The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

• Esmeralda (born Agnès) is a beautiful 16-year-old Roma street dancer (referred to in the text by "Gypsy") who is naturally compassionate and kind. She is the novel's protagonist and the center of the human drama within the story. A popular focus of the citizens' attention, she is the recipient of their changing attitudes, being first adored as an entertainer, then hated as a witch, before being lauded again by Quasimodo. She is loved by Quasimodo, Pierre Gringoire, and Claude Frollo, but falls hopelessly in love with Captain Phoebus. Phoebus is a handsome soldier who she believes will protect her, but in reality simply wants to seduce her. She is one of the few characters to show Quasimodo a measure of human kindness. She is eventually revealed to be not Roma by birth; instead, she was kidnapped by the Roma to "replace" the deformed Quasimodo.
• Quasimodo is a 19-year-old "hunchback" with physical deformities, and the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame. He is half-blind and fully deaf, the latter from all the years ringing the bells of the church. Abandoned by his mother as a baby, he was adopted by Claude Frollo. Quasimodo's life within the confines of the cathedral and his only two outlets – ringing the bells and his love and devotion for Frollo – are described. He rarely ventures outside the Cathedral because the citizens of Paris despise and shun him for his appearance. The notable occasions when he does leave include taking part in the Festival of Fools (which is celebrated on January 6) – , during which he is elected the Pope of Fools due to his perfect hideousness – ; his subsequent attempt to kidnap Esmeralda; his rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows; his attempt to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda; and his final abandonment of the cathedral at the end of the novel. It is revealed in the story that the baby Quasimodo was left by the Roma in place of Esmeralda, whom they abducted.
• Claude Frollo, the novel's main antagonist, is the Archdeacon of Notre-Dame. His sour attitude and alchemical experiments have alienated him from Parisians, who believe him to be a sorcerer. His only surviving relative is his dissolute younger brother Jehan, whom he unsuccessfully attempts to reform. Frollo also helps care for Quasimodo. Frollo's numerous sins include lechery, failed alchemy, sexual assault and other listed vices. His mad attraction to Esmeralda sets off a chain of events leading to Esmeralda's execution.
• Pierre Gringoire is a struggling poet. He mistakenly finds his way into the "Court of Miracles", the domain of the Truands (beggars). In order to preserve the secret location of the Court, Gringoire must either be killed by hanging or marry a Roma. Although Esmeralda does not love him, and in fact believes him to be a coward, she takes pity on his plight and marries him. Touched by her beauty and kindness, Gringoire falls in love with her. But, because she is already in love with Phoebus, much to his disappointment, she will not let him touch her. As time goes on, he grows more fond of Esmeralda's goat Djali than Esmeralda herself, so much so that he chooses to save Djali rather than Esmeralda when Frollo and his guards pursue and kidnap her.
• Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers is the Captain of the King's Archers, and a minor antagonist in the novel. After he saves Esmeralda from abduction, she becomes infatuated with him, and he is intrigued by her. Already betrothed to the beautiful but spiteful Fleur-de-Lys, he wants to seduce Esmeralda nonetheless but is prevented when Frollo stabs him. Phoebus survives, but Esmeralda is taken to be the attempted assassin by all, including Phoebus himself, who no longer wants her. He is condemned to an unhappy married life with Fleur-de-Lys.

