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    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame

    Written by Victor Hugo

    Narrated by Andrew Sachs

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Quasimodo, the hunchback, looks down on the turmoil of Paris with a bitter eye. He is an outsider, tormented and derided because he is deformed and as ugly as a gargoyle. But love for the beautiful Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer, draws him fatally from the safety of isolation into the web of city life. Canon Frollo, the austere priest, is also utterly changed by his obsession with the enchanting girl. The fates of these three characters are inextricably locked together, with terrible consequences for all.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780001845
    Author

    Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is one of the most well-regarded French writers of the nineteenth century. He was a poet, novelist and dramatist, and he is best remembered in English as the author of Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). Hugo was born in Besançon, and became a pivotal figure of the Romantic movement in France, involved in both literature and politics. He founded the literary magazine Conservateur Littéraire in 1819, aged just seventeen, and turned his hand to writing political verse and drama after the accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe in 1830. His literary output was curtailed following the death of his daughter in 1843, but he began a new novel as an outlet for his grief. Completed many years later, this novel became Hugo's most notable work, Les Misérables.

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    Reviews for The Hunchback of Notre Dame

    4/5

    2,037 ratings58 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A beautiful and tragic book.
    • 2/5
      I liked it, but it didn't leave much of an impression on me. Might reread.
    • 4/5
      A beautiful and tragic book.
    • 3/5
      Zeer onwaarschijnlijk verhaal, maar wel zeer sterke sfeerschepping en tot op grote hoogte meeslepend. Figuren:-Frollo: soort van Faust (zelfs uitdrukkelijke verwijzing)-Quasimodo: het menselijke monster-Esmeralda: intrigerend, sterke vrouw, maar toch niet goed uitgewerkt-Gringoire: praatvaar en opportunistVooral het einde is zeer ongeloofwaardig.Duidelijk snelschrijverij, maar niettemin krachttoer
    • 4/5
      When one is doing evil 'tis madness to stop half-way.
    • 5/5
      What a power masterpiece of literature The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is to the French culture. Victor Hugo does a good job drawing you into the story and giving you emotions to Quasimodo, La Esmeralda, Claude Frollo, Phoebus de Châteaupers, Pierre Gringore, Paquette la Chantefleurie, et. al. Before reading this I suggest skimming (no skipping) the long chapters on the histories of Paris and the Notre-Dame de Paris only because they aren't key to the storytelling but important to know Hugo wrote the novel to promote the beauty of Gothic architecture. Also keep in mind this is NOT suitable for children unless supervised due to the part where Frollo attempts to rape Esmeralda. Overall, this is one of the best novels I've read in the historical, romantic, and Gothic genres.
    • 5/5
      Victor Hugo. Enough said. For those who have only ever read the abridged version or think this is a nothing more than a Disney cartoon. THINK AGAIN. Go to the store and buy a box of Kleenex before you open it.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed the non-narrative quirky parts. The story was lovely too and everyone gets what they deserve in the end. Except for the goat, the goat did nothing wrong.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating Gothic take on power, corruption, and xenophobia. Once you make it through the first 60 pages, you really settle into the bones of the story. It's only fair to warn you that this is basically to the Disney movie what the Little Mermaid fairytale is to its Disney counterpart.
    • 3/5
      3.5* based upon my unabridged Kindle edition:
      Hugo will never be one of my favorite authors because, while I can tolerate his lengthy digressions, I don't really like them. I found myself surprisingly angry by the end of the book; I guess my tolerance for men obessessed with a woman and making it all her fault has substantially diminished.

