'The two dozen authors collected here span the 19th century, from La Harpe in the aftermath of the Revolution to Huysmans' fin de siecle decadence. Poe, Hoffmann and the English Gothic novel all fed the imagination of the French fantasists, who frequently added a touch of Gallic wit to the heady brew of vampirism, ghostly gore and sexual misbehaving. Hale provides a scholarly introduction to this highly enjoyable selection of strange tales.' Scotland on Sunday 'Stories like Eugene Sue's wickedly funny cautionary tale of how a brush with Rousseau can lead to an unpleasant end show that the French macabre is worthy of attention for its irony and humour. There are contes cruels, frenetiques and fantastiques by Baudelaire, Maupassant and the Marquis de Sade. But some of the best tales are by writers, now forgotten, who used E.T.A. Hoffman, Edgar Allan Poe and the English Gothic novel to create a uniquely French genre.' Isobel Montgomery in The Guardian 'For those who know their frenetique from their fantastique, there's plenty of deliciously morbid stuff here, from Eugene Sue's Candide-like satire A True Account of the Travels of Claude Belissan, Clerk to the Public Prosecutor to Catulles Mendes's sexually overheated The Penitent and the Marquis de Sade's surprisingly chaste Diorci, or The Vagaries of Chance, one of the nineteen stories being published in English for the first time.' The Irish Times 'Hale's inspired selection - he includes little-known pieces by Sade, Baudelaire, Dumas and Maupassant, as well as stories by unjustly forgotten writers such as Catulle Mendes, Jean Pichepin, Charles Nodier and Petrus Borel - not only makes this an invigorating collection to read, it virtually redefines the boundaries of the French horror genre.' Brendan King in The Times Literary Supplement
Contents:
- Introduction
- Frédéric Soulié - The Lamp of Saint Just
- Eugène Sue - The Travels of Claude Belissan
- Alexandre Dumas - Solange
- Pétrus Borel - Monsieur de l’Argentière, Public Prosecutor
- Alphonse Royer - The Covetous Clerk
- Xavier Forneret - One Eye Between Two
- Marquis de Sade - Dorci, or The Vagaries of Chance
- Charles Baudelaire - Mademoiselle Scalpel
- Catulle Mendès - The Penitent
- Villiers de l’Isle-Adam - The Astonishing Moutonnet Couple
- Jean Richepin - Constant Guignard
- Charles Cros - The Hanged Man
- Jules Lermina - Monsieur Mathias
- Leon Bloy - A Burnt Offering
- J.K. Huysmans - A Family Treat
- Edmund Haraucourt - The Prisoner of his Own Masterpiece
- La Harpe - Jacques Cazotte’s Prophecy
- Charles Nodier - The Story of Hélène Gillet
- Gérard de Nerval - The Green Monster
- Erckman-Chatrian - The Invisible Eye
- Henri Rivière - The Reincarnation of Doctor Roger
- Guy de Maupassant - The Head of Hair
- Théophile Gautier - Mademoiselle Dafné
- Jean Lorrain - One Possessed