Below is the full text of the chapter "This Will Kill That" (Book V, Chapter 2), from "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", with links and photographs added. When reading "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame," I found myself pausing for long periods to argue with the author, particularly around the middle of the book. Here Hugo has a … Continue reading This Will Kill That
Two freaks, Quasimodo and Hannibal Lecter, who have nothing in common, except that they have both been portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins. After reading “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” recently, I saw the 1982 television adaptation starring Hopkins as Quasimodo, Lesley-Ann Down as Esmeralda, Derek Jacobi as Claude Frollo, Robert Powell as Phoebus and John … Continue reading Quasimodo will be played today by Hannibal Lecter
I recently finished reading "Notre Dame de Paris," or as it's known in the English-speaking world, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." I was surprised to find that the book is all about architecture. I only knew anything about this novel from the movies, none of which speak two syllables about architecture. Hugo was passionate about … Continue reading Notre Dame de Paris
In my blog posts I've compared similar passages across different novels, and I've got several passages from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" that I want to link to other novels: "Moby-Dick," "Huckleberry Finn," "Tom Sawyer," "The Lord of the Rings," "Matilda," and one nonfiction book, Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot." Compare this declaration by King … Continue reading Esmeralda, cosmologist
(Here There Be Spoilers) Having just seen the 1997 television adaptation of Victor’s Hugo novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, I have to say I love this story: the crippled, deformed servant of a creepy but powerful old man turns against his master and drops him from a great height to stop him from murdering … Continue reading The Hunchback of Star Wars
"Makoons" is the last book written, thus far, in "The Birchbark House" series. (Spoilers ahead.) It's a deceptively simple story, which you think is just about the details of ordinary life, but then you realize how many deaths have taken place in the course of the story. Nokomis. Angeline and Fishtail. Two Strike's pet lamb … Continue reading Makoons
This has been my favorite of the "Birchbark House" series. Jacob asked me while I was in the middle of it to read it to him, so we read the last half together. The introduction of other tribes goes one step further in this book with the Metis people, who “are the sons and daughters … Continue reading Chickadee
During the first quarantine summer (2020), my family and I were binging heavily on the "Little House On the Prairie" television show and starting to read Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" novels. My wife, who read all those novels as a child, suggested we look into a series of young adult novels told from the … Continue reading The Birchbark House
Of the many conversations between Huck and Jim on their floating raft, one of my favorites is their discussion of how the stars came to be. Sometimes we’d have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark—which was a … Continue reading Huck and Jim, cosmologists
I’ve been reading the annotations and introduction by Michael Patrick Hearn in his “Annotated Huckleberry Finn”. That edition is a tour de force, and entirely engrossing. You want context for Twain’s novel, you get it, in rich detail. Hearn is not a fan of the final section of the book, in which Tom Sawyer concocts … Continue reading Huck Finn’s Evasion
