Description

FIRST EDITION. One of the first 15 copies on paper laid pur fil by papeteries Lafuma. (this one number 6). There follow 15 copies on esparto.

Collection of 3 macabre short stories, "The Little House in the Rue des Remparts"(first published in magazine form in 1912), "Which one?"(published in 4 episodes in Fémina in1906) and finally "The Crime"This is a novel adaptation of a play written in 1918 for the Grand-Guignol theatre, inspired by the "Malle à Gouffé" affair. This novella is also known as "The Bloody Trunk".

"French genius is more naturally adapted to dark realism than to the suggestion of the invisible."wrote H. P. Lovecraft in his essay Horror and the supernatural in literatureciting Maurice Level (along with Villiers de l'Isle-Adam) as the master of the "a cruel tale in which emotions are torn apart through dramatic tantalisations, frustrations and appalling physical horrors." Translated into English in 1903, Maurice Level also made a name for himself in Japan, where Night birdsA collection of 30 stories, was published in 1928. Edogawa Ranpo, one of the founders of Japanese detective fiction and the ero guro nansensu ("erotic, grotesque and absurd").