Victor Hugo
Moving away from the explicitly political content of his previous novels, Victor Hugo turns to social commentary in The Man Who Laughs, an 1869 work that was made into a popular film in the 1920s. The plot deals with a band of miscreants who deliberately deform children to make them more effective beggars, as well as the long-lasting emotional and social damage that this abhorrent practice inflicts upon its victims.
El progreso, la ley, el alma, Dios, la Revolución Francesa, Waterloo, el idilio amoroso, la prisión, el contrato social, las barricadas de 1832, el crimen, las cloacas de París... todo tiene cabida en esta monumental novela. Y, como su título indica, todo gira en torno a la palabra "miserable", pues Víctor Hugo distingue entre los miserables hijos de la degradación material, aquellos que nada tienen salvo su dignidad; y los miserables producto
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