No Comparison of Temptation

[Kimikimer]

Probably not the best title.

I've been searching for a piece of literature that could rival The Hunchback of Notre Dame in most of its themes.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any other novel that I can compare to that spectacular book so I wanted to see if other might have suggestions.

Themes I'd love to read:

Temptation
Desire
Conflict of emotions
Struggling with religion
Self destructiveness

Thanks!

[Veho]

Hello,

Maybe you've already read it, but Jane Eyre combines all those themes. And if we stick with the Brontes, Wuthering Heights has many of those themes too. Others that I've read and can remember but perhaps only combine a few of the themes include:

Anna Karenina
Lady Chatterley's Lover
The Gambler by Dostoevsky

I'm sure there's lots more that I've read but can't think of anymore at the mo!

I hope you find something.

[kiki1982]

I could agree about Jane Eyre: the duality between what Rochester should do and what he does and his inner conflict about it, is quite interesting in combination with Frollo's problem. However, I think reading Rochester like that needs quite a lot of argumentation and it is not direct. It comes across in context (Victorian morality and law) and symbolic things like the moon, fires, ice and snow and such like.

I think you could do better with Ivanhoe by Scott. It carries a religious problem: Brian de Boi-Guilbert, a knight templar (celibate) falls madly in love with a doomed Jewess accused of being a witch (by Guilbert's overzeualous superior who has seen that he has fallen in love). In that, he also takes on himself and everything he believed in plus his superiors and reputation. [SPOILER!] In the end he will destroy himself [SPOILER OVER]. I don't need to name temptation or desire, I suppose :D. It is easy to argue because everything is in dialogue.

Actually, come to think of it, that storyline is quite similar to The Hunchback (disrespected and doomed girl is forcibly courted by inappropriately madly in love man who is slightly unconventional and she is herself in love with another) with that bit of difference that Frollo comes across as slightly perverted where you start to pity and somewhat respect Bois-Guilbert despite his foibles. His aim is a noble one in contrast to Frollo's one (despite his professions). The end is then of course different and better in Scott's case. As early 19th century always is.

Maybe Hugo read Scott as well... hmmm Brontë was definitely a fan, that is why Rochester is so much like Bois-Guilbert and a kind of Byronic Hero avant-la-lettre.

[Charles Darnay]

Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov has most of these, but the novel itself is very different than Hunchback. Have you read any of Hugo's other works? I cannot praise Les Misérables enough.

There is also a contemporary novel that has many of these themes (not so much religion) and features Victor Hugo as a principal character: The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys.

[Veho]

I think you could do better with Ivanhoe by Scott. It carries a religious problem: Brian de Boi-Guilbert, a knight templar (celibate) falls madly in love with a doomed Jewess accused of being a witch (by Guilbert's overzeualous superior who has seen that he has fallen in love). In that, he also takes on himself and everything he believed in plus his superiors and reputation. I don't need to name temptation or desire, I suppose :D. It is easy to argue because everything is in dialogue.

I might read Ivanhoe myself now. I want to read a Walter Scott and this sounds good.

[kiki1982]

It starts off slow, as Scott does, but once it gets going it is very good. Robin Hood features in it very briefly.

It was certainly a huge success across Europe in its day (so was Waverley, though, but I didn't like that much).

I think together with Rob Roy it has gone down in history as 'the legendary story' which is actually not as old as everyone thinks. Such a story that claims its place straight away.

VEry good novel :).

[Veho]

Thanks for the recommendation. I was going to start with Antiquary but I've added Ivanhoe to the wish list instead now.

[Darcy88]

Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov has most of these, but the novel itself is very different than Hunchback. Have you read any of Hugo's other works? I cannot praise Les Misérables enough.

There is also a contemporary novel that has many of these themes (not so much religion) and features Victor Hugo as a principal character: The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys.

Can you recommend a good translation of Les Miserables? A book like that you want to get the best translation. I had a copy of Brothers Karamazov and could't read more than 50 pages the translation was so bad.

[Veho]

Can you recommend a good translation of Les Miserables? A book like that you want to get the best translation. I had a copy of Brothers Karamazov and could't read more than 50 pages the translation was so bad.

I'm having troubles with Les Misérables translations myself at the moment! I've started Norman Denny's Penguin Classics translation and found out it is abridged (not very much but still enought to put me off). Now I'm on Julie Rose's 2007 translation and it's too modernised really. I've just asked stlukes for his opinion on another thread, hopefully someone can help.

[Scheherazade]

Lolita

Ethan Frome

Anna Karenina

Madame Bovary

Jude the Obscure

Sons and Lovers

Actually, most books by DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy would fit the bill, I think.

[Palmer3]

useful for me ,thank you very muchhttp://www.subeducation.info/avatar2.jpg

[stlukesguild]

I'm having troubles with Les Misérables translations myself at the moment! I've started Norman Denny's Penguin Classics translation and found out it is abridged (not very much but still enought to put me off). Now I'm on Julie Rose's 2007 translation and it's too modernised really. I've just asked stlukes for his opinion on another thread, hopefully someone can help.

I have (and have read) the Charles E. Wilbour translation (1862) published only months after the original French edition. The translation is closest to Hugo's in time and style, and was considered something of a "classic" in its own rite from the start. Obviously, a translation churned out at such speed has its share of textural flaws, but more recent translations seek to modernize the language to such an extent that they seem to ere far worse in the opposite direction. I question the attempt to make Hugo read like a contemporary novel when he most certainly doesn't read as such in the original French any more than Dickens reads like Cormac McCarthy. The unabridged Wilbour translation is published in Everman's Library.

[stlukesguild]

Yes... definitely Lolita.

[Veho]

I'm having troubles with Les Misérables translations myself at the moment! I've started Norman Denny's Penguin Classics translation and found out it is abridged (not very much but still enought to put me off). Now I'm on Julie Rose's 2007 translation and it's too modernised really. I've just asked stlukes for his opinion on another thread, hopefully someone can help.

I have (and have read) the Charles E. Wilbour translation (1862) published only months after the original French edition. The translation is closest to Hugo's in time and style, and was considered something of a "classic" in its own rite from the start. Obviously, a translation churned out at such speed has its share of textural flaws, but more recent translations seek to modernize the language to such an extent that they seem to ere far worse in the opposite direction. I question the attempt to make Hugo read like a contemporary novel when he most certainly doesn't read as such in the original French any more than Dickens reads like Cormac McCarthy. The unabridged Wilbour translation is published in Everman's Library.

Thanks for the info, stlukes. Wilbour is the one.

[kelby_lake]

Probably not the best title.

I've been searching for a piece of literature that could rival The Hunchback of Notre Dame in most of its themes.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any other novel that I can compare to that spectacular book so I wanted to see if other might have suggestions.

Themes I'd love to read:

Temptation
Desire
Conflict of emotions
Struggling with religion
Self destructiveness

Thanks!

Hunchback is a brilliant book :D

Tess of The D'Urbervilles
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Phantom of The Opera (or at least, the musical version reminds me of it)
Wuthering Heights

[cacian]

Lady Chatterley's Lover and the movie The Piano is another if you wanted to watch something along these literary lines too.

[PoeticPassions]

I'll also add to the ones already mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray

[kelby_lake]

Yes... definitely Lolita.

But it's not really a moral struggle of temptation, or at least I wasn't convinced that Humbert was emotionally torn over it. And that religious/moral struggle of temptation is at the heart of Hunchback of Notre Dame.

If OP doesn't mind plays, Measure for Measure tackles themes of temptation, religion and moral questions.