Victor Hugo

The Man Who Laughs Victor Hugo

The Man Who Laughs was first published in 1869. It tells the story of young man named Gwynplaine, whose mouth is horribly deformed. When he is a child, he rescues a little girl from a snowstorm, and the two fall in love when they grow older. Gwynplaine is the embodiment of the people; he represents all those who are oppressed by the powerful and can do nothing about it. Hugo began to write The Man Who Laughs when he had already been living in exile for 16 years. The book was released three years later to an impressively frosty reception; the majority of critics and readers simply could not fathom the scope of the work and were incapable of appreciating its merit. In fact, The Man Who Laughs is considered to be one of the greatest failures of Hugo's career.