• Clopin Trouillefou is the King of Truands. He sentences Gringoire to be hanged and presides over his "wedding" to Esmeralda. He rallies the Court of Miracles to rescue Esmeralda from Notre-Dame after the idea is suggested by Gringoire. He is eventually killed during the attack by the King's soldiers.
• Mathias Hungadi Spicali, called Duke of Egypt and Bohemia is Esmeralda's protector and second-in-command of the Truands. He knows of her past and gave her an amulet to help find her mother. He is last seen during the riot at Notre-Dame to rescue Esmeralda.
• Jehan Frollo du Moulin (literally "of the mill"), translated in Latin as "Joannes Frollo de Molendino", is Claude Frollo's 16-year-old dissolute younger brother. He is a troublemaker and a student at the university. He is dependent on his brother for money, which he then proceeds to squander on alcohol. After Frollo stops giving him money, Jehan becomes a rogue. When he joins Clopin and his beggars to raid the cathedral, he briefly enters the cathedral by ascending one of the towers with a borrowed ladder. Afterwards he sees Quasimodo and tries to shoot an arrow at his eye, but Quasimodo throws him to his death.
• Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier is a beautiful and wealthy noblewoman engaged to Phoebus. Phoebus's attentions to Esmeralda make her insecure and jealous, and she and her friends respond by treating Esmeralda with contempt and spite. Fleur-de-Lys later neglects to inform Phoebus that Esmeralda has not been executed, which serves to deprive the pair of any further contact – though as Phoebus no longer lusts after Esmeralda by this time, this does not matter. The novel ends with their wedding, but they are said to be condemned to an unhappy marriage.
• Madame Aloïse de Gondelaurier is Fleur-de-Lys' mother.
• Sister Gudule, also known as Sachette and formerly named Paquette Guybertaut "la Chantefleurie", is an anchoress living in seclusion in an exposed cell in central Paris. She is tormented by the loss of her daughter Agnes, whom she believes to have been cannibalised by the Roma as a baby, and devotes her life to mourning her. Her long-lost daughter turns out to be Esmeralda, a fact she discovers only moments before Esmeralda is hanged. Gudule is accidentally killed by one of the King's soldiers while attempting to prevent them from taking her daughter.
• Djali is Esmeralda's pet goat. In addition to dancing with Esmeralda, Djali can do tricks for money, such as tell time, spell Phoebus' name, and do impressions of public figures. Later, during Esmeralda's trial, when Esmeralda is falsely accused of stabbing Phoebus, Djali is falsely accused of being the devil in disguise. At the end of the novel, Djali is saved by Gringoire (who has become fond of the goat during his marriage to Esmeralda) after Esmeralda is captured and hanged.
• Louis XI is the King of France. He appears as an old and sick man, but his personality is very sly and Machiavellian, as well as self-centred. He appears briefly when he is brought the news of the rioting at Notre-Dame. He orders his guard to kill the rioters, and also the "witch" Esmeralda, because of being misinformed about the reason of rioting.
• Tristan l'Hermite is a friend of King Louis XI. He leads the band that goes to capture Esmeralda.
• Henriet Cousin is the city executioner, who hangs Esmeralda.
• Florian Barbedienne is the judge who presides over Quasimodo's case for kidnapping Esmeralda. Barbedienne is deaf, and does not realize Quasimodo is also deaf; thus, he assumes Quasimodo is mocking him by not answering his questions. Barbedienne sentences Quasimodo to be tortured in the public square: one hour of flogging for attempted kidnap, and another hour of public disgrace for (what Barbedienne assumed to be) mocking the judge.
• Jacques Charmolue is Claude Frollo's friend in charge of torturing prisoners. He gets Esmeralda to falsely confess to killing Phoebus. He then has her imprisoned.
• Jacques Coppenole is a man who appears in the beginning of the novel as one of the Flemish guests at the Feast of Fools. He convinces the Parisians to walk out on Gringoire's play and select the Fools' Pope.
• Pierrat Torterue maes two brief appearances in the novel. He is the torturer at the Châtelet. He tortures Esmeralda after her interrogation, hurting her so badly that she falsely confesses, sealing her own fate. He is also the official who administered the savage flogging that Quasimodo was sentenced to by Barbedienne.
• An unnamed magistrate presides over Esmeralda's case after she is falsely accused of stabbing Phoebus. He forces her to confess to the crime and sentences her to be hanged in the gallows.
• Robin Poussepain is Jehan Frollo's friend who appears with him during the Feast of Fools and Quasimodo's flogging in the public square.
• Olivier le Mauvais (literally "Olivier the Evil") is King Louis XI's close advisor.
• La Falourdel owns the boarding house where Phoebus and Esmeralda meet.
• Marc Cenaine is a magician whom Jacques Charmolue and Claude Frollo torture for practicing witchcraft while they try to pry alchemy secrets from him.
• Bérangère de Champchevrier is Fleur-de-Lys' friend.
• Jacques Coictier is King Louis XI's physician.
• Robert d'Estouteville is the chamberlain to King Louis XI. He is in a foul mood the day Quasimodo is pilloried, not realizing that Quasimodo and the judge on duty are both deaf.
• Colombe is Fleur-de-Lys' friend.
• Lambert Hoctement is a German scholar who, at the beginning of the novel, is tormented by Jehan Frollo and Robin Poussepain.

Architecture is a major concern of Hugo's in Notre-Dame de Paris, not just as embodied in the cathedral itself, but as representing throughout Paris and the rest of Europe an artistic genre which, Hugo argued, was about to disappear with the arrival of the printing press. Claude Frollo's portentous phrase, 'Ceci tuera cela' ("This will kill that", as he looks from a printed book to the cathedral building), sums up this thesis, which is expounded on in Book V, chapter 2. Hugo writes that 'quiconque naissant poète se faisait architecte' ("whoever was born a poet became an architect"), arguing that while the written word was heavily censored and difficult to reproduce, architecture was extremely prominent and enjoyed considerable freedom.

