The man who laughs about what the film is about. The book is a man who laughs read online. Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
In England everything is majestic, even the bad, even the oligarchy. An English patrician is a patrician in the full sense of the word. Nowhere was the feudal system more brilliant, more brutal and more tenacious than in England. True, at one time he turned out to be useful. It is in England that feudal law must be studied, just as royalty must be studied in France.
This book should actually be titled "Aristocracy". Another, which will be its continuation, can be called "Monarchy". Both of them, if only the author is destined to complete this work, will precede the third, which will complete the whole cycle and will be entitled "Ninety-third year".
Hauteville-House. 1869.
PROLOGUE
1. URSUS
Ursus and Gomo were bound by a bond of close friendship. Ursus was a man, Homo was a wolf. By nature, they were very close to each other. The name "Homo" was given to the wolf by the man. Probably, he also invented his own; having found the nickname "Ursus" suitable for himself, he found the name "Homo" quite suitable for the beast. The fellowship between man and the wolf was a success at fairs, at parish celebrations, at street corners crowded with passers-by; the crowd is always happy to listen to the joke and buy all sorts of charlatan drugs. She liked the tame wolf, deftly, without compulsion, carrying out the orders of its master. It is a great pleasure to see a tamed obstinate, and there is nothing more enjoyable than watching all kinds of training. This is why there are so many spectators on the route of the royal corteges.
Ursus and Gomo roamed from crossroads to crossroads, from Aberystwyth Square to Iedburg Square, from one locality to another, from county to county, from city to city. Having exhausted all the possibilities at one fair, they moved on to another. Ursus lived in a booth on wheels, which Homo, well trained for this, drove during the day and guarded at night. When the road became difficult due to potholes, mud or when climbing uphill, a man harnessed himself to the strap and, like a brother, side by side with the wolf, dragged the cart. So they grew old together.
For the night they settled down wherever they could - among an unplowed field, in a forest clearing, at the crossroads of several roads, at the village outskirts, at the city gates, in the market square, in places of folk festivities, at the edge of the park, on the church porch. When the cart stopped in some fairground, when gossips were running with open mouths and a circle of onlookers gathered around the booth, Ursus began to rant, and Homo listened to him with obvious approval. Then the wolf politely walked around the audience with a wooden cup in its teeth. So they earned their living. The wolf was educated, and so was the man. The wolf was taught by man or learned himself all sorts of wolf tricks that increased collection.
“The main thing is not to degenerate into a man,” the owner used to say to him in a friendly manner.
The wolf never bit, but it sometimes happened to a man. In any case, Ursus had a tendency to bite. Ursus was a misanthrope and, to emphasize his hatred of man, became a buffoon. In addition, it was necessary to feed myself somehow, for the stomach always asserts its rights. However, this misanthrope and buffoon, perhaps thinking in this way to find a more important place in life and more difficult work, was also a doctor. Moreover, Ursus was also a ventriloquist. He could speak without moving his lips. He could mislead those around him, copying the voice and intonation of any of them with amazing accuracy. He alone imitated the hum of a whole crowd, which gave him every right to the title of "Engastrimite". That is how he called himself. Ursus reproduced all sorts of bird voices: the voice of a songbird, a teal, a lark, a white-breasted thrush - the same wanderers as himself; thanks to this talent, he could, at will, at any moment give you the impression of a square buzzing with people, or a meadow filled with the mooing of a herd; sometimes he was formidable, like a thundering crowd, sometimes childishly serene, like the morning dawn.
Artists and buffoons appeared a long time ago, at the same time groups of people arose who churned out beggars and freaks out of beggars. At first they were real mutilated, and then they began to be made artificially.
In the seventeenth century, the case was put on stream. Comprachikos, so were the vagabonds who made freaks out of children and made them perform in front of the public. All this happened with the permission of the authorities. But fortunately, nothing lasts forever. With the change of power, the Comprachikos were persecuted. They fled in a hurry, they abandoned everyone they did not need, and took the most expensive and necessary.
