The Hunchback of Notre-Dame [Hardcover]

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A tremendous, emotionally stirring tragedy,The Hunchback of Notre-Damefeatures one of literature's most striking creations Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bellringer of Notre-Dame de Paris during the turbulent final years of the fifteenth century. Rejected by all but the priest Claude Frollo, Quasimodo rescues the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, condemned for a crime she did not commit, and brings her to the sanctuary of the cathedral. But Frollo has been corrupted by his lust for the girl. Only Quasimodo can hope to save her.

With an Afterword by John Grant.

Victor-Marie Hugo, the pivotal figure of the Romantic movement in France, involved equal mixtures of literature and politics. He was born in Besan?on, France, in 1802. He began writing precociously in adolescence, and in 1819, at the tender age of 17, began a literary magazine,Conservateur Litt?raire, The publication in 1831 of his novelThe Hunchback of Notre-Damesecured his widespread popularity. With the accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe, Hugo turned his hand to political verse, producing several books of poetry, and political drama; among his several plays of this period wasThe King's Fool(1832), which despite being initially banned was later adapted by Verdi to be the libretto forRigoletto(1851). In 1848, following the revolution of that year, Hugo was elected to the Constituent Assembly as a deputy for Paris, and his politics moved steadily leftward. The establishment of the Second Empire under Napoleon III saw him flee into exile, first in Brussels (until 1852), then on the island of Jersey (until expelled in 1855) and finally on Guelƒ!