The Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan prince chosen by fate to found the civilization that will one day become Rome. After the fall of Troy, Aeneas leads survivors across the Mediterranean, driven not by personal ambition but by pietas—duty to the gods, his family, and the future.

The journey takes Aeneas through storms, shipwrecks, and divine interference. In Carthage, Aeneas falls in love with Queen Dido, herself a refugee who founded a thriving city. But the gods remind him of his mission, forcing him to abandon her. Dido's grief and suicide—and her curse upon his descendants—hint at the future enmity between Rome and Carthage.

In Italy, Aeneas descends into the Underworld, where his father reveals the spirits of future Roman heroes, including Julius Caesar and Augustus. Aeneas finally understands the grandeur—and the cost—of his destiny.

But fulfilling fate requires war. Aeneas battles native Italian forces led by the warrior Turnus. The final duel ends with Aeneas killing Turnus after seeing the stolen belt of his fallen ally Pallas—a moment that reveals the tension between mercy and vengeance. The epic ends abruptly, spotlighting the violence on which Rome's future is built.

Themes include duty versus desire, fate versus free will, sacrifice, and the founding of empire. Unlike Greek heroes who seek personal glory, Aeneas represents a new kind of hero—one who suppresses his own wishes for the good of generations to come.

The Odyssey follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War. While the conflict is over, Odysseus becomes trapped far from home for ten additional years, battling not armies but the forces of nature, magic, monsters, and even his own flaws.

Stranded on the island of the nymph Calypso, Odysseus longs to return to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus, who are left struggling in Ithaca. Penelope is besieged by suitors seeking to marry her, believing Odysseus dead, while Telemachus grows into adulthood searching for news of his father.

With the gods' intervention, Odysseus escapes Calypso and recounts his trials: the addictive Lotus-Eaters, the terrifying Cyclops Polyphemus, the loss of his crew to storms and cannibal giants, the enchantress Circe, the perilous passage between Scylla and Charybdis, the journey to the Underworld, and the punishment of his crew for eating the sacred cattle of Helios.
These adventures reveal Odysseus as a hero of cleverness and courage—but also of pride, temptation, and human weakness.

He alone survives and eventually reaches Ithaca in disguise. With the help of Telemachus and loyal servants, Odysseus slays the suitors who have overrun his home and finally reunites with Penelope, proving his identity through patience and wisdom rather than mere strength.

Themes include homecoming, loyalty, identity, temptation, fate vs. free will, and the endurance required to remain true to oneself. The poem portrays heroism not as battlefield glory, but as the long struggle to return to one's rightful place—body and spirit intact.

Nearly 3,000 years later, The Odyssey endures as a foundational epic about human resilience and the timeless longing for home.

Set in Paris in 1482, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a tragic tale of love, obsession, and injustice, centered around the towering cathedral that dominates the city. The story follows Quasimodo, the deformed and deaf bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, who is shunned by society for his appearance but possesses a deeply compassionate heart.

Quasimodo is raised by Claude Frollo, the strict archdeacon of Notre-Dame, a man torn between religious devotion and forbidden desire. Frollo becomes obsessively infatuated with Esmeralda, a beautiful Romani dancer whose innocence and freedom make her both admired and feared. When Esmeralda rejects him, Frollo's desire turns into cruelty, leading him to frame her for crimes she did not commit.

Condemned by a society driven by superstition and prejudice, Esmeralda is sentenced to death. Quasimodo rescues her at the last moment and hides her within the cathedral, offering protection and unconditional love. However, misunderstanding, mob violence, and Frollo's obsession ultimately destroy any hope of salvation. Esmeralda is executed, and Quasimodo, devastated, kills Frollo before disappearing. Years later, his body is found beside Esmeralda's, symbolizing a love that endures beyond death.

The novel explores themes of appearance versus reality, the abuse of power, obsessive desire, fate, and compassion. Hugo condemns a society that punishes difference and disguises cruelty behind authority and morality. Through Quasimodo, he reveals that true humanity lies not in beauty or status, but in empathy and sacrifice.