Apparently Victor Hugo won't allow anyone in Paris to have a nice life.

Picking this book up was a long time coming. I finally got around to it and I'm pleasantly surprised, though it's far from being my favourite gothic classic.

The book has a few issues, pretty much all of which come down to the age of the work. Ableism, racism and misogyny run rampant from everybody, including the characters we're meant to be rooting for.  Esmeralda, bless her soul, can't catch a break and is continually harassed, assaulted and is almost raped twice, already hard to read and becoming harder whenever she's referred to as a "child" or "girl" because mind you, she's only 16.  The way her and specifically her body are discussed is deeply uncomfortable through today's lense.

But I could forgive that, because when reading classics you can't compare their sensibilities and social awareness to now (though it is important to learn from them).  What I struggled the most with is the pacing, which would be going by nicely before grinding to a stop because we get two chapters describing the layout of Paris.  At this point the fact that Victor will have been paid by the word becomes very apparent.  The most frustrating part was that on a sentence by sentence level, the writing was beautiful and clear and vibrant.  It just went on for far too long and always jumped in just when the plot was starting to pop off.

But I did finish the book, and I do think if you're interested then it's worth reading.  Claude Frollo remains one of the most unnerving and chilling villains that I've ever read, a man sunken so deep into obsession that he is unwilling to accept no for an answer and then blames his victim for it, which leaves his character feeling eerily current. Gringoire is amusing and makes for good comic relief.  The writing is genuinely beautiful and funny and gives interesting social commentary, some of which strikes home even to this day.

Despite the name, the book really isn't about Quasimodo. He's a secondary victim in the plot and has the misfortune of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time from the second he was born.  He's given a surprising amount of humanity as the book progresses but in fairness the bar was set very low.  A disabled character in a book written so long ago is never going to age well, but he could have been characterized a whole lot worse I guess?

Overall: A decent gothic classic with themes that are surprising in their relevancy, yet also as you might expect, very difficult to read in places due to a combination of heavy handed writing and things now considered problematic.  I think if you take it with a fistful of salt you'll find a lot to like within this book.  It isn't one I'll be likely to revisit anytime soon however.

Victor Hugo is that uncle that loves to tell all sorts of outrageous stories that are completely over the top and most certainly not particularly factually accurate. It's a lot of fun but it's also very rambly and sometimes hard to follow exactly what the point is - although you're sure that there's a definite attempt to push a certain political agenda.

My main issue with the book was that I didn't like any of the characters and didn't really enjoy reading about them. I liked the overall vibe and some of it was quite amusing, but it was also overdone and most of the puns get lost in translation (endnotes never quite have the same effect...). The darker themes Hugo explores, like power and control over others, punishment and torture, and poverty are all cleverly discussed and for the most part, enjoyable to read. I can see why it's a classic, but just be ready for nastiness and a severe lack of positive outcomes.

The 1st half of the book was half story half documentary of Notre Dame. Disney got the whole thing wrong, but it was very good.

Dark, traumatic, depressing