Hugo's romances, as well as the romantic stories of Dumas, were inspired to a certain extent by the novels of Sir Walter Scott. But in Scott we find ourselves in the sunlight of a reasonable and happy world. The atmosphere of Hugo's stories one might compare to that of stormy days, illuminated by flashes of lightning. The romance of {63} _Notre Dame de Paris_ is dominated by a vision of the cathedral in Paris which seems in the story far greater and larger than it is actually. Some day you may see the cathedral for yourselves, but before doing so, read Hugo's story. It imparts to the famous cathedral an air of wonder and mystery which proves to us Hugo's remarkable powers as a writer. Round Notre Dame he gathers as strange a multitude of people as can be found in any story, the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda, her goat Djali, the terrible dwarf Quasimodo, the swarm of beggars, with their beggar king, Claude Frollo, Captain Phoebus, Pierre Gringoire, and the unhappy recluse Gudule. An even more remarkable romance by Victor Hugo is named _Les Misérables_. The book is more than a story. Hugo brings in so many affairs outside the story itself that when we have finished the book we feel as if we had read part of the history of the world. You remember the strong impulse to heal and relieve the distresses of humanity which we found in the novels of Charles Dickens. The same powerful motive is seen in action in these romances by Victor Hugo. Perhaps there are few books in which we can find explained so clearly the problems, distresses and poverty of the older and more crowded countries of the continent of Europe as they existed at the time of the story. Hugo means to awaken our pity and he does so. Jean Valjean, the escaped convict of _Les Misérables_, is condemned by harsh and wicked laws, yet he becomes the soul of tenderness and goodness. For his sake, and for the sake of the good Bishop Myriel who first {64} showed Jean Valjean what love and forgiveness mean, we should read some part at least of _Les Misérables_; or we may be able to find someone who has read Hugo's immensely long novel and is willing to tell us the story of Jean Valjean. It is difficult to imagine a sharper contrast to the writings of Victor Hugo than the gay, youthful, carefree stories which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote for young people. Yet Stevenson admired Hugo greatly, and was as well one of the most loyal adherents of Dumas. Stevenson wrote _Treasure Island_ to help his step-son, Lloyd Osbourne, then a boy of twelve years old, through rather a dull and lonely holiday spent near Braemar in the north of Scotland. Stevenson's father, an old man with a boy's heart, used to listen to the story when it was read aloud in the afternoons as soon as each chapter was written, one chapter a day. It was Thomas Stevenson, the father, who wrote out the list of the contents of Billy Bones' sea chest.