All its elements—the Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs and marginalised characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism.

Hugo solidified Notre-Dame de Paris as a national icon, arguing for the preservation of Gothic architecture as an element of France's cultural heritage.

[3] A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs (War [declared] on the Demolishers) specifically aimed at saving Paris's medieval architecture.

[4] The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year, but Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects.

[5] In 1482 Paris, during the 21st year of the reign of Louis XI, 10 years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, sixteen-year-old Roma dancer Esmeralda is the romantic and sexual interest of many men, including Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers; poet Pierre Gringoire; the deformed cathedral bell-ringer Quasimodo, and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo.

Gringoire, who attempted to help Esmeralda but was knocked out by Quasimodo, unwittingly wanders into the "Court of Miracles", populated by the Roma and the truands (beggars).

As Esmeralda is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down from Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral, temporarily protecting her – under the law of sanctuary – from arrest.

Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be executed.

Clopin Trouillefou, the leader of the Roma, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the Court of Miracles to charge Notre-Dame and rescue Esmeralda.

Frollo goes to alert the authorities while trapping Esmeralda with Sister Gudule, a reclusive anchoress who bears an extreme hatred for the Roma, as she believes they cannibalised her infant daughter.

A deformed skeleton is found many years later embracing another in the charnel house at Montfaucon, implying that Quasimodo had sought Esmeralda among the decaying corpses and laid down to die while holding her.

The novel's original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris, indicates that the cathedral itself is the most significant aspect of the novel, both the main setting and the focus of the story's themes.

[citation needed] The theme of determinism (fate and destiny, as set up in the preface of the novel through the introduction of the word "ANANKE") is explored, as well as revolution and social strife.

There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege comparable to our current freedom of the press.

With the recent introduction of the printing press, it became possible to reproduce one's ideas much more easily on paper, and Hugo considered this period to represent the last flowering of architecture as a great art form.

[8] The major theme of the third book is that over time the cathedral has been repaired but these repairs and additions have made the cathedral worse: "And who put the cold, white panes in the place of those windows" and "...who substituted for the ancient Gothic altar, splendidly encumbered with shrines and reliquaries, that heavy marble sarcophagus, with angels' heads and clouds" are a few examples of this.

The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture.

He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest".

In 2010, British archivist Adrian Glew discovered references to a real-life man called "Hunchback" who was a foreman of a government sculpting studio in Paris in the 1820s who worked on post-Revolution restorations to the cathedral.

Idris Elba is slated to not only play the title character but also to direct and produce music for a modern retelling to be broadcast on Netflix.

[19] The book was twice adapted and broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial: Artists like Noel Gloesner,[23] Andrew Dickson,[24] Robin Recht,[25] Tim Conrad,[26] Gilbert Bloch,[27] George Evans[28] and Dick Briefer[29] have all created comic strip and book adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Paulo Borges,[30] Gustavo Machado[31] and Dan Spiegle[32] have drawn comic strip versions based on the 1996 Disney movie adaptation.