HoND, chapters 37-40
TRIGGER WARNING for self-mutilation.
In the final third or so of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo has finally had his fill of verbose architecture descriptions and is letting the audience see some goddamn action. Unfortunately, this means there's a lot more for me to cover in each recap. I've been trying to compensate for this by reading less and less, but I got trapped at the mechanic's yesterday with only Notre Dame to keep me company, and... yeah.
So this review/recap/what-the-crap-are-we-calling-these? is for chapters 37-40. Three chapters of actual action.
Chapter 37 is mercifully short, and deals with Esmeralda's judgement. Since she confessed to her "crimes" under threat of torture in the last chapter, she is found guilty and sentenced to death. While this is being announced, Djali creates a disturbance.
pg. 288: "Gentlemen," cried he-now deigning to speak in French, for it was not in his manuscript-"to such a degree is Satan mixed up in this business, that yonder he is personally present at our proceedings, and making a mock of their majesty!" As he thus spoke, he pointed with his finger at the little goat, which , observing the gesticulations of Charmolue, had seated her self upon her rump, and was imitating as well as she could, with her forepaw and her bearded head, the pathetic pantomime of the king's proctor in the ecclesiastical court. The reader will recollect that this was one of her most diverting tricks.
Honestly, this particular reader had forgotten Djali could do that. Thanks for the reminder, Hugo.
Djali is sentenced to be hanged from the neck until she is dead, along with Esmeralda. The lesson to be learned here is don't train your goats too well, lest they become proof of your sorcery.
Chapter 38 depicts poor Esmeralda imprisoned in the basement of the Palace of Justice. She's been there for a while when she gets a visitor. Surprise, it's Frollo! She freaks out a bit, since the last time she saw him, he kind of stabbed her boyfriend. But Frollo manages to up the freakiness of the situation by proclaiming that he loves her.
pg. 294: Both remained silent for some minutes, overwhelmed by their emotions; he frantic, she stupid.
I know what Hugo's trying to say here, but I can't help but picture this:
Anyway, Frollo goes on to freak the fuck out in a monologue about how he was able to avoid ladies and focus on SCIENCE! until Esmeralda came along and ruined everything. One sentence in particular sticks out.
pg. 295: "Alas! if victory has not remained with me, it is the fault of God, who has not made man equal in strength to the demon."
...Guys. I think this is the Hellfire sequence. "He made the devil so much stronger than a man," anyone? That is seriously my favorite line in the whole song. And they ripped it straight from the book. Well played, Disney.
Frollo's speech goes on for four or five pages, and is some of the most captivating writing in the book so far. This dude is INTENSE.
pg. 299: "At the shriek which was forced from thee, I plunged into my bosom a dager that I carried beneath my wrapper. Look, it still bleeds."
He threw open his cassock. His breast was lacerated as by the claw of a tiger. The prisoner recoiled in horror.
Cutting yourself to prove your love for a girl? It's like middle school all over again. But seriously, Hugo is great at making Frollo seem totally deranged, and I love every second of it.
pg. 299: "Oh, maiden!" said the priest; "take pity on me! Thou deemest thyself miserable. Alas! thou knowest not what misery is."
Frollo, I get that you're really upset over this, but I'm pretty sure the girl who was physically tortured and sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit does, in fact, knowest what misery is.
pg. 299: The priest rolled in the water on the floor, and dashed his head against the stone steps of the dungeon.
...lol.
Finally, Frollo wraps it up, and asks Esmeralda to run away with him. She, being marginally better at decision-making than he is, refuses. With that, Frollo is off, but not before taunting Esmeralda with the fact that Phoebus is totally, definitely, without a doubt, most assuredly dead.
Chapter 39 brings us back to Paquette la Chantefleurie in her cell, obsessing over the shoe of her lost baby and cursing "the Egyptians" to Hell and back.
Chapter 40 opens with the following:
pg. 305: Phoebus, meanwhile, was not dead.
Well, that certainly changes things.
Phoebus was hanging out with the rest of his company in garrison at Queue-en-Brie, and has now returned to Paris to resume his courtship of Fleur-de-Lys. It is noted in passing that he remembers Esmeralda, but only as an embarrassment, and by the name "Similar."
Phoebus and Fleur flirt back and forth for a bit until Phoebus nearly gets her out of her clothes and Fleur wisely chooses to go open the window for a bit of fresh air instead. Who should she spot there but Esmeralda about to be executed.
Fleur: Hey, it's that chick.