Among those abandoned was a boy who had an operation at one time and now he was constantly smiling. The boy's name was Gwynplaine, but they didn’t take him, he accepted meekly. The poor fellow, left alone, wandered wherever his eyes would look. On the way, he found a dead woman, a girl was sitting next to her, she was not even a year old. The boy took the baby with him. Children find shelter in a wagon with the wandering artist Ursus. Only in the morning does he realize that the girl is blind and the boy is mutilated. Maybe that's why he didn't drive them away. Now they started making money together.
Time passes, the children grew up and, despite their injuries, passionately fell in love with each other. Gwynplaine entertains everyone with his appearance, and Dey is the name of the found girl, helps him in everything. At one of these performances, he meets the duchess and falls in love. Here there is another twist in fate, Gwynplaine learns that he is a lord. Now he is all in dreams of a rich and happy life.
Love for Deya turns out to be stronger than all the benefits that are now available to him. He tries to find Ursus and Deyu and finds them on the schooner. The girl is terminally ill. Only now Gwynplaine realized that his meaning in life was in Day. To connect with his beloved, a young man jumps into the water.
Real sincere love is stronger than fame, wealth. Having been among the greedy and deceitful people, Gwynplaine made his choice, only it was already too late.
Detailed retelling
Ursus and his tamed wolf named Gomo, which is Latin for "man", did not have a permanent place of residence. Instead of a house, they had a small cart, resembling a box, harnessed to which, the man and the wolf wandered throughout England. Ursus's occupations and talents were very diverse: he arranged street performances, composed poetry, plausibly imitated the voices of animals and birds, had the ability to ventriloquist and philosophize. In his mobile home, which also served as a laboratory, he prepared drugs that he offered to the sick. Arriving at a new place, Ursus, together with the wolf, gathered the audience, performing tricks or acting out a performance, and the assembled spectators willingly bought the medicines of the wandering healer. These two lived rather poorly, even they did not have food every day, but Ursus preferred hunger to slave satiety in the palace.
In those dark times, when human life was worth negligible, there was such a phenomenon as comprachikos. Comprachikos were the villains who disfigured people, more often children, turning them by surgical operations into dwarfs, amusing freaks. Comprachikos delivered jesters to the courts of aristocrats. Funny freaks entertained the idle audience during the days of the fair in the squares. Despite the law persecuting these fraudsters, the demand for the "product" they produced was great, and they continued their criminal activities.
One cold January evening in 1690, a ship sailed from a bay in Portland Bay, leaving a little boy dressed in rags and completely barefoot on the shore. The abandoned child was left alone on the deserted shore.
The boy climbed a steep slope. The endless snow-covered plain stretched before him. He walked at random for a long time until he saw a smoke indicating human habitation. Running towards the desired warmth, the child stumbled upon a dead woman. A nursing girl was crawling near the poor fellow. Picking up the baby and hiding it under his jacket, the boy continued on his way.
The frozen and tired boy finally made it to the town, but none of the residents answered his knock on the door. Only in Ursus's little carriage was the boy able to warm up and eat. The wanderer and the philosopher did not at all want to have children, but the boy, whose face was disfigured by a frozen smile, and the blind one-year-old girl remained with him.
That night a storm broke out at sea, and a gang of kompochikos, who disfigured and then threw the boy, were washed overboard. Sensing death, the leader wrote a confession and threw it into the water in a sealed flask.
The years passed, the children grew up. Together with Ursus, who became their father, they roamed the country. Dey, as the girl was called, was unusually beautiful, and Gwynplaine had become a stately flexible young man. His face was terrible, they said that he looked like a laughing jellyfish. But it was his ugliness and artistic talent that brought success to the troupe of Ursus. They began to earn good money and even acquired some kind of farm.
Dey and Guimplen loved each other dearly with brotherly love, the aging Ursus rejoiced when he looked at them.
Once they came to London, and there their performance was so popular that all their competitors were ruined by the public's inattention. Duchess Josiana also came to see the “man who laughs”. She was struck by an extraordinary young man and she wanted to see him as her lover. After Guimplen's refusal, he was arrested. Deya, having lost her beloved, was greatly depressed. She had a bad heart, and Ursus was afraid that the girl would die.
