What does Notre Dame de Paris mean to you? This popular work has left few people indifferent, it has an extraordinary mesmerizing power. What is its secret? Maybe it’s all in the spectacular staging, an extraordinary story about love and betrayal, told by the brilliant Hugo? Or maybe it’s the terrific music, which intertwines French chanson and gypsy motifs? Just imagine, because this work contains 50 songs dedicated to the brightest and strongest feeling – love, and almost all of them became real hits.
At the center of this sad story is the young beauty Esmeralda, who was brought up by the gypsy king Klopin, who replaced her father and mother. Their tabor attempts to illegally enter Paris to take refuge in the Cathedral, but the soldiers notice the uninvited guests and immediately chase them away. The handsome Thebes da Chateauper, who is the captain of the royal riflemen, catches the eye of the young Esmeralda. Captivated by her beauty, he completely forgets about his betrothed bride Fleur-de-Lis.
The captain is not the only one who has noticed the young dancer. Quasimodo also has fond feelings for her. He comes on purpose to the jester´s festival to admire his beloved once more. His stepfather and stern master Frollo forbids him even to think of the girl or look at her, and he does so out of sheer jealousy. It turns out that the archdeacon is also in love with Esmeralda, only he has no right to be.
Frolo hatch a cunning plan to kidnap the gypsy and lock her in the tower, and he tries to steal the girl with Quasimodo under cover of night, but Thebes saves the gypsy in time. Seizing the moment, the captain immediately invites the beauty on a date.
An unwilling witness to the kidnapping and the captain’s brave deed is the poet Grengoire, who wants to hang the Gypsy King Cloper for breaking the rules of the tabor, because he has visited the Court of Wonders, and it is strictly forbidden to do so. But Esmeralda saves Grenguard and must now marry him. Except that the gypsy is already in love with another, her saviour, Phebe de Chateaubre.
The archdeacon watches Esmeralda and the captain closely as they set out on their date, and, blinded by jealousy, he pounces on his rival. As a result, Frollo injures Phebe with a knife. Except that Esmeralda has to pay for the crime, for it is Esmeralda who is accused of attempting to kill the captain. At the trial, the gypsy tries to prove her innocence, but Esmeralda is not heard and is sentenced to death.
While the girl is in prison awaiting her sentence, she is visited by Frollo. The archdeacon offers to save the beauty in exchange for her loyalty and love, but she refuses him. On hearing of this, Frollo pounces on Esmeralda, but the girl is saved by the timely arrival of Clopin and Quasimodo. The entire tabor comes to help the captive, and a fight breaks out between the gypsies and the King’s soldiers. As a result of this clash, Clopin is killed and Esmeralda is arrested again, with Frollo himself handing her over to the executioner. In despair he tells Quasimodo and confesses that he did all this because of the young beauty´s refusal. In fury he throws the perfidious Frollo from the tower and he rushes to the place of execution to take Esmeralda, now dead, into his arms for the last time.
“Notre Dame de Paris” is generally considered to be Hugo’s first and most significant work. And his publisher immediately put strict conditions – the manuscript must be finished in exactly four and a half months, and it was conceived in the spirit of Walter Scott. For comparison, over his next work “Les Miserables”, which was written after the first novel, Hugo worked for seventeen years.
