Gwynplaine was disfigured as a child by a criminal gang who carved a permanent grin on his face, then left him to die in a snowstorm. He rescues a blind baby girl, Dea, and both are taken in by the traveling showman Ursus and his tame wolf Homo. As adults, Gwynplaine performs as "the man who laughs," while he and Dea fall in love. He then learns he is the son of a nobleman and is thrust into the House of Lords in seventeenth-century England. Victor Hugo uses the story to attack aristocratic privilege.
It suits readers of Hugo's longer novels who like melodrama, social criticism and sharply drawn grotesques.
Deep; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1869
- Language
- EN
