Unique Chapter Titles

My recent reading made me laugh; Hugo is quite creative in his choice of chapter titles.    For instance, Chapter IV of book two:  "The Unfortunate Consequences of Following a Pretty Girl in the Street at Night."  It's specific, that's for sure.  Or, how about this one:  "From Charybdis into Scylla."  What does this mean?  Well, Charybdis was a once-beautiful Greek nymph who was turned into a sea monster.   On the other side the narrow strait where she lived was Scylla, a second horrible monster with four eyes.  Essentially, a sailor in a bind would be between a Charybid and a Scylla...or a rock and a hard place.  Bravo Hugo for your creativity!  Poor Gringoire, in our story, is the fellow down on his luck, attempting to find a place to rest his weary, ego-deflated head with the failure of his morality play.

Gringoire ends up wandering throughout Paris, unable to return home because he's behind on rent.  Driven by a desire to get as far away from the parade of the Feast of Fools, he takes alleyways and shortcuts through some questionable parts of Paris.  Hugo uses this time to reflect upon the architecture of Paris and its change since the setting of the novel.  He detests the destruction of buildings with the passing of the Renaissance, Bastille Day and most recently the Industrial Revolution.  He mourns the loss of great buildings and the character they created.

Meanwhile, the Feast of Fools parade has been meandering through the wards of Paris, drawing like a magnet to it thieves, bums and general riff-raff.  Quasimodo is still atop his perch, basking in what little notice he's likely ever garnered with revelry in his quiet life.  The parade enters a square where Esmeralda is performing with Djali; as expected during this time, Djali is a trianed goat, but an abott in the crowd accuses her of sorcery.  The rest of the crowd, however, loves her performance and Gringoire, as expected, is mesmerized by her femninity and exoticism.  Esmeralda eventually finishes her performances, collects the coins tossed at her by the crowd and hastily exits to avoid the piercing eyes of the abbott.

Gringoire, continuing on his journey to find a plot of land to rest upon stumbles upon Esmeralda, walking swiftly and deftly through the streets with Djali.  He follows her, intrigued by her beauty but  also by his curiosity.  Esmeralda senses Gringoire's presence and hastens her step but is abruptly cut off by none other than the demenaing abbott and Quasimodo.  Quasimodo grabs her, strong as an ox,  flattening Gringoire's futile attempt to rescue her with the back of his hand.  With Gringoire on the ground and Esmeralda desperately fighting for freedom, the abbot turns to the alley but his escape is stopped by memebers of the Paris police who free Esmeralda and capture Quasimodo.  The abbot and Esmeralda run away and Gringoire is left to his wounds in the cold streets of a Parisian gutter.