Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred [Hardcover]

Carl-Johan Vallgren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2006

Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot is the picaresque fable of the love that grows between the mute, telepathic human monstrosity Hercules and the beautiful Henriette—a love that will entwine their fates forever. Author Carl-Johan Vallgren creates an unforgettable cast of grotesqueries in a magical and atmospheric tour of nineteenth-century Europe—from the bordello, where Hercules is born, to the squalor of the asylum, where he finds only pain, to the sinister grandeur of the Jesuit monasteries in which he finds both shelter and peril, to the phantasmagoria of the freak show with which he travels. A moving, uplifting, at times dark and macabre tale of social oppression, official corruption, religious persecution, and unwavering devotion, it is a story that enchants and surprises . . . and leaves one wide-eyed with wonder, like a small child at his first carnival.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As its subtitle hints, Swedish author Vallgren's weirdly compelling first novel to be translated Stateside summons a world of light and dark, beauty and deformation. Set in the early 1800s, the story follows Hercule Barfuss, who is born deaf, dumb and grotesquely misshapen, with a "dark red cavity" for a face, in a German whorehouse. But he has a gentle, intelligent nature and a budding gift of telepathy, which reveals people's innermost, unacknowledged desires. Reared in the brothel, Hercule forms a deep bond with a beautiful girl, Henriette Vogel, who was born there the same night he was. After the loving pair is tragically separated at age 10, Hercule traverses Europe—living in a Jesuit monastery, an asylum and with a traveling freak show—persecuted everywhere as he seeks out Henriette. Along with Hercule's relentless search for Henriette, it is a sadistic cardinal's pursuit of Hercule ("a demon") that propels the novel. The book unravels, though, when Hercule, warped by hardship, embarks on a vengeful rampage. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

With its byzantine title promising lurid tragedy, Swedish author Vallgren's first translated novel offers itself as a deliberately gothic saga of nineteenth-century romance and misadventure. Vividly recapturing the milieu of mid-1800s Europe, Vallgren follows the misfortunes of the improbably named Hercule Barfuss--Hercules Barefoot in English--a hideously deformed dwarf with the remarkable gift of reading minds. Born in a brothel, Hercule spends his idyllic formative years alternately hiding from the establishment's clientele and bonding with Henriette, another prostitute's child, who shares his birthday and remains flawlessly beautiful. When the brothel falls on hard times, Henriette is indentured into erotic servitude, and Hercule passes into the hands of a traveling freak show, in which he endures humanity's worst torments. Yet even after his persecution in a corrupt Jesuit monastery and then a mental asylum, Hercule is able to transcend his sufferings and preserve incorruptible love for his soul mate, Henriette. Overflowing with engrossing drama and superlative characterizations, Vallgren's novel is a masterful meditation on the triumph of love over human degradation. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 Tra edition (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060841990
• ISBN-13: 978-0060841997
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,625,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Review (3.5/5), February 24, 2006

By 

Chapati (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred (Hardcover)

Whew, it takes so much effort to get through the title of this book that one might be tempted to give up there ;-)

However, I think you should continue, open the front cover, and get wrapped up in the story of Hercule Barfuss and (as the descriptive title says), his wonderful love, and his terrible hatred.

I was expecting something vaguely like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but the book stands very much on its own two feet. It is Gothic romance, thriller, and historical fiction all wrapped up in a very neat package.

Hercule Barfuss is born on a stormy winter's night in a brothel. In the room next door, his "wonderful love," Henriette Vogel is born on the same night. She is beautiful, he is deformed and mute. But somehow, they fall in love, and spend a very nice 10 years together growing up, with Hercule sheltered from the outside world by the prostitutes who act as his mothers.

But Hercule can see inside people's minds, and therefore has a way of predicting the future. One night, he attempts to defend Henriette from a terrible villain, which in due course causes the entire brothel to shut down, and Hercule is off on his own with no Henriette for company.

The book follows Hercule through his time in an asylum, a monastery, and then back, when all hope has been lost, to Henriette. Without giving too much away, it shows Hercule as "the monster," not only in the physical sense, but also in his transformation from a compassionate and misunderstood person into a carefully honed object of vengeance, and then back again.

The book can be painful to read at times- it's supposed to be, I'm sure- but the resolution is wonderful, and slightly unexpected, and the writing is very elegant, especially considering that it is translated from Swedish.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Story of an Amazing Love, August 7, 2005

By 

Liz'm (Houfu, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred (Hardcover)

The story of Hercule Barefoot's horrors and the love between he and Miss Bird are one of my favorites ever (and I usually despise love stories). Although I haven't read the English translation I'm sure the story holds it's magical weave. In the original Swedish version he uses language in a poetic fashion that draws out your fantasy and encourages it to bend and twist.
Vallgren's own imagination has brought us an amazingly resilient character whose monstrous body holds an innocence that is continually tortured by innocent looking bodies holding montrous souls. He uses his amazing gift to survive and to find the love of his life after they are ripped apart early in the story. And although terrible hatred does form a part of his life, it is no doubt his amazing heart and it's love that pulls the story through to the end and makes his life, indeed, wonderous to behold.
Please read it! Dodgy title notwithstanding, it's a wonderful, wonderful story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2.5 days of wonderful reading, December 23, 2006

By 

L. Richey (Chapel Hill, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred (Hardcover)

I read this book non-stop over 2.5 days, after finding it at an independent bookstore in Seattle where the entire novel-savy staff was raving about it with high recommendations.

The title sums up much of the book- wonderful love and terrible suffering. Recently translated from Swedish, it has an unapologetic, coarse tone with dark humor and brilliant moments of revenge, adventure, and insanity. I found it unpredictable, with wonderfully described European scenes.