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Notre-Dame de Paris

Victor Hugo
Translated with an introduction by Alban Krailsheimer

28 May 2009

ISBN: 9780199555802

592 pages
Paperback
196x129mm

In Stock

Oxford World's Classics

Price: £9.99

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Description

Three extraordinary characters caught in a web of fatal obsession are at the centre of Hugo's novel. The grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, owes his life to the austere archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion to the gypsy dancer Esmeralda. She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, empty-headed officer, but by an unthinking act of kindness wins Quasimodo's selfless devotion. Behind the central figures moves a pageant of picturesque characters, ranging from the cruel, superstitious king, Louis XI, to the underworld of beggars and petty criminals. These disreputable truands' night-time assault on the cathedral is one of the most spectacular set-pieces of Romantic literature.

Hugo vividly depicts medieval Paris, where all life is dominated by the massive cathedral. His passionate enthusiasm for Gothic architecture is set within the context of an epic view of mankind's history, to which he attaches even more importance than to the novel's compelling story. Alban Krailsheimer's new translation is a fresh approach to this monumental classic by France's most celebrated Romantic.

About the Author(s)

Victor Hugo

Translated with an introduction by Alban Krailsheimer, Emeritus Student and former Tutor in French, Christ Church College, Oxford (retired)

Reviews

Alban Krailsheimer's fluent new translation more than does justice to a great romantic classic. - Max Davidson, Weekend Telegraph

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