The Man Who Laughs – A Romance of English History

Gwynplaine is a young homeless boy with a facial disfigurement who comes to the rescue of an infant girl orphaned as the result of a snowstorm. After the two are adopted by an itinerant carnival vendor called Ursus, they embark on a life on the road, for fifteen years performing to audiences in southern England. However, when Duchess Josiana, the illegitimate daughter of King James I, discovers their act, their lives are changed forever. “The Man Who Laughs” was written by Victor Hugo over a period of fifteen months while he was living in the Channel Islands, having been exiled from his native France. Contents include: “Book the First. Night not so Black as Man”, ”Portland Bill”, “Left Alone”, “Questions”, “The Tree of Human Invention”, “Struggle Between Death and Life”, “The North Point of Portland”, “Book The Second. The Hooker at Sea”, “Superhuman Laws”, “Our First Rough Sketches Filled In”, “Troubles men on the Troubled Sea”, et cetera. Victor Marie Hugo (1802 – 1885) was a French novelist, dramatist, and poet belonging to the Romantic movement. He is widely hailed as one of the most accomplished and well-known French writers, originally achieving renown for his poetical endeavours—the most notable of which are the volumes “Les Contemplations” and “La Légende des siècles”. Outside of his native country, Hugo's best-known works are his novels: “Les Misérables” (1862) and “Notre-Dame de Paris” (1831), commonly known as “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.