SOLVED. Short Story - Fantasy - French Author (I think) - 19th/Early 20th Century - First Person- Like 'Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath' by Lovecraft [s]

[GMO Burt]

The very beginning of the story is the narrator talking about meeting some strange occultist or eccentric of that sort. The eccentric asks the narrator how he unsettled he thinks he'd feel if flowers started talking or stones started singing a song. It was to point out how scary the elements of fantasy would be if one actually encountered them. Then, I believe the narrator goes on to recount his experience with these sort of dream journeys that he experiences as real.

The journeys start when he is a child and I believe his nanny/governess is who gets him started. The story ends with the nanny and the boy burying a (wooden) I believe statue and later returning to that spot to find some weird remnant of the fantasy world he inhabited in his dreams. I believe his nanny also tells him a story about a young commoner sneaking into a queen or princesses chamber and observing some ritual she performs.

Here are some elements of his dream journeys:

1) Somethings about a hunter delving deep into a wood and losing his horse but discovering some magical place.

2) Following a group of people engaging in some sort of religious rite that I think ends in a sort of orgiastic party.

3) There's a queen or princess that appears in more than one dream and I think they fall in love or something like that.

4) I don't recall any real danger in the dreams, more like a sort of uneasy strangeness.

[Aerulan]

Just a guess, but take a look at The White People by Arthur Machen.

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_...

[GMO Burt]

hell yes! I believe that's right. I'll confirm in a minute

[GMO Burt]

That is the correct story. Thank you. My think my mistaken recollection that the author was French was throwing off my searches. Thank you so much, Aerulan. It was driving me crazy!

[Aerulan]

You're very welcome! I'm glad it was the right one.