The Library Annex

A one-eyed man is much more incomplete than a blind man, for he knows what it is that’s lacking.

First of all, forget everything you think you know about this story based on Disney films or other adaptions. This is a horrid account of death in the stylings of Shakespearean tragedy offset by brilliant and imaginitive prose.

Victor Hugo craftily employs character contrast, metaphor, split narrative, etc to render “Hunchback”. Without going to much into detail, I will say these are merely devices by which Hugo drafts the misunderstandings and tragedy that would ensue through the story: Esmerelda misunderstanding Phoebus’ “love” and being wrongly accused for a death that did not happen, Claude Frollo misunderstanding how to express love and how to fill the void left in its absence, the parentage of several characters, the King’s orders without proper information, etc.

Quasimodo seems to be the only character in tune with his own quality, as ugly and mis-shapen as he is. And thusly, like the great cathedral herself, he watches this all unfold and reacts in a fairly dumb, child-like fashion. The final events of the story could have all been avoided had certain social or cultural qualities been eliminated, which is, I’m sure, Hugo’s point.

It is a fantastic read, but be warned – you will not put the book down feeling good about…anything.