He Who Gets Slapped

by Leonid Andreyev (Editor)

""He Who Gets Slapped"" is a play written by Russian author Leonid Andreyev. The story revolves around a scientist named Paul who is betrayed by his wife and colleague and loses everything he has worked for. He becomes a clown in a circus and performs under the name ""He Who Gets Slapped."" The play explores themes of love, betrayal, and the human condition. It is a tragic story that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the search for meaning in life. The play has been adapted into several films and has been performed on stages around the world. Andreyev's writing style is known for its psychological depth and exploration of the darker aspects of the human psyche. ""He Who Gets Slapped"" is a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences with its powerful storytelling and poignant themes.THIS 64 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE The Theatre Guild Anthology V1, by Leonid Andreyev. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1419156225.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Russian Literature, Russia, Fiction, Drama, Theatre

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (Russian: Леонид Николаевич Андреев; 1871-1919) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who led the Expressionist movement in the national literature. He was active between the revolution of 1905 and the Communist revolution which finally overthrew the Tsarist government. His first story published was About a Poor Student, a narrative based upon his own experiences. It was not, however, until Gorky discovered him by stories appearing in the Moscow Courier and elsewhere that Andreyevs literary career really began. His first collection of stories appeared in 1901, and sold a quarter-million copies in short time. He was hailed as a new star in Russia, where his name soon became a byword. He published his short story, In the Fog in 1902. Although he started out in the Russian vein he soon startled his readers by his eccentricities, which grew even faster than his fame. His two best known stories may be The Red Laugh (1904) and The Seven Who Were Hanged (1908). His dramas include the Symbolist plays The Life of Man (1906), Tsar Hunger (1907), Black Masks (1908), Anathema (1909) and He Who Gets Slapped (1915).

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Society is ugly and avaricious. You can’t escape it, not even by hiding your pain in humbleness (clown) and art (circus).

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange. Or perhaps just an old, bad translation.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✔️Published in 1921. The first regular production of HE in English was by The Theatre Guild on January 9, 1922, at the Garrick Theatre, New York.
🖊 My review: 💥The Russian original was made into a Russian movie in 1916. The English language translation of the original Russian by Gregory Zilboorg, was staged in 1922, premiering at the Garrick Theatre on January 9, 1922, with Richard Bennett (actor) playing the "HE" role on stage. This play was made into a 1924 movie, with Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert, and directed by Victor Sjöström (credited as Victor Seastrom). 🔥The dénouement is sad. 💫 What I like best is the fresh story. 📌 I would read this again.
🤔 My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 E-book format found here on : Project Gutenberg .
🔲 Excerpts of note:

🔸Consuelo: Nonsense. I am not simple. But you know, Bezano scolded me so much, that even you would have cried. The devil knows.... Mancini Tsss.... Never say "the devil knows." It isn't decent. Consuelo I say it only when I am with you. Mancini You must not say it when you are with me, either. I know it without you. [Laughs.]

🔸He: No, it is the sea and the sun ... what a sun! Don't you feel that you are the foam, white sea-foam, and you are flying to the sun? You feel light, you have no body, you are flying higher, my love! Consuelo I am flying. I am the sea-foam, and this is the sun, it shines ... so strong.... I feel well. [She dies. Silence. HE stays a moment with lifted arms, then takes a long look, lets his arms fall, and shakingly goes off to one side. He stands still for a moment, then sits down, drops hit head on his hands, and struggles lonesomely with the torpidity of coming death.]

✿●▬●✿●✿●▬●✿

[Станислав · Rating 3 out of 5]

Цирк уехал, клоуны остались. И всех убили.
Как-то получилось, что вид клоуна в последнее время не несёт окружающим ничего хорошего. Хотя много людей до сих пор отдают своё внимание, аплодисменты и деньги этому виду искусства. В голове как-то плотно засел кинговский клоун-чудовище-"Оно", его макдаковский брат Рональд, Джокер (являются ли клоуны разновидностью шутов или наоборот - большой вопрос), Гейси и так далее. Мне как-то врезалась цитата из Терри Пртачетта:

