The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo's towering novel of Quasimodo, archdeacon Claude Frollo and the gypsy Esmeralda has become one of the most widely read and influential books ever written.

Caught in a web of fatal obsession, three extraordinary characters are at the center of Hugo's novel: the grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, owes his life to the ascetic archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion to the gypsy dancer Esmeralda. She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, dim-witted officer, but by an unthinking act of kindness wins Quasimodo's selfless devotion.

Published in hundreds of editions and translated into virtually every modern language, it has not been out of print since 1831.

VICTOR HUGO (1802-1885) was the most forceful, prolific and versatile of French nineteenth-century authors. His Les Misérables is considered to be one of the ten best novels ever written.