Cautionary Tales Quotes

“And we, from within the sigh of the trees, and the soft moss underfoot, and the calling of night birds, watched him as he watched, gazing where he should not.”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: Voices from the Edges

“We who are beyond the mortal world see many things from the edges; we hear the subtle shifts of rhythm in the beat of a blackening heart.”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: Voices from the Edges

“Good and evil exist in all of us.
a moment’s temptation takes us on a wrong path.
On that path may lurk foul fiends,
inhuman, yet feeding, needing
all our weaknesses: vanity, indolence and envy,
Easy fruits for evil appetites,
our flesh, a tasty afterthought,
our bones flung asunder.”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales

“Here, at the edges,
Whispering to you,
And we’re not alone; not alone
Here, in the dark.

We are behind the door, in the corners,
In the room where you’ve just extinguished the light.
We flicker in the shadow you cast on the wall.
We are the prickle on the back of your neck.
Curled, in words unspoken,
We are the shiver on your uneasy flesh,
The