Quasimodo is a fictional character and the titular character of the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback alongside several facial deformities and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster, but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death.
Quasimodo by Luc-Olivier Merson (1889).
"A tear for a drop of water" Esmeralda gives a drink to Quasimodo in one of Gustave Brion's illustrations
Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda in the 1923 film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Roma street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th-century Paris. All its elements—the Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs and marginalized characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism.
1st edition cover
Illustration from Victor Hugo et son temps (1881)
Lon Chaney and Patsy Ruth Miller in the 1923 film adaptation