The Mummy's Foot and Other Fantastic Tales

by Théophile Gautier, S.T. Joshi (Editor)

This volume gathers the weird and fantastic tales of Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), a pioneering French author whose weird work includes such distinctive tales as the Egyptian fantasies "One of Cleopatra's Nights" and "The Mummy's Foot," the classic vampire story "Clarimonde," and an entrancing novella of psychic transference, "Avatar." Gautier's tales feature a haunting fusion of eroticism and weirdness, in consonance with his view that the human female constituted the most exalted form of beauty in all creation. The evocative translations of Lafcadio Hearn and Edgar Saltus have been used in this volume.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Gothic, Fiction, Classics, French Literature, Fantasy

420 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2018

About the author

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and literary critic. In the 1830 Revolution, he chose to stay with friends in the Doyenné district of Paris, living a rather pleasant bohemian life. He began writing poetry as early as 1826 but the majority of his life was spent as a contributor to various journals, mainly for La Presse, which also gave him the opportunity for foreign travel and meeting many influential contacts in high society and in the world of the arts, which inspired many of his writings including Voyage en Espagne (1843), Trésors d'Art de la Russie (1858), and Voyage en Russie (1867). He was a celebrated abandonnée of the Romantic Ballet, writing several scenarios, the most famous of which is Giselle. His prestige was confirmed by his role as director of Revue de Paris from 1851-1856. During this time, he became a journalist for Le Moniteur universel, then the editorship of influential review L'Artiste in 1856. His works include: Albertus (1830), La Comédie de la Mort (1838), Une Larme du Diable (1839), Constantinople (1853) and L'Art Moderne (1856)

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim collection of four long stories is an attractive introduction to the Romantic roots of the aesthetic movement. Its prose is filled with lush description, studded with metaphorical gems, and the ornamentation often seems to be its own justification. Gautier--an important art critic--writes painterly prose, and, although each story takes on at least a tint of decadence, this darkness is merely part of the palette, not a philosophical stance or an unavoidable obsession. "Les Fleurs de Mal" was more than a decade away.

The title story--the most charming of ghostly tales--begins with a memorably detailed description of an antique shop, introduces a fine gothic conception, and ends in whimsy. "Le Morte Amoreuse," a powerful vampire tale, takes the life of dreams very seriously and shows how even one amorous glance may transform the imagination--and therefore the life--of an otherwise chaste priest. "One of Cleopatra's Nights" consists principally of descriptions of both the landscape of Egypt--which Gautier knew first-hand--and the ornate palace of its queen; death appears here too, but (almost) as an afterthought. The most important of the four tales--at least from an historical point of view--is "The Golden Fleece," showing how a young aesthete's apparently absurd quest for a mistress who precisely matches his golden-haired ideal--a specific Ruben's Madonna--eventually leads him to the heart of both real art and real life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book, and would recommend it not only to the lovers of the gothic but to the lovers of beauty in all of its forms.

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poet, novelist, storyteller, dramatist, journalist, outstanding critic in the fields of literature, art and dance, human being extraordinaire Théophile Gautier had a flair for the exotic and the emotionally intense, an author who has been linked to, among various others, the literary worlds of romanticism, decadence and the supernatural. Ultimately, no category or movement was large enough to hold Théophile Gautier as his perceptions and imagination as well as his range of interests and literary skills were simply too immense.

For those unacquainted with his writing, this book of four classic Gautier stories is a superb place to start. Each story is worthy of a complete review, so, in keeping with the respect I feel his writing requires, I will offer quotes and comments on only one story: The Mummy’s Foot. But what a story! This one is told with such breathtaking perfection – even in English translation, every image, description, turn of phrase, metaphor, every single sentence is a true gem. And the story includes themes readers back in the 1840s craved:

ANTIQUE STORE FILLED WITH OBJECTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
The story’s antique store sounds like it could be the very same Parisian antique store with the very same crafty old proprietor where Raphael, the suicidal young aristocrat, strolled in from Balzac’s The Wild Ass’s Skin.

Here is a glimpse from Gautier’s antique store: “From disemboweled cabinets escaped cascades of silver – lustrous Chinese silks and waves of tinsel, which an oblique sunbeam shot through with luminous beads, while portraits of every era, in frames more or less tarnished, smiled through their yellow varnish. The striped breastplate of a damascened suit of Milanese armor glittered in one corner; loves and nymphs of porcelain, Chinese grotesques, vases of celadon and crackleware, Saxon and old Sevres cups encumbered the shelves and nooks of the apartment.”

