The Man Who Laughs
By Victor Hugo. Translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood.
The Man Who Laughs (тАЬLтАЩHomme qui RitтАЭ) was called by its author тАЬA Romance of English History,тАЭ and was written during the period Hugo spent in exile in Guernsey. Like The Toilers of the Sea, its immediate predecessor, the main theme of the story is human heroism, confronted with the superhuman tyranny of blind chance. As a passionate cry on behalf of the tortured and deformed, and the despised and oppressed of the world, The Man Who Laughs is irresistible. Of it Hugo himself says in the preface: тАЬThe true title of this book should be тАЬAristocracyтАЩтАЭтАФinasmuch as it was intended as an arraignment of the nobility for their vices, crimes, and selfishness. The Man Who Laughs was first published in 1869.
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