In 15 April 2019, the whole world watched helplessly as a devastating fire threatened to destroy one of France’s most precious symbols: Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Five years after the tragedy, the building has risen from the ashes, ready to welcome back the faithful and visitors alike.
This resurrection is an opportunity to look back at another time when Notre-Dame almost disappeared: the 19th century. Threatened by abandonment and demolition, it was saved thanks to the genius of Victor Hugo and his novel ” Notre-Dame de Paris “, a work that restored the cathedral to its rightful place in the hearts of Parisians and the French.
A cathedral in peril in the 19th century
Notre-Dame de Paris is one of Victor Hugo’s most famous novels. Although its story takes place in the 15th century, Hugo published it in 1836, at a time when the cathedral was in a very dilapidated state. During the Revolution, Notre-Dame fell victim to several acts of vandalism: the statues in the portals were destroyed, as was the famous Gallery of the Kings of Judah – the revolutionaries thought they were the kings of France. As for the spire, it was taken down.
By the end of 1793, the situation had not improved. As part of a policy of de-Christianisation, the Commune ordered all the churches in Paris to be closed. Notre-Dame was no exception, and for a time it was transformed into… a warehouse!
Notre-Dame de Paris, a literary plea
It wasn’t until 1802 that the cathedral was returned to worship and some emergency work was carried out, but Notre-Dame was in such bad shape that it was considered for demolition. Through his novel, Victor Hugo intends to convey his political thoughts and in particular his fight for the preservation of heritage. Notre-Dame de Paris met with great popular success and helped to make his readers aware of the value of the cathedral, which would eventually be spared. A major restoration project was carried out in the mid-19th century by Viollet-le-Duc.
Quasimodo, the soul of Notre-Dame de Paris?
But let’s get back to the novel. It’s a pretty hefty chunk – 733 pages in the Poche edition – and yet it’s devourable: romance, intrigue, history… everything is there to captivate the reader, including characters who are so endearing that one of them – Quasimodo – has become inseparable from the Cathedral. The famous bell-ringing hunchback is of course a fictional character, but Hugo describes him so well that we believe him to be real, as in this extract :
” Sometimes you would come up against a sort of living chimera in a dark corner of the church, crouching and scowling: it was Quasimodo thinking. Sometimes, under a bell tower, you would see a huge head and a bundle of disordered limbs swinging furiously at the end of a rope: it was Quasimodo ringing Vespers or the Angelus. Often at night, a hideous shape could be seen wandering on the frail, lace-cut balustrade that crowns the towers and lines the apsidal perimeter: it was the hunchback of Notre-Dame. Then,” said the neighbours, “the whole church took on something fantastic, supernatural, horrible; eyes and mouths opened here and there; you could hear dogs barking, the guivres, the stone tarasques that watch day and night, their necks stretched out and their jaws open around the monstrous cathedral. And if it was Christmas night, as the big bell, which seemed to be moaning, called the faithful to the fiery midnight mass, there was such an air spread across the dark façade that it seemed as if the great portal was devouring the crowd and the rose window was looking down on them. And all this came from Quasimodo. Egypt would have taken him for the god of this temple; the Middle Ages believed him to be the demon: he was its soul.
So much so that, for those who know that Quasimodo existed, Notre-Dame today is deserted, lifeless, dead. You can feel that something has disappeared. This immense, empty body; it’s a skeleton; the spirit has left it, you can see its place, and that’s it. It’s like a skull where there are still holes for the eyes, but no more gaze.”
And it’s true that when you’ve read Notre-Dame de Paris, you take a fresh look at the cathedral, looking for a glimpse of Quasimodo twirling in its towers. So Quasimodo, the soul of Notre-Dame? Maybe, because while the character is fictional he has nonetheless largely contributed to saving the monument – and we thank him for it!
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