It is impossible, of course, to condense Victor Hugo's marvelous work into a short graphic novel, and I hope very much no-one reads this version and thinks he's done. Yet there was beauty too, which also rang true, since so much of the story takes place in and around the glory of Notre Dame cathedral. There was something muddy, something almost bloody about the art which seemed appropriate to that harsh, sometimes brutal time. I found the palette and style viscerally evocative of fifteenth-century France, although why, I'm not sure I can quantify. How apt, then, to have the opportunity to read the classic in this format, which of course emphasizes the visual, from the wild, beautiful Esmeralda to the grossly deformed Hunchback. It was while reading Tim Conrad's graphic novel retelling of Victor Hugo's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME that I realized how very visual the story is, how the story hinges on appearance, and how that can disguise what lies beneath.
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