In the prison Guimplen saw a criminal who was being tortured. He recognized our hero as a scion of royal blood, sold to the compracos. The guy came out of prison as a titled aristocrat.
The Queen endowed Guimplen with various titles, but high society did not accept him. Returning to Ursus, Guimplen finds the dying Day.
The novel ends with Deya dying, Guimplen committing suicide by throwing himself into the water, and Ursus again remains with Gomo.
This work teaches the ability to be compassionate, to share the little that you have. Although Ursus was left alone to help these children, he was happy.
Reader's diary.
1. Ursus
Ursus and the wolf Homo make a living by entertaining visitors to the fairs. The wandering sixty-year-old philosopher is engaged in ventriloquism, fortune-telling, healing with plants, acting out comedies of his own composition and playing musical instruments. The Guiana wolf from the crustacean dog breed shows different tricks and is a friend and likeness of its owner. Ursus's carriage is adorned with useful sayings: the outer side contains information about the abrasion of gold coins and the dispersion of precious metal in the air; inside, on the one hand - a story about English titles, on the other - consolation for those who have nothing, expressed in the listing of the property of certain representatives of the English nobility.
2. Comprachicos
The Comprachicos were a 17th-century community of vagabonds who almost legally trafficked children and made them freaks for the public's amusement. It consisted of people of different nationalities, spoke a mixture of all languages and was an ardent supporter of the Pope. James II treated them patiently in gratitude for the fact that they supplied live goods to the royal court and were convenient for the higher nobility in removing the heirs. William III of Orange, who came to replace him, took up the eradication of the Comprachikos tribe.
Part one. The night is not as black as a man
The winter of 1689-1690 was very cold. At the end of January, an old Biscay moored to one of the bays of Portland. Eight people loaded chests and food onto the Matutina. They were helped by a ten-year-old boy. The ship departed in great haste. The child was left alone on the shore. He resignedly accepted what had happened and set off along the Portland Highlands.
At the top of the hill, the child came across rotting remains. Dangling on the gallows, the corpse of a tarred smuggler made the boy stop. The crows that flew over the terrible ghost and the wind that had risen frightened the child and drove him away from the gallows. In the beginning, the boy ran, then, when fear in his soul turned into courage, he stopped and walked slowly.
Part two. Urka in the sea
The author acquaints the reader with the nature of a snow storm. Basques and the French at the urk are happy to sail, prepare food. Only one old man scowls at the starless sky and ponders the formation of the winds. The owner of the ship is talking to him. The doctor, as the old man asks to call him, warns of the onset of a storm and says that you need to turn to the west. The ship owner obeys.
Urka gets caught in a blizzard. Those who sail on it hear the ringing of a bell set in the middle of the sea. The old man predicts the death of the ship. The oncoming storm tears off the external rigging from the harness, carries the captain into the sea. The Kasket lighthouse warns a ship that has lost control of imminent death. People manage to push off the reef in time, but in this maneuver they lose the only log-oar. On the rocks of Ortah, urka again miraculously avoids collapse. The wind saves her from death on Origny. The blizzard ends as suddenly as it began. One of the sailors discovers that the hold is full of water. Luggage and all heavy objects are dropped from the ship. When there is no hope left, the doctor offers to pray to ask the Lord for forgiveness for the crime committed against the child. People sailing on the ship sign the paper read by the doctor and hide it in a flask. Urka goes under water, burying in the depths of the sea everyone who is on it.
Part three. A child in the dark
A lonely child wanders through a blizzard along the Portland Isthmus. Having stumbled upon female footprints, he follows them, and finds a dead woman with a nine-month-old girl in a snowdrift. Together with the baby, the boy comes to the village of Waymet, and then to the town of Melcombe Regis, where he is greeted by dark locked houses. The child finds shelter in Ursus's wagon. The philosopher shares his dinner with him, and gives the milk to the girl. While the children are sleeping, Ursus buries the dead woman. In the light of day, he discovers that the boy's face is mutilated with an eternal smile, and the girl's eyes are blind.
