Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by mthorley23
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
3.0
Uggghhh!!! I finally finished this book! With a permanent deadline in four days (can't renew at the library after having it for three months) I finally was able to skim through the last 300 pages. Hugo has some beautifully written thoughts but no, I can't forgive him for stopping the story AGAIN to talk about something else. I was pretty engrossed in the last quarter of the story, you know, the train wreck part. Well, maybe the whole thing was a train wreck in more ways than one. I hate tragic endings and injustice. As is expressed in one of my favorite plays, "The Importance of Being Earnest:" the good end happily and the bad end unhappily; that is what fiction means.
And I really did not like Frollo (are we supposed to?) or Phoebus and I was really irritated by Esmeralda's stupid crush on an awful man while being entirely unaffected by the kindness of someone who truly loved her. Quasimodo had the only real case for true love by putting her before himself but everyone else was insane or just indecent. But maybe there is something to be said in the idea that the one who was considered a beast was the only one who could truly love.
I can appreciate Hugo's passion for architecture and medieval history but I also think his glorification of medieval architecture is slightly ridiculous. That somehow medieval architecture is the end all be all of beauty. Seriously? I am offended on behalf of all architectural history that has come since.
He also explored the notion of the printed word killing architecture (among other interpretations of "This will kill that.") He says, "A book is quickly made, costs so little, and may go so far! Is it surprising all human thought should flow down that slope?" To that I would like to respond that all human thought was never represented by architecture! Only the few who were rich enough to pay for the architecture could have their thoughts represented. All human thought was never on the lofty mountain top that is architecture in order that it may flow down to the printed word. No, Victor Hugo, it is not surprising that all human thought would relish the newfound freedom of being able to be expressed. But instead of human thought being portrayed as flowing downward at the advent of printing, I consider all human thought as being able to enlarge and flow upward and outward into the great expanse of heaven and earth to learn and grow and understand and challenge and be corrected and validated. In my opinion the printing press is a symbol of freedom - the medieval architecture is a symbol of ignorance and oppression. Great societies prior to the Dark Ages valued literacy and knowledge and the printed word. The medieval era and its architecture is hardly a representation of all of world history. The chapter on how the printed word will kill architecture made me think that maybe his own printed word on the subject was what was going to kill architecture!
Anyway, Hugo has aroused my passion for philosophizing, however erroneous my opinions may be, so I have to give him credit for that. I kind of think it would be fun to sit with him in my living room and discuss his opinions on art and architecture and history and human nature in comparison with my own. I just did not enjoy laboring through this book.
And I really did not like Frollo (are we supposed to?) or Phoebus and I was really irritated by Esmeralda's stupid crush on an awful man while being entirely unaffected by the kindness of someone who truly loved her. Quasimodo had the only real case for true love by putting her before himself but everyone else was insane or just indecent. But maybe there is something to be said in the idea that the one who was considered a beast was the only one who could truly love.
I can appreciate Hugo's passion for architecture and medieval history but I also think his glorification of medieval architecture is slightly ridiculous. That somehow medieval architecture is the end all be all of beauty. Seriously? I am offended on behalf of all architectural history that has come since.
He also explored the notion of the printed word killing architecture (among other interpretations of "This will kill that.") He says, "A book is quickly made, costs so little, and may go so far! Is it surprising all human thought should flow down that slope?" To that I would like to respond that all human thought was never represented by architecture! Only the few who were rich enough to pay for the architecture could have their thoughts represented. All human thought was never on the lofty mountain top that is architecture in order that it may flow down to the printed word. No, Victor Hugo, it is not surprising that all human thought would relish the newfound freedom of being able to be expressed. But instead of human thought being portrayed as flowing downward at the advent of printing, I consider all human thought as being able to enlarge and flow upward and outward into the great expanse of heaven and earth to learn and grow and understand and challenge and be corrected and validated. In my opinion the printing press is a symbol of freedom - the medieval architecture is a symbol of ignorance and oppression. Great societies prior to the Dark Ages valued literacy and knowledge and the printed word. The medieval era and its architecture is hardly a representation of all of world history. The chapter on how the printed word will kill architecture made me think that maybe his own printed word on the subject was what was going to kill architecture!
Anyway, Hugo has aroused my passion for philosophizing, however erroneous my opinions may be, so I have to give him credit for that. I kind of think it would be fun to sit with him in my living room and discuss his opinions on art and architecture and history and human nature in comparison with my own. I just did not enjoy laboring through this book.