25 Images of a Man's Passion

The first of dozens of such works by Masereel, the book is considered to be the first wordless novel, a genre that saw its greatest popularity in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

The book was popular, particularly in German editions, which had introductions by writers Max Brod, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann.

When he was five his father died, and his mother remarried to a doctor in Ghent, whose political beliefs left an impression on the young Masereel.

[1] During World War I he volunteered as a translator for the Red Cross in Geneva, drew newspaper political cartoons, and copublished a magazine called Les Tablettes, in which he published his first woodcut prints.

[6] From 1917 Masereel began publishing books of woodcut prints,[7] using similar imagery to make political statements on the strife of the common people rather than to illustrate the lives of Christ and the saints.

[3] Printed from twenty-five woodcut blocks, the book was first released in 1918 by Édition de Sablier, a Swiss publishing house of which Masereel was a co-sponsor.

A black-and-white illustration. A group of workers on the right battles against a gun-wielding group on the left. In the centre, facing left, a man in the foreground raises his hand.
The protagonist leads a workers' revolt
A black-and-white photo of a man and woman on a stage
The story parallels that of Ernst Toller 's The Transformation .
Pictured: a production of The Transformation on 30 September 1919