The Man Who Laughs
Hugo wrote "The Man Who Laughs", or "the Laughing Man", over a period of 15 months while he was living in the Channel Islands, having been exiled from his native France because of the controversial political content of his previous novels. Hugo's working title for this book was "By Order of the King", but a friend suggested "The Man Who Laughs". Despite an initially negative reception upon publication, "The Man Who Laughs" is argued to be one of Hugo's greatest works.