With the recent introduction of the printing press, it became possible to reproduce one's ideas much more easily on paper, and Hugo considered this period to represent the last flowering of architecture as a great art form. As with many of his books, Hugo was interested in a time that seemed to him to be on the cusp of two types of society.[8]

The major theme of the third book is that over time the cathedral has been repaired, but the repairs and additions have made the cathedral worse: "And who put the cold, white panes in the place of those windows" and "...who substituted for the ancient Gothic altar, splendidly encumbered with shrines and reliquaries, that heavy marble sarcophagus, with angels' heads and clouds" are a few examples of this. This chapter also discusses how, after repairs to the cathedral after the French Revolution, there was not a significant style in what was added. It seems as if the new architecture is now uglier and worse than it was before the repair.

In The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest."

In 2010, British archivist Adrian Glew discovered references to a real-life man called "Hunchback" who was a foreman of a government sculpting studio in Paris in the 1820s who worked on post-Revolution restorations to the cathedral.[9]

The name Quasimodo has become synonymous with "a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior."[10]

Lon Chaney and Patsy Ruth Miller in the 1923 film adaptation

• Esmeralda, a 1905 French short silent film
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1911 silent film
• The Darling of Paris, a 1917 silent film
• Esmeralda, a 1922 British silent film
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1923 silent film starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, directed by Wallace Worsley, and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1939 sound film starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda, directed by William Dieterle, and produced by Pandro S. Berman
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1956 French film starring Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo and Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, directed by Jean Delannoy, and produced by Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1986 Australian-American fantasy animated film
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1996 animated film by Walt Disney Feature Animation starring Tom Hulce as the voice of Quasimodo and Demi Moore as the voice of Esmeralda, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and produced by Don Hahn
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, a 2002 direct-to-video animated film and sequel of the 1996 film by Walt Disney Feature Animation starring Tom Hulce as the voice of Quasimodo and Demi Moore as the voice of Esmeralda, directed by Bradley Raymond
• The Secret of the Hunchback, a 1996 Direct-to-video animated film by UAV Entertainment
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1996 Golden Films animated film
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1996 Jetlag Productions animated film
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1996 Dingo Pictures animated film
• Quasimodo d'El Paris, a 1999 parody film
• Quasi, a 2023 satirical comedy film

Disney has announced that a live-action version of their 1996 animated film is in development.[11]

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1966 miniseries
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1976 television film starring Warren Clarke as Quasimodo, Michelle Newell as Esmeralda and Kenneth Haigh as Frollo, directed by Alan Cooke
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1977 miniseries
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1982 British-American television film starring Anthony Hopkins as Quasimodo, Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda, and Derek Jacobi as Frollo, directed by Michael Tuchner and Alan Hume and produced by Norman Rosemont and Malcolm J. Christopher
• The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo, a 1996 animated series
• The Hunchback, a 1997 television film starring Mandy Patinkin as Quasimodo, Salma Hayek as Esmeralda and Richard Harris as Frollo

Idris Elba is slated to not only play the title character but also to direct and produce music for a modern retelling to be broadcast on Netflix.[12]

• A 1977 lush orchestral disco 28 minute epic re-telling the tale of Quasimodo and Esmeralda, by Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame Dennis DeYoung album, a 1996 recording of music written by Styx singer Dennis DeYoung for his musical adaptation of the novel
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack for the 1996 Disney film
• A 2016 soundtrack to the musical adaptation, based on the novel and songs from the Disney film version

• La Esmeralda (1844) – choreography by Jules Perrot, music by Cesare Pugni. First performed at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. The ballet has a long performance history in Russia via the revivals of the choreographer Marius Petipa in St. Petersburg throughout the late 19th century.
• Gudule's Daughter, or Esmiralda (1902) – choreography by Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky, music by Antoine Simon
• In 1965, a choreography by Roland Petit, first performed by the Paris Opera Ballet.
• In 1998, a choreography and direction by Michael Pink and original music score by Philip Feeney; currently in the repertoire of Milwaukee Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Colorado Ballet.
• Ringaren i Notre Dame (The Bellringer of Notre Dame; 2009) – choreography by Pär Isberg and original music score by Stefan Nilsson, first performed on Friday, April 3, by the Royal Swedish Ballet.

