Quilp

[Deirdre]

I blush to say i have not read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" so this comparison may not be accurate, but after also finding Quilp to be gargoylish, i thought he reminded me of the depictions of Quasimodo... and my partner in Dickensiana realized that both names begin with "Q". Which sent me running to see whether Hunchback pre-dated Old Curiosity Shop. It does! My theory is that Dickens was quite aware of Quasimodo, and in some way was making a comment on yet another way that being grotesque might affect someone's reaction to people. In Quilp's case he reacts with bravado and by making himself even more inhuman, while (i think) Quasimodo reacted by hiding. I would love to hear a comment from someone who has actually read Hunchback! I'm too busy reading the entire Dickens' canon to take a detour into Hugo right now.

[WymanChanning]

I blush to say i have not read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" so this comparison may not be accurate, but after also finding Quilp to be gargoylish, i thought he reminded me of the depictions of Quasimodo... and my partner in Dickensiana realized that both names begin with "Q". Which sent me running to see whether Hunchback pre-dated Old Curiosity Shop. It does! My theory is that Dickens was quite aware of Quasimodo, and in some way was making a comment on yet another way that being grotesque might affect someone's reaction to people. In Quilp's case he reacts with bravado and by making himself even more inhuman, while (i think) Quasimodo reacted by hiding. I would love to hear a comment from someone who has actually read Hunchback! I'm too busy reading the entire Dickens' canon to take a detour into Hugo right now.

I have not had the pleasure to read Hunchback yet, because I do not understand French and do not like translation. But Quilp is really a very vivid and impressive character in Old Curiosity Shop. The dwarfs in real life, from my experience or may be prejudice, are usually more energitic and always have a lot of grotesque ideas and behaviours, as if the relatively smaller body could not hold the relatively bigger brain, and ideas and energies want to burst out. I think CD observed this point too and create the character mostly based on real life experience instead of trying to creating an opposite one against Quasimodo.

Wyman Channing