The Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869)

by Victor Hugo

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Man Who Laughs.

International Limited Edition

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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.

 

 

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CONTENTS.

Vol. I.

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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
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

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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

 

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CONTENTS.

Vol. II.

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BOOK III.—The Beginning of the Fissure.
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

 

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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

 

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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.