HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME BY VICTOR HUGO

SUMMARY

During the 1482 Festival of Fools in Paris, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, is elected the Pope of Fools for being the ugliest

person in Paris. He is hoisted on a throne and paraded around Paris by the jeering mob. Pierre Gringoire, a struggling poet and

philosopher, tries unsuccessfully to get the crowd to watch his play instead of the parade. Archdeacon Claude Frollo appears and

stops the parade and orders Quasimodo back to Notre Dame with him. Looking for something to eat, Gringoire admires the graceful

beauty of La Esmerelda, a gypsy street dancer, and decides to follow her home. After rounding a corner, she is suddenly attacked by

Quasimodo and Frollo. Gringoire rushes to help her but is knocked out by Quasimodo as Frollo runs away. The King's Archers, led by

Phoebus de Chateaupers arrive just in time and capture the hunchback. Later that night, a group of beggars and thieves are about to

hang Gringoire when La Esmerelda comes forward and offers to save his life by "marrying" him for four years only. The next day,

Quasimodo is put on trial and sentenced to two hours of torture in the Place de Grève. He suffers both the pain of being stretched

and pulled apart as well as being publicly humiliated by the crowd of people, who hate him for his ugliness. He begs for water, but no

one answers his pleas until La Esmerelda comes forth and brings him something to drink. Nearby, a recluse called Sister Gudule,

screams at La Esmerelda for being a "gypsy child- thief" and blames her for her daughter's kidnapping fifteen years earlier. A few

months later, La Esmerelda is dancing in front of Notre Dame and Phoebus calls her over to him. She has fallen in love with him and

blushes when he asks her to meet him later that night. Frollo watches them from the top of Notre Dame and becomes insanely

jealous of Phoebus. His obsessive lust for La Esmerelda has made him renounce God and study alchemy and black magic. In his secret

cell at Notre Dame, he plans to trap La Esmerelda like a spider catching a fly with its web. Later that night he follows Phoebus to his

tryst with La Esmerelda and stabs Phoebus repeatedly. He escapes and La Esmerelda is captured by the King's guard.

After being tortured at her trial, La Esmerelda falsely confesses to killing Phoebus and being a witch. She is sentenced to hang in the

Place de Grève. Frollo visits her in jail and declares his love. He begs her to love him and show him some pity but she calls him a

"goblin-monk" and a murderer, refusing to have anything to do with him. Before her execution, La Esmerelda is publicly humiliated in

front of Notre Dame. Looking across the square, she suddenly sees Phoebus and calls out his name. He actually survived the murder

attempt but doesn't want anyone to know that he was injured. He turns away from La Esmerelda and enters the house of his bride-

to-be. Just then, Quasimodo swings down on a rope from Notre Dame and carries her back to the cathedral, crying out "Sanctuary!"

He had fallen in love with her when she brought him water and had been planning her escape all along. La Esmerelda is safe from

execution just as long as she stays inside the cathedral. At first, she finds it hard to even look at Quasimodo, but they form an uneasy

friendship. Even though he is deaf, he enjoys being around her when she sings. Meanwhile, a group of vagabonds resolves to save La

Esmerelda after hearing that Parliament has ordered that she be removed from Notre Dame. But when Quasimodo sees them attack

the cathedral, he thinks they have come to kill La Esmerelda and he fends them off as best he can, killing a large number of them.

Frollo has used the attack as a diversion to sneak La Esmerelda out of the cathedral. He offers her two choices: she can either say she

loves him or be hanged. She demands to be executed and he leaves her with Sister Gudule. To their astonishment, they discover that

they are mother and daughter. Gudule tries to protect La Esmerelda, but it is too late. Back at Notre Dame, Quasimodo goes to the

top of the north tower to find her. Gazing off into the distance, he sees the figure of La Esmerelda in a white dress hanging from the

scaffold. He bellows out in despair and grabs Frollo by the neck. Holding him up in the air, Quasimodo sighs with grief and then

throws Frollo down to his death. Looking at La Esmerelda hanging off in the distance and Frollo's wrangled corpse down below,

Quasimodo cries out: "There is everything I ever loved!" Quasimodo is never seen again. Years later when a gravedigger stumbles

across La Esmerelda's remains, he finds the skeleton of a hunchback curled around her.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS

SUMMARY
 A historical romance, it relates the adventures of four fictional swashbuckling heroes
who lived under the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, who reigned during the 17th and
early 18th centuries. At the beginning of the story, D’Artagnan arrives in Paris from
Gascony and becomes embroiled in three duels with the three musketeers Athos, Porthos,
and Aramis. The four become such close friends that when D’Artagnan serves an
apprenticeship as a cadet, which he must do before he can become a musketeer, each of
his friends takes turns sharing guard duty with him. The daring escapades of the four
comrades are played out against a background of court intrigue involving the powerful
cardinal Richelieu.

