The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) is set in Paris in 1482, primarily in the Notre-Dame Cathedral. It is winter, January 1482, sixteen years after the great plague in which 40,000 souls died in the city of Paris. The themes in the book are political and religious, historical and ghoulish.
The Cathedral, in the central City, is an ‘edifice of the transition’ from Roman to Gothic architecture: ‘It is the pointed species grafted upon the circular.’ From the Cathedral is a bird’s eye view of the ‘very illogical’ streets of Paris – the City, the University, and the Town.’
The story centres around, not only Paris and the grand Cathedral, but a young gypsy dancer, a ‘dazzling vision’ called Esmeralda. Her ‘sort-of’ playwright-philosopher husband Pierre Gringoire – whom she does not love – provides some comic relief to the story. He loves her goat Djali.
Three people love Esmeralda: (1) the handsome, but not nice, Captain Phoebus, (2) the priestly, but damned, Claude Frollo, archdeacon of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and (3) Frollo’s adopted son, the deformed, one-eyed, lame, deaf, bell-ringer Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame. To Esmeralda, the three of them are the handsome, the old, and the ugly.
Esmeralda is a ‘whirl of dance, song, and flutter.’ Claude Frollo is about 36 years old, considered to be an old man by both Esmeralda and Victor Hugo. He took in the discarded baby Quasimodo and raised him as a son. Quasimodo loves him like a father, living in the Cathedral that he regarded not just as his home, but as his world. Quasimodo is nineteen, going on twenty.
Whom does Esmeralda love in this medieval, ironic, tragi-comic-romance?
When Quasimodo, from his towered vantage point in the Cathedral, sees Esmeralda in trouble, being carried to the gibbet – the executioner’s block – Quasimodo does a mental flip.
Who comes to a ‘tragical end’ in the gripping final scenes?
Written 30 years before Les Misérables (1862), this is Victor Hugo’s quintessential epic Gothic gloom story that is head-and-shoulders above Les Misérables. It is a masterpiece of descriptive, evocative, emotional melodramatic writing, where every word is a testament to his genius.
Note: Update on the renovations of Notre-Dame Cathedral (September 2021)
The renovation of the 13th century Gothic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, after the destructive fire of 15 April 2019, reached a turning point in August 2021. The edifice survived the fire, but the spire collapsed and much of the roof was destroyed.
The renovation work has been slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought work on the site to a standstill during France's first Covid-19 lockdown in March and April 2020.
Work began in June 2020 to clear away the 200 tonnes of tangled scaffolding tubes, because the Cathedral’s roof was undergoing restoration when the fire started. The Cathedral walls withstood the intense blaze, but the extensive heat and loss of much of the oak roof framework compromised its structural integrity. The molten scaffolding – about 40,000 metal tubes – was left coated with ash, dust, and debris, and was suspended metres above the Cathedral's floor. It was at risk of crashing to the ground. In addition, the tons of water used to save the Cathedral damaged much of the interior.
Now, from August 2021, the cleaning phase and the ‘post-fire safety phase’ of the Cathedral renovation has been completed, and the structure has been declared safe so that the renovation’s next phase can begin: restoration work.
There will now be a call for tenders to select the company or companies to condct the restoration. The Grand Organ is already being restored with its 8,000 pipes dismantled and sent to organ builders all over France. The Grand Organ’s restoration is expected to be completed in October 2023.
President Macron has vowed to have the Notre-Dame Cathedral restored by 2024, the year that Paris will host the Olympic Games. The aim is to celebrate the first full service in the Cathedral on 16 April 2024.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
MARTINA NICOLLS
SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Comments
Post a Comment