The Hunchback of Notre Dame

A couple weeks into my new job, I realized something.  I spend a lot of time driving.  Oftentimes I am going about 45 minutes to and from places.  Therefore, instead of spending this time listening to CDs play over and over again or growing slowly bored of the music commonly played on the radio, I stopped at the library for an audio book.

It was a good decision.  I averaged about a disk a day and enjoyed the drive time a bit more.

I finished the first book last week:  the 19 disk long Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. Although it did take a while to speed up, the characters were well-developed and fascinating, while the plot was sprinkled with moments of suspense, humor, and romance.

That being said, true to many classics, Victor Hugo overloads on description. Entire chapters (a couple of these composing entire disks) are spent describing in detail the Palace of Justice, Notre Dame, the view of Paris from the top of the cathedral, Claude Frollo's fascination with alchemy, and a cage build by Louis XV which is only in the story for a couple minutes after. All of these are well-written, beautiful images painted with words; however, they do become laborious. Especially since some end up having little to do with the actual plot. Personally, this is a major reason why I am glad to have "read" it using the audio book, since I believe I would have struggled to make it through certain chapters otherwise.

Also, no one ever told me that The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a tragedy.

Overarching as the theme is that of different types of love, which are explored through different characters and focused largely around Esmeralda.  Through Hugo's rampant descriptions, the reader is able to feel each and every one of these character's emotions and desires.

--Pierre Gringoire is infatuated with Esmeralda, yet she is quickly forgotten when loving her is no longer convenient or safe.  Gringoire is just as, if not more, in love with Djali, Esmeralda's goat, than with the girl herself.

--Claude Frollo's love for his little brother Jehan, who was orphaned as a baby, has caused the archdeacon to become blind to his brother's reveling.  Jehan is able to manipulate him because Claude has never been able to tell the other no.

--Gudule shows the never ending love of a mother for her child.  For fifteen years, she has grieved for the daughter that she lost and hated those who took the child from her.

--To Pheobus de Chateaupers, Esmeralda is nothing more than another pretty girl in a long line of pretty girls.  Pheobus quickly uses his womanizing charms to woo the innocent girl, promising that he would always love her and no one else but her.  However, Esmeralda is quickly discarded and forgotten.

--For Esmeralda's part, she believes that Pheobus loves her and always will.  She falls prey to his good-looks and charms, and the fact that he saved her once, and will consider no one else.  Her blind love for the undeserving man results in her downfall.

--Unlike Pierre and Pheobus, Claude Frollo cannot forget Esmeralda.  He lusts after her with such passion that he cannot think of anything else.  In the end, he is more willing to kill her than to let anyone else have her.

--Among all the above is Quasimodo.  Deformed, deaf, ridiculed, and hated, he expects no one to be capable of loving so "ugly" a creature.  And yet, he is the one who is willing to save Esmeralda when no one else will.  He is the one who will take on an army single-handedly, to die if he must, as long as the Gypsy is safe.  Among all the beauty of others, it is Quasimodo, deformed and ugly, who shows true love.

And though all of this, one thing springs to my mind:

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends."

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)