Insupposable, Stupendous and Astonishing Tomes.
Number One – The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and his Terrible Hatred – by Carl-Johan Vallgren
On a stormy night in 1813, a doctor is called to the aid of two prostitutes in childbirth. To one is born a healthy girl, Henriette, to the other, what can only be described as a monster: a boy, Hercules, deaf-mute and hideously deformed, and with the power to read minds.
As he tells the story of Hercules’ bizarre and colourful life, which leads him from the bordello of his birth to a travelling freak show and then a Jesuit monastery and an asylum, Vallgren paints a magical picture of nineteenth-century Europe. This picaresque fable is filled with curiosities but is, at its heart, an extraordinary and unforgettable love story.
I was, jokingly, asking myself “What some would I be then”? without believing I’d receive an answer when I was startled to see what did appear to me to be but how could I possibly think that’s what I see at the bottom of the image above the authors name what reminds of the Bird Masked Man! Strange. I will perhaps stop into the City of Books for a closer inspection not only because of this but also because I was once deaf-mute and hideously deformed, and with the power to read minds
The President and Founder
PS about the horrific sufferings, they’re not too horrible I hope, I’m not a fan of horrific sufferings
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I am no fan of anything too gruesome, so fear not there, and yes, I picked up the book yesterday evening, having read it many years ago and felt impelled to start a list, with this very tome being the first. I noted the similarity too between the drawing and Bird Masked Man, and so it was meant to be that you read it. All the more so if your real name is Hercules Barefoot!
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