Thirty Hours With a Corpse and Other Tales of the Grand Guignol by Maurice Level, introduced and edited by S.T. Joshi
Dover Publications, 2016
ISBN: 9780486802329
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition
S.T. Joshi has collected thirty-nine of Maurice Level’s conte cruel, or “cruel tales,” in one volume. Level, a French writer from the early twentieth century, whose specialty was short stories of the macabre, was a contributor to the Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris, known for staging gory dramas. His tales deal with the human condition and moral frailty, rather than anything supernatural.
I was enthralled with all of the stories in this anthology, but a few stood out more than others. As mentioned above, some stories focus on moral frailty. In “The Debt Collector”, a clerk turned thief takes his spoils to a solicitor’s outside town, leaves the funds under a false name, and travels back to town in order to turn himself in. Of course, he is promptly arrested, found guilty at trial, and jailed for five years. Upon release, he heads to the solicitor’s to pick up the money. The trouble is that, in the meantime, he forgot the false name he used. The story “Blue Eyes” culminates in a young woman having certain business transactions with the last man she would ever want to see. In “The Last Kiss,” a man takes revenge on the woman who blinded him.
Other stories deal with madness or psychoses. The need for peace and quiet occasionally drives us all a little mad sometimes: unfortunately for the nagging mistress of the man in “Fascination”, he takes that a step too far, and shoots her for the sake of a night in. “In the Light of the Red Lamp” is a tragic tale of a husband who develops photographs of his deceased wife, only to find something he was not expecting. In “Poussette”, a highly religious woman is betrayed by her cat, Pousette, who is only following instincts when she escapes the house to be in the company of yowling male cats. When Pousette returns, the woman’s affection for her formerly loyal pet has turned to anger and paranoia. A man’s suspicions and paranoia conclude in a familial tragedy in “The Bastard”.
Several tales take place during wartime. “Under Ether” tells the story of a patient/prisoner who discovers through conversation that his doctor comes from the same town, and that they knew each other’s mothers. What the injured man says under ether, however, is unexpected. “At the Movies” finds a mother telling her son about what is taking place on a newsreel, only to find a familiar face, one she believed to have been killed during the war.
The scariest part of these short stories is that none of them have any supernatural explanation as to why things happened. They are all driven by humanity and the wrongs that we have the capability of inflicting on each other. I highly recommend this collection, but you might need a good strong drink or cup of tea to calm your nerves.
Reviewed by Lizzy Walker
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