Pariisin Notre-Dame 1482
1831
In 1482 Paris, the bells of Notre-Dame ring out over a city poised between medieval darkness and the dawning modern age. At the center of this volcanic novel stands Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer whose loneliness and devotion would become one of literature's most heartbreaking creations. When the beautiful Romani dancer Esmeralda offers him water during a public torture, he falls impossibly in love - a love that will drive the novel toward its catastrophic conclusion. Victor Hugo constructs an entire medieval metropolis as his stage, and the cathedral itself becomes a character: ancient, Gothic, watching with its carved gargoyles as human dramas of desire, jealousy, and sacrifice unfold in its shadow. This is a novel about what society does to those it deems monstrous, and what monsters do with the love they're finally given.
