Thirty tales of theft, onanism, incest, murder and a host of other forms of perversion and cruelty from the "ungrateful beggar" and "pilgrim of the absolute," Léon Bloy. Disagreeable Tales, first published in French in 1894, collects Bloy's narrative sermons from the depths: a cauldron of frightful anecdotes and inspired misanthropy that represents a high point of the French Decadent movement and the most emblematic entry into the library of the "Cruel Tale" christened by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Whether depicting parents and offspring being sacrificed for selfish gains, or imbeciles sacrificing their own individuality on a literary whim, these tales all draw sustenance from an underlying belief: the root of religion is crime against man, nature and God, and that in this hell on earth, even the worst among us has a soul. A close friend to Joris-Karl Huysmans, and later admired by the likes of Kafka and Borges, Léon Bloy (1846-1917) is among the best known but least translated of the French Decadent writers. Nourishing antireligious sentiments in his youth, his outlook changed radically when he moved to Paris and came under the influence of Barbey d'Aurevilly, the unconventionally religious novelist best known for Les Diaboliques. He earned the dual nicknames of "The Pilgrim of the Absolute" through his unorthodox devotion to the Catholic Church, and "The Ungrateful Beggar" through his endless reliance on the charity of friends to support him and his family.

This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was a leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. Table of Contents: Novels & Novellas: Uncle Silas The Cock and Anchor The House by the Church-Yard Wylder's Hand Guy Deverell The Tenants of Malory Haunted Lives The Wyvern Mystery Checkmate Willing to Die The Haunted Baronet Spalatro Short Story Collections: In a Glass Darkly: Green Tea The Familiar Mr Justice Harbottle The Room in the Dragon Volant Carmilla The Purcell Papers: The Ghost and the Bone-Setter The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh The Last Heir of Castle Connor The Drunkard's Dream Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess The Bridal of Carrigvarah Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter Scraps of Hibernian Ballads Jim Sulivan's Adventures in the Great Snow A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald The Quare Gander Billy Maloney's Taste of Love and Glory Other Tales: Madam Crowl's Ghost Squire Toby's Will Dickon the Devil The Child That Went with the Fairies The White Cat of Drumgunniol An Account of Some Strange Distrubances in Aungier Street Ghost Stories of Chapelizod Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling Sir Dominick's Bargain Ultor de Lacy The Vision of Tom Chuff Stories of Lough Guir The Evil Guest The Watcher Laura Silver Bell The Murdered Cousin The Mysterious Lodger An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House The Dead Sexton A Debt of Honor Devereux's Dream Catherine's Quest Haunted Pichon and Sons The Phantom Fourth The Spirit's Whisper Dr. Feversham's Story...

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