Phoebus: Who?
Fleur: You know, the dancer with the goat. The one you think is prettier than me.
Phoebus: I have no idea what you're talking about let's discuss something else shall we how about the weather?
Fleur: Nope, that's her all right. Wanna watch her die? It'll be fun!
Phoebus: :c
Esmeralda does penance at the cathedral before her execution, during which Frollo makes his "run away with me" offer again. Esmeralda sticks to her guns and refuses. Smart girl.
As she's being tied up for her execution, she spots Phoebus watching her and starts screaming for him. This gets Phoebus in big trouble with Fleur, and he's far too preoccupied with that to let anybody in a position of power know that he's alive and maybe she shouldn't be executed for his murder.
There's only seconds to go until Esmeralda dies. Will no one save her?
Of course someone saves her. It's only the most famous scene in the whole book, and it takes less than a page to describe. Quasimodo to the rescue!
pg. 319: All at once, at the moment when the executioner's assistants were preparing to obey the phlegmatic order of Charmolue, he strode across the balustrade of the gallery, seized the rope with feet, knees, and hands, glided down the facade like a drop of rain down a pane of glass; ran up to the two men with the swiftness of a cat that has fallen from a roof; felled both of them to the ground with his enormous fists; bore off the Egyptian on one arm, as a girl would her doll, at at one bound he was in the church, holding up the young girl above his head and shouting with terrific voice: "Sanctuary! sanctuary!" This was all done with the rapidity of lightning.
But it's not over yet.
pg. 320-321: All at once he was again descried at one of the extremities of the gallery of the kings of France; he ran along it, like a maniac, holding up his prize in his arms, and shouting: "Sanctuary!" The populace greeted him with fresh applause. Having traversed the gallery, he again penetrated into the interior of the church. Presently afterward he again appeared on the upper platform, still bearing the Egyptian in his arms, still running like one frantic, still shouting: "Sanctuary." Again the mob applauded. At length, he made his third appearance on the top of the tower of the great bell; there he seemed to show proudly to the whole city her whom he had saved, and this thundering voice-that voice which was heard so seldom, and which he never heard-made the air ring with the thrice-repeated shout of "Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
...
tl;dr-
-
Other adventures in Hunchback of Notre Dame reading include:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6 (You Are Here)
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
In the final third or so of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo has finally had his fill of verbose architecture descriptions and is letting the audience see some goddamn action. Unfortunately, this means there's a lot more for me to cover in each recap. I've been trying to compensate for this by reading less and less, but I got trapped at the mechanic's yesterday with only Notre Dame to keep me company, and... yeah.
So this review/recap/what-the-crap-are-we-calling-these? is for chapters 37-40. Three chapters of actual action.
Chapter 37 is mercifully short, and deals with Esmeralda's judgement. Since she confessed to her "crimes" under threat of torture in the last chapter, she is found guilty and sentenced to death. While this is being announced, Djali creates a disturbance.
pg. 288: "Gentlemen," cried he-now deigning to speak in French, for it was not in his manuscript-"to such a degree is Satan mixed up in this business, that yonder he is personally present at our proceedings, and making a mock of their majesty!" As he thus spoke, he pointed with his finger at the little goat, which , observing the gesticulations of Charmolue, had seated her self upon her rump, and was imitating as well as she could, with her forepaw and her bearded head, the pathetic pantomime of the king's proctor in the ecclesiastical court. The reader will recollect that this was one of her most diverting tricks.
Honestly, this particular reader had forgotten Djali could do that. Thanks for the reminder, Hugo.
Djali is sentenced to be hanged from the neck until she is dead, along with Esmeralda. The lesson to be learned here is don't train your goats too well, lest they become proof of your sorcery.
Chapter 38 depicts poor Esmeralda imprisoned in the basement of the Palace of Justice. She's been there for a while when she gets a visitor. Surprise, it's Frollo! She freaks out a bit, since the last time she saw him, he kind of stabbed her boyfriend. But Frollo manages to up the freakiness of the situation by proclaiming that he loves her.
pg. 294: Both remained silent for some minutes, overwhelmed by their emotions; he frantic, she stupid.
I know what Hugo's trying to say here, but I can't help but picture this:
Anyway, Frollo goes on to freak the fuck out in a monologue about how he was able to avoid ladies and focus on SCIENCE! until Esmeralda came along and ruined everything. One sentence in particular sticks out.
pg. 295: "Alas! if victory has not remained with me, it is the fault of God, who has not made man equal in strength to the demon."
