3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weep and laugh at his laughing!, February 28, 2009
This review is from: The Man Who Laughs (Paperback)
Never have I read a novel so beautifully constructed, lovingly constructed, with plots and sub-plots diverging and meeting repeatedly so masterfully, so surprising but at the same time, all parts seem so necessary.
The story deals a romantic time in England, with nobles, common people, and some people who belong in both of those worlds. A core group is the Comprachicos, a gypsy-like and multi-ethnic people who lived as mountebanks, poachers, smuggling, and who practiced mutilation, presumably to create entertainers, clowns, freaks.
The Comprachicos, after having been tolerated for a century, fall into disfavor and are hunted both in England and in France. One group of them is escaping by boat from the isthmus or island port of Portland. They leave a 10-year old child, scantily clad. The child wanders, somehow miraculously in onto the mainland. There he trudges barefoot through snow, looking for shelter and food, and before finding such, finds and picks up a small child who was trying to suckle at the breast of her frozen mother.
Through many an intrigue, through abandonment as a child, growing up "on the road", through seemingly lost loves, adventures, found-again-love, and more, Gwynplain finally takes his proper place among lords.
He started out at age of two, being sold, having his ears stretched, his hair permanently colored, his nose flattened and his mouth made into an eternal laughing shape, with a near-frozen blind infant girl, is adopted by a peddler and showman, Ursus, who lives in a wagon with his friend, a wolf.
As the two waifs grow in years, the addition to his crew increases the income of Ursus, due to the angelic look and voice of the blind girl, Dea, and the uproarious "laughter" of the boy Gwynplain. Ursus decides to increase it further by taking his show to London. Some wealth begins to build, but their fortunes soon are threatened by a whirlwind of changes.
It is a shame that Victor Hugo has become so obscure, so hidden and neglected. This is definitely on my re-read list. I recommend it to all!
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