17.2.10









BELL
H
e went and came, he beat his hands together, he ran from rope to rope, he animated the six singers with voice and gesture, like the leader of an orchestra who is urging on intelligent musicians.

...

He was wholly absorbed in spurring on his bells, all six of which vied with each other in leaping and shaking their shining haunches, like a noisy team of Spanish mules, pricked on here and there by the apostrophes of the muleteer.


All at once, on letting his glance fall between the large slate scales which cover the perpendicular wall of the bell tower at a certain height, he beheld on the square a young girl, fantastically dressed, stop, spread out on the ground a carpet, on which a small goat took up its post, and a group of spectators collect around her. This sight suddenly changed the course of his ideas, and congealed his enthusiasm as a breath of air congeals melted rosin. He halted, turned his back to the bells, and crouched down behind the projecting roof of slate, fixing upon the dancer that dreamy, sweet, and tender look which had already astonished the archdeacon on one occasion. Meanwhile, the forgotten bells died away abruptly and all together, to the great disappointment of the lovers of bell ringing, who were listening in good faith to the peal from above the Pont du Change, and who went away dumbfounded, like a dog who has been offered a bone and given a stone.

-The Hunchback of Notre Dame -Victor Hugo

22 comments:

  1. Jayne, I am constantly in awe of your art and your writing. This was a very enjoyable post. Please be sure to let me know when your book is published xJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loved thje sketch. I feel like I'm going away with a bone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice. love the radical simplicity of the pic! nice excerpt as well....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely image, and the excerpt was perfect. But I think that was by design, eh? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You did the sketch.
    WOW.

    hugs
    shakira

    http://justmeshakirack.blogspot.com/2010/02/theme-thursday-bell.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Most excellent selection! And I've attempted to draw something similar but I always end up wandering it into something else, heh...

    ReplyDelete
  7. We Must Remain, & Keep Good Faith, The Bells Will Resume.......

    ReplyDelete
  8. Such an inventive image. Creativity defined.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Hunchback! Now that's some bells I hadn't thought of. Love the auras around the heads of your figures.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice pick...and really neat sketch!

    Ringing for Barry!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your sketch? I love it.


    Victor Hugo...of course! Very clever.

    ReplyDelete
  12. enjoyed the sketch, always find something wonderful here... And thanks for the excerpt!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Very nice sketch and creative take on the bell.
    This is my first time here and I love what I see. I'm going to browse some more : )

    ReplyDelete
  14. Artistic in large measures indeed.
    I've never read the book but i've seen the movie from long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Please show us more writings, more drawings, more paintings please.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Loved this! Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really must read that book one of these days. Just as well they stopped 'it was the bells making me deaf'

    ReplyDelete
  18. Yeah!!!...foryou...

    "volverán las oscuras golondrinas..."...

    Salud!

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a compelling sketch. I was so happy to be able to enlarge it.

    ReplyDelete