The Hunchback of Notre Dame

美与丑,《巴黎圣母院》英文简评

Beauty and Ugliness

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (original French title：

Notre-Dame de Pairs) is an French novel written by Victor Hugo in 1831. Victor Hugo is a novelist 、poet and dramatist, who is the

most important of French Romantic writers. Hugo s another famous masterpiece is Les Miserables.

This book is set in 1482 in France, Paris, which is under the

govern of the Louis 11 .In this book, the beautiful and kind gibbet La Esmeralda attracted the priest ---Claude Frollo s attention while she was dancing in the front square of the Notre-Dame de

Paris .Besides, she ewked the priest s evil sexual lust .So Claude Frollo ordered his adopted-son the ugly bell-ringer---Quasimodo to kidnap Esmeralda. However Esmeralda was saved by the captain Phoebus de Chateau, and Esmeralda soon fell in love with captain Phoebus .But Phoebus was born dissolute, he was assassinated by the angry Claude, even though Phoebus was not died .Claude transferred this accusation to Esmeralda and made her to be

sentenced to death Quasimodo saved Esmeralda and hide her in the Notre Dame de Pairs. The beggars ran into the church to

rescue Esmeralda and fight with Quasimodo wrongly .On the other hand , Ensenada was hanged in the square by the army leading by

美与丑,《巴黎圣母院》英文简评

Claude .After Quasimodo knew the truth ,he pulled Claude from the top of the church angrily .And in the end Quasimodo died hugging Esmeralda s dead body .

This book shows what true beauty is. In this book, there are full of the conflicts between beauty and the ugliness, the kindness and evil. Esmeralda is a woman blends the beauty and kindness. She is beautiful just like a fairy, a angel. She is so kind that she may save the enemy. In this book, Esmeralda saved two men; one is the poet Pierre Gringo ire. To save him Esmeralda sacrificed her marriage. Another man is Quasimodo who once kidnapped her. But she didn t care for this and still fed him with water. Quasimodo is a man

blends the beauty and ugliness. He is a cripple and deaf. Besides, he has monstrous hands, big feet and irregular teeth. In short, you can not imagine how ugly he is! Even though, he has his own beauties. He is noble and pure. He is thankful to all the people who once give him a hand.

Just as the famous saying goes “Do not judge a person by

one s appearance”. So we should run after the inner beauty not

only the outer beauty. In a word, I like this book indeed. It indicates what true beauty on earth is. “It will realize that everything in

creation is not humanly beautiful, that the ugly exists beside the

美与丑,《巴黎圣母院》英文简评

beautiful, the unshapely beside the graceful, the grotesque on the reverse of the sublime, evil with good, darkness with light.”