Notre-Dame de Paris

by Victor Hugo

"Notre-Dame de Paris" by Victor Hugo is a French Gothic novel published in 1831. Set in 15th-century Paris, it tells the tragic story of Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral, the beautiful Romani dancer Esmeralda, and the obsessed Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Their intertwined fates unfold against the backdrop of the magnificent cathedral itself. A cornerstone of Romanticism featuring impossible love and marginalized characters, the novel also served as Hugo's passionate plea for preserving France's endangered Gothic architecture.