...Guys. I think this is the Hellfire sequence. "He made the devil so much stronger than a man," anyone? That is seriously my favorite line in the whole song. And they ripped it straight from the book. Well played, Disney.
Frollo's speech goes on for four or five pages, and is some of the most captivating writing in the book so far. This dude is INTENSE.
pg. 299: "At the shriek which was forced from thee, I plunged into my bosom a dager that I carried beneath my wrapper. Look, it still bleeds."
He threw open his cassock. His breast was lacerated as by the claw of a tiger. The prisoner recoiled in horror.
Cutting yourself to prove your love for a girl? It's like middle school all over again. But seriously, Hugo is great at making Frollo seem totally deranged, and I love every second of it.
pg. 299: "Oh, maiden!" said the priest; "take pity on me! Thou deemest thyself miserable. Alas! thou knowest not what misery is."
Frollo, I get that you're really upset over this, but I'm pretty sure the girl who was physically tortured and sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit does, in fact, knowest what misery is.
pg. 299: The priest rolled in the water on the floor, and dashed his head against the stone steps of the dungeon.
...lol.
Finally, Frollo wraps it up, and asks Esmeralda to run away with him. She, being marginally better at decision-making than he is, refuses. With that, Frollo is off, but not before taunting Esmeralda with the fact that Phoebus is totally, definitely, without a doubt, most assuredly dead.
Chapter 39 brings us back to Paquette la Chantefleurie in her cell, obsessing over the shoe of her lost baby and cursing "the Egyptians" to Hell and back.
Chapter 40 opens with the following:
pg. 305: Phoebus, meanwhile, was not dead.
Well, that certainly changes things.
Phoebus was hanging out with the rest of his company in garrison at Queue-en-Brie, and has now returned to Paris to resume his courtship of Fleur-de-Lys. It is noted in passing that he remembers Esmeralda, but only as an embarrassment, and by the name "Similar."
Phoebus and Fleur flirt back and forth for a bit until Phoebus nearly gets her out of her clothes and Fleur wisely chooses to go open the window for a bit of fresh air instead. Who should she spot there but Esmeralda about to be executed.
Fleur: Hey, it's that chick.
Phoebus: Who?
Fleur: You know, the dancer with the goat. The one you think is prettier than me.
Phoebus: I have no idea what you're talking about let's discuss something else shall we how about the weather?
Fleur: Nope, that's her all right. Wanna watch her die? It'll be fun!
Phoebus: :c
Esmeralda does penance at the cathedral before her execution, during which Frollo makes his "run away with me" offer again. Esmeralda sticks to her guns and refuses. Smart girl.
As she's being tied up for her execution, she spots Phoebus watching her and starts screaming for him. This gets Phoebus in big trouble with Fleur, and he's far too preoccupied with that to let anybody in a position of power know that he's alive and maybe she shouldn't be executed for his murder.
There's only seconds to go until Esmeralda dies. Will no one save her?
Of course someone saves her. It's only the most famous scene in the whole book, and it takes less than a page to describe. Quasimodo to the rescue!
pg. 319: All at once, at the moment when the executioner's assistants were preparing to obey the phlegmatic order of Charmolue, he strode across the balustrade of the gallery, seized the rope with feet, knees, and hands, glided down the facade like a drop of rain down a pane of glass; ran up to the two men with the swiftness of a cat that has fallen from a roof; felled both of them to the ground with his enormous fists; bore off the Egyptian on one arm, as a girl would her doll, at at one bound he was in the church, holding up the young girl above his head and shouting with terrific voice: "Sanctuary! sanctuary!" This was all done with the rapidity of lightning.
But it's not over yet.
pg. 320-321: All at once he was again descried at one of the extremities of the gallery of the kings of France; he ran along it, like a maniac, holding up his prize in his arms, and shouting: "Sanctuary!" The populace greeted him with fresh applause. Having traversed the gallery, he again penetrated into the interior of the church. Presently afterward he again appeared on the upper platform, still bearing the Egyptian in his arms, still running like one frantic, still shouting: "Sanctuary." Again the mob applauded. At length, he made his third appearance on the top of the tower of the great bell; there he seemed to show proudly to the whole city her whom he had saved, and this thundering voice-that voice which was heard so seldom, and which he never heard-made the air ring with the thrice-repeated shout of "Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
...
tl;dr-
-
Other adventures in Hunchback of Notre Dame reading include:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6 (You Are Here)
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12