Dumas wrote two sequels that concerned D’Artagnan and the three musketeers: Vingt ans
après (1845; Twenty Years After) and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne; ou, dix ans plus tard
(1848–50; The Vicomte de Bragelonne; or, Ten Years Later). The Three Musketeers was also
adapted numerous times for film.

DETAIL: The Three Musketeers is the most famous of around 250 books to come from the
pen of this prolific author and his 73 assistants. Alexandre Dumas worked with the history
professor Auguste Maquet, who is often credited with the premise for, and even the first
draft of, Les Trois Mousquetaires, although the text, like all his others, plays very fast and
loose with the historical narrative.

D’Artagnan, the hero, is a Gascon, a young man who embodies in every aspect the
hotheaded stereotype of the Béarnais people. Armed with only a letter of
recommendation to M. de Tréville, head of King Louis XIV’s musketeers, and his prodigious
skill with a sword, this incomparable youth cuts a swathe through seventeenth-century
Paris and beyond, seeking his fortune.
The enduring quality of Dumas’s texts lies in the vitality he breathes into his characters,
and his mastery of the roman feuilleton, replete as it is with teasers and cliffhangers. The
Three Musketeers is a romance par excellence, and the pace of the narrative carries the
reader on a delirious journey. The strength of the characters, from the “Three Musketeers”
themselves, to Cardinal Richelieu and the venomous “Milady,” need scarcely be
highlighted, so entrenched have they all become in Western culture. The charisma of
Dumas’s swaggering young Gascon certainly remains undimmed.

FEDERIGO'S FALCON BY BOCCACCIO GIOVANNI

SUMMARY
Squandering his wealth in an attempt to gain the affection of a beautiful woman,
Federigo degli Alberighi is left with only a small farm and a magnificent falcon.
Federigo
loves Monna Giovanna, a young woman of nobility who is already married and has
a son. After her wealthy husband dies, Monna and her son travel to their country
estate near the farm where Federigo lives. The boy becomes friends with him and
covets the prized falcon.

Soon the boy is sick. He has one request: "Mother, if you can arrange for me to
have Federigo's falcon, I think I would get well quickly." (p. 427) Monna is well
aware of Federigo's love for her, but she also realizes how attached the man is to
the falcon. Monna makes an unannounced visit to Federigo's farm. Before she
declares the purpose of her call, he decides to honor Monna with a meal.

Unfortunately, Federigo has nothing to serve her. He catches a glimpse of his falcon
on its perch. He breaks its neck and has it roasted on a spit. Monna eats the bird
unaware that it is the animal she has come to request for her son. After dining, she
asks Federigo for his falcon. All he can do is weep. He then reveals that he
sacrificed the creature to provide a meal worthy of Monna. A few days later, her
son dies. After a period of sorrow and resentment, she marries Federigo.

SONG OF ROLAND
SUMMARY

Roland is in many ways the perfect knight. Strong, courageous, and honorable he is loved
by his king, Charlemagne, and worshipped by his men. He has only one enemy, his
stepfather, Ganelon. When given the chance Ganelon betrays his king, his country and his
people to take revenge on Roland.

The story begins in Spain where Charlemagne has been harrassing the Saracens (a
medieval term for Muslims) defeating them in many battles and besieging their major
cities. The Muslim king Marsilion hatches a plan to trick Charlemegne into leaving. He
promises Charlemagne many lavish gifts, tribute, and hostages if he will go back to France
and wait for Marsilion to follow. He further promises that when he comes to
Charlemagne's court to swear loyalty to him, he will also convert to Christianity.
Charlemagne beleives him and prepares to leave.

He sends Ganelon, at Roland's suggestion, to take the message of his acceptance to

Marsilion. Ganelon uses the opportunity to create a plan to kill Roland. He promises the
Saracens that he will support their plan and arrange for Roland to lead the rear guard that
will protect the Charlemagne's back as he turns for France. He arranges for the Saracens to
attack Roland's forces with a much larger force. The plan goes just the way Ganelon
predicts and Roland is ambushed.

When they realize the size of the Saracen force, Roland's friend Oliver tries to convince
him to blow his great horn, Oliphant, for help. Roland refuses to blow the horn and the
French fight a magnificent battle, but they are overnumbered and the tide turns against
them. Although, Roland knows it is too late far any help to come, he blows his horn so that
Charlemagne will know what happened to them. Soon after he is struck in the head and
dies, going directly to Paradise.

When Charlemagne arrives, he grieves deeply at the death of his men, particularly Roland.
He first allows his army to chase the fleeing Saracens into a river where they drown. Then
he gathers them to grieve and bury the dead. The Saracens return with reinforcements
under the Emir, Baligant, and meet Charlemagne's forces in battle. The battle is fought
fiercely on both sides but Charlemagnes forces prevail and the Saracens flee. Charlemagne
returns victoriously to his court in Aix with Marsilion's wife hwo has sworn to embrace
Christ.

Soon after the battle, the Franks dedeuce Ganelon's treachery and he is brought back to
Aix in chains for trial. Found guilty in a trial by combat, Ganelon is subjected to a painful
death as a traitor.