Hugo wrote several novels, but the only three that have continued to be much read today are Les Misérables; Notre Dame de Paris; and Les Travailleurs de la Mer, the story of a young fisherman who fights the sea to salvage a wreck and win the girl he loves, but who gives her up when he learns she prefers another man.
Les Travailleurs de la Mer is read chiefly for its magnificent evocations of the sea, but Notre Dame de Paris is known the world over. Set in medieval Paris, it is one of those Romantic historical novels inspired by Sir Walter Scott, and on more than one score it bears comparison with Ivanhoe. Both are popular classics; both have suspenseful and melodramatic plots; both contain character sketches which, despite their lack of depth, have remained vivid and memorable for a century. Just as every English school child knows Rowena, Rebecca, Ivanhoe, and Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, so every French reader knows the poor but beautiful gypsy Esmeralda with her little goat; the alchemist-priest Claude Frollo, who desires her; and Quasimodo, the "hunchback of Notre Dame," who loves her and tries to save her.
The chief fascination of Notre Dame de Paris, however, lies in its powerful and living recreation of the Middle Ages. Hugo consulted many historical archives and accounts in his research for the novel, but the scenes of Paris life seem the work not of a scholar but of an eyewitness.
