Notre-Dame de Paris

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo recreates the vibrant, intense atmosphere of 15th-century life to remind his readers of the splendor and significance of Paris’s Gothic past. The book doubles as a plea for the preservation of the city’s historic Gothic architecture (and thus its heritage). His plea was met with great success. The first printing, by publisher Charles Gosselin, was distributed in four issues of 275 copies each, and the novel was instantly, incredibly popular. Many thousands of printings followed. The Hunchback of Notre Dame circulated widely, inspiring illustrations by lithographers, painters, book illustrators, and even cartoonists. Images from the novel (especially images of the cathedral) became known to individuals at all levels of society. Notre-Dame de Paris became a French national icon, and the proliferation of images of the cathedral helped revive the use and prestige of Gothic forms. An extensive program of renovation, overseen by French restoration specialist Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, was undertaken in the mid-1840s, and in the latter half of the 19th century Gothic monuments began to regain their religious significance.