In fact, this is a book full of heroes and monsters, saints and gargoyles, and saints-turned-gargoyles.” According to Britannica, Hugo-who believed that France’s architecture was a key part of its heritage-intended for the book to be “a story of the cathedral itself” as well as “a plea for the preservation of the city’s historic Gothic architecture (and thus its heritage).”

In her introduction to the 2002 edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, author Elizabeth McCracken writes that Hugo, who called his book Notre-Dame de Paris, hated the title that accompanied the English translation of his novel, which she notes “narrows the book down to one character and one building.

In French, the title is Notre-Dame de Paris. Hugo then underwent “extreme self-discipline” to avoid the penalty, Robb writes, buying “a grey woollen body-stocking, a new bottle of ink, lock his clothes in the wardrobe and ‘enter his novel like a prison.’” According to author John Sturrock, Hugo actually started seriously writing on September 1 and finished January 14 or 15, “a book of almost 200,000 words written in four and a half months.” 2.

“This time,” Robb writes, “for every week the novel was late, Hugo would forfeit 1000 francs.”īut the author missed that deadline as well-the July Revolution had erupted, so Hugo told his publisher that he had lost important notes and got a two-month extension. A year soon passed, during which a new deadline was negotiated with Hugo’s publisher (and not by Hugo himself, but by an intermediary): December 1, 1830. VICTOR HUGO / Fototeca Storica Nazionale./GettyImagesĪs Graham Robb writes in his biography of Hugo, the author’s initial due date for the manuscript was April 15, 1829-but he missed it. Victor Hugo was super late submitting his manuscript to his publisher. (Its opening line throws us back “three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days” to Janufor some historical perspective, the story takes place only 51 years after Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.) You likely know of Quasimodo, of Esmeralda, maybe you know Dom Claude Frollo or even Captain Phoebus … but here are some facts about Hunchback you might not know. If you are a reader, though, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a work of historical fiction set in the Gothic Era of Paris. Tourists are still not allowed inside, but the cathedral is easy to marvel at from its courtyard. Fortunately, 400 Parisian firefighters were able to extinguish the flames, and restoration has been in progress since then. If you’re not a reader, the last time (and possibly the first time) you thought about the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris may have been when it went up in flames three years ago.

The hunchback victor hugo