{"id":1447,"date":"2019-04-03T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2019-03-31T17:48:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T23:48:25","slug":"book-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame-1831","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/03\/book-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame-1831\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1328774343l\/7174629.jpg\" alt=\"The Hunchback of Notre Dame\" width=\"318\" height=\"421\" \/>The Hunchback of Notre Dame<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1831<br \/>\nAuthor: Victor Hugo<br \/>\nLength: 1,136 minutes \/ 18.93 hours<\/p>\n<p>Victor Hugo is one of those classic authors who I\u2019ve hesitated reading because his stories tend to have a lot of details that don\u2019t necessarily add to the plot. Sure,\u00a0<em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em>\u00a0is no\u00a0<em>Les Miserables<\/em>, but Hugo\u2019s style made this book perhaps a little longer than it should have been. Either way, now I know a lot more about the architecture of Notre Dame Cathedral. Despite all this, the story of\u00a0<em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em>\u00a0is timeless in many ways, not the least of which centers around its titular character.<\/p>\n<p>While modern stories are vying to be inclusive and diverse, Victor Hugo managed to write a story in the 1800s that not only included a disabled individual but racially diverse characters (at least for France) as well. The fact that both are sympathetic protagonists helps cement Quasimodo and Esmerelda in my mind. They\u2019re both persecuted in their own ways; ostracized from a society that wants homogeneity more than diversity. Sound familiar? Perhaps this is why this book maintains a timeless quality. Even with the slight twist in the ending, the harassment endured by these individuals doesn\u2019t dampen their kind spirits.<\/p>\n<p>For those who might be more familiar with the Disney version of this story, the movie adaptation is more along the lines of a kid-friendly (i.e., sanitized) version of the basic plot. There is quite a bit more violence and \u201cromance\u201d involved in this story\u2014not to mention the obvious absence of talking gargoyles\u2014which I felt made it a little more convoluted than it had to be. Still, Hugo\u2019s way with words was mesmerizing throughout, even if I know that they\u2019ve been through the filter of a translator. If\u00a0<em>Les Miserables<\/em>\u00a0is daunting to you, perhaps try warming up with\u00a0<em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em>, first. You won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>A timeless classic full of diverse characters and exciting action, I give\u00a0<em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/> <\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hunchback of Notre Dame Year: 1831 Author: Victor Hugo Length: 1,136 minutes \/ 18.93 hours Victor Hugo is one of those classic authors who I\u2019ve hesitated reading because his stories tend to have a lot of details that don\u2019t necessarily add to the plot. Sure,\u00a0The Hunchback of Notre Dame\u00a0is no\u00a0Les Miserables, but Hugo\u2019s style [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[1731,55,105,1734,6,395,394,8,1732,1733],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-1731","tag-book","tag-classic","tag-disabled","tag-disney","tag-foreign","tag-france","tag-review","tag-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame","tag-victor-hugo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}