"The Hunchback of the Notre-Dame" tells the tale of the gipsy-girl Esmeralda and the misshapen deaf bellringer of the Notre-Dame de Paris, Quasimodo, who secretly is in love with her.  He first feels this love when she brings him water while he is being whipped, a punishment for his part in an attempt to kidnap her.  His accomplish, the malicious priest Claude Frollo, is in his way attracted to her as well, but he finds out that her heart beats faster for captain Phoebus.

Frollo's obsession for Esmeralda brings him to killing the captain.  Based on very questionable evidence the girl is convicted for this murder, and condamned to death.  Neither her stalker Frollo, nor the subject of her own love, captain Phoebus who did survive the attack, care to come forward and prevent the execution, only her secret admirer Quasimodo is willing to do something to prevent this injustice, in his own way.

The essence of the story can be brought back to a few lines, but that doesn't do justice to Hugo's work.  If I would have to mention Pierre Gringoire, poet and almost successful playwriter in the opening scene, later temporary husband of Esmeralda and her partner as a street-artist, or Jehan Frollo, brother of the priest and the nail his coffin, or all the other more or less important characters, the interwoven lives of everyone in this drama, the weaving done in a very natural way, would become more apparent but it would make it quite hard to give a relevant description of the story in less than a small book.

Then what is that essence?  Would it be Victor Hugo's exploration of the different aspects of love?  Esmeralda feels for Phoebus a kind of romantic love, or rather a romanticized adoration for his male charm, which she confuses with love.  Gringoire's love is more a deep friendship with a touch of physical desire.  Phoebus' love is of the consuming kind, he'd whisper sweet nothings in her ears just like he would in any other pretty woman's ear, if it'd get him what he wants.  Frollo then, deep down?  His love seems too selfish to even be called love.  That leaves us Quasimodo, who seems to be the only one touched by her beauty like everyone else, but not loving her for it; his feelings blossomed up at her act of kindness, her distaste for his appearance hurts him but it doesn't change his feelings, and his love is the only love deep enough to ignore the risks when she needs help.  Yet, does his love justify his acts during the siege of the church?  Is love a justification for murder?  Or should love then be called obsession?

Or is it ugliness we should remember?  The obvious ugliness of a malformed deaf hunchback of course, and to our "civilized" way of thinking the cruelty of the people who enjoy a good torturing, just or not, is an ugliness hard to miss.  Slightly more hidden is the ugliness of the society that is willing to let people choose between death or criminality and at the same time condemns that criminality.  Quasimodo's acts while defending the chruch where his Esmeralda resides are just as ugly as the justice that made him take her there to escape her death.  Frollo's mind, erudite as it is, and Phoebus' character are not among the nice ones either.  Even what what we do to historical buildings in the name of improvement can be categorized here.

Hugo takes his time to describe the Notre-Dame and its history.  She merits an entire chapter, just like an overview of Paris in the 15th century does.  The former was quite interesting to read, the latter was a chapter I could do without, it interrupted the pace and had nothing to add.  Well, at least I did learn where the name "Châtelet" comes from.  That was the only chapter I had to struggle through, otherwise it was hard to lay the book down.  Hugo takes the time to get acquainted to each of the protagonists, and he does so with a twitch of humor here and there, just enough.  He takes his time to show us how all these separate lives come together during these few weeks or months, just as Quasimodo's and Esmeralda's had been linked in the past already.

Should you read this?  Oh yes you should.  Not because it's a classic and a "must-read", but because despite its age and it's 15th-century setting it's a remarkably modern story that will grab you right from the start.  It will keep you entertained throughout its 500+ pages (in my translation at least), and it gives you enough to think about to lift this story way above the average.