Part one. The past does not die; in people reflects a person
Lord Linnaeus Clancharly, a staunch Republican, lived on the shores of Lake Geneva. His illegitimate son, from a noble lady who later became the mistress of Charles II, Lord David Derry-Moir was the king's bed-bed and was a lord "out of courtesy." After the death of his father, the king decided to make him a true lord in exchange for a promise to marry the Duchess Josiana (his illegitimate daughter) when she comes of age. Society turned a blind eye to the fact that in exile, Lord Clancharly married the daughter of one of the Republicans - Anna Bradshaw, who died in childbirth, giving birth to a boy - a real lord by birth.
Josiana never married Lord David at twenty-three. Young people preferred independence to marriage. The girl was a cutesy virgin, intelligent, internally depraved. David had a large number of mistresses, set fashion, was in many English clubs, was a judge in boxing fights and often spent time among the common people, where he was known as Tom-Jim-Jack.
Queen Anne, who ruled the country at that time, did not like her half-sister because of her beauty, an attractive groom and almost a similar origin - from a mother of non-royal blood.
Out of work, the envious footman of Jacob II Barquilphedro, through Josiana, gets a job as an opener for ocean bottles in the Department of Marine Finds. Over time, he enters the palace, where he becomes the queen's favorite “pet”. For the mercy shown to him, Barquilphedro begins to hate the Duchess.
In one of the boxing matches, Josiana complains to David of boredom. The man offers to entertain her with the help of Gwynplaine.
Part two. Gwynplaine and Dey
In 1705, twenty-five-year-old Gwynplaine with an ever-laughing face works as a buffoon. He makes everyone who sees him laugh. Along with laughter, unknown "sculptors" endowed him with red hair and flexible joints of a gymnast. Sixteen-year-old Deya helps him with his performances. Young people are infinitely lonely in relation to the world, but happy with each other. Their platonic relationship is pure, their love is so strong that they deify each other. Dey does not believe in Gwynplaine's ugliness: she believes that since he is kind, then he is beautiful.
Gwynplaine's unusual appearance brought him wealth. Ursus exchanged his old wagon for a spacious Green Box and hired two gypsy maids. For his theater on wheels, Ursus began to write interludes, in which the entire troupe was involved, including the wolf.
Gwynplaine watches the poverty of the people from the stage. Ursus tells him about his "love" for the lords, and asks him not to try to change the unchanging, but to live in peace and enjoy the love of Dei.
Part three. Crack initiation
In the winter of 1704-1705, the Green Box performs at the Tarinsfield fairground, located in the vicinity of London's Southwark. Gwynplaine is very popular with the public. Local buffoons are losing viewers and, together with the clergy, begin to persecute the artists. Ursus is summoned for questioning by a commission that monitors the content of publicly delivered speeches. After a long conversation, the philosopher is released.
Lord David, disguised as a sailor, becomes a regular at Gwynplaine's performances. One evening, the duchess appears at the performance. She makes a lasting impression on everyone present. Gwynplaine momentarily falls in love with Josiana.
In April, the young man begins to dream of carnal love with Deia. At night, the groom gives him a letter from the Duchess.
Part four. Underground dungeon
Josiana's written love confession throws Gwynplaine into confusion. He cannot sleep all night. In the morning he sees Day and stops tormenting. The artists' breakfast is interrupted by the arrival of the rod bearer. Ursus, against the law, follows the police escort leading Gwynplaine to Southwark Prison.
In the dungeon, the young man participates in "interrogation with the imposition of weights." The culprit recognizes him. The Sheriff informs Gwynplaine that he is Lord Fermen Clancharly, Peer of England.
Part five. Sea and fate obey the same winds
The sheriff reads to Gwynplaine a confession written by the Comprachikos shortly before his death. Barkilphedro invites the young man to "wake up". It was with his filing that the title of Lord was returned to Gwynplaine. Queen Anne thereby took revenge on the beautiful sister.
After a prolonged swoon, Gwynplaine wakes up in the court residence of the Corleone Lodge. He spends the night in vain dreams of the future.
