The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, published in French as Notre-Dame de Paris, is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. Named for the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout, it tells the story of Quasimodo, the Romani street dancer Esmeralda, and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in fifteenth-century Paris, with its Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs and marginalised characters making the work a model of Romanticism's literary themes. Written during a time of cultural upheaval, the novel champions historical preservation, and Hugo's writing helped solidify Notre-Dame as a national icon and argue for the preservation of Gothic architecture as part of France's cultural heritage.