The Hands of Orlac
E215303
The Hands of Orlac is a 1920 horror novel by Maurice Renard about a pianist who, after receiving a hand transplant from an executed murderer, becomes tormented by the fear that he has inherited the killer’s violent impulses.
All labels observed (7)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Hands of Orlac canonical | 10 |
| Les Mains d'Orlac | 2 |
| Les Mains d’Orlac | 1 |
| The Hands of Orlac (1924 film) | 1 |
| The Hands of Orlac (novel) | 1 |
| The Hands of Orlac (novel) by Maurice Renard | 1 |
| novel The Hands of Orlac | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1928500 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Hands of Orlac Context triple: [Mad Love (1935 film), basedOn, The Hands of Orlac]
-
A.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a gothic horror novel by H. P. Lovecraft about a young man’s obsession with his necromancer ancestor and the dark secrets he uncovers in Providence, Rhode Island.
-
B.
Los da Mystro
Los da Mystro is an American record producer and songwriter known for his work in contemporary R&B and collaborations with major artists such as Mariah Carey and The-Dream.
-
C.
The Count
The Count is a charismatic, rebellious American DJ in the film "The Boat That Rocked," known for his larger-than-life personality and rivalry with fellow broadcaster Gavin.
-
D.
Gaspard de la nuit
Gaspard de la nuit is a notoriously difficult three-movement piano suite by Maurice Ravel, inspired by Aloysius Bertrand’s dark, fantastical prose poems.
-
E.
Rue Morgue
Rue Morgue is a fictional Parisian street best known as the eerie setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s pioneering detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Hands of Orlac Target entity description: The Hands of Orlac is a 1920 horror novel by Maurice Renard about a pianist who, after receiving a hand transplant from an executed murderer, becomes tormented by the fear that he has inherited the killer’s violent impulses.
-
A.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a gothic horror novel by H. P. Lovecraft about a young man’s obsession with his necromancer ancestor and the dark secrets he uncovers in Providence, Rhode Island.
-
B.
Los da Mystro
Los da Mystro is an American record producer and songwriter known for his work in contemporary R&B and collaborations with major artists such as Mariah Carey and The-Dream.
-
C.
The Count
The Count is a charismatic, rebellious American DJ in the film "The Boat That Rocked," known for his larger-than-life personality and rivalry with fellow broadcaster Gavin.
-
D.
Gaspard de la nuit
Gaspard de la nuit is a notoriously difficult three-movement piano suite by Maurice Ravel, inspired by Aloysius Bertrand’s dark, fantastical prose poems.
-
E.
Rue Morgue
Rue Morgue is a fictional Parisian street best known as the eerie setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s pioneering detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
horror novel
ⓘ
novel ⓘ psychological horror novel ⓘ |
| author | Maurice Renard ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
body horror
ⓘ
fear of inherited evil ⓘ identity ⓘ psychological torment ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| genre |
horror fiction
ⓘ
psychological fiction ⓘ science fiction ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation |
Mad Love (1935 film)
ⓘ
The Hands of Orlac (1924 film) ⓘ
linked to:
The Hands of Orlac
The Hands of Orlac (1960 film) ⓘ |
| hasCharacter |
Paul Orlac’s wife
ⓘ
surgeon who performs the transplant ⓘ |
| hasEnglishTitle | The Hands of Orlac ⓘ |
| hasFrenchTitle |
Les Mains d’Orlac
ⓘ
linked to:
The Hands of Orlac
|
| hasInfluenceOn |
films about murderous hands
ⓘ
later horror literature about transplanted limbs ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
organ transplantation
ⓘ
psychological trauma ⓘ serial murder ⓘ suggestibility and obsession ⓘ |
| influenced | cinematic body-part horror ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | French ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | early 20th-century French fantastic literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Paul Orlac ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| motif |
crime and punishment
ⓘ
madness and paranoia ⓘ the uncanny ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| notableFor | early exploration of transplanted body parts affecting personality ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| plotElement |
executed murderer’s hands
ⓘ
hand transplant ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | pianist ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1920 ⓘ |
| publisher | French publisher Albin Michel ⓘ |
| setting | Paris ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfStory | early 20th century ⓘ |
| workPeriod | interwar period ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Hands of Orlac Description of subject: The Hands of Orlac is a 1920 horror novel by Maurice Renard about a pianist who, after receiving a hand transplant from an executed murderer, becomes tormented by the fear that he has inherited the killer’s violent impulses.
Referenced by (17)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac
linked to: The Hands of Orlac