Resumo de The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

A very tragic romance set in 15th century Paris. The book opens with detailed descriptions of the city at the time the novel is set, and comparisons to the author's contemporary (18th century) experiences of it. An acount of the annual Feast Of Fools celebration introduces us to our (anti)hero, Quasimodo, a deformed hunchback who, having been abandoned as a child, was adopted by the Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame and employed as the bellringer. The fact that this occupation has rendered Quasimodo deaf will have tragic consequences later in the story.

Whilst the parade leads Quasimodo through the city he sees and falls in love with La Esmerelda, a strikingly beautiful gypsy girl who dances in the streets for a living, accompanied by her pet goat Djali. She is also admired from afar by the sinister Archdeacon, who dabbles in Alchemy and Dark Arts behind the close doors of the vast cathedral. The Archdeacon enlists Quasimodo to try and sieze Esmerelda at night, but her cries are heard by the Watch and she is rescued by the handsome soldier Phoebus. Esmerelda falls irrevocably in love with Phoebus on sight, and spends the rest of the book daydreaming about him and selectively ignoring his obvious faults of vanity and promiscuity.

Although Phoebus is engaged to be married, he arranges to meet Esmerelda. She agrees, in her naivety, believing that Phoebus' intentions are honourable. Unknown to her the Archdeacon has been watching her and Phoebus for some time, and he arranges with the drunken soldier to attend their rendes-vouz in secret. But his mad passion for Esmerelda overcomes him, and when he sees Phoebus taking crude advantage of the girl, he comes out of hiding and stabs the soldier.

Esmerelda is arrested for the crime and accused of witchcraft, but the poor girl is so shocked by the (mistaken) belief that her beloved Phoebus is dead that she succumbs under torture and confesses to the charges. She no longer wishes to go on living if Phoebus is dead, and she longs for the death penalty to be carried out swiftly. However, whilst in prison she receives a visit from the Archdeacon, who offers her freedom from her sentence if she will be with him. But she hates him so violently (as she knows it was really he who attacked Phoebus) that she refuses him, saying she would rather die than belong to him.

On the day her public execution is scheduled to take place, large crowds gather to condemn the 'witch' and see justice done. But Quasimodo snatches her from her captors, claiming her Sanctuary in the cathedral. He carries her triumphantly over the galleries, to the cheers of the ever-fickle Parisian crowd. And so Esmerelda must remain in the cathedral, out of the reach of the law and under the tender and dedicated protection of Quasimodo. He loves her deeply, providing for her and defending her from the Archbishop, even though he is fully aware that his own ugliness will never allow him to be with her. And of course, Esmerelda constantly mourns the loss of her Phoebus and can think of little else.

Through various gossip channels, news of Esmerelda's whereabouts reach the ears of her gypsy friends, who endeavour to rescue her, and also the King of France himself, who, believing the gypsy attack on Notre Dame to be a personal attack upon the crown, decrees to overthrow the ancient laws of Sanctuary and have Esmerelda removed from the cathedral and hanged. While Quasimodo defends the cathedral (and Esmerelda) against the siege, the Archdeacon uses an old friend of Esmerelda's - Pierre Gringoire, a poet and playwright - to coax her out of the cathedral. They escape, but Gringoire flees, fearing for his life, and when the Archdeacon reveals his identity to Esmerelda she once again refuses him. He leaves her in the clutches of Le Sachette, a madwoman who has been mourning the loss of her baby daughter who was kidnapped by gypsies fifteen years ago and replaced with an ugly, deformed child. The readerses before the charathat this woman is in fact Esmerelda's mother, and the child she was replaced with was Quasimodo. When Le Sachette realises Esmerelda is her long lost daughter she attempts to hide her from the soldiers who are chasing her. However, when Esmerelda hears Phoebus's voice among the Watch she comes out of hiding, ecstatic to see him and overjoyed that he is not dead. But her infatuation has fatal consequences for her and her newly reunited mother, as Esmerelda is hanged and Le Sachette is killed trying to save her.

Watching all this from high up in the cathedral are the Archdeacon and Quasimodo. The Archdeacon, deranged and exhausted by his passions for the girl, begins to laugh at the tradegy of the whole spectacle. On seeing this (and unable to hear the Archdeacon's words) Quasimodo throws him from the tower. So now, without his father-figure and without his love, there is nothing left for Quasimodo but to seek out Esmerelda's burial site and lay down beside her to await his own death.

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