Part six. Disguises of Ursus
Ursus returns home “rejoicing” that he has gotten rid of two cripples. In the evening, he tries to deceive Day by imitating the voices of the crowd watching a non-existent performance, but the girl in her heart feels the absence of Gwynplaine.
The owner of the circus offers Ursus to buy a Green Box from him with all the contents. The cop brings Gwynplaine's old things. Ursus runs to Southworth Prison, sees the coffin being taken out of it, and cries for a long time.
The bailiff demands that Ursus and Homo leave England, otherwise the wolf will be killed. Barquilphedro says Gwynplaine is dead. The innkeeper is arrested.
Part seven. Titan woman
While trying to find a way out of the palace, Gwynplaine stumbles upon a sleeping duchess. The girl's nakedness prevents him from moving. Josiana awakens and shower Gwynplaine with caresses. Learning from the queen's letter that the young man is destined for her husband, she drives him away.
Lord David arrives at Josian's chambers. Gwynplaine is summoned by the queen.
Part eight. Capitol and surroundings
Gwynplaine is introduced to the English House of Lords. The short-sighted Lord Chancellor William Cowper was short-sighted and the old and blind-eyed Lords-recipients did not notice the apparent ugliness of the newly minted peer.
The gradually filling House of Lords is filled with rumors about Gwynplaine and Josiana's note to the Queen, in which the girl agrees to marry a buffoon and threatens to take Lord David as her lover.
Gwynplaine opposes a £ 100,000 increase in annual allowance for Prince George, the Queen's husband. He tries to tell the House of Lords about the poverty and suffering of the people, but he is ridiculed. The lords make fun and mock the young man, not allowing him to speak. Gwynplaine predicts a revolution that will rob its position and give all people the same rights.
After the end of the meeting, David chastises the young lords for disrespecting the new lord and challenges them to a duel. He slaps Gwynplaine for insulting his mother and also offers to fight for life and death.
Part nine. On the ruins
Gwynplaine flees across London to Southwark, where he is greeted by empty Tarinsfield Square. On the banks of the Thames, a young man reflects on the misfortune that befell him. He understands that he has traded happiness for grief, love for debauchery, a real family for a murderer brother. Gradually, he comes to the conclusion that he himself is to blame for the disappearance of Dei and Ursus, who took the title of lord. Gwynplaine decides to commit suicide. Before jumping into the water, he feels Homo licking his hands.
The vagabond Ursus appears as a versatile person, capable of numerous tricks: he knows how to ventriloquist and transmit any sounds, cook healing decoctions, he is an excellent poet and philosopher. Together with their tame wolf Homo, who is not a pet, but a friend, assistant and participant in the show, they travel throughout England in a wooden cart, decorated in a very unusual style. On the walls was a long treatise on the rules of etiquette of the English aristocrats and no shorter list of the possessions of all those in power. Inside this chest, for which Homo and Ursus themselves acted as horses, was a chemical laboratory, a chest with belongings and a stove.
In the laboratory, he brewed drugs, which he then sold, enticing people with his ideas. Despite his many talents, he was poor and was often left without food. His inner state was always a dull rage, and his outer shell was irritation. However, he chose his own destiny when he met Gomo in the woods and chose to roam the life of the lord.
He hated the aristocrats and considered their government evil - but still painted the carriage with treatises about them, considering it a little satisfaction.
Despite being pursued by the Comprachicos, Ursus still managed to avoid problems. He himself did not belong to this group, but he was also a vagabond. The Comprachicos were gangs of vagrant Catholics who turned children into freaks for the amusement of the public and the royal court. To do this, they used various surgical techniques, deforming the forming bodies and creating the dwarf jesters.
Part one: the cold, the gallows and the baby
The winter from 1689 to 1690 was truly harsh. At the end of January, a Biscay quay stopped in Portland Harbor, where eight men and a small boy began loading chests and food. When the work was done, the men swam away, leaving the child to freeze on the shore. He meekly accepted his share, hitting the road so as not to freeze to death.
