Victor Hugo

I just finished listening to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo, and I liked it very much. It is slow to get going, but once it does the plot is quite intense. Some of the imagery is also marvelous. There is a long chapter near the beginning describing the view of Paris from the top of Notre Dame at extraordinary length, and unless you really care about medieval Paris, I suggest you skip it. And of course the plot, like those of most nineteenth-century novels, depends on crazy coincidences. With a little suspension of disbelief, though, it is quite compelling, and great use is made of the medieval legal system's near indifference to whether anyone is actually guilty or innocent, so long as the proper forms are followed. What I really liked was the characters, none of whom are particularly good or wise. Frollo, the villain, is pleasingly dark and twisted. La Esmerelda, the 15-year-old gypsy girl, is clever and beautiful but becomes a fool over an infatuation she thinks is love. Captain Phoebus is handsome and brave but a self-centered jerk. And Quasimodo is a great creation, with his twisted body and half-animal mind.