The Man Who Laughs

Complete and unabridged, with 20 full-page plates by Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Hendrik Martenszoon Sorgh and Dirck van der Bergen. A boy is sold to men who disfigure children to make them show-fair monsters, and grows up with a face fixed in a permanent grin. Hugo wrote it in exile as an attack on aristocracy; the laughing face went on to shape a good deal of later popular imagery. Its 337 ori...