The more rare, the more outlandish, the more intricate the better – readers back then couldn’t get enough lavish, detailed descriptions, so the authors piled it on, room after room.

EGYPTOLOGY
Of all the world’s ancient cultures, none was more fascinating to 19th sensibilities than the culture of the Egyptian Pharaohs, pyramids, sphinxes and mummies. Stories about ancient Egypt abounded, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s Some Words with a Mummy and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Ring of Thoth.

While the Gautier’s narrator is still in the antique store, he examines what turns out to be the mummified foot of an Egyptian princess, or so he is told by the old merchant. Toward the end of the author’s description of the foot, we read, “The sole, scarcely streaked by a few almost imperceptible cross lines, afforded evidence that it had never touched the bare ground, and had only come in contact with the finest matting of Nile rushes and the softest carpets of panther skin.”

Such a royal object! No wonder the old merchant reacts with astonishment when the narrator says he wants the princess’s foot for a paperweight. The old man exclaims, “Old Pharaoh would certainly have been surprised had someone told him that the foot of his adored daughter would be used for a paper-weight .“ Indeed, surprises abound throughout the tale to its last sentence.

VIVID DREAMS OF BEAUTY
Slightly drunk on wine and the sweet, powerful perfume of the Princess’s foot (after all those years!) our young aristocratic narrator goes to sleep and falls into a dream. The rhythm of the plot and the way Gautier intertwines the narrator’s actual room and the dream fantastic is nothing short of magnificent. If you enjoy bathing in the magic of romantic dreams of beautiful landscapes and unexpected happenings, you might very well count this Gautier story as one of your all-time favorites. I myself have read and listened to this story (thank you, audible.com) many times and plan to continue doing so.

To provide a taste of the exquisite language Gautier uses in the dream sequence, here is one last quote: ”We traversed corridors hewn through the living rock. Their walls, covered with hieroglyphics and paintings of allegorical processions, might well have occupied thousands of arms for thousands of years in their formation. These corridors of interminable length opened into square chambers, in the midst of which pits had been contrived, through which we descended by cramp-irons or spiral stairways. These pits again conducted us into other chambers, opening into other corridors, likewise decorated with painted sparrow-hawks, serpents coiled in circles, symbols of the tau and pedum -- prodigious works of art which no living eye can ever examine-interminable legends of granite which only the dead have time to read through all eternity.”

Only a reader who doesn’t have a romantic bone in their body could fail to love this sumptuous Gautier. And this book contains three others – what a literary feast.


Théophile Gautier, 1811 - 1872

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daydreaming has an even more power in Théophile Gautier's short stories than it does in real life. Given how much I'm prone to it, I can see myself falling into a daze from which, like our protagonists, I'm not sure I can get out of.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved those stories. One of the most mysterious woman ever. Must read!

[Sylphe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un succulent fantastique victorien, sans prise de tête pour autant.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

these short stories were a treat to read, the mummies foot (though obvious ) was written very well and The Quartette (more of a novel than a short story) was the antithesis of the romantic era. Complete with revenge and a foreign lover.

[Mouâd Benzahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

– Le Pied de momie : Une curieuse visite d’une boutique de bric-à brac (dont les objets sont si bellement décrits) qui emmène le narrateur loin entre représentations hiéroglyphiques et autres processions allégoriques, à la surprenante rencontre de peuples et pharaons oubliés de l’Egypte Antique..

Un pur récit de rêve empli d’étrangeté, de finesse et d’humour, et très prenant !

– Deux acteurs pour un rôle : C’est un conte viennois que nous propose Gautier cette fois-ci, avec comme personnage principal un jeune épris de théâtre, cumulant les succès dans différents rôles….Jusqu’au jour où il se voit mépriser et évincer malgré lui par une étrange doublure, pour qui le rôle du « Diable » dans une pièce n’est pas interprété « comme il se doit ».

Un incident indélébile qui éteindra la passion du comédien à jamais. Sa quête d’une calme et heureuse existence motivée par l’intrusion, soit-dit en passant, du Démon !

[Grzegorz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Najlepszy z tego wszystkiego jest Awatar, ale akurat czytałem już wcześniej. Może jeszcze tytułowe opowiadanie

[nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5