• La Esmeralda, opera by Louise Bertin (1836), libretto by Victor Hugo.
• Esmeralda, opera by Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1847) based on the Victor Hugo novel.
• In 1864, an opera by William Henry Fry with libretto by his brother Joseph Reese Fry based on the Victor Hugo novel. First performance: Academy of Music, Philadelphia, 4 May 1864, conducted by Theodore Thomas.
• Esmeralda, opera by Arthur Goring Thomas (1883), also based on the same Victor Hugo novel.
• Notre Dame, romantic Opera in two acts by Franz Schmidt, text after Victor Hugo by Schmidt and Leopold Wilk; composed: 1902–4, 1st perf.: Vienna 1914.
• In 1993, an Off Broadway musical with music by Byron Janis, lyrics by Hal Hackady and book by Anthony Scully.[13]
• In 1993, a dramatic sung-through musical with book and lyrics by Gary Sullivan and music by John Trent Wallace.[14] After a production at the Mermaid Theatre in London it was published by Samuel French Ltd in 1997 and has received several UK productions as well as productions in New Zealand and Australia. In 2010 it was re-written as a conventional musical, with the new title Notre Dame.[15]
• El Jorobado de París (1993), an Argentinian sung-through musical with book and lyrics by Pepe Cibrián Campoy and music by Ángel Mahler. Revised versions opened in 1995, 2006 and 2013.
• An operatic melodrama by Zigmars Liepiņš based on the novel.
• In 1998, Notre-Dame de Paris with music by Riccardo Cocciante and lyrics by Luc Plamondon premiered in Paris and became an instant success.
• From 1999 to 2002, the Disney film was adapted into a darker, more Gothic musical production called Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame) in Berlin. A cast recording was also recorded in German.[16] The musical premiered in the United States in 2014.
• A rock musical version was released in Seattle, Washington in 1998 titled "Hunchback" with music and script by C. Rainey Lewis.[17]
• A musical version, scored by Dennis DeYoung, opened in Chicago at the Bailiwick Repertory in the summer of 2008.[18]
• A re-adaptation of the piece entitled Our Lady of Paris, with music and lyrics by David Levinson and book by Stacey Weingarten, was produced in a reading format in Manhattan. It re-sets the action to 1954 at the beginning of the French Algerian conflict. After the first reading, the piece underwent revisions; a second reading was produced in January 2011 under the musical's new title, Les Enfants de Paris.
• Catalyst Theatre's musical adaptation entitled Hunchback was commissioned by The Citadel Theatre and premiered in 2011 in Edmonton and had a subsequent run at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver in 2012. Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Christenson from the original novel.

A 1934 36-part serial adaptation created by George Edwards was broadcast on Australian radio.[19]

John Carradine starred in an hour-long adaptation broadcast on a 1946 episode of Your Playhouse of Favorites.[20]

The book was twice adapted and broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial:

• in 5 parts from 6 January to 3 February 1989, with Jack Klaff as Quasimodo
• in 2 parts on 30 November and 7 December 2008, with deaf actor David Bower playing Quasimodo.

• In 1861, a "Grand Burlesque Extravaganza" by Henry J. Byron, Esmeralda or, The Sensation Goat, presented at the Royal Strand Theatre in London on 28 September 1861.[21] The piece was revived in 1871 at the same venue,[22] with Harry Paulton as Quasimodo and Rose Cullen as Esmeralda. The programme warned that the burlesque was "founded on, but not to be confounded with, the romance, the opera and the ballet".
• In 1977, an adaptation by Ken Hill was commissioned and staged by the National Theatre in London.
• In 1978, an adaptation by Robert Hossein opened in Paris.
• In 1997, an adaptation for the stage by Nicholas DeBaubien opened in Paris.[23]
• In 2010, an adaptation by Pip Utton was staged at The Pleasance as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
• In 2010, an original adaptation by Myriad Theatre & Film was staged in London and then toured South England.
• In 2012, an adaptation by Belt Up Theatre was staged in Selby Abbey.
• In 2013, an adaptation by James Villafuerte was staged in Tanghalang Pasigueño Villa Teatro.
• In 2016, a modern adaptation by Harold Hodge, Jr called The Boy in the Church premiered in New York City. This adaptation was set in Alabama during the Great Depression.
• In 2019, an adaptation by Benjamin Polya was staged by Iris Theatre Company at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, London.

Artists like Noel Gloesner,[24] Andrew Dickson,[25] Robin Recht,[26] Tim Conrad,[27] Gilbert Bloch,[28] George Evans[29] Dick Briefer[30] have all created comic strip and book adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Paulo Borges,[31] Gustavo Machado[32] and Dan Spiegle[33] have drawn comic strip versions based on the 1996 Disney movie adaptation.

• Hunchback, a 1983 arcade video game developed by Century Electronics, starring Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
• Timesplitters 2, a 2002 first-person-shooter developed by Free Radical Design, containing a level based on the Notre Dame Cathedral in which the Hunchback is portrayed to be beheading undead zombies using a shotgun.[34]

• Rebello, Stephen (13 June 1996). The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 ed.). Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6208-4.
• Pascal Tonazzi, Florilège de Notre-Dame de Paris (anthologie), Editions Arléa, Paris, 2007, ISBN 2-86959-795-9.