Théophile Gautier – författare

Jägardockan och harpspelaren stirrade med tomma ögon och fäktade runt med sina små händer. En hemsk, knarrande stämma: "Dumma stackare, enfaldiga varelser! Föraktade oss -- nu kan ni sitta där utan leksaker!" Förskräckta rusade barnen därifrån under regnet som strömmade ner, åskknallarna och stormen. Men knappt hade de kommit till den stora dammen, förrän flickans docka reste sig ur vassen och kväkte med förfärlig stämma: ?Dumma stackare, enfaldiga varelser -- nu kan ni sitta där utan leksaker! Vänta bara, vi är magister Tintes lydiga tjänare!? Felix stod inte ut med de förfärliga spökerierna, och arma Christlieb var halvdöd. Då summade och brusade det bakom dem. "Magister Tinte kommer!" skrek Felix Nio fantasifulla, mörka och bitterljuva noveller från gränslandet mellan konstsaga och fantasy. "Som helhet är Främmande folk och förtrollade skogar en njutbart fascinerande läsning som dessutom presenterar och ger utrymme åt den litteratur som genremässigt varken är saga, fantasy eller skräckberättelse utan befinner sig någonstans däremellan." -- Albin Eklund Djurberg i BTJ:s häfte 14106278.

Chevalier d'Albert fantasizes about his ideal lover, yet every woman he meets falls short of his exacting standards of female perfection. Embarking on an affair with the lovely Rosette to ease his boredom, he is thrown into tumultuous confusion when she receives a dashing young visitor. Exquisitely handsome, Théodore inspires passions d'Albert never believed he could feel for a man - and Rosette also seems to be in thrall to the charms of her guest. Does this bafflingly alluring person have a secret to hide? Subversive and seductive, Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) draws readers into the bedrooms and boudoirs of a French château in a compelling exploration of desire and sexual intrigue.

Chevalier d'Albert fantasizes about his ideal lover, yet every woman he meets falls short of his exacting standards of female perfection. Embarking on an affair with the lovely Rosette to ease his boredom, he is thrown into tumultuous confusion when she receives a dashing young visitor. Exquisitely handsome, Théodore inspires passions d'Albert never believed he could feel for a man - and Rosette also seems to be in thrall to the charms of her guest. Does this bafflingly alluring person have a secret to hide? Subversive and seductive, Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) draws readers into the bedrooms and boudoirs of a French château in a compelling exploration of desire and sexual intrigue.

Spurned lovers return from the grave to haunt their partners, ghost ships materialise on the sea, a bird’s eerie cry lures the unsuspecting to their deaths in a marsh… Welcome to the unsettling world of the French weird.From German-inspired gothic tales to chilling contes cruels, the stories in this anthology follow the evolution of uncanny fiction in France from the post-revolutionary turmoil of the early nineteenth century, through World War Two and into the early 2000s. They’re tales influenced by, and often seeking to justify, civil and political unrest, populated by those forced to cope with constant change and rebellion, seeking some solace amongst the chaos.Featuring strange stories from Gallic literary heavyweights Charles Nodier, Théophile Gautier and Guy de Maupassant, as well as unsettling tales from voices less well known outside France, such as Nathalie Henneberg, Claude Seignolle and Christine Renard, Danse Macabre is a beguiling concoction of fractured melodies that moves to its own unique rhythm.