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I just finished reading Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs — a book that had long been on my reading list.
This is a book that Ayn Rand considered Hugo’s best novel that reveals, she writes in the introduction, his “incomparable literary genius.” I have to agree as I found the book’s plot is somewhat addictive and had trouble putting it down, wondering what would happen next.
This novel, from which AR famously got the idea of “The Comprachicos,” contains a searing indictment of aristocracy and monarchy weaved into a story about a man’s heroic journey to discover who he is at the deepest level.
The Paper Tiger version that I have also includes an excellent foreword and afterword by Professor Shoshana Milgram, which I found especially enlightening, particularly her analyses of laughter and of one of the evil characters in the book.
/sb-ss
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Re: Amesh Adalja’s post 100190 of 5/26/17
See the video version (Silent Screen Classic, 1928). It’s a silent movie but very intense.
/sb
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Re: Amesh Adalja’s post 100190 of 5/26/17
As it happens, I’m just re-reading The Man Who Laughs, and upon starting it, I was struck by this quote from Hugo, in the introduction to the Atlantean Press edition (1991). Edward Cline (Sparrowhawk novels) is the introducer, and he quotes and comments:
“For colossal books”, wrote Victor Hugo, of the literary giants of his own past, “There must be athletic readers.” By “colossal” Hugo meant works that addressed the potential in men for greatness, for the exorbitantly imaginative, for the innovative, for the passionate, for the heroic, for the man- and existence-celebrating.
And Hugo’s words apply to his own work, fully! The Man Who Laughs requires that the reader be strong and lithe of mind, i.e., to be athletic in a mental way. I would apply the same idea to the three of Hugo’s books that I adore — Toilers of the Sea, Ninety-three, and The Man Who Laughs.
Also in re-reading The Man Who Laughs, I am particularly struck by Hugo’s continual wry sense of humor that is virtually on every page. It is a common way for him to make social and philosophical claims indirectly, for example:
[Ursus] he had observed that the ass, a four-legged thinker little understood by men, has a habit of cocking his ears uneasily when philosophers talk nonsense.
It was said of him that he had once been for a short time in Bedlam; they had done him the honour to take him for a madman, but had set him free on discovering that he was only a poet.
He did not smile, as we have already said, but he used to laugh; sometimes, indeed frequently, a bitter laugh. There is consent in a smile, while a laugh is often a refusal.
*sb
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Re: Stephen Grossman’s post 118979 of 5/28/17
Based on this recommendation I rented the DVD version from Netflix. It is definitely intense and was entertaining to watch but it does have several major deviations from the plot of the novel (substantive and sequential) that make it impossible for someone who has not read the novel to really appreciate or even get a glimpse of the theme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Laughs_(1928_film)
*sb
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Re: David Hayes’ post 17838 of 6/7/17
There is a 2012 French film version of “The Man Who Laughs.” I am sure it can be purchased on Amazon France (amazon.fr) and it may have an English subtitles option for its European release.
I have not seen it. Here is the IMDB link:
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1946289/
Incidentally, Amazon France is the best way to buy books in French about Ayn Rand or Victor Hugo.
Shipping is reasonable to the USA. Same goes for Amazon Italy (amazon.it). There are very collectible and beautiful products available from Europe for your purchasing pleasure.
/sb
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