Tonight I finished reading Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a book I had somehow never cracked open all through high school and college. What I had done, a few years ago, was watch the 1939 movie with Charles Laughton. As I recall he did a good job, but it was a different kind of thing. For one thing, while Quasimodo's body may be ravaged, he's only a couple of years older than the teenaged heroine Esmerelda. Laughton, never young when he was onscreen, filmed this when he was 40.
Quasimodo is no more right in the head than he is in body, and he is not in point of fact the title character of the novel in it's original French version (Notre Dame de Paris.) However, he is as much a hero as the story has, or needs. Pierre Gringoire is a coward and a dupe. Dom Claude Frollo is compassionate, but his better nature curdles into villainy. The loathsome stud Phoebus would have his own "______ is a Date Rapist" Facebook page in contemporary times. And Esmerelda is in love with Phoebus, which tells you all you need to know.
The author of this editions afterward excoriates the 1996 Disney version. Haven't seen it, but it just seems like a bad idea. I can't see them keeping anything like the original ending, for one thing.
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3 comments:
I see someone left a comment and I'm curious. Good thing there is a google translate. Feel free to delete both.
Do we allow people to destroy the health and wealth of the nation did so with impunity Polish?
On 02 July 2011, at approximately 9 `35 the author of this text was attacked by people destroying property of the Polish nation in the library owned by citizens of the Polish Republic. Using a computer located at position 7 of this library, tried to post a comment on blogspocie http://drogagrzesia.blogspot.com/, despising his person, and your health and life, tried to scare it from another computer by manipulating the computer on which he worked: when clicked on blogspot page displays https://login.live.com/ him. This happened at the Library Warsaw Public Library Warsaw Mazowieckie voivodship located on the street in Warsaw Koszykowa 26/28; entry was published, using the computer.
DID YOU KNOW THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE AND OTHER committed suicide in psychiatric hospitals STAYING ONLY because it gives impunity to commit CRIMES FOR THEM SO? ARE YOU WAITING FOR what happened to INDIAN IN AMERICA? DOES THE COMPANY The U.S. murder NATIONS EARTH PLANET IN THIS POLISH? WHAT IS DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT OF THE CRIME WAS THE CREDIT PRACTICES genocide! They tried MULTIPLE DAMAGE HEALTH IN THIS WAY THE AUTHOR OF THIS TEXT!
I read the book so long ago I've forgotten most of it so your update was good to read. Speaking of famous old books many of us haven't read we just got the new Penguin 3 volume new translation of The Arabian Nights. Did you know Sheherazade had a sister she took along with her whose task was to ask for the ending of the previous night's story?
I decided to delete the initial comment. There might be a righteous cause involved, but I can't really tell. There's certainly not enough information to overrule my general policy against spam.
I don't think I've ever read the full 1001 Nights. I've read excerpts in other books, and maybe a kid's edition. But it sounds like Scheherezade had a smart plan.
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