The Truth About The Real-Life Hunchback Of Notre Dame

To the likely delight of Disney fans and the depression of people familiar with Victor Hugo's version, the character Quasimodo appears to be inspired by a real-life Parisian. As the Tate institution details, a memoir by British sculptor Henry Sibson describes the time he worked in Paris repairing the Notre Damecathedral in the 1820s. After

To the likely delight of Disney fans and the depression of people familiar with Victor Hugo's version, the character Quasimodo appears to be inspired by a real-life Parisian. As the Tate institution details, a memoir by British sculptor Henry Sibson describes the time he worked in Paris repairing the Notre Dame cathedral in the 1820s. After getting the boot over a workplace dispute, he got a new job working just outside the city. His new crew was led by a carver named M. Trajan, who just so happened to have a "humpbacked" boss who was almost exclusively referred to as "the Hunchback." Not much else is said of him, except that he was a government sculptor who preferred not to fraternize with the carvers and that he enthusiastically approved of hiring Sibson.

Tate says the people Sibson worked with would have operated in the area of Paris where Victor Hugo lived. Hugo closely monitored the restoration of Notre Dame and may have even known both Trajan and "the Hunchback." This is evidenced not only by Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was published in 1831, but another famous Hugo work — Les Miserables. In an early draft, the protagonist is named Jean Trajean, which the author later changed to Jean Valjean. Luckily, his grim depiction of Quasimodo sounds about as true to life as Disney's enchanting counterpart.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB%2Bj2pvamtfqbWmedOrrK2gXZavsMHTZquhnV2nsqK4jKWgn51dncKvr8ebmJyjXaSzbrrOrameZZSWuqZ7

 Share!