Sales of Hugo's Notre-Dame novel shooting up after fire

PanARMENIAN.Net - Online sales of Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" are shooting up following Monday, April 15's devastating cathedral fire, The Independent reports.

Hugo's 1831 novel, which tells the story of bell ringer Quasimodo, is one of many seminal works drawing inspiration from the eight centuries old building.

It occupied the top of Amazon's best-sellers list in France on Tuesday morning. The list, which is updated hourly, had six different editions of the novel in its top 10 at the time.

Two editions of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" occupied the first and second slots respectively. Other editions of the novel also came fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth.

On Amazon UK, Hugo's novel came 27th in fiction classics bestsellers. Another edition was in 33rd position.

In the US, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" was 20th in the list of European literature bestsellers. Other works by Hugo, such as his complete novels and Les Misérables, were also among the top 50.

In "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", Hugo describes the cathedral as "a central mother church ... It has the head of one, the limbs of another, the haunches of another, something of all".