      It is an excellent book and the characters are all well portrayed - I think it is because Claude Frollo was so believable that he made me so mad!
    • 4/5
      Finished this story set in the 1400s in Paris, France of the story of Esmeralda, Quasimodo, the archdeacon of Norte Dame and of the architectural structure, Notre Dame. The author wrote this book to advance his concern for the lack of care of these pieces of art. His argument that the story prior to the printing press is in these structures and that the birth of the printing press put these structures in peril of being left to deteriorate. Victor Hugo spends a great deal of time on these discourses as he did in his other great work and the sewers of Paris. It reminds me of other books that have themes/settings around architecture such as Hawkmoor and Pillars of The Earth.
    • 4/5
      Truth be told, there are large chunks of this novel that could be removed without causing any detriment to the plot - it’s claimed Hugo was paid by the word, so he used a *lot* of them! - but it can not be denied that Hugo knew how to write a damn good story. This tale of the beautiful gypsy La Esmeralda, and the various men who loved or lusted after her, is rightly a classic.
    • 3/5
      Yikes. I didn't know what I was signing up for when I invited people to join me in a buddy read of what is more commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Part of me wishes to apologize even (we were all so excited and then it turned out the way it did). It started out good, funny even, and then it turned ugly really quickly. I don't know that there was one honorable male character in the whole book, but at least the pet goat didn't die, and we'll always have that. Was it a valuable reading experience? Yes. Will I ever pick it up again? Nope.
    • 4/5
      I've been meaning to read this for a while, and with the recent fire at Notre Dame, I decided to pick it up. I'm glad I did, especially because the descriptions of Notre Dame and the city of Paris in the 14th century were vivid and interesting. When Hugo wrote this book, he wrote it as historical fiction. I think it's easy to lose that now, since his present is so distant to a modern reader, but I also think it's an important part of the book. Beyond the descriptions of the city and architecture, the plot and characters were actually a little weak for me. There are so many diversions and stops and starts with the storylines, that it was hard for me to get into. Hugo does tie it all together in the end, very dramatically, but it took a long time to get there. I suppose most people are familiar with the basic story of Quasimodo and Esmerelda, but it's darker and more complex than I expected it to be. I think this book is worth reading once, but it won't be a favorite for me.
    • 3/5
      A decent book. However, the story wanders in parts and the melodrama, at times, can be a little overbearing. Still, a worthwhile book to read for all of those interested in Victor Hugo or the tale in question.
    • 5/5
      I hadn't read this since I was in high school and had forgotten how good it is. Unrequited love for everyone (except perhaps Gregoire and Djali). Quasimodo is such a tragic character ... it makes your heart ache for him. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because of a couple of the ridiculously long sidetracks that Hugo gets on. I just skipped right through them, but the story and the characters are so good, I really wish he'd just stuck with that.
    • 5/5
      Welp, *that* was different from the Disney movie. And I loved it. I found the details about the cathedral and the city of Paris both lovely and a bit of a slog, if that's possible, but the story itself was fantastic, with an ending that I both loved and hated and loved to hate. The dark humor sprinkled throughout was wonderful and almost all the characters were excellently well-drawn. Esmeralda herself, funnily enough, is the only exception here, whose one-sidedness was doubly annoying - annoying for being one-sided, and also that one side of her character was itself frustratingly simple and meek. Overall, though, I'm thoroughly happy that I read this one, finally.
    • 4/5
      It took a while to get used to Hugo effusive style, and I could have read it happily without the descriptions of the Paris skyline and streets from 600 years ago, but it did capture my attention. I doubted I would be able to read it at all until I was well into it, then it went pretty rapidly. I was inspired to read this by a student who compared the original with the Disney movie of her childhood, which I have never seen, in a capstone presentation. Another classic--read at last!
    • 5/5
      After reading the first five pages and realizing I was in the hands of a master story teller, I started over, more slowly.Victor Hugo totally draws readers in - to each plot, location, and to the finest nuances of each character, from wild humor tothe worst human desperations. Most vividly rendered in a few words.Unfortunately, for us tender hearted, he is also the master of horror and does not hesitate to unleash his powersin many directions."The Bird's Eye View of Paris" and Notre-Dame chapters could be greatly enhanced by photographs and illustrations.1/2 Star missing because of the wholly untimely and boring chapter dominated by the King.
    • 3/5
      An odd book: the narrative drive is extremely fitful, to the extent that it doesn't at times disappear (as in, say, a sixty-page disquisition on Notre Dame as an exemplar of the history of architecture), and the characterizations are sometimes bizarre (Pierre Gringoire, a self-infatuated poet who seems to develop romantic feelings towards his accidental wife's pet goat). Like a lot of authors who do their research, Hugo seems too interested in what he's turned up to let it go no matter how it clogs up the flow. Nevertheless the novel pulls you along in the series of masterful set-pieces, never greater than in the shift of perspective at Esmeralda's death, that seem to be where Hugo's real power resides.
    • 5/5
      Gripping, tragic, and so well-written. Yes, the first half was pedantic and way to full of description, but Hugo's writing style allowed me to brush up on my French with his repetition of ideas and words. The story really began to grip me in the chapter Ceci Tuera Cela" and by the time I reached the meat of the action, the clandestine meeting between Esmeralda and her beau Phoebus, I read 150 pages in 4 hours. In French. The character of Claude Frollo is abhorrent (and all too real), the tragedy of the lady in the tower is heart-wrenching, and the heroism of Quasimodo when confronted with his various tortures and heartbreaks is, well, heartbreaking in itself. I am so very glad I have finally read it - it has made my life that much richer."
    • 4/5
      I must admit I don't remember it well, but after seeing a trailer for the Disney movie I decided to read the book. I do remember it was moving and interesting. And since I'm generally pretty disgusted with Disney versions of classics, I won't be comparing the two.
    • 2/5
      I think I pointlessly ruined my enjoyment of this book by reading this abridged version. Anyway what I've read is barely a good book. I can't help suspecting it didn't help reading it in French, of which so many words I ignore. I'll count it as part of my growth; and I can always give a shot at the complete version a couple of years from now.

