The Hunchback of Notre Dame

A brief about the book: In the novel, a unique human experience combines beauty with ugliness. It carries major themes about emotion; about transcendence, sacrifice, and love; about grudges, hatred, and revenge. It is one of the most famous romantic novels, due to the intense emotion it depicts, stirred by the gypsy in the hearts of everyone, especially the bell ringer in Notre Dame Cathedral and the priest. It is a magnificent tragedy from the Middle Ages about ominous fate and the power of the church. The events take place during the reign of Louis the Eleventh, and its stage is an architectural masterpiece. Bells and destinies ring in the corners of the cathedral. Victor Hugo delves deeply into the world of the homeless and marginalized, and even the broken masters before a world ruled by injustice and where hypocrites run wild in the name of religion. The poetic author’s victory in this work is for human emotion as a fundamental motive for every social movement seeking liberation and emancipation. As if the events of Notre Dame in the late Middle Ages paved the way for the early French Revolution in the late 18th century, which Victor Hugo documented in his masterpiece “Les Misérables.” Hugo succeeded, through this captivating story, in weaving a fragmented love story between lost characters, touching on a difficult and ambiguous equation—based on the relationship between the outward appearance and the inner reality of the character, between external ugliness and internal beauty. It establishes a highly complex philosophical concept: the question of beauty and its relation to goodness and utility, and what ought to be. Author: Victor Hugo Translator: Zeinab Nasser Eldin Publication Year: 2021 Number of Pages: 464