What’s the best translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame?

About William Hazlitt

Son of the critic William Hazlitt, William Hazlitt the Younger was an English lawyer, writer, and translator. His son and his grandfather were also named William Hazlitt.

About the Hazlitt translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The title of this translation was originally Notre-Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime.

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France on page 278 says that Hazlitt’s translation was “unfortunately based on the first edition” and uses “antiquated English.”

Articulating Bodies by Kylee-Anne Hlingston
Hazlitt’s translation was “less popular” than Shoberl’s, which was cheaper, illustrated, and “aimed at a wider audience than Hazlitt’s expensive and essentially unillustrated one.” (pages 22–23).

From Hazlitt’s “Prefatory Notice”:

“We have called this a tale of the ‘ancient regime.’ We use this term in the most comprehensive sense, as expressing the violent internal state of things in France…. The new regime… however short of perfection in its details… is in its principle a regime of right” (xx-xi).

“In rendering from one language into another a work of fiction consisting almost wholly of dialogue and incident, in which there is little or no occasion to make the author appear in propria persona, it is clear that the mode most convenient for embodying those scattered words and sentences of illustration, which, in such a case, are always found necessary, is that the translator should speak in his own person. This course the editor of these volumes has adopted, finding it convenient to himself, conceiving it to be advantageous to the reader, and confident that it implies no disrespect for the author, seeing that such passages as the translator is wholly responsible for, will, by their own internal evidence, betray themselves to the reader” (xxviii).

The current hardcover Everyman’s Library edition says: “This edition reprints the anonymous nineteenth-century translation used by the first Everyman edition in 1910.” However, the text seems to match the Hazlitt translation, and Peter France acknowledges that it’s a reprint in The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. The original Hazlitt translation, however, does not have the three “missing” chapters, and the Everyman edition does. So Hazlitt later translated the added chapters, or someone built on his translation subsequently (by copying most of it word for word).

What’s interesting about the Hazlitt translation is how the beginning of the first chapter got so much longer than the first chapter in the original French. There is quite a lot of material that appears to have been inserted regarding the Feast of Fools.

This translation is in the public domain. There are digital scans of the three volumes available free at Google Books:

Notre-Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime (Vol I)

Notre-Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime (Vol II)

Notre-Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime (Vol III)

First sentence of the Hazlitt translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

On the 6th of January, 1482, the Parisians were awakened by the noise of all the bells within the triple circuit of the City, the University, and the Town, ringing in full peal.

About Frederic Shoberl

Frederic Shoberl was an English writer, translator, and illustrator.

About the Shoberl translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Articulating Bodies by Kylee-Anne Hlingston
“Shoberl’s translation slightly bowdlerized Hugo’s original, cutting a few blasphemies… and overtly sexual references ‘which, though not startling to our continental neighbours, would offend the severer taste of the English reader’ (Shoberl xiii-xiv).” Hazlitt’s was “less popular”; Shoberl’s was cheaper, illustrated, and “aimed at a wider audience than Hazlitt’s expensive and essentially unillustrated one…. The [Shoberl] edition’s affordability, popular retitling, and minor censorship to accommodate English prudery, as well as its positive reviews and reprintings, lead me to believe that Shoberl’s translation was the most influential edition in popularizing Hugo’s novel in England” (pages 22–23).

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 673), John R. Whittaker says, “[Shoberl’s] translation is sound and clear, and there is no doubt that his example influenced subsequent versions. Shoberl attempts, from time to time, to allude to the medieval setting by inserting archaisms.”

From Shoberl’s “Sketch of the Life and Writings of Victor Hugo”, which prefaces his translation:

“[I]t would be useless to accumulate opinions upon a work now before the British public, which can of course form its own judgment upon it. The translator will therefore merely add, that this version has been made with care; that it has been his aim in the task to preserve as much as possible the peculiarities of the author’s style and manner; and that he has taken no further liberty with the original than here and there pruning away certain luxuriances, or softening down expressions, which, though not startling to our continental neighbours, would offend the severer taste of the English reader” (page xi).

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available online at Archive.org, Google Books, and Hathi Trust:

» View scans at Archive.org

» View scans at Google Books

» View scans at Hathi Trust

First sentence of the Shoberl translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

It is this day three hundred and forty-eight years six months and nineteen days since that the good people of Paris were awakened by a grand peal from all the bells in the three districts of the City, the University, and the Ville.

About the 1839 Anonymous translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Articulating Bodies by Kylee-Anne Hlingston
“This unsigned translation was published in six parts in Foster and Hextall’s The Novelist: A Collection of the Standard Novels.”

Volume 1 of The Novelist is 494 pages and contains: The last of the Mohicans; Lionel Lincoln; Clarence; The pilot; and La Esmeralda, or, The hunchback of Notre Dame (pages 401 to 494). On the page where La Esmeralda begins, it says “Translated expressly for ‘The Novelist,’ from the original French.” The text is miserably tiny, and in two columns, but I don’t think it’s abridged.

I gather that the book is a reprint of what was basically a bunch of issues of a cheap magazine, where people would buy each issue for a small price. After all the issues had been published, then the same publishers (Foster and Hextall) and at least one other (Peirce) put out a version of the same text that readers could buy as a whole volume rather than as separate issues.

The Novelist Vol 1, 1839:

» View scans at Google Books

London/G. Peirce reprint, 1844: “This work will contain three chapters never before published in England, having but just appeared in the eighth edition, now in course of publication in Paris.”

» View scans at Google Books

First sentence of the 1839 Anonymous translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days have now elapsed since the citizens of Paris were aroused from their slumbers by the tolling of the bells of the three districts of the City, the University, and the Ville.

About Henry L. Williams

Henry Llewellyn Williams, Jr. was an American writer and translator.

John Adcock: “Henry Llewellyn Williams (Sr.): A Literary Pirate”
According to an 1883 article quoted in a blog post by John Adcock, the work that H.L. Williams did with his father, also a writer, may not have been completely legitimate.

The Alexandre Dumas père Web Site: “Henry Llewellyn Williams Jr.” by CadyTech
“Translated many works of Alexandre Dumas into English for lesser-known American publishers, often with unusual or variant titles.”

Among his translations of works by Dumas is The Three Musketeers.

About the Williams translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 673), John R. Whittaker says, “Williams’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1862) reads quite well, though in an attempt to make the language as accessible as possible, the lexical range of the original may have been diminished.”

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available online at Hathi Trust and Google Books.

» View scans at Hathi Trust

» View scans at Google Books

First sentence of the Williams translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

It is to-day three hundred and forty- eight years, six months, and nineteen days since that on which the Parisians were aroused by the clangor of all the bells ringing at their highest pitch within the triple enclosure of the Cité, the Universitié, and the Ville.

About A. Langdon Alger

Abby Langdon Alger was an American writer, ethnologist, and translator.

About the Alger translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The title of this translation was originally Notre-Dame de Paris.

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 673), John R. Whittaker says, “Alger’s Notre-Dame de Paris (1891) contains a number of variations from the original sense, though they are generally justified in a clear rendering which keeps the spirit of the source.”

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available online at Archive.org.

» View scans at Archive.org

First sentence of the Alger translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago to-day the Parisians were waked by the sound of loud peals from all the bells within the triple precincts of the City, the University, and the Town.

About Isabel F. Hapgood

She was an American writer and translator. She was strongly religious, and worked on uniting different Christian denominations. She translated works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky, among others. She translated not only Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, but also Les Miserables and Toilers of the Sea.

About the Hapgood translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The title of this translation was originally Notre-Dame de Paris.

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France on page 278 says “All of [these 19th-c. translations], especially Hapgood’s sometimes inaccurate rendering, show their age; none has the intense vitality which characterizes Hugo’s prose at best.”

First sentence of the Hapgood translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago to-day, the Parisians awoke to the sound of all the bells in the triple circuit of the City, the University, and the Town ringing a full peal.

About the 1888 Anonymous translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

I dug this translation up from the shadowy depths of the internet myself. It doesn’t exactly match any of the other translations. It could be a new translation, or an updated edition an earlier translation. In any case, there are differences from other editions, as the publishers state in the preface:

The present edition of Notre-Dame will be found more complete than any which has hitherto been printed in English. It contains a special translation of Book V., embracing the chapter entitled “Abbas Beati Martini,” and the important chapter on Architecture and Printing; also the author’s long note added to the edition of 1832, and not included in any other translation. The English edition has been carefully examined and a number of errors have been corrected.
Boston, June 6, 1888

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available from Hathi Trust, Archive.org, and Google Books. There are multiple copies; here are some representative links.

» View scans at Hathi Trust

» View scans at Archive.org

» View scans at Google Books

First sentence of the 1888 Anonymous translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Exactly three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days have passed away since the Parisians were awakened by the noise of all the bells within the triple walls of the city, the University, and the town, ringing a full peal.

About J. Caroll Beckwith

Strangely, as far as Wikipedia is concerned, James Carroll Beckwith was a portrait and landscape painter, not a translator, yet someone named J. Carroll Beckwith is definitely responsible for a translation of Notre-Dame of Paris. It’s possible there are two people with similar names who have become conflated, but Worldcat attributes the Beckwith translation and the Beckwith art to the same person, a man who was born in 1852 and died in 1917. Perhaps he didn’t translate anything else, and his paintings were just more memorable than his writing.

This book tells the real-live story of a police detective who believes he was the painter Carroll Beckwith in a past life.

About the Beckwith translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The title of this translation was originally Notre-Dame of Paris.

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France says Beckwith’s translation “reads quite fluently, adding brief glosses as it goes, treating Hugo’s syntax rather freely and sometimes failing to catch the meaning of the dialogue” (page 278).

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 673), John R. Whittaker says, “Beckwith’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1899, 1953) combines respect for the original with a competence that has justified a number of reprints in more recent times.”

Beckwith’s note on the translation in the 1892 edition says:

“If translated too literally, the English becomes harsh, disconnected; if rendered into modern, well-rounded phrases, the virility the peculiar historical accent, disappear…. [I]t behooves the translator to consider his quantities even more carefully, if possible, than did the author himself,—working as he does in an alien tongue as well as an alien time.”

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available online at Archive.org.

» View scans online at Archive.org

First sentence of the Beckwith translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

One morning, three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago, the Parisians were awakened by a grand peal from all the bells within the triple enclosure of the City, the University and the Town.

About the Haynes translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

From looking at a copy published in 1902 by P.F. Collier & Son in New York, it seems that perhaps this translation was originally done for a 20-volume series called “The Trench Classical Romances”, edited by Edmund Gosse. The Haynes translation is the one reprinted in “The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction”, selected by Charles W. Eliot, edited with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson, also published by P.F. Collier & Son.

I see reprints available from 1930, 1955, and 1983, but no current editions.

» Search on Abebooks

This translation is in the public domain. Scans are freely available on Archive.org.

» View scans on Archive.org

First sentence of the Haynes translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Precisely three hundred and forty-eight years six months and nineteen days ago Paris was awakened by the sound of the pealing of all the bells within the triple enclosing walls of the city, the University, and the town.

About Lowell Bair

He translated Madame Bovary, The Phantom of the Opera, The Count of Monte Cristo, Cyrano de Bergerac, Candide, The Three Musketeers, and The Red and the Black, among other works in French.

About the Bair translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

This translation is ABRIDGED.

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 674), John R. Whittaker says, “Bair’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) tends towards [modern, well-rounded phrases]. The simple and direct language, though generally appropriate, is sometimes strained. This translation displays little or no attempt to convey a period flavour, and it is apt to omit problematic phrases.”

First sentence of the Bair translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

On January 6, 1482, the people of Paris were awakened by the tumultuous clanging of all the bells in the city.

About the Cobb translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France on page 278 says that the Cobb translation is “stilted and inaccurate [compared to Sturrock].”

First sentence of the Cobb translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

It is three hundred forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago today that the citizens of Paris were awakened by the pealing of all the bells in the triple precincts of the City, the University, and the Town.

About John Sturrock

John Sturrock is a writer, critic, and translator. He contributed to the Penguin translation of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

About the Sturrock translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France on page 278 says that the Sturrock translation is “freer” than Krailsheimer’s: “tending to eschew archaism, it reads very naturally, especially the dialogue.”

Sturrock says in his introduction: “[The previous translations] which I have seen have all seemed to me to betray Hugo to some degree by making him read like a historical novelist of a much stiffer, more archaic kind than he actually was. The striking thing about the French of Notre-Dame, as about Hugo’s style generally, is its formidable directness and resourcefulness, directness in syntax and resourcefulness in vocabulary…. There is no strong sense, reading Notre-Dame today, of a story written in the French of 1830, and no disloyalty at all, consequently, in translating it into plain, colloquial English.”

Sturrock also says in the introduction to his translation: “There is one specific difficulty in translating this novel, which is Hugo’s tireless introduction of archaisms, including, to make things worse, the archaic jargon of the 15th century underworld…. [H]e loves the lexicology of secret languages.”

First sentence of the Sturrock translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months and nineteen days ago today, the people of Paris awoke to hear all the church-bells in the triple enclosure of the City, the University and the Town in full voice.

About Alban J. Krailsheimer

According to Oxford World’s Classics, “A. J. Krailsheimer was Emeritus Student and Tutor in French at Christ Church, Oxford from 1957 until his retirement in 1988. His published work is mostly on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but among his translations are Balzac’s Pere Goriot, Flaubert’s Three Tales (both also in Oxford World’s Classics), Samammbo, and Bouvard et Pechuchet.”

He died 7 May 2001 at the age of 80.

About the Krailsheimer translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation edited by Peter France on page 278 says that the Krailsheimer translation sticks “closely to Hugo’s syntax, avoiding unnecessary interpretation and keeping explanation for the end notes.”

In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English edited by Olive Classe, (Volume 1, page 674), John R. Whittaker says, “Krailsheimer’s Notre-Dame de Paris (1993) is closer [than Bair’s] to the sense of the original.”

First sentence of the Krailsheimer translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Just three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago today Parisians woke to the sound of all the bells pealing out within the triple precinct of City, University, and Town.

About Shoberl revised by Catherine Liu

Catherine Liu is a Chinese-American writer and academic.

» Read a three-page biography of Catherine Liu from the University of Minnesota.

About the Shoberl and Liu translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

According to her translator’s preface, Liu has restored the eroticism of the French original that was largely absent from the anonymous 1941 Modern Library English translation (which I believe is the Shoberl translation) that she was working from:

“Not only were descriptions of La Esmeralda’s heaving bosom and graceful legs simply dropped, Claude Frollo’s erotic obsession and sadism were veiled in Anglo-Saxon euphemisms that Hugo would have ridiculed. The novel is much more sensual, much earthier, and much more troubling when this erotic language is restored to Hugo’s portrait of unreciprocated love.”

This version contains the three chapters from 1832, even though Shoberl’s original did not.

Elizabeth McCraken’s introduction addresses misconceptions arising from the novel’s ubiquity in popular culture. She worries that people won’t want to read the book because they already know the story and the characters, but knows that those who nevertheless plunge in will be well rewarded, as there are many subtleties as well as obvious merits to appreciate.

First sentence of the Shoberl and Liu translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago, the good people of Paris awoke to the sound of all the bells pealing in the three districts of the Cité, the Universite, and the Ville.

About Julie Rose

Julie Rose is a translator of French. She has translated works by Racine, Moliere, Emile Zola, and Alexandre Dumas as well as Victor Hugo. She has also taught French language and literature and served as an interpreter in Paris. In 2016 she was made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government. She loves to read crime fiction.

» About the Rose translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables

About the Rose translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

From the publisher: “This sparkling new translation, the first major one in English in more than thirty years, by a celebrated translator of Hugo’s Les Misérables, is complete and unabridged, and based on the authoritative 1832 text established by the Bibliothèque de la Pléaide.”

As of October 2026, the release date is set for January 26, 2027.

First sentence of the Rose translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

[Not yet available.]

