Destiny (wordless novel)

In 190 wordless images the story follows an unnamed woman in a German city in the early 20th century whose life of poverty and misfortune drives her to infanticide, prostitution, and murder.

The book was the first whose images were made with leadcuts instead of the more common woodcuts, and showed a greater depth of character and cinematic sense than previous wordless novels.

[4] In contrast to the earlier works of Masereel, Destiny focuses on an individualized woman instead of the plight of a man as cipher for humankind.

[1] Lynd Ward found Nückel's book had greater psychological depth in its characters and plot development, and more skilled technical achievement in the artwork.

[6] American artist Lynd Ward discovered a copy of Nückel's book in New York in 1929 and was inspired by it to create wordless novels of his own, beginning with Gods' Man the same year.

[12] The success of both Gods' Man and the subsequent Madman's Drum (1930) led to a number of American publishers bringing other wordless novels into print, including Destiny in 1930,[13] which sold well in the US.

[14] Literary scholar Martin S. Cohen called Destiny "perhaps the most pathetic ... and one of the most memorable" examples of the wordless novel genre.