J.T. Wilson’s Reviews > The Manuscript Found in Saragossa > Status Update

“Therein lies the great mystery of the human heart. No one does what he should do.”

At this point Potocki has ceded the lion’s share of many chapters of his book to his (assumedly his) thoughts on religion and its origins, which is well written and interesting and yet part of me wishes he’d go back to the main plot where there’s a mysterious cave haunted by horny ghosts.

The Matryoshka doll story-in-story-in-story format is now so complicated that a character is scripted to complain about it.

“Words strike the air and the mind, they act on the senses and on the soul.”

This book from 1809 has started off as a sort of Wild West ghost town story in which a soldier explores an empty town only to find ghosts, vampires, incestuous sisters and bandits in the opening 30 pages alone.