# The Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869)

The Man Who Laughs (French: L'Homme qui rit) is a historical novel set in 17th-century England. This English-language edition was made anonymously, and was published in Boston the same year as the first French edition.
International Limited Edition
THE
MAN WHO LAUGHS
IN TWO VOLUMES
BY VICTOR HUGO
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BOSTON
ESTES AND LAURIAT
PUBLISHERS
PREFACE.
IN England, everything is great, even what is not good,—even Oligarchy. The English Patriciate is the patriciate in the absolute sense of the word. No more illustrious, more terrible, or more vigorous feudality exists. Let us add that this feudality has been useful at times. It is in England that the phenomenon of Seigneurie must be studied, as in France the phenomenon of Royalty must be studied.
The true title of this book should be "Aristocracy." Another book that will follow may, perhaps, be entitled "Monarchy." These two books, if it is given to the author to finish his task, will precede and introduce another, to be called "Ninety-Three."
Hauteville House, 1869.
Ursus and Homo.
Photo-Etching.—From Drawing by G. Rochegrosse.
CONTENTS.
Vol. I.
PART I.—THE SEA AND THE NIGHT. :
| I.—TWO PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS. |||
| | | Page |
| I. | Ursus | 1 |
| II. | The Comprachicos | 24 |
| BOOK I.—Night not so black as Man. |||
| Chapter | Chapter | |
| I. | Portland Bill | 40 |
| II. | Left Alone | 47 |
| III. | Alone | 51 |
| IV. | Questions | 57 |
| V. | The Tree of Human Invention | 60 |
| VI. | Struggle between Death and Night | 66 |
| VII. | The North Point of Portland | 73 |
| BOOK II.—The Hooker at Sea. |||
| I. | Superhuman Laws | 78 |
| II. | Our first Rough Sketches filled in | 82 |
| III. | Troubled Men on the Troubled Sea | 88 |
| IV. | A Cloud different from the Others enters on the Scene | 93 |
| V. | Hardquanonne | 103 |
| VI. | They think that Help is at Hand | 106 ​ |
| VII. | Superhuman Horrors | 108 |
| VIII. | Nix et Nox | 112 |
| IX. | The Charge confided to a Raging Sea | 116 |
| X. | The Colossal Savage, the Storm | 118 |
| XI. | The Caskets | 123 |
| XII. | Face to Face with the Rock | 126 |
| XIII. | Face to Face with Night | 130 |
| XIV. | Ortach | 132 |
| XV. | Portentosum Mare | 134 |
| XVI. | The Problem suddenly works in Silence | 140 |
| XVII. | The Last Resource | 143 |
| XVIII. | The Highest Resource | 147 |
| BOOK III.—The Child in the Shadow. |||
| I. | Chesil | 155 |
| II. | The Effect of Snow | 161 |
| III. | A Burden makes a Rough Road rougher | 166 |
| IV. | Another Kind of Desert | 171 |
| V. | Misanthropy Plays its Pranks | 176 |
| VI. | The Awaking | 192 |
PART II.—BY ORDER OF THE KING. :
| BOOK I.—The Everlasting Presence of the Past—Man reflects Man. |||
| I. | Lord Clancharlie | 196 |
| II. | Lord David Dirry-Moir | 210 |
| III. | The Duchess Josiana | 218 |
| IV. | The Leader of Fashion | 229 |
| V. | Queen Anne | 238 |
| VI. | Barkilphedro | 247 |
| VII. | Barkilphedro gnaws his Way | 254 |
| VIII. | Inferi | 260 ​ |
| IX. | Hate is as Strong as Love | 263 |
| X. | The Flame which would be seen if Man were transparent | 271 |
| XI. | Barkilphedro in Ambuscade | 280 |
| XII. | Scotland, Ireland, and England | 285 |
| BOOK II.—Gwynplaine and Dea. |||
| I. | Wherein we see the Face of him of whom we have hitherto seen only the acts | 295 |
| II. | Dea | 301 |
| III. | "Oculos non habet, et videt" | 304 |
| IV. | Well-matched Lovers | 307 |
| V. | The Blue Sky through the Black Cloud | 311 |
| VI. | Ursus as Tutor, and Ursus as Guardian | 315 |
| VII. | Blindness gives Lessons in Clairvoyance | 320 |
| VIII. | Not only Happiness, but Prosperity | 324 |
| IX. | Absurdities which Folks without Taste call Poetry | 330 |
| X. | An Outsider's View of Men and Things | 337 |
| XI. | Gwynplaine thinks Justice, and Ursus speaks Truth | 343 |
| XII. | Ursus the Poet drags on Ursus the Philosopher | 353 |
CONTENTS.
