The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I read Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time over Spring Break. His other famous novel, Les Miserables, is one of my all-time favorite books, but I was not as smitten with Hunchback. I forced myself to continue reading and wasn't fully engaged until Book V, Chapter II! Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, because when I look back at some of my underlinings, I am reminded of lots of really cool stuff (that's young-person-speak for: creative figures of description, innovative approaches to plot, intriguing intellectual assertions and solid character development).

As he does in Les Mis, Hugo jumps from scene to seemingly-unrelated scene, inserting philosophical treatises along the way that are complete asides to the plot. I loved some of those rabbit trails in Les Mis (i.e. his analysis of the monastic life, his lengthy dissertations on Napoleon, and his minutely detailed description of Paris's sewage system!), but initially these were very distracting to me in Hunchback. However, it was one of these distractions which finally drew me in and engaged me!

Hugo provides a highly thought provoking discussion in the chapter, "The One Will Kill the Other," in which he predicts that the advent of the printing press will negate the forward movement of architecture. His premise is that buildings were man's primary mode of cultural expression and the means of passing on history and beliefs...before the printing press came along. "For the first six thousand years of the world's history, architecture was the great writing of mankind." He argues that the Renaissance brings about a separation of all the various expressions of mankind which were formerly housed together in architecture. "Reduced to itself, abandoned by the other arts because human thought has abandoned it, it calls in journeymen for lack of artists; plain glass takes the place of painted windows; the stonecutter succeeds the sculptor. Farewell to all vigor, originality, life and intellect. ...the architectural form of the edifice becomes less and less apparent, the geometric form growing more and more prominent, like the skeleton of an emaciated invalid. The beautiful lines of art give way to the cold and inexorable lines of geometry." Whether or not you agree with Hugo's conclusions, he provides a highly provokative and lengthy argument which I found fascinating, and anyone who's paid attention to development of modern architecture cannot deny that geometric lines gained both prominence and reverence. I would suggest that the change is not because "human thought has abandoned it," but rather because this is precisely where the trajectory of human thought has led it. Architecture continues to be, as it has been in every age, a visible expression of its culture's mindset.

I realize I've said little about the actual plot or literary quality of Hunchback, but this post is running long, so I'll save that for another day.