Hunchback of Notre Dame (World Masterpiece Collection)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame reveals the real history in the reign of French King Louis XI, tells how the royal court and church got tied to suppress the people and how the people fought against the royal court and the church. With Franch in 1482 A.D. as the background, the novel focuses on interrelations among the Gypsy girl Esmeralda, the young and handsome chief of guards, the seemingly moral Vice Bishop and Judge Claude Frollo and the deformed and ugly Quasimodo. It praises the noble personality of the Gypsy girl and Quasimodo while criticizing the inferiority and hypocrisy of the chief of guards and Vice Bishop. The novel presents Hugo's principle of beautiful & ugly contrast, breaking the shackles of pseudoclassicism and marking the victory of romanticism.