At the center of Hugo's classic novel are three extraordinary characters caught in a web of fatal obsession. The grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, owes his life to the austere archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion to the gypsy dancer

Esmeralda. She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, empty-headed officer, but by an unthinking act of kindness wins Quasimodo's selfless devotion. Behind the central figures moves a pageant of picturesque characters, including the underworld of beggars and petty criminals whose assault on the

cathedral is one of the most spectacular set-pieces of Romantic literature.

Alban Kraisheimer's new translation offers a fresh approach to this monumental work by France's most celebrated Romantic authors.

維剋多·馬裏·雨果是一名法國浪漫主義作傢。他是法國浪漫主義文學的的代錶人物和19世紀前期積極浪漫主義文學運動的領袖，法國文學史上卓越的作傢。雨果幾乎經曆瞭19世紀法國的所有重大事變。一生創作瞭眾多詩歌、小說、劇本、各種散文和文藝評論及政論文章。代錶作有《巴黎聖母院》、《九三年》、和《悲慘世界》等。