With his hunched back and deformed face, Quasimodo, the tragic hero of Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunch Back of Notre Dame, has always been considered a mythical creation drawn from the depths of the author’s imagination.
But clues suggesting that Quasimodo is based on a historical figure have been uncovered in the memoirs of Henry Sibson, a 19th-century British sculptor who was employed at the cathedral at around the time the book was written and who describes a hunched back stonemason also working there.
He writes: “Mon Le Bossu (the Hunchback) a nickname given to him and I scarcely ever heard any other … the Chief of the gang for there were a number of us, M. Le Bossu was pleased to tell Mon Trajan that he must be sure to take the little Englishman.”
Log in to leave a comment. Sign In / Sign Up