“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” became exactly the novel the French writer dreamed of.

According to Victor Hugo, it should have been “… at the same time a novel, drama and epic, of course, picturesque, but at the same time poetic, real, but at the same time perfect, truthful, but at the same time the same time majestic ”(magazine French Muse, 1823). At the same time, the French classic already understood that society needs something more lively than its English colleague could offer, operating with typical characters and historical events. In the work on the book, Victor Hugo was repelled by the literary experience of Walter Scott, a recognized master of historical novels. That is why we can say that one of the main characters of the novel, on a par with Esmaralda’s gypsy woman, Quasimodo ringer, archdeacon Claude Frollo, captain of the royal shooters Phoebus de Chateaupers and poet Pierre Gringoire himself is Notre Dame de Paris key events of the work. The prerequisites for creating an epochal work were natural cultural processes that took place in France in the first third of the 19th century: historical literature was popular in literature, writers turned to the romantic atmosphere of the Middle Ages, and the public struggle for the protection of ancient architectural monuments in which Hugo took direct part. The idea of the novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” arose from Hugo in the early 20th century and finally took shape by the middle of 1828.

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