Vol. II.
BOOK III.—The Beginning of the Fissure. :
| Chapter | Chapter | Page |
| I. | The Tadcaster Inn | 1 |
| II. | Open-air Eloquence | 6 |
| III. | Where the Passer-by reappears | 12 |
| IV. | Contraries fraternize in Hate | 19 |
| V. | The Wapentake | 25 |
| VI. | The Mouse examined by the Cats | 30 |
| VII. | Why should a Gold Piece Lower Itself by mixing with a Heap of Pennies? | 40 |
| VIII. | Symptoms of Poisoning | 48 |
| IX. | Abyssus Abyssum vocat | 53 |
| BOOK IV.—The Cell of Torture. |||
| I. | The Temptation of Saint Gwynplaine | 63 |
| II. | From Gay to Grave | 72 |
| III. | Lex, Rex, Fex | 80 |
| IV. | Ursus plays the Spy on the Police | 84 |
| V. | A Fearful Place | 90 |
| VI. | The Kind of Magistracy under the Wigs of Former Days | 93 |
| VII. | Shuddering | 98 |
| VIII. | Lamentation | 100 |
| BOOK V.—The Sea and Fate are moved by the same Breath. |||
| I. | The Durability of Fragile Things | 116 |
| II. | The Waif knows its Own Course | 127 |
| III. | An Awakening | 141 |
| IV. | Fascination | 145 |
| V. | We think we remember; we forget | 153 |
| BOOK VI.—Ursus under Different Aspects. |||
| I. | What the Misanthrope said | 161 |
| II. | What he did | 166 |
| III. | Complications | 180 |
| IV. | Mœnibus Surdis Campana Muta | 184 |
| V. | State Policy deals with Little Matters as well as with Great | 191 |
| BOOK VII.—The Titaness. |||
| I. | The Awakening | 202 |
| II. | The Resemblance of a Palace to a Wood | 206 |
| III. | Eve | 211 |
| IV. | Satan | 220 |
| V. | They recognize, but do not know, Each Other | 234 |
| BOOK VIII.—The Capitol and Things around it. |||
| I. | Analysis of Majestic Matters | 238 |
| II. | Impartiality | 254 |
| III. | The Old Hall | 264 |
| IV. | The Old Chamber | 271 |
| V. | Aristocratic Gossip | 278 |
| VI. | The High and the Low | 288 |
| VII. | Storms of Men are Worse than Storms of Oceans | 293 |
| VIII. | He would be a Good Brother, were he not a Good Son | 314 |
| BOOK IX.—In Ruins. |||
| I. | It is through Excess of Greatness that Man reaches Excess of Misery | 320 |
| II. | The Dregs | 325 |
| CONCLUSION.—The Night and the Sea. |||
| I. | A Wolf may prove a Guardian Angel | 346 |
| II. | Barkilphedro, having aimed at the Eagle, brings down the Dove | 351 |
| III. | Paradise regained Below | 360 |
| IV. | Nay; on High! | 367 |
At the Green Box.
Etched by J. Massard.—From drawing by François Flameng.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOL. I.
| | Page |
| Ursus and Homo | Frontispiece |
| The Storm | 55 |
| The Child at the Gallows | 71 |
| "Let us throw our crimes into the sea" | 147 |
| Lord David Dirry-Moir | 216 |
| Amusements of the Mohawk Club | 233 |
| Dea | 301 |
VOL. II.
| | Page |
| At the Green Box | Frontispiece |
| In the Torture Chamber | 103 |
| The Funeral Procession | 188 |
| Lord Clancharlie's Speech | 297 |
| Gwynplaine breaking into Tadcaster Inn | 324 |
INTERNATIONAL LIMITED EDITION.
Limited to One Thousand Copies.
No. 672
TYPOGRAPHY, ELECTROTYPING, AND PRINTING BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse