What is the literary classic whose sales soared after the fire of Notre Dame Cathedral

Just hours after Monday's fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, The book of the same name of the French novelist Victor Hugo emerges from the ashes to occupy the first rank of sales of the Amazon platform.

The next morning of the tragedy, sales of the French writer's work in the online sales giant exploded: In just twenty-four hours, the book quickly ranks among the top 18 search options and among the site's top sellers.

This phenomenon is similar to what was experienced on November 13, 2015 after the terrorist attack in Paris, when thousands of French people approached different bookstores to buy "Paris was a party", from the American writer Ernest Hemingway.

Posted on January 14, 1831, the artwork "Notre Dame de Paris" is a model of the literary themes of Romanticism, which speaks of Gothic architecture, cultural heritage and love. The book is also considered a symbol of French literature.

Composed of eleven books, the novel focuses on the unfortunate story of the gypsy Esmeralda, a deaf hunchback named Quasimodo and an arhidiácono Claude Frollo – an archdeacon. In long descriptions of the aspects of the building that composes it, the author says that tried to draw attention to his state of decrepitude and the need for its conservation.

Victor Hugo even describes a great fire devouring the iconic cathedral while two gargoyles "vomited incessantly a fiery rain".

"All eyes were directed to the top of the cathedral and it was something extraordinary what they saw: in the upper part of the last gallery, above the central rosette, a great flame rose between the steeples with clouds of sparks, a great flame rebellious and furious, the wind sometimes tearing the tongue in the middle of a large smoke ", we read in a pbadage of the novel.

The novel has also been subjected to various cinematographic adaptations, such as Jean Delannoy in 1956, who introduced Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda and Anthony Quinn in Quasimodo, andto the animated version of Disney "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", in 1996.

The fire consumed two-thirds of the roof of the building and collapsed the central spire. a tower added in the nineteenth century and that until Monday was surrounded by a scaffolding to repair.

The French government will launch an international competition for the reconstruction of the cathedral, announced Wednesday the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

The goal is "to give Our Lady a new needle adapted to the techniques and challenges of our time", said Philippe at a press conference in Paris. In this way Architects from all over the world will be able to present their projects and proposals.

With information from EFE and AFP