LH’s Reviews > Notre-Dame de Paris > Status Update

I never cry reading books, today I did well up during Quasi's flogging and his screaming "A drink!" three times before La Esmeralda went up to help him. Even Claude Frollo leaves him in despair. It's a beautiful book nonetheless. And it's a beautiful sadness you feel while reading it.

TU, ORA. Trou-aux-rats.
Cervantes paved the way for stories within stories, and Victor Hugo is doing a great job with the story of Paquette and her daughter.

Book Six, Chapter One.
I felt the saddest reading this book in this chapter. Quasimodo replying deferentially to the questions he did not understand made me frown and well up. Jehan Frollo, I don't even know what to say here. Does he not know Q. is his brother? Does he know and tries to hide it from the public? How was Q. captured? It felt strange to learn that Q. can form accurate sentences and I tried to imagine hi

"This Will Kill That" was amazing! What an incredible chapter, so interesting to understand V.H.'s perspective on Architecture vs Written Word. Gosh, that was a trip through time. I thought I wasn't going to like this chapter, but boy, was I wrong. I'd dare say it's one of my favorites so far.

Book Four was my favorite so far. In it we discover Quasimodo's background, Jehan Frollo's (that annoying brat from the beginning), and Claude Frollo's. I felt the Gothic vibe more intensely in these 6 chapters; and C.F.'s austerity and rigor was fascinating. It's so bittersweet to read about Q's relationship with the bells; how he loves them and feels they're all he has, except for C.
He's portrayed as animal like>

I'm dizzy from the turbulence this book puts me through. Book Three was a thorough disconnection and I, as a reader, depersonalized from my investment in it. But it so had me back at the start of the chapter 'Kind Souls'. I'm amazed at how V.H. is able to do that. He is a master. I assume these seemingly alien chapters are odd to everybody else. There's no way you can keep track of all the names, it spins your head a

I could just as well not read A bird's eye view of Paris, because this chapter feels like a joke on the expense of the reader. But I'll not skip it. I'll read through and complain it. Tyvm, I'm sorry if you don't like to hear me whine, but that's just what I'll do. These last two chapters could've not been; I'd be a happier man had they not been. I'm sure they're infamous. I don't want to look it up because I've had

And we're back to wanting to pull my hair out! Why do you have dozens of descriptive pages on Paris and the Church? I get it he wanted to make them characters of the story, but guess what, add them to your plot instead of interrupting the flow of it just when it had gotten good with La Esmeralda and Gringoire. Now there are 20 or so more pages of this nonsense, there's a boring historian talking my ear off... gosh!

Not quite ten pages. Anyhow, I'm liking this book so much, it's so engaging and gripping. La Esmeralda is so mysterious and beautiful, and she carries a green glass in a sachet; this imperfection of the 'gem' makes me like her even more. She pouts on the regular, btw, and I love that. Gringoire is great, too, but his mentor is not a good guy as far as I can tell. Oh btw I never watched the Disney movie, so all is new

What a beautiful wedding! What a beautiful wedding says the Duke of Egypt to the King of Galilee. Yes, but what a shame, what a shame, the poor Groom is a poet!