I have a soft spot for this book, despite all the awful damsel-in-distress stereotyping. But only for the French original; in translation it becomes a pleasantish mediocre read and nothing more. The original immerses you in a far more authentic-feeling guided tour of 15th-century Paris (literally; Hugo has an exhaustive chapter on "A bird's-eye view of Paris") and of Notre Dame, complete with poetically narrated history (again with a literal, devoted chapter), but also a good fairytale. If you only know the movie, the book, unsurprisingly, has some intriguing plot threads Disney cut out- most importantly Frollo being a priest, but also his, Quasimodo's and Esmeralda's origins, and some nuggets on alchemy.
Tip: stick on Saint-Saëns's Aquarium in the background while you read for the aesthetics. Maybe not in the opening chapter (doesn't suit the mood) but for the aforementioned descriptive chapters and the Quasimodo+Frollo chapters it works very well.
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