![]() ![]() ![]() Below this flame … two spouts, terminating in gargoyles, vomited sheets of fiery rain, whose silvery streams shone out distinctly against the gloom of the lower part of the cathedral front. “A vast flame, fierce and strong, fragments of which were borne away by the wind with the smoke. Upon the top of the topmost gallery, higher than the central rose-window, a vast flame ascended between the two belfries with whirling sparks. Illustrated with a mono portrait frontis of Hugo and four full page colour plates by Fourneir. “All eyes were turned to the top of the church,” Hugo wrote. In one often-cited passage from the novel, Hugo rages at the state of the building: “As much beauty as it may retain in its old age, it is not easy to repress a sigh, to restrain our anger, when we mark the countless defacements and mutilations to which men and time have subjected that venerable monument.”Ī second, equally prophetic passage has circulated widely on social media in France since the fire that destroyed large parts of the cathedral’s roof and sent its spire toppling into the nave. The story centres on Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and his unrequited love for the beautiful. ![]() The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Paris during the 15th century. The novel went on to become a classic and is largely credited with helping to initiate a vast renovation of the crumbling cathedral – Hugo’s “majestic and sublime edifice” – in the mid-19th century, completed by the architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, historical novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in French in 1831 as Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris). 01:11 Notre Dame Cathedral: before and after the devastating fire – video ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |