Although I now call England my home and list the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen among my favourite authors, for the first twenty or so years of my life, I read almost exclusively French books. At my convent school, Notre Dame de Sion, the nuns gave me a thorough grounding in French classics, and so drawn was I by the writing that I chose to go on and read French literature at university.

Say ‘French literature’ to a non-French person and one of the first writers they will call to mind is the Romantic writer Victor Hugo. In France, Hugo is a revered poet; but worldwide he is best remembered for two novels: Les Misérables (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), better known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. I have read and reread both of these works by Hugo many times over the years – they are such powerful, evocative books, imbued with a stirring sense of setting and history, and there is much to admire in Hugo’s courageous approach to exploring deep-rooted issues in society and the great care he takes in crafting each story.

Notre-Dame de Paris is so-named for the famous Parisian cathedral where the story takes place, and the protagonists, Quasimodo and Esmeralda, are equally well-known worldwide, as is the tragic tale of their love. Anthony Hopkins took on the role of  Quasimodo in the 1982 movie Hunchback, and of course more recently Disney adapted the novel into a cartoon. But it surprises me that the book isn’t more established in popular culture. I’d love to see a more current adaption. Perhaps directors think it too difficult to develop a love story when the male protagonist is so disfigured; but then The Phantom of the Opera runs along a similar vein, and the 1994 Joel Schumacher film was wonderfully passionate.

Les Misérables, conversely, has  captured imaginations for well over a century; its first film adaptation was back in 1909, and of course the Claude-Michel Schönberg musical of the book recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The novel is long indeed; split into five volumes (and some publishers split the entire work across two books), but it is worth the time it takes to read it. For me, there is something wonderful about sitting down with a really thick book, knowing that for so many hours ahead I will be transported to another world. The plot makes for compelling reading, and Hugo’s prose translates into poetic English. There is such intelligence in his words:

• “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
• “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
• “Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.”
• “It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.”
• “Those who do not weep, do not see.”

If you haven’t read  Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Misérables, I highly recommend you do so. I notice that on Amazon UK at the moment you can buy Notre-Dame de Paris and both volumes of Les Misérables in the Wordsworth Classics edition for a snip at just £5.97!