Excerpt from Notre Dame De Paris
Among foreigners. He is chiefly known by his prose fiction. Here as elsewhere he is characteristically romantic. He Chose picturesque and sometimes remote themes, but always such as gave Opportunity for violent contrasts. His love for antithesis was such that it led him into exaggeration so gross as to become grotesque caricature. His creations are vivid and striking, but they are drawn from the outside, and there is Often no attempt at a psychological explanation, expressed or implied, of their behaviour. At times he over loaded his novels with technical details, apparently the result of special reading undertaken to Obtain local color. The terminology of oceanography and meteorology almost drowns the story in some chapters Of Les Travailleurs de la Mer; and the architecture and history of the middle ages intrude in Notre Dame far beyond what is necessary to give the required color and atmosphere. As a work Of art this novel would only be improved by the omission Of the chapters on the topography of Paris and the architecture Of the cathe dral. Yet it cannot be denied that in Notre Dame he has written a story of tremendous force and enthralling interest. Once started it carries the reader breathlessly on; and it abounds in scenes that stamp themselves on the imagination and in figures that haunt the memory.
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