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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Elizabeth McCracken
Translated by Catherine Liu

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Elizabeth McCracken
Translated by Catherine Liu

By Victor Hugo

By Victor Hugo

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Jean-Marc Hovasse

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Jean-Marc Hovasse

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Elizabeth McCracken
Translated by Catherine Liu

By Victor Hugo
Introduction by Elizabeth McCracken
Translated by Catherine Liu

By Victor Hugo

By Victor Hugo

By Victor Hugo
Read by David Case

By Victor Hugo
Read by David Case

Best Seller

Part of Modern Library Classics

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Part of Modern Library Classics

Paperback $15.00

Oct 08, 2002 | ISBN 9780679642572 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

Mass Market Paperback $5.95

Feb 01, 1981 | ISBN 9780553213706 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

Hardcover $26.00

Feb 07, 2012 | ISBN 9780307957818

Ebook $2.99

Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307417152 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

Ebook $1.99

May 01, 2007 | ISBN 9780553903980 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

Audiobook Download $27.50

Jan 01, 1992 | 1170 Minutes

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    The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
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    Feb 07, 2012 | ISBN 9780307957818

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    • Paperback $15.00

      Oct 08, 2002 | ISBN 9780679642572 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

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      Feb 01, 1981 | ISBN 9780553213706 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

      Buy from Other Retailers:

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      Feb 07, 2012 | ISBN 9780307957818

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      Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307417152 | Middle Grade (10 and up)

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    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    Set in medieval Paris, Victor Hugo’s powerful historical romance The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has resonated with succeeding generations ever since its publication in 1837. It tells the story of the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, condemned as a witch by the tormented archdeacon Claude Frollo, who lusts after her. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral, having fallen in love with the kindhearted Esmeralda, tries to save her by hiding her in the cathedral’s tower. When a crowd of Parisian peasants, misunderstanding Quasimodo’s motives, attacks the church in an attempt to liberate her, the story ends in tragedy.

    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    Before the huge crowd that packed the cathedral square, La Esmeralda stood between two executioners. Suddenly Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, rushed at the executioners and felled them with his enormous fists. He snatched the gypsy girl in one arm and ran with her into the church. A moment later he appeared at the top of the bell tower. Holding the girl above his head, he showed her triumphantly to all of Paris while his thunderous voice roared savagely to the sky: “Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!”

    Set amid the riot, intrigue, and pageantry of medieval Paris, Victor Hugo’s masterful tale of heroism and adventure has been a perennial favorite since its first publication in 1831 and remains one of the most thrilling stories of all time.

    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    Hugo’s grand medieval melodrama tells the story of the beautiful Esmeralda, a gypsy girl loved by three men: Archdeacon Frollo, his adoptive son Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame cathedral, and Captain Phoebus. Falsely accused of trying to murder Phoebus, who attempts to rape her, Esmeralda is sentenced to death and rescued from the gallows by Quasimodo who defends her to the last.

    The subject of many adaptations for stage and screen, this remains perhaps one of the most romantic yet gripping stories ever told.
     
    The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is an epic of a whole people, with a cast of characters that ranges from the king of France to the beggars who inhabit the Parisian sewers, and at their center the massive figure–a character in itself–of the great Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of the cathedral; his foster father, the tormented archdeacon Frollo; and the beautiful and doomed Gypsy Esmeralda are caught up in a tragedy that still speaks clearly to us of revolution and social strife, of destiny and free will, and of love and loss.

    The only widely available hardcover edition of Victor Hugo’s masterful historical novel of medieval Paris–one of the most beloved of world classics.

    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    The story and characters in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame  have resonated with succeeding generations since its publication in 1831. It has tempted filmmakers, and most recently animators, who have exploited its dramatic content to good effect but have inevitably lost some of the grays that make the original text so compelling.
       From Victor Hugo’s flamboyant imagination came Quasimodo, the grotesque bell ringer; La Esmeralda, the sensuous gypsy dancer; and the haunted archdeacon Claude Frollo. Hugo set his epic tale in the Paris of 1482 under Louis XI and meticulously re-created the
    day-to-day life of its highest and lowest inhabitants. Written at a time of perennial political upheaval in France, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame  is the product of an emerging democratic sensibility and prefigures the teeming masterpiece Les Misérables, which Hugo would write thirty years later.
       He made the cathedral the centerpiece of the novel and called it Notre-Dame de Paris. (It received its popular English title at the time of its second translation in 1833.) Hugo wrote that his inspiration came from a carving of the word "fatality" in Greek that he had found in the cathedral. The inscription had been eradicated by the time the book was published, and Hugo feared that Notre-Dame’s Gothic splendor might soon be lost to the contemporary fad for tearing down old buildings. Notre-Dame has survived as one of the great monuments of Paris, and Hugo’s novel is a fitting celebration of it, a popular classic that is proving to be just as enduring.

    The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library’s seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world’s best books, at the best prices.




    Jacket paintings: (front) detail from Notre Dame  by Paul Lecomte, courtesy of David David Gallery/SuperStock; (spine) Victor Hugo, 1833, by Louis Boulanger of Giraudon/Art Resource, N.Y.

    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    In the dark world of medieval Paris, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral heroically fights to save the life of a beautiful Gypsy girl about to be unjustly executed. Told with simple vocabulary and set in large type, this adaptation of the classic tale is perfectly suited for young readers.  

    About The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

    In the dark world of medieval Paris, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral heroically fights to save the life of a beautiful Gypsy girl about to be unjustly executed. Told with simple vocabulary and set in large type, this adaptation of the classic tale is perfectly suited for young readers.  

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    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    About Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802–1885), novelist, poet, playwright, and French national icon, is best known for two of today’s most popular world classics: Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, as well as other works, including The Toilers of the Sea and The Man Who Laughs. Hugo was… More about Victor Hugo

    Product Details

    Category: Children’s Middle Grade Fantasy & Magical Books | Classics

    Paperback | $15.00
    Published by Modern Library
    Oct 08, 2002 | 512 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | Middle Grade (10 and up) | ISBN 9780679642572

    Category: Children’s Middle Grade Fantasy & Magical Books | Classics

    Mass Market Paperback | $5.95
    Published by Bantam Classics
    Feb 01, 1981 | 384 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-7/8 | Middle Grade (10 and up) | ISBN 9780553213706

    Category: Children’s Books | Classics

    Hardcover | $26.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Feb 07, 2012 | 504 Pages | 4-7/8 x 8-1/8 | ISBN 9780307957818

    Category: Children’s Middle Grade Fantasy & Magical Books | Classics

    Ebook | $2.99
    Published by Modern Library
    Dec 18, 2007 | 576 Pages | Middle Grade (10 and up) | ISBN 9780307417152

    Category: Children’s Middle Grade Fantasy & Magical Books | Classics

    Ebook | $1.99
    Published by Bantam Classics
    May 01, 2007 | 384 Pages | Middle Grade (10 and up) | ISBN 9780553903980

    Category: Children’s Books | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $27.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 01, 1992 | 1170 Minutes | ISBN 9781415910214
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    Praise

    “What a beautiful thing Notre-Dame is!” —Gustave Flaubert

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