Although the story is compelling and classic, and I really wanted to like it, i couldnt finish, for multiple reasons. Victor Hugo was a huge antisemite it seems, he keeps using the word "jewish" as an  insult here. A lot of other "product of its time" issues with the writing. Also there are whole chapters of tangents that are completely unrelated with page-long sentences (if you like reading hot-takes on parisian architecture, urban planning, and political history, then eat your heart out). 

I'm not sure how to rate a book like this. It is obviously a classic, and for very good reason. It is funny, dark, sad, and suspenseful. But I find it very hard to enjoy something so filled with racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and ableism. Overall, I'm glad to have read it. I'm also fairly amazed at how much the Disney movie kept from the original story-it actually follows the book pretty closely. And, as tragedies are such an important part of human story-telling, this one is true to form.

At times I wasn't sure if the author was denouncing all the above-mentioned isms, or agreeing with them. Maybe both, for different things? I'm not sure. I'll give this a star rating to reflect my enjoyment of the reading, and not so much to reflect that it is a classic. When reading stories like this I try to maintain cultural relativism-it is not my time, my culture, my society, therefore I can't judge it the same way I would my contemporary stories, even as I disagree with so much of the wrongs of that time and place.

Ultimately, I'm glad to have read it.