On one of the hills, he saw the body of a gallowsman drenched in resin, under which lay shoes. Even though the boy himself was barefoot, he was afraid to take the dead man's shoe. The sudden blowing wind and the shadow of a crow frightened the boy, and he started to run.
Meanwhile, at the urch, the men are rejoicing at their departure. They see that a storm is coming and decide to turn to the west, but this does not save them from death. The ship, by some miracle, remains intact after it hit the reef, but it turned out to be overflowing with water and went to the bottom. Before the team is killed, one of the men writes a letter and corks it in a bottle.
The boy wanders through a snowstorm and stumbles upon female footprints. He walks along them and stumbles upon the body of a dead woman in a snowdrift, next to which lies a living nine-month-old girl. The kid takes her and goes to the village, but all the houses are locked.
He eventually found shelter in Ursus's wagon. Of course, he did not particularly want to let the boy and the baby girl into his house, but he could not leave the kids to freeze. He shared his dinner with the boy, and fed the baby with milk.
When the children fell asleep, the philosopher buried the dead woman.
In the morning, Ursus found that the boy's face was covered with a mask of laughter, and the girl was blind.
Lord Linnaeus Klencharly was a "living shard of the past" and was an ardent republican who did not go over to the side of the restored monarchy. He himself went into exile on Lake Geneva, leaving behind a mistress and an illegitimate son in England.
The mistress quickly became friends with King Charles II, and his son David Derry-Moir found a place for himself at court.
The forgotten lord found himself a legal wife in Switzerland, where he had a son. However, by the time Jacob II ascended the throne, he had already died, and his son mysteriously disappeared. The heir was David Derry-Moir, who fell in love with the beautiful Duchess Josiana, the king's illegitimate daughter.
Anna, the legitimate daughter of Jacob II, became Queen, and Josianne and David still did not play a wedding, although they really liked each other. Josianne was considered a depraved virgin, since her numerous love affairs were not limited by modesty, but by pride. She could not find one worthy of herself in any way.
Queen Anne, an ugly and silly person, envied her half-sister.
David was not cruel, but he adored various cruel entertainments: boxing, cockfighting and others. He often entered such tournaments, disguised as a commoner, and then, out of kindness, paid for all the damage. His pseudonym was Tom-Jim-Jack.
Barquilphedro was at the same time a triple agent who simultaneously watched the queen, Josiana and David, but each of them considered him to be their reliable ally. Under the auspices of Josiana, he entered the palace and became an opener for ocean bottles: he had the right to open all bottles thrown onto land from the sea. He was sweet on the outside and vicious on the inside, sincerely hating all his masters, and especially Josiana.
Part three: tramps and lovers
Guiplain and Dey stayed with Ursus, who officially adopted them. Guiplain began to work as a buffoon, enticing buyers and spectators who could not help laughing. Their popularity was prohibitive, which is why three tramps were able to acquire a new large van and even a donkey - now Homo did not need to pull the cart on himself.
Inner beauty
Dey grew up into a beautiful girl and truly loved Guiplain, not believing that her lover was ugly. She believed that if he was pure in soul and kind, then he could not be ugly.
Dey and Guiplain literally idolized each other, their love was platonic - they did not even touch each other. Ursus loved them as his children and enjoyed their relationship.
They had enough money not to deny themselves anything. Ursus was even able to hire two gypsies to help with the housework and during the performances.
Part four: the beginning of the end
In 1705, Ursus and his children travel to the Southwark neighborhood, where he is arrested for public speaking. After a long interrogation, the philosopher is released.
Meanwhile, David, disguised as a commoner, becomes a regular spectator of Gwynplaine's performances, and one evening he brings Josiana to look at the freak. She understands that it is this young man who should become her lover. Gwynplaine himself is amazed at the beauty of the woman, but he still sincerely loves Day, whom he now began to dream of as a girl.
The Duchess sends him a letter inviting him to her place.
Gwynplaine suffers all night, but in the morning he still decides to refuse the Duchess's invitation. He burns the letter, and the performers start breakfast.
However, at this moment, the rod-bearer comes and takes Gwynplaine to prison. Ursus follows them in secret, even though this is how he breaks the law.
In prison, a young man is not tortured - on the contrary, he becomes a witness to the terrible torture of another person who confesses to his crime. It turns out he was the one who disfigured Gwynplaine as a child. During interrogation, the unfortunate admits that in fact Gwynplaine is Lord Fermen Clancharly, the peer of England. The young man faints.
In this Barquilphedro sees an excellent reason for revenge on the duchess, since she is now obliged to marry Gwynplaine. When the young man comes to his senses, he is brought to his new chambers, where he indulges in dreams of the future.
Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Miserables remains a very popular work today, which is also confirmed by the many options for its film adaptation and theatrical performances.
In our next article, we will learn more about the biography of Victor Hugo, an outstanding French writer and poet, whose work has left an indelible mark on the history of literature.
Part Six: The Disguises of Ursus, Nudity, and the House of Lords
Ursus returns home, where he puts on a show in front of Deya so that she does not notice Gwynplaine is missing. Meanwhile, a bailiff comes to them, who demands that the artists leave London. He also brings Gwynplaine's things - Ursus runs to the prison and sees the coffin being taken out. He decides that his named son has died and begins to cry.
Meanwhile, Gwynplaine himself is looking for a way out of the palace, but stumbles upon Josiana's chambers, where the girl showered him with caresses. However, upon learning that the young man should become her husband, he drives him away. She believes that the groom cannot take the place of the lover.
The Queen summons Gwynplaine to her place and sends him to the House of Lords. Since the other lords are old and half-blind, they do not notice the freak of the newly-made aristocrat, and therefore they first listen to him. Gwynplaine talks about the poverty of the people and their troubles, that the country will soon be swept by a revolution if nothing is changed - but the lords only ridicule him.
The young man seeks consolation from David, his half-brother, but he slaps him in the face and challenges him to a duel for insulting his mother.
Gwynplaine flees the palace and stops on the banks of the Thames, where he reflects on his former life and how he allowed vanity to overwhelm him. The young man realizes that he himself exchanged his real family and love for a parody, and decides to commit suicide. However, the emerging Homo saves him from such a step.
Conclusion: the death of lovers
The wolf leads Gwynplaine to the ship, where the young man hears his adoptive father talking to Deia. She says that she will soon die and go after her beloved. Delirious, she begins to sing - and then Gwynplaine appears. However, the girl's heart cannot stand such happiness and she dies in the boy's arms. He understands that it makes no sense for him to live without his beloved and throws himself into the water.
Ursus, who has lost consciousness after the death of his daughter, comes to his senses. Homo sits next to them and howls.
Hugo Victor
The man who laughs
In England everything is majestic, even the bad, even the oligarchy. An English patrician is a patrician in the full sense of the word. Nowhere was the feudal system more brilliant, more brutal and more tenacious than in England. True, at one time he turned out to be useful. It is in England that feudal law must be studied, just as royalty must be studied in France.
This book should actually be titled "Aristocracy". Another, which will be its continuation, can be called "Monarchy". Both of them, if only the author is destined to complete this work, will precede the third, which will complete the whole cycle and will be entitled "Ninety-third year".
Hauteville-House. 1869.
PROLOGUE
1. URSUS
Ursus and Gomo were bound by a bond of close friendship. Ursus was a man, Homo was a wolf. By nature, they were very close to each other. The name "Homo" was given to the wolf by the man. Probably, he also invented his own; having found the nickname "Ursus" suitable for himself, he found the name "Homo" quite suitable for the beast. The fellowship between man and the wolf was a success at fairs, at parish celebrations, at street corners crowded with passers-by; the crowd is always happy to listen to the joke and buy all sorts of charlatan drugs. She liked the tame wolf, deftly, without compulsion, carrying out the orders of its master. It is a great pleasure to see a tamed obstinate, and there is nothing more enjoyable than watching all kinds of training. This is why there are so many spectators on the route of the royal corteges.
Ursus and Gomo roamed from crossroads to crossroads, from Aberystwyth Square to Iedburg Square, from one locality to another, from county to county, from city to city. Having exhausted all the possibilities at one fair, they moved on to another. Ursus lived in a booth on wheels, which Homo, well trained for this, drove during the day and guarded at night. When the road became difficult due to potholes, mud or when climbing uphill, a man harnessed himself to the strap and, like a brother, side by side with the wolf, dragged the cart. So they grew old together.
For the night they settled down wherever they could - among an unplowed field, in a forest clearing, at the crossroads of several roads, at the village outskirts, at the city gates, in the market square, in places of folk festivities, at the edge of the park, on the church porch. When the cart stopped in some fairground, when gossips were running with open mouths and a circle of onlookers gathered around the booth, Ursus began to rant, and Homo listened to him with obvious approval. Then the wolf politely walked around the audience with a wooden cup in its teeth. So they earned their living. The wolf was educated, and so was the man. The wolf was taught by man or learned himself all sorts of wolf tricks that increased collection.
The main thing is not to degenerate into a man, - the owner used to say to him in a friendly way.
The wolf never bit, but it sometimes happened to a man. In any case, Ursus had a tendency to bite. Ursus was a misanthrope and, to emphasize his hatred of man, became a buffoon. In addition, it was necessary to feed myself somehow, for the stomach always asserts its rights. However, this misanthrope and buffoon, perhaps thinking in this way to find a more important place in life and more difficult work, was also a doctor. Moreover, Ursus was also a ventriloquist. He could speak without moving his lips. He could mislead those around him, copying the voice and intonation of any of them with amazing accuracy. He alone imitated the hum of a whole crowd, which gave him every right to the title of "Engastrimite". That is how he called himself. Ursus reproduced all sorts of bird voices: the voice of a songbird, a teal, a lark, a white-breasted thrush - the same wanderers as himself; thanks to this talent, he could, at will, at any moment give you the impression of a square buzzing with people, or a meadow filled with the mooing of a herd; sometimes he was formidable, like a thundering crowd, sometimes childishly serene, like the morning dawn. Such talent, although rare, is still found. In the past century, a certain Tuzel, who imitated the mixed hum of human and animal voices and reproduced the cries of all animals, was under Buffon as a man-menagerie. Ursus was shrewd, extremely peculiar and curious. He had a penchant for all kinds of stories, which we call fables, and pretended to believe them himself - the usual trick of a crafty charlatan. He guessed by hand, by a book opened at random, predicted fate, explained omens, assured that meeting a black mare was a failure, but what is even more dangerous to hear, when you are completely ready for the journey, the question: "Where are you going?" He called himself a "superstition seller", usually saying: "I am not hiding it; that's the difference between the Archbishop of Canterbury and me. " The archbishop, justly indignant, once summoned him to his office. However, Ursus skillfully disarmed his Eminence, having read to him of his own composition a sermon on the day of the Nativity of Christ, which the archbishop liked so much that he memorized it, pronounced it from the pulpit and ordered it to be printed as his own work. For this he granted Ursus forgiveness.
Through his skill as a healer, and perhaps in spite of it, Ursus healed the sick. He treated with aromatic substances. Well versed in medicinal herbs, he skillfully used the enormous healing powers contained in the multitude of neglected plants - in Hordovina, in white and evergreen buckthorn, in black viburnum, warthog, in ramen; he cured consumption with a sundew, used, as needed, milkweed leaves, which, when plucked at the root, act as a laxative, and those plucked at the top - as an emetic; healed throat ailments with the help of outgrowths of a plant called "hare's ear"; knew what kind of cane a bull could be cured and what kind of mint could be used to put a sick horse on its feet; knew all the valuable, beneficial properties of mandrake, which, as everyone knows, is a bisexual plant. He had medicine for every occasion. He healed burns with the skin of a salamander, from which Nero, according to Pliny, made a napkin. Ursus used a retort and a flask; he himself distilled and sold universal medicines himself. It was rumored that at one time he was in an insane asylum; he was given the honor of mistaking him for a madman, but was soon released, convinced that he was only a poet. It is possible that this did not happen: each of us was the victim of such tales.
