巴黎圣母院英文读书报告

Book Report

1, The information of the book:

Notre-Dame de Paris, published by YILI PEOPLE’S PRESS in 2001, written by Victor Hugo in 1831.

2, The introduction of the author:

Victor Hugo (born May 22, 1885 and died on February 26, 1802) is a poet, novelist, and dramatist and is the representative of French romantic writers.

When Hugo was 9 years old, he began to write poetry. When he was 15 years old, the joy of learning written by him won the French Academy Award degree. At the age of 20, he published books of poetry, Songs and Carols. In 1827, Victor Hugo published the script Cromwell. Although the script failed to perform, but it was considered as a landmark document into literary history and had an effect on French romanticism preamble. 1830, Hugo’s script Hernani was put on in Grand Theater. From then on, romantic established a dominant position in French literary circles. In July 1830, France had "July Revolution". Hugo warmly praised the revolution and wrote poems mourning those who died in the revolution. In 1831 Victor Hugo wrote Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the most romantic novels. However, Hugo became a republican. And then he suffered persecution and lived abroad. During this period of time, he wrote les Contemplations,les Miserables and L’Homme qui Rit. It was not until 1870 that Victor Hugo went back to Paris. In 1885, he died in Paris. In order to memorize him, he was laid to rest in le Pantheon.

Though he is regarded in France as one of that country’s greatest poets, he is famous for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1862). He is the leader of 19th century romantic literature movement, a representative of humanitarian and is also called as “Shakespeare of France”.

3,The main content of this book:

《Notre-Dame de Paris》was written in 1831. The story begins

during the Renaissance in 1482, the day of the Festival of Fools in Paris. All the people were immerged in the celebration of April Fools day. Esmeralda, a beautiful 16-year-old gypsy with a kind and generous heart, captured the hearts of many men but especially Quasimodo’s adopted father, Dom Claude Frollo the archdeacon. Frollo is torn between his lust and the rules of the church. At last, he couldn’t resist his lust, so he ordered Quasimodo to get her. However, Esmeralda was rescued by Phoebus de Chateaupers who was a captain of the archers of the King’s troop. And Quasimodo was caught and whipped and ordered to be tied down in the heat. When Esmeralda knew he was thirsty, she offered him water without hesitance, which in turn made Quasimodo fall in love with her.

While Esmeralda had fallen in love with Phoebus since he rescued her, which made Frollo feel very angry. So he stabbed Phoebus at one of the appointments of them. Consequently Esmeralda was accused of the murder and was sentenced to be hanged. It was Quasimodo who saved her by bringing her to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. Frollo rallied the truands to charge the cathedral. The King, seeing the riot, vetoed the law of sanctuary and commanded his troops to take Esmeralda out and kill her. When Quasimodo saw the truands, he assumed they were to hurt Esmeralda, so he tried his best to drive them off. However, Frollo handed her out to the troops and watched happily while she was hanged. When Quasimodo recognized what his adopted father had done, he was furious and pushed him down from Notre Dame de Paris. He then disappeared. It was almost 2 years later, people found his skeletons clasp Esme ralda’s tightly.

4, Personal comments:

This novel gives us a very clear comparison of beauty and ugliness. The main characters leave a deep impression on readers.

Esmeralda was beautiful, not only because she had a petty appearance but also because she had a very kind heart and a pure view on love. When Gringoire was sentence to be hanged for coming into the Court of Miracles by a mistake, it is Esmeralda who rescued him by