Ни один клоун смешно не выглядит. В этом весь смысл. Люди, увидев их, смеются, но только из чистой нервозности. Клоуны нужны исключительно для одной цели: после того как вы их увидели и что бы с вами потом ни случилось, вы будете радоваться этому, как младенец. Приятно осознавать, что на свете есть кто-то, кому сейчас куда хуже, чем вам.
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Здесь это вполне применимо. Сюжет можно описать соединением образа клоуна-убийцы. Хотя, здесь это трагическая фигура, человек из высшего общества, неясно, писатель от которого ушла жена и ребёнок и который похоронил себя под маской клоуна, который получает пощёчины. С другой стороны здесь почти сюжет мюзикла "Moulin Rouge!", настолько, что мне начинало казаться, что его создатели читали Андреева. Только вместо певицы и танцовщицы Сатин, здесь наездница Консуэлла.
Сюжет, в общем, держит, хотя лица вызывают скорее болезненное чувство. Тут стоит добавить, что тема страшного цирка или карнавала активно развивалась в русском модерне с начала века до, скорее всего 30-х годов. Наверно с растущим ощущением, что сама культура стала таким страшным и несмешным цирком.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leonid Andreyev's play He Who Gets Slapped was made into a great 1924 silent film of the same name by the Swedish director Victor Sjostrom. It was actually better than the play and -- to my mind -- one of the greatest silent drama films of the 1920s.

A struggling genius has his ideas and wife stolen by another man. As a means of coping with his come-down in the world, he becomes a clown in a Paris circus who goes by the name "He Who Gets Slapped." His act consists of his attempts at expounding his ideas and getting slapped in the face by the other clowns who listen to him.

In the process, he falls for a beautiful young equestrienne whose father is trying to get her married to a wealthy nogoodnik named Baron Regnard. The entire play takes place behind the scenes in the circus (though the film actually moves around to the circus stage and the backstory of the clown called "He".

[Logan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could barely tolerate this Russian drama. The 1924 silent movie adaptation is a better version of the story, but both left me disappointed. The story has a lot of potential. A modern remake could work. I wish someone would reconfigure the story to make it work. Surely, seeing this drama on stage might have been better, but reading it is so weird. Nothing the characters do is natural. Every single character is weird as hell. They laugh when it’s not appropriate and then tell jokes that aren’t funny at all…and then laugh at those, too. It could just be a bad translation, but I doubt it. Honestly, this makes 2019’s “Joker” movie (another story about an unlucky-in-love clown) look good by comparison.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was gonna give it 4 stars, and then the ending happened. For theme alone, and the pure drama, I will give this 3 stars

Very similar ending to 6 characters in search of an author…

But the circus setting, and the characters are all so fun! Until the end…

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of only two times I will say the movie is better (the other being “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, though if I got to see Taylor and Burton on stage that wouldn’t be the case)

[Chambodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Melodramatic, yet dull.

[Judah · Rating 1 out of 5]

nothingburger

[Sparrow .]

Who is a criminal? Can you predict in advance who will endanger innocent citizens? Particularly in a circus, where everyone has a false name, vivid clothes, and no discernible past?

Is the world one big circus? I don’t think Andreyev is saying that. The circus, for him, is the subculture of artists. (He uses the word “artist” to describe the troupers of the ring.) Artists always have the capacity for murder.

This is Andreyev’s last play, according to the eccentric, apparently Marxist introduction by the translator, Gregory Zilboorg. I have a first edition (in bad shape) from 1922 (though the original came out in Russia in 1914). I chose this book because of the coronavirus. I thought: “Now that I’m no longer taking the bus back and forth to Brooklyn, I can read a fragile hardcover.”

The names are lovely. The main character is a self-invented clown – and mystic – named He Who Gets Slapped. There’s Tilly and Polly, the musical clowns, Zinida, the lion tamer, and the magisterial Baron Regnard. Opening the book at random:

Consuela: Don’t talk nonsense, please. What should the stars care about me? I am so small. Nonsense, HE! Tell me rather another tale which you know: about the blue sea and those gods, you know… who are so beautiful. Did they all die?

HE: They are all alive, but they hide themselves, my goddess.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (1915), considered the best drama by Leonid Andreyev (1871-1919). “He” is the name of a circus clown whose schtick is to entice slaps in the face, amusing the audience. In the third act, a conversation between a guilt-ridden gentleman and “He” reveals that “He” had been symbolically slapped by the gentleman who had stolen his family and career. “He” falls in love with a beautiful young circus performer, Consuelo. When he fails to prevent her nuptials with another gentleman, “He” engineers his own slap as cosmic payback. The play also portrays the behind-the-scenes lives of other circus folk—the manager, musicians, clowns, bareback riders, and a reckless lion tamer. In Andreyev's tragic world view, life is a circus. Though initially supportive of the 1917 revolution, “He actively opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power” and “died a broken man” (Handbook of Russian Literature). The play was translated into English by Russian émigré Gregory Zilboorg, who became a noted psychoanalyst and historian of psychology. It was produced at the historic New York Garrick Theatre in 1922 and later adapted into a 1924 silent film starring Lon Chaney (available on YouTube).