Thirty Hours with a Corpse

Characterized by gratuitous acts of brutality and surprise endings, these tales of obsession and violence are the creations of a twentieth-century French writer whose works were staged by the legendary Theatre du Grand-Guignol of Paris. The precursors of modern thrillers and slasher films, these stories have been specially selected for this edition and introduced by horror specialist S. T. Joshi. Thirty-nine conte cruel ("cruel tales") include "In the Light of the Red Lamp," in which a husband's photographs of his dead wife reveal a deeper tragedy; "Fascination," the tale of a morbid passion that develops when the narrator, determined to stay at home, shoots his mistress for the sake of peace and quiet; and "The Bastard," concerning a father's suspicions about his son's paternity. Other stories include "The Taint," a view of infanticide as mercy-killing; "The Test," in which an accused murderer is forced to reenact his crime; and "A Maniac," recounting a thrill-seeker's ghoulish impulse to witness death-defying stunts gone wrong. AUTHOR: French author Maurice Level (1875?1926) specialized in macabre short stories that appeared in Parisian newspapers and were staged by the Theatre du Grand-Guignol, a repertory company famed for its gory melodramas. S. T. Joshi is a literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction.