Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo is a sweeping, dramatic novel set in 15th-century Paris, centered around the majestic Notre-Dame Cathedral. Victor Hugo wrote his manuscript between September 1830 and January 1831. The story is set in Paris in 1482.
The novel consists of fifty-nine chapters divided into eleven books of unequal length.
You will find below a structured summary that captures the essence of the novel highlighting major characters, themes, and plot developments.
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Part 1: Characters and setting of the novel Notre-Dame de Paris
The beginning of the book, introducing the characters
The novel introduces Quasimodo, the cathedral’s hunchbacked bell-ringer, who is physically deformed but possesses a deep inner sensitivity. He is an orphan taken in and raised by Claude Frollo, Notre-Dame’s archdeacon. Claude Frollo has affection for only two people: his younger brother Jehan, raised by him, a dissipated schoolboy who spends his time in cabarets and brothels; and the hunchback Quasimodo, whom he adopted at the age of four when he saw him exhibited as a foundling in the cathedral.
Frollo, a once kind but increasingly tormented man, becomes obsessed with Esmeralda, a beautiful and compassionate young Romani woman who dances and sings in the streets of Paris and on the parvis of Notre-Dame.
When it all began
Esmeralda is nearly kidnapped by Quasimodo, accompanied by a mysterious man dressed in black (who turns out to be the archdeacon of Notre-Dame, Claude Frollo), but she is saved by the intervention of a captain of the guard, Phœbus de Châteaupers. Esmeralda is then also admired by Phoebus de Châteaupers, a captain of the King’s Archers, who is dashing but morally shallow.
In Book VI, Quasimodo is on trial at the Châtelet for his attempted kidnapping of Esmeralda. The case is listened to by a deaf auditor, and Quasimodo is deaf himself: the trial is a farce, and Quasimodo, without having been listened to and without having understood anything, is sentenced to two hours of pillorying in the Place de Grève and a fine.
An unexpected character
On the Place de Grève, in an entresol, is the “Trou aux rats”, which serves as a cell for a voluntary recluse, Sister Gudule. A group of women, Gervaise, Oudarde and Mahiette, are chatting nearby; Mahiette tells the story of Paquette, nicknamed La Chantefleurie, whose adorable little girl was kidnapped fifteen years earlier by bohemians when she was less than a year old, and replaced by a hunchbacked child whom we understand to be Quasimodo, later taken in by Frollo. La Chantefleurie is said to have been driven mad with grief by the loss of her daughter, whom she has never found, and who has been declared dead following the discovery of clues suggesting she was devoured by Bohemians. Mahiette is convinced that Sister Gudule is none other than Chantefleurie, as she keeps a child’s slipper in her cell, the only reminder of her daughter.
Shortly after this conversation, Quasimodo is taken to the Place de Grève to be tortured. His only comfort comes from Esmeralda’s generous gesture of giving him a drink.
In the novel Notre-Dame de Paris, the cathedral is also a key symbol of history
The cathedral itself is a powerful symbol in the story, representing both Parisian society and the Gothic architecture that Hugo admired and sought to protect. Through the novel, Hugo emphasizes Notre-Dame’s beauty and the threat posed to it by modernization and neglect, weaving these architectural concerns with the lives of the characters.
Book III looks at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, its history and its ill-considered restorations, and then gives an overview of the city of Paris as it appeared to a medieval viewer looking down on the capital from the cathedral’s towers.
Part 2 : the main storyline of Notre-Dame de Paris
Esmeralda: the book’s central character
Esmeralda captures the attention of several men, setting off a chain of events that impacts all the major characters.
Book VII begins several weeks later. Esmeralda dances on the forecourt of Notre-Dame. Esmeralda is watched by the crowd, but also by Frollo, from the top of the towers, and by Phœbus de Châteaupers. The latter is at the home of his future wife, Fleur-de-Lys, whose house faces the cathedral. Recognizing the gypsy, he sends her up to Fleur-de-Lys. Esmeralda, who is secretly madly in love with Phœbus, arouses Fleur-de-Lys’ jealousy because of her beauty. Esmeralda is betrayed by her goat, Djali, whom she has taught to arrange the letters to form Phœbus’s name, and is driven away.
The days pass. Frollo gradually becomes obsessed by his passion for the “Egyptian girl” and his jealousy of Phœbus. Phœbus, who is by no means in love with Esmeralda but is keen to spend a night with her, has arranged to meet the bohemian at a cabaret that very evening. Claude Frollo approaches him and asks to be allowed to watch his lovemaking with the gypsy, in exchange for payment. Phœbus accepts. Esmeralda comes to the rendez-vous, where Phœbus is very enterprising. But just as she is about to give in to his advances, Claude Frollo appears and stabs the captain, before fleeing through a window overlooking the Seine.
Esmeralda under arrest
In Book VIII, Esmeralda is arrested and tried for the murder of Phœbus de Châteaupers, who has been seriously wounded. She is also suspected of witchcraft.
She learns that Phœbus is probably dead, and, dejected, stops pleading her innocence. Tortured, she confesses to everything she has been accused of.
Some time later, Frollo comes to see her in her dungeon, confesses his love for her and offers to help her, but she refuses and pushes him away, still in love with Phœbus, whose murderer she believes him to be. In reality, Phœbus has survived and is gradually recovering, but decides to refrain from seeing Esmeralda again, lest the whole affair compromise his good reputation and future marriage.
Two months after the night of his rendez-vous with the gypsy, Phœbus is at Fleur-de-Lys’s when Esmeralda is brought to the cathedral square to receive her last rites before the execution. Esmeralda sees Phœbus alive and calls out to him, but he hastily withdraws. Esmeralda, in despair, gives herself up to death. But Quasimodo suddenly intervenes, seizes her and drags her into the church, where the right of asylum keeps her safe.
The story in Notre-Dame de Paris novel gets more complicated
In Book IX, Frollo, wandering outside Paris, is suffering from his condition and thinks Esmeralda is dead. That same evening, back at Notre-Dame, he crosses paths with the bohemian, unseen.
For days, Quasimodo watches over the girl in the cathedral. He tries to persuade Phœbus to come and see Esmeralda, but the latter refuses categorically. So as not to hurt the girl he loves more and more, Quasimodo tells Esmeralda that he has not found Phœbus.
The hunchback tries to make her understand that physical appearance isn’t everything, but the bohemian is still strongly in love with Phœbus and still blindly believes that the captain loves her too. Quasimodo’s love for Esmeralda begins to override his loyalty to Frollo, so much so that when Frollo tries to abuse the gypsy girl, Quasimodo interferes and then asks Frollo to kill him rather than have to choose.
The story expands to include other characters
In Book X, Frollo asks Gringoire (The character about whom the book begins) to save Esmeralda in return for the life she once saved him when he was nearly hanged. The poet has an idea approved by Frollo: call on the hoodlums Esmeralda was living with to come and rescue her.
In the middle of the night, the hoodlums come in great numbers to lay siege to the cathedral. But the doors were locked, and Quasimodo held back the invasion until the arrival of soldiers sent by King Louis XI, who had been quickly warned. In self-defense, Quasimodo kills Jehan Frollo (the archdeacon’s brother), who had rallied the bandits that very day. The bandits are decimated by the king’s soldiers.
In Book XI, Frollo takes advantage of the disorder on the square in front of Notre-Dame to take Esmeralda with him out of the building, accompanied by Gringoire and Djali, Esmeralda’s goat. They leave the island where the cathedral is located, and Gringoire takes off with the goat. Left alone with Esmeralda, Frollo repeats his declarations of love and tries to convince her that he can help her escape and save her from death if she agrees to love him. But she still refuses. Furious, he delivers her into the clutches of the old rat hole recluse, waiting for Justice to arrive in force.
Hope that fails
But instead, Sister Gudule recognizes in the Egyptian her own daughter, Agnès, stolen by gypsies fifteen years earlier. Sister Gudule can’t take advantage of this, however, as the town sergeants find the young gypsy and drag her back to the gallows. The mother dies of a blow to the head during her struggle to save her daughter.
From the top of Notre-Dame, Quasimodo and Frollo witness Esmeralda’s execution by hanging. Quasimodo understands that Frollo has betrayed Esmeralda; furious and desperate, he pushes the archdeacon from the top of the tower, and leaves himself to die in the cellar of Montfaucon, embracing Esmeralda’s corpse, finally united with her for eternity. Two years later, their skeletons are found entwined, and when an attempt is made to detach Quasimodo’s, it crumbles to dust.
Part 3 : Climax and Resolution of Notre-Dame de Paris novel
Quasimodo, deeply grateful to Esmeralda for a kindness she showed him, rescues her and hides her in the cathedral, invoking the “sanctuary” privilege, which offers protection from the authorities. The people of Paris rally to defend her, leading to a chaotic confrontation outside Notre-Dame. However, Quasimodo’s efforts ultimately fail, and Esmeralda is captured and sentenced to hang. Heartbroken, Quasimodo pushes Frollo from the cathedral heights, unable to bear the archdeacon’s betrayal and cruelty.
The story ends tragically as Quasimodo, unable to save Esmeralda, seeks comfort by lying beside her body in the burial pit, where he eventually dies. In this heart-wrenching conclusion, Hugo poignantly explores themes of love, sacrifice, and societal injustice.
About Notre-Dame de Paris : Themes and Analysis
A historical novel
Notre-Dame de Paris belongs to the genre of the historical novel, which was fashionable in the early 19th century. But Victor Hugo did not consider himself bound to respect historical truth at all costs, and did not hesitate to alter the details of facts and tighten the plot to bring out the character of historical figures such as Louis XI, or to emphasize his own vision of history.
Philosophical reflection: between the progress of history and the drama of fate
Hugo’s historical novel is also a philosophical and moral work. His portrayal of the 15th century and events such as the popular uprising to free Esmeralda is intended less as an exact recreation of the period than as political food for thought for 19th-century French readers living under Charles X’s monarchy. The novel proposes a theory of progress, detailed in the chapter “Ceci tuera cela” (“This will kill that”). As for the tragic fate of the main characters, it provides food for thought on destiny and the notion of fatality.
Societal Judgments and Outcasts
Quasimodo and Esmeralda are both marginalized, highlighting Hugo’s criticism of social discrimination.
The Power of the Church and Fate
Frollo’s conflicting devotion to the church and personal desires reflect the struggle between spiritual duty and human nature.
A framework for political reflection
The political dimension of the novel provides Hugo with the opportunity to assert, more or less directly, his political convictions on a number of subjects. The most explicit battle waged by the author in the course of the novel is a plea for the preservation of architectural heritage, of which Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral is but one of the best-known representatives, and which is endangered at the time of the novel by outright destruction or by restorations that disfigure the monuments’ original architecture. Hugo’s dedication to preserving Gothic architecture is mirrored in his descriptions of Notre-Dame, which becomes a silent witness to human struggles.
Hugo also reflects on justice: medieval justice is presented in the chapter “Coup d’œil impartial sur l’ancienne magistrature” as an unjust masquerade where the poor defendant is condemned in advance, and is mocked to the point of absurdity in a scene of ferocious satire (the trial of Quasimodo, a deaf defendant condemned by a deaf judge without either of them having understood anything about the case). But it is also shown as subject to irrationality and superstition (the trial of Esmeralda, condemned for witchcraft). What’s more, Hugo’s description of the gallows in the Place de Grève is a chilling evocation of the death penalty, which he denounces as barbaric and destined to be abolished by the progress of history.
The fantastic part of Notre-Dame de Paris novel
Victor Hugo borrowed some of his techniques from the 18th-century English Gothic novel, with its element of fantasy: the main character in Notre-Dame de Paris who links the novel to this genre is Archdeacon Claude Frollo, who follows in the footsteps of the demon-possessed, cursed churchman.
Although none of the events in the novel are truly supernatural, the characters are immersed in a world of beliefs that frighten them or, in Frollo’s case, lead them to evil and madness. The fantastic lies more in the characters’ perception of the world around them, which Hugo makes sensitive through the narrative devices he borrows from the Gothic novel.
Conclusion
Notre-Dame de Paris is both a story of tragic love and a passionate plea for the preservation of history and culture. The novel remains a monumental work of French literature, resonating with universal themes of love, obsession, and social injustice.
Victor Hugo’s novel, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and the arts
Since its publication and until now, the novel has been the subject of numerous adaptations in a variety of media. Dozens of studies and commentaries have been devoted to Victor Hugo’s book. But not only:
- Musical works : We were able to count 12 between 1836 and 2002
- Cinema: 11 films between 1905 and 1999
- Television: 5 telefilms between 1977 and 1997
- Theater: 1 play in 2016
- Radio: 1 broadcast in 1957
- Comics: 4 between 1940 and 2023
A walk around Notre-Dame?
We’ve organized a self-guided walk (directly on your cellphone) on the Isle de la Cité, where Notre-Dame is located. If you’re going to visit the Cathedral, it’s a great opportunity to see what’s around it – the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Palais de Justice de la Cité, the Pont-Neuf and the statue of Henri IV, the Square du Vert-Galant, the Louvre and even the embarkation point for a cruise on the Seine. To find out more, click on “Stroll in the Ile-de-la-Cité of Paris, 800 year history“.
What’s more, if you want to visit the monuments without wasting time waiting in line, make a reservation directly by clicking on the names of the monuments that interest you:
