The tragic 19th-century Paris novel weaves a rich and morally diffuse cast of characters beyond Quasimodo. But the real hero is the symbolic cathedral itself
capital’s massive and ornate cathedral, reopens this weekend restored, 5½ years after it caught fire on April 15th, 2019. Not everyone can afford the time and expense to see the Paris ian monument for themselves. But a cheaper, simpler way of marking the occasion is to revisit a book closely tied up with the cathedral’s history:Hugo wrote the novel in part to raise public interest in the cathedral and encourage the state to finance restoration works.
But during the French Revolution its adornments were ripped off, its treasury sacked, its bells reduced to material for coins and cannons. Above the western entrance, its 28 statues of the kings of Judah were pulled down, beheaded and used to fill in roadworks. Robespierre dreamed of making Notre-Dame a shrine for his cult of the Supreme Being; after his death it became a storage depot.
Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame : The character Claude Frollo is obsessed with the dancer Notre Dame-Cathedral burns as fire breaks out on April 15th, 2019. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters
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