Has anyone here ever heard of / read The Man Who Laughs? It's another novel of Hugo's and sadly a terribly overlooked one at that. It had been on my long neglected reading wishlist until recently, and now I find I just can't put it down. In fact, my first thoughts were 'how did I not discover this sooner?!' It seems fellow enthusiasts are hard to find, so if there are any fans here, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!
The plot, in brief, is about the son of a Lord who is removed from the ranks of nobility and ends up in the hands of child-trading gypsies. They specialise in modifying the features of children for financial gain (entertaining the common folk) and In Gwynplaine's case (the main character), carve his face into a permanent smile. He later falls in love with a blind girl who knows nothing of his disfigurement and travels around with philosopher Ursus under the entertaining name of 'The Man Who Laughs'. Later his right to lost estates is found out and he is plunged back into the ugly world of the rich and entitled, finally enduring their mockery in the House of Lords.
I must admit that I've given in to producing a lot of sketches based on this book. It's very inspiring! If you'd like to see, they are here: http://leopreston.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ppfc6 http://leopreston.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2q6f0k
It's my second favorite Hugo work ever. See my name? *points* tribute to Homo. My favorite part of the book was totally when he showed up at the end. I think I squeed with happy when Hugo was all like, "What was this wolf? Providence." Because, yes, Victor Hugo, that was totally cool. 
SO PRETTY. 
