Edited by Andreas Fliedner with a foreword by Tobias O. Meissner. "The Comprachicos - infamous in the seventeenth century, forgotten in the eighteenth century. The Comprachicos - they bought and sold children. And what did they do with these children? They turned them into monsters. Why monsters? For amusement. The people want to laugh, and so do the kings. The street corners need their buffoon, the royal castles their jester." L'homme qui rit, originally published in 1869, is here reissued in the first translation by Georg Büchmann, presented in four beautifully bound volumes. This masterpiece of social critique and horror served as the basis for the legendary film The Man Who Laughs (1928) starring Conrad Veidt. Hugo's character portrayal and his depiction of human suffering in society are remarkable.