      That said, the art of Hugo shines nevertheless. The characters, the descriptions of the place, the plot, heck, the whole idea of this story is genius. But the events seem sometimes juxtaposed, piled one on top of the other by force, rather than by grace. I would suggest anyone to go for the complete version; I doubt that Hugo would be capable of this.
    • 4/5
      I was prepared for the novel to be vastly different from the Disney film, more serious and 'grown-up'. In the end the distance was probably less than I was expecting. Although naturally more complex, the novel is comic and carnivalesque in a way that feels somewhat Disney. All the characters are somewhat comically grotesque, and few of their actions feel truly human. I suppose the difference is in the absence of 'good' and 'bad' characters. Esmerelda and Phoebus are as comic and irrationally-driven as everyone else, and Frollo is more screw-eyed than he is evil. The hunchback himself is no protagonist, and to my mind no more interesting than other fringe characters like Clopin, Pierre and the mad mother in the cell.
    • 5/5
      if it would not be for the long chapters of architecture about the church, this book would get 5 stars. This is really an action book with a highly dramatic ending. Great script for a movie.
    • 5/5
      If I could give this book ten stars I would.
    • 5/5
      The classic tale set against the marvelously detailed description of the city. The story about Quasimodo, but it starts with him being praised. The hatred/prejudice comes only after misunderstandings. The overbearing message- ignorance breeds hatred. Worth the read.
    • 5/5
      A great work by one of the world's greatest authors. Complete excitement. It is not like any movie. I was shocked to discover this but it makes a much better read. Far more realistic.
    • 4/5
      It was interesting to read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" after reading Victor Hugo's masterpiece "Les Miserables." I really enjoyed "Hunchback" but couldn't help but feel it was like reading "Les Miserables" light.Central to the story is Notre Dame-- around which most of the action takes place. A corrupt priest, a gypsy girl with a counting goat and, of course, the hunchback in the title, are interesting (and at times frustrating) characters. The story moves long aside from Hugo's trademark digressions into French history.I liked this book a lot, but if you're only going to read one book by Hugo in your lifetime, this isn't the one, of course!
    • 3/5
      Much more poignant, dramatic and even comical then I had been expecting.