Story Without Words

by Frans Masereel

Rare Book

Genres: Comics, Art

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Frans Masereel was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts. His greatest work is generally said to be the wordless novel 'Passionate Journey'. He completed over 20 other wordless novels in his career.

His intense, foreboding woodcuts for Oscar Wilde's 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' add to the drama and feeling of the poem.

Reviews

[Jeff Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m reading my way through some famous woodcut and scratch board novels. “Story without Words” is a part of a 3-novel anthology of the Belgian-French woodcut artist, Frans Masereel.

This is my least favorite of the Masereel books I’ve read. This one is supposed to be an allegorical tale that is similar to medieval art pieces. Essentially a man begs a woman to sleep with him throughout all the woodcuts. In the end, a pulls a knife on himself and threatens suicide. She gives in. However, the man turns away from her. Both end in tears.

[Hex75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lui incontra lei, si innamora non ricambiato, poi lei cambia idea ma a quel punto lui si trova deluso.
Storia semplice semplice, che a dire della postfazione di Hermann Hesse (si, quello lì) ha risvolti metaforici e filosofici: solo che invece di essere un racconto o un fumetto sono 60 xilografie che, come da titolo, sono prive di testo.

Un gioiellino per gli amanti della grafica, magari un libro giusto divertente per tutti gli altri.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The woodcuts are very cool, and I can appreciate the inventiveness of creating a Story without Words before the era of the graphic novel. I look forward to perusing more Masereel, and don't mean this as a wholesale damnation of the artist/author, BUT... this was... not a great story, in my opinion. At best, it is a generic tale of a commonplace romance-tragedy (albeit with some cheeky illustrations), at worst a damaging parable. The afterword by Herman Hesse (in some editions) does nothing to improve my outlook on the story, and in fact, a lot of my negative review of this edition might be attributed TO Hesse's afterword and his disappointing claim that the man depicted is somehow "exemplary... thoughtful and imaginative" while the woman is "beautiful but banal". If this is merely bad interpretation, then consider my negative review a reflection of Hesse; if it is an accurate interpretation (whatever 'accurate' means), then I suppose I should condemn Masereel himself for a beautiful but banal work.

[Chris Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art is ok. Story is about some creepy guy that won't leave some woman alone, finally manages to win her over, but then turns her away in revenge? Then they're both broken?

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weaker of the three Masereel stories collected in The Sun, The Idea, and Story Without Words. This is a simple story of a man trying to court a young woman. Each panel is essentially just him presenting himself to her - peacocking if you will. Presenting gifts, money, nice meals, begging on his hands and knees. He's rebuked at each step until she finally gives in after he threatens suicide. But when the reality of a relationship sets in, he rejects her.