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Notre-Dame de Paris (Hapgood)

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Notre-Dame de Paris (1888)
by Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood
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(French: Notre-Dame de Paris) French novel. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The book tells the story of a poor Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who was raised by the archdeacon (Claude Frollo). The book was written as a statement to preserve the Notre Dame cathedral and not to 'modernize' it, as Hugo was thoroughly against. The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture.

Victor Hugo59314Notre-Dame de Paris1888Isabel Florence Hapgood
​
​

Notre-Dame De Paris

BY

VICTOR HUGO

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

BY

ISABEL F. HAPGOOD

VOL. I

NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

​

Copyright, 1888, by
T. Y. Crowell & Co.

Electrotyped by
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston.

​

A few years ago, while visiting or, rather, rummaging about Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word, engraved by hand upon the wall:—

ἈΝΆΓΚΗ.

These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic caligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply.

He questioned himself; he sought to divine who could have been that soul in torment which had not been willing to quit this world without leaving this stigma of crime or unhappiness upon the brow of the ancient church.

Afterwards, the wall was whitewashed or scraped down, I know not which, and the inscription disappeared. For it is ​thus that people have been in the habit of proceeding with the marvellous churches of the Middle Ages for the last two hundred years. Mutilations come to them from every quarter, from within as well as from without. The priest whitewashes them, the archdeacon scrapes them down; then the populace arrives and demolishes them.

Thus, with the exception of the fragile memory which the author of this book here consecrates to it, there remains to-day nothing whatever of the mysterious word engraved within the gloomy tower of Notre-Dame,—nothing of the destiny which it so sadly summed up. The man who wrote that word upon the wall disappeared from the midst of the generations of man many centuries ago; the word, in its turn, has been effaced from the wall of the church; the church will, perhaps, itself soon disappear from the face of the earth.

It is upon this word that this book is founded.

March. 1831.
​

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME I.

  1. BOOK FIRST.
  2. CHAPTERPAGE
  3. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		1
  4. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		17
  5. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		28
  6. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		36
  7. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		46
  8. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		54
  9. BOOK SECOND.
  10. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		57
  11. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		61
  12. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		64
  13. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		75
  14. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		80
  15. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		83
  16. VII.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		103
  17. BOOK THIRD.
  18. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		114
  19. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		124
    20. ​
  20. BOOK FOURTH.
  21. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		150
  22. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		155
  23. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		161
  24. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		169
  25. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		171
  26. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		178
  27. BOOK FIFTH.
  28. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		180
  29. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		191
  30. BOOK SIXTH.
  31. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		207
  32. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		219
  33. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		224
  34. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		246
  35. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		256
​

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME II.

  1. BOOK SEVENTH.
  2. CHAPTERPAGE
  3. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		1
  4. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		17
  5. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		27
  6. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		30
  7. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		45
  8. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		52
  9. VII.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		57
  10. VIII.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		66
  11. BOOK EIGHTH.
  12. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		75
  13. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		86
  14. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		92
  15. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		96
  16. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		111
  17. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		116
    18. ​
  18. BOOK NINTH.
  19. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		135
  20. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		148
  21. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		153
  22. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		157
  23. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		169
  24. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		172
  25. BOOK TENTH.
  26. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		177
  27. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		189
  28. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		192
  29. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		201
  30. V.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		222
  31. VI.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		255
  32. VII.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		257
  33. BOOK ELEVENTH.
  34. I.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		261
  35. II.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		296
  36. III.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		306
  37. IV.
    ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		308
  38. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    		311

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1928, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 96 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

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