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5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read..., Nov 22 2003
I thought I was a Hugo's "The hunchback of Notre Dame" fan until I read this book. I was stunned! The way the characters are depicted, and the way the story unfolds (even when you can somehow guess the ending a few 100 pages before..) is just amazing.
I have to read it again in French though, because the story must have lost a bit of flavor during its translation...
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Shoddily Bound, May 30 2003
By A Customer
The literary contents here deserve five stars, however, the Paper Tiger edition of this book was bound more like a $$$ paperback than a $$$hardcover. I'm gentle with books, yet the pages separated from the binding halfway through my reading.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Serious fiction, Jun 16 2002
Victor Hugo's 1868 novel "The Man Who Laughs" (l'Homme qui rit) is the superb narrative of a young man who, as a child, was abducted, sold and deformed -- obstensibly for profit, but, as it turns out, for dark political reasons as well. To tell too much of Gwynplaine's story is to give away the plot's secrets, though the truth is its key secret is revealed less than 200 pages into the novel. Set in England at the end of the 17th Century and the beginning of the 18th, "The Man Who Laughs" skewers English aristocracy the way "Les Misérables" (1862) did French authorities. Gwynplaine's long denunciation in the House of Lords is obviously Hugo speaking, while depictions of the scheming Barkilphedro, the dissolute Lord David Dirry-Moir, and the strange Josiana (whose passive-aggressive sexuality would have fascinated Freud) are reflections of the Stuart dynasty's ugly corruption "its features hidden by a mask of joy". (Queen Anne herself is dismissed as a fool.) The only pure characters are Dea, a blind woman in love with Gwynplaine, and Homo, a wolf. Even Ursus, the itinerant philosopher, seems to fight his humanity, denying the love he feels for his three companions: the scarred man, the blind woman, and the animal. Why this magnificent novel is not better known is a mystery. One reason, perhaps, is that it would be difficult to dramatize. (There was a 1928 silent film version which is rarely if ever shown.) There have, of course, been several versions of both "Les Misérables" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", not to mention a megamusical based on the former. Hugo's prolixity and his penchant for sesquipedalian words must make translation an enormous chore, which is why Joseph Blamire's English translation (to my knowledge the only English translation to date) came out a full twenty years after the original publication. For the average 21st Century reader, this is nourishment not easy to digest. Hugo's style is a series of lengthy descriptions and digressions filled with obscure references. I've got one word for you: skim. But don't skim so rapidly that you miss some of the shining epigrams: "Aristocracy is proud of what women consider a reproach -- age! Yet both cherish the same illusion, that they do not change." Obviously, this is not junk food. On the contrary, for readers with rich tastes "The Man Who Laughs" is a literary feast.
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