The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo wrote this novel in 1830-1831 in three parts.  Today we put all them together into one book. His purpose was to help people realize the beauty and usefulness of Gothic architecture, as there is so much description in the story.

Modern readers sometime have trouble with 19th Century writing which uses much more words and description than in modern writing.    The writer wants the reader to have the same picture in mind as the author so every detail is mentioned.

The novel starts on January 6th 1482, a normal day,  But Hugo describes the events that happened two days before in great detail so it is like looking through a telescope the wrong end at the 1480's.

Here is the link so you can download the book for free:

https://ia800307.us.archive.org/10/items/hunchbackofnotre1hugo/hunchbackofnotre1hugo.pdf


An easier translation:
http://www.limpidsoft.com/6inch/hunchback.pdf 

And this is a background and plot summary of the book for those who have to know what happens in a nutshell:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame

We will study this book slowly slowly together.

Have Fun!

Rachael Alice