Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive editions designed to appeal to the general reader and students. We commissioned teachers and specialists to write wide ranging, jargon-free introductions and to provide notes that would assist the understanding of our readers rather than interpret the stories for them. In the same spirit, because the pleasures of reading are inseparable from the surprises, secrets and revelations that all narratives contain, we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction.

Set in 1482, Victor Hugo's powerful novel of 'imagination,caprice and fantasy' is a meditation on love, fate, architecture and politics, as well as a compelling recreation of the medieval world at the dawn of the modern age.

In a brilliant reworking of the tale of Beauty and the Beast, Hugo creates a host of unforgettable characters - amongst them,Quasimodo, the hunchback of the title, hopelessly in love with the gypsy girl Esmeralda, the satanic priest Claude Frollo, Clopin Trouillefou, king of the beggars, and Louis XI, King of France.Over the entire novel, both literally and symbolically, broods the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

Vivid characters and memorable set-piece action scenes combine to bring the past to life in this story of love, lust,betraval, doom and redemption.

            BOOK ONE

1 The Great Hall

2 Pierre Gringoire

3 The Cardinal

4 Master Jacques Coppenole

5 Ouasimodo

6 Eameralda

            BOOK TWO

1 From Charybdis into Scylla

2 The Place de Greve

3 Kisses for Blows

4 The Danger ofFoUowing a Pretty Woman in the Sweets

  by Night

5 Continuation of the Danger

  The Broken Jug

7 A Wedding Night

           BOOK THREE

1 The Cathedral of Notre-Dame

2 A Bird's-Eye View of Paris

            BOOK FOUR

1 Good, Honest Souls

2 Claude Frollo

3 Immanis Pecoris Custos, Immanior Ipse

4 The Dog and his Master

5 Claude Frollo, Continued

6 Unpopularity

                 BOOK FIVE

1 Abbas BeatiMartini

2 One Shall Destroy the Other

                 BOOK SIX

1 An Impartial Glance at the Ancient Magistracy

2 The Rat Hole

3 The Story of a Wheaten Cake

4 A Tearfir a Drop of Water

5 End of the Story of the Cake

                BOOK SEVEN

1 On the Danger of Confiding One's Secret to a Goat

2 Showing that a Priest and a Philosopher are Different

   Persons

3 The Bells

4 'Avaykn

5 The Two Men in Black

6 The Effect which Seven Oaths Produce in the Open Air

7 The Spectre Monk

8 The Advantage of Windows Overlooking the River

               BOOK EIGHT

1 The Crown Changed into a Withered Leaf

2 Continuation of the Crown Changed into a Withered

   Leaf

3 The End of the Crown Changed into a Withered Leaf

4 'Leave All Hope Behind'

5 The Mother

6 Three Human Hearts Differently Constituted

             BOOK NINE

1 Delirium

2 Hunchbacked, One-eyed, Lame

3 Deaf

4 Earthenware and Crystal

5 The Key of the Red Door

6 Sequel to the Key of the Red Door

             BOOK TEN

1 Gringoire has a Succession of Bright Ideas in the Rue

   des Bernardins

2 Turn Vagabond/

3 Long Live Mirth/

4 An Awkward Friend

5 The Retreat in which Monsieur Louis of France says

    his Prayers

6 The Password

7 Chateaupers to the Rescue

            BOOK ELEVEN

1 The Little Shoe

2 The Beautiful Creature Clad in White

3 The Marriage of Phoebus

4 The Marriage of Quasimodo