The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
by Victor Hugo

I picked this book up to get my mind off of War. The last book I read to do so was Crime and Punishment, which involved murder and before that was War and Peace which included the social drama of war. So my intent was to delve in to the book with a hope to discover the meaning of the Left bank of Paris; from the other shore. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and yes my experience with French life is all very positive. I thoroughly enjoy French jazz, especially when I am waiting forty-five minutes for my waiter to bring me a glass of water. I enjoy the formal social protocol and the eventual humor of the person once you are allowed the opportunity. The art and culture and ‘‘live first '' attitude is something this world needs more of. The only thing I do not like about the French is their politics. Over the last 500 years, France's penchant to take this good life abroad against the will of others is a mystery and a paradox at the same time. Perhaps it is poetic justice for the French to respond so negatively to our "Molly Brown" American persona as we replace France as the new world leader. I offer this perspective, as indeed I believe there is consistency in theme with the message of the book, albeit protracted over time.

The book begins with bizarre Moulan Rouge type setting, where contrasting thought such as the following begin set the tone for intellectual exercise. “But it is not interest that predominates in the noble nature of poets. Supposing the entity of the poet to be represented by the number 10. It is certain that a chemist, on analyzing it, would find it to be composed of one part interest and 9 parts vanity, swollen and inflated by the breath of popular administration of such prodigious enlargement as completely to smother that imperceptible particle article of interest..."

Hugo is a master in the knitting a tapestry of Paris, Notre Dame, and the coincidental fate of Quasimodo, Le Esmerelda, Phoebus, the archdeacon as a person, the Church as a sanctuary, Gypsies, people of narrow views guided by the strict hands of the Provost and the Church in a story that includes drama, poetic justice, romance, history. The book lets a French brand of intrigue compel the reader to turn the page as opposed to close the cover. You know what’s going to happen, the author has included you in the story; but you are not the author so you must read on to see if justice prevails. The contrast of the Church and the mischievous behavior of those entrusted to carry forward the reason for the church help shape the theme. However there are many stories within the theme.

While Hugo's command of metaphoric description of a scene is masterful I can only share this sample. At the rescue of le Esmeralda the following excerpt: “”His Cyclops eye, bent down upon her, shed over her a flood of tenderness, of pity, of grief, and was suddenly raised, flashing lightning. At this moment when the women laughed and cried, the crowd stomped with enthusiasm, for that moment Quasimodo was really beautiful. Yes he was beautiful he that orphan, that foundling outcast; he himself august and strong; he looked in the face of society from which he was banished, and for he had made so signal a conquest; that human justice from which he snatched its victim; those judges, those executioners, all that forces of the king's which he, the meanest of mean, had foiled with the force of God! And then, how touching was that protection afforded by being so deformed, to a being so unfortunate as the girl condemned to die and saved by Quasimodo! It was two extreme miseries of Nature and Society meeting and assisting each other. “”

While Hugo is brilliant with metaphors, I sense that the following is in my opinion the sum Hugo's message. “Like a fly, flying to the light of the window to be caught in a spider’s web.” So often just when a character believed to be claiming success, something snatched him up to change his view. “Meddle not with fatality; be mindful of the spider web between fate and thee.” But then again “nothing makes a man more adventuresome than an empty pocket.” So off we go.

A couple more for good measure

Hunchback of Notre Dame
by Victor Hugo
1. A purse in your pocket is like the moon in a bucket of water, you see it but it's not there.
3. It takes one drop of wine to colors a glass of water.
4. The owl never enters the next of the lark
5. I'd rather be the head of a fly than the tail of a lion,
7. What we are about is not absolutely innocent.
8. With the flesh of the wolf come the dogs teeth
9. Like a fly, flying to the light of the window to be caught in a spiders web.