The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Paris, 1482: the gypsy Esmeralda dances on the Place de Grève while the city keeps the Feast of Fools. Quasimodo, the cathedral's misshapen bell-ringer, and Claude Frollo, the archdeacon who raised him, are both overcome by her. Between cloister, Court of Miracles and pillory, she becomes the stake of a desire that will not admit itself. The novel explores fanaticism, the violence of crowds, beauty and ugliness, and the cathedral as a memory in stone. Hugo makes medieval Paris a character in its own right, rebuilt street by street.