS.
EDITED 4/17/19: Never in a million years did I imagine that three months after I finished this Notre Dame would nearly burn to the ground. I wrote in my original review that I like long winded, 19th century literature (which I do) but the real reason I read this is because I am a medieval historian by training if not profession and as such have always adored Gothic cathedrals. Watching Notre Dame burn was like someone tore a piece of my soul out and set it on fire too.
In light of that terrible tragedy I am adding to my review. I'm not changing my rating (because it really DOES take that long for the title character to show up) but I will give Hugo some more credit.
It's well known that Hugo wrote this novel to save the cathedral, then in such a state of disrepair many people wanted to see it torn down. He loved it at least as much as everyone else realized they did this week and this book took him twenty+ years to write because he wanted to get all the details of the architecture correct. Quite honestly, this shows, because he's clearly less interested in things like character development and writing a coherent plot than he is in explaining the intricacies of cathedral design. This seems to be a common complaint about this book, that you end up getting a course in cathedral building rather than a story but if you're like me and you read it for the cathedral to begin with then it's still worth it.
He does actually manage to get most of the details correct and the experience is enhanced if you've been lucky enough to visit Paris and can visualize what he's talking about, because the book is really a giant tour of Notre Dame Cathedral, inside and out (including, sadly, the magnificent "forest" of wooden rafters and supports that burned this week) and the original spire. The descriptions are so evocative you can hear the bells as you read and picture the rainbow of light as it flows through the rose windows.
None of this, of course, changes the fact that the story doesn't really hold up in my opinion, even when compared to other relatively contemporary French literature (The Count of Monte Cristo, for example, remains as exciting as it was the day it was written despite being about three times longer). But Hugo's novel has the benefit of being almost singlehandedly responsible for the saving of one of the greatest treasures in Western art, so it does deserve kind of a pass. That, and it has what is probably the best description of medieval Paris I have ever read in what I think was chapter 4, if I remember right. It's long but when it comes to its end, it creates a complete picture of what medieval Paris was like in a symphony of words every bit as grand as the symphony of stone the cathedral itself is known as.
Basically what I'm saying is you can just read chapter four and get a good idea of why this book has survived the ages.
Victor Hugo would have been devastated to watch the cathedral he adored burn but it's thanks to him it is here today in the first place. I like to think that the outpouring of grief and love shown this week proves he succeeded in his goal in making Notre Dame the beloved landmark it is.
Fluctuat nec murgitur: She is tossed by the waves but never sunk. Notre Dame has risen from the ashes of tragedy before, and will certainly do so again.
And I LIKE long-winded, 19th century literature but there are LIMITS.
EDITED 4/17/19: Never in a million years did I imagine that three months after I finished this Notre Dame would nearly burn to the ground. I wrote in my original review that I like long winded, 19th century literature (which I do) but the real reason I read this is because I am a medieval historian by training if not profession and as such have always adored Gothic cathedrals. Watching Notre Dame burn was like someone tore a piece of my soul out and set it on fire too.
In light of that terrible tragedy I am adding to my review. I'm not changing my rating (because it really DOES take that long for the title character to show up) but I will give Hugo some more credit.
It's well known that Hugo wrote this novel to save the cathedral, then in such a state of disrepair many people wanted to see it torn down. He loved it at least as much as everyone else realized they did this week and this book took him twenty+ years to write because he wanted to get all the details of the architecture correct. Quite honestly, this shows, because he's clearly less interested in things like character development and writing a coherent plot than he is in explaining the intricacies of cathedral design. This seems to be a common complaint about this book, that you end up getting a course in cathedral building rather than a story but if you're like me and you read it for the cathedral to begin with then it's still worth it.
He does actually manage to get most of the details correct and the experience is enhanced if you've been lucky enough to visit Paris and can visualize what he's talking about, because the book is really a giant tour of Notre Dame Cathedral, inside and out (including, sadly, the magnificent "forest" of wooden rafters and supports that burned this week) and the original spire. The descriptions are so evocative you can hear the bells as you read and picture the rainbow of light as it flows through the rose windows.
None of this, of course, changes the fact that the story doesn't really hold up in my opinion, even when compared to other relatively contemporary French literature (The Count of Monte Cristo, for example, remains as exciting as it was the day it was written despite being about three times longer). But Hugo's novel has the benefit of being almost singlehandedly responsible for the saving of one of the greatest treasures in Western art, so it does deserve kind of a pass. That, and it has what is probably the best description of medieval Paris I have ever read in what I think was chapter 4, if I remember right. It's long but when it comes to its end, it creates a complete picture of what medieval Paris was like in a symphony of words every bit as grand as the symphony of stone the cathedral itself is known as.
Basically what I'm saying is you can just read chapter four and get a good idea of why this book has survived the ages.
Victor Hugo would have been devastated to watch the cathedral he adored burn but it's thanks to him it is here today in the first place. I like to think that the outpouring of grief and love shown this week proves he succeeded in his goal in making Notre Dame the beloved landmark it is.
Fluctuat nec murgitur: She is tossed by the waves but never sunk. Notre Dame has risen from the ashes of tragedy before, and will certainly do so again.