Hunchback of Notre Dame tops bestseller list

(Patria) - The 19th-century classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo has surged to the top of the French bestseller list just one day after a fire caused extensive damage to this monument.

Just one day after the accident, various editions of the 1831 novel have taken the top spots on the French Amazon list, an online bookstore, while a history of Notre Dame Cathedral is in 6th place.

The novel, set in the 15th century, tells the story of the beautiful Romani woman Esmeralda, who captured the hearts of many men, but most of all Quasimodo, the hunchbacked, half-blind, and deaf bell-ringer of Notre Dame.

The novel has become a classic, and given that the cathedral is at the center of the story, it is considered the author's intention to draw attention to this gem of Gothic architecture, which was neglected at the time, and he is credited with the renovation that followed in the mid-19th century.

'All eyes were turned to the top of the church. They saw something extremely strange happening. At the top of the highest gallery, above the central rose window, a huge flame spread between the two bell towers in a swirl of sparks...', Hugo wrote in The Hunchback, and this almost prophetic passage has been circulating on social media for the second day.

In one of the numerous film adaptations of the novel, Esmeralda was portrayed by the famous actress Salma Hayek, whose husband Francois Pinault, one of the richest men in the world, has donated nearly $100 million for the cathedral's restoration, writes Patria.