The Anatomy of Love and Murder

Although Gaston Danville was one of the earliest contributors to the French magazine, Mercure de France, considered a voice for the symbolist movement, he regarded himself as one of a new generation of Naturalists, interested in applying the relatively new insights of contemporary psychology to the analysis of human behavior. Danville's short fiction was unique, obsessed with the supposed psychologies of psychology and murder, and the analogies between them. He called his stories "Tales of Beyond," but the beyond to which he referred was that of the Unconscious, to which he believe that all phenomena considered supernatural should now be attributed. The result was some of the most peculiar weird fiction ever produced, which still warrants the interest of connoisseurs of the bizarre. Here are his best eighteen stories (plus an essay), edited, translated, and with notes by Brian Stableford.