Nightmares offered a respite from despair.
Interesting implications about our love of horror; or about the usefulness of nightmares.
And Graham Robb had written this in the Introduction, concerning Hugo's participation in spiritual séances:
"His credulity was a deliberate ploy. By suspending his disbelief, he was summoning up the wild-eyed, holy sense of horror that kept the channels open between the writing hand and the deep unconscious."
