Smiling Man (New Version)

Author: [French] Victor Hugo, translated by Lu Ying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: The Man Who Laughs is one of Hugo's important masterpieces. The novel is set against the backdrop of 17th-century British society. The protagonist, Quasimodo, is the descendant of a noble family but falls into the hands of child traffickers and is cruelly disfigured. Later, he is adopted by the traveling performer Ursus and lives by performing, falling in love with the blind girl Titys, who was also adopted by his foster father. Later, due to chance factors and the needs of British politics, Quasimodo regains his noble title, but he rejects this dirty gift and chooses to return to his sick companions. However, by then, Titys has fallen seriously ill. After Titys leaves the world, Quasimodo also drowns himself. In Hugo's portrayal, Quasimodo and the hunchback Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame belong to the same type—ugly in appearance but pure at heart. However, Quasimodo is more deeply rebellious. The protagonist, Gwynplaine, is the son of a British peer and the sole heir to both property and nobility. To achieve his hidden purposes, the king orders him to be sold to child traffickers after his parents' death. The traffickers perform disfiguring surgery on the boy's face, leaving a permanent smile behind. From the age of two, he performs tricks with them, and at the age of ten, to escape severe legal punishment, the ruthless traffickers abandon him on the coast of Poland. The boy survives through hardship and peril, even rescuing the blind infant Titys from a snowdrift. The tramp Susus adopts them. They rely on each other, living a life of wandering and performing, and in the midst of their suffering, the fated lovers Gwynplaine and Titys develop a pure love.