Many of the old translations are still out there today! Translators not getting their names on stuff was common practice in the 1800s; reprinting old public domain translations is common practice now; and if I’m not mistaken, some translators whose names were on their translations aren’t getting credit for today’s reprints. Wherever I’ve had to try, by looking at extracts, to identify the translation in a newer edition, I’ve added a note to say so.

Three early English translations (Hazlitt, Shoberl, the serialized version published by Foster & Hextall) and the modern abridged translation by Lowell Bair were based on the 1831 French original and did not include three chapters added to the French version in 1832. The three chapters, inserted after Book IV Chapter V,  are “Impopularité” (inserted as Chapter VI of Book IV) and  “Abbas Beati Martini” and “Ceci tuera cela” (inserted as Chapter I and II of Book V). Chapter II of Book V contains the famous “this will kill that” passage. With the three chapters, Hugo also added “Note ajoutée à l’édition définitive”, which explains that these chapters were always part of the book; written with but not published with the other chapters.  Hugo also uses the note to exhort readers to preserve the architecture of Paris.

In a way, Hugo succeeded. Maybe video killed the radio star, but the printing press still hasn’t killed architecture. The internet—modern-day heir to the printing press—in April 2019 helped raise millions of dollars, literally overnight, to salvage the cathedral Hugo loved.

In France, Hugo is known as a poet. He also wrote plays. However, in the English-speaking world, he’s known as a novelist, primarily for Notre-Dame and Les Miserables. Hugo’s other fictional works include the novels Toilers of the Sea, The Man Who Laughs, and Ninety-Three, and the novella The Last Day of a Condemned Man.

» What’s the best translation of Les Miserables?

For more on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, its author, its historical and literary context, and/or its adaptations, consider the resources below.

Get Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Hugo's original French text.

Available as an ebook.

Download from Project Gutenberg

Get Victor Hugo: A Biography by Graham Robb

“Both necessary and highly readable, and easily outclasses all existing Hugo biographies in English.” ― New York Times Book Review front-page review

Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780393318999, 720 pages).

Buy from Amazon

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Get Notre Dame of Paris: The Biography of a Cathedral by Allan Temko

It's out of print, but you may be able to find a second-hand copy using the links below.

Available as a hardcover or paperback.

Search AbeBooks

Get Notre-Dame de Paris: History, Art, and Revival from 1163 to Tomorrow by Antonia Felix

"This stunning photographic ode to one of the world's most beloved treasures pays tribute to Notre-Dame--its place in history and in culture, and its rebirth--in the wake of the tragic fire that nearly destroyed it."

Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9781454938316).

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Get Notre Dame de Paris : A Celebration of the Cathedral by Kathy Borrus

Details the impressive architecture of the building, the priceless artefacts it contains, and the major historical events that have taken place in its presence. Shows, through film stills and artwork reproductions, the ways in which the Notre Dame has permeated our popular culture. Coupled with informative text for each image, Notre Dame is the definitive book on the history of this landmark building.

Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9780762497119, 128 pages).

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Get The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Disney

1996 Disney animated feature film. 1h 30m.

Available as streaming video.

Buy from Amazon

Get The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

Puffin classics ABRIDGED version for children. Based on the Walter J. Cobb translation (1965), abridged by Robin Waterfield (1996).

Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780140382532, 320 pages).

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Get The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Real Reads children's adaptation, retold by Tony Evans and illustrated by Catty Flores. Ebook also available.

Available as a paperback (ISBN 9781906230692, 64 pages).

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Buy from Bookshop.org

Buy from AbeBooks

Between Alger, Hapgood, and Beckwith, I’m not sure which public domain reprint I’d recommend if you want a physical copy. You can choose based on how the extracts sound, or based on price or physical appearance.

Here's a summary of my recommendations.

Legitimately free, user-friendly ebook:

Get the Hapgood translation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (published by Standard Ebooks). Available as an ebook. Learn more about the Hapgood translation.

Download from Standard Ebooks

Can't decide? Compare extracts from the different versions of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Whichever one you choose... happy reading!

Spotted an error or missing edition? Email me. I am grateful for corrections and additions, and I update pages whenever I can verify new information.

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