And the I'm going to be. Welcome to Snuscast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep.

On Snuscast we read excerpts from Public Domain Works and occasionally

original stories.

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This episode is supported by being barefoot in the mud.

Tonight we'll read the opening to the hunchback of Notre Dame, a French

Gothic novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. Hugo wrote it largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the

Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced by

replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style.

The story is set in Paris in 1482 during the reign of the Louis 11th. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes.

relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now take a few deep breaths. Deep. Chapter 1. The Grand Hall

348 years, six months and 19 days ago today, 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. The 6th of January, 1482, is not, however, a day of which history has preserved the memory.

There was nothing notable in the event which thus set the bells and the bourgeois of

Paris in a ferment from early morning.

It was neither an assault by the Picard nor the Burgundians,

nor a Hunt led along in procession, nor a revolt of scholars in the town of loss, nor an entry of

our much dread lord Me Mezure the king, nor even a pretty hanging of male and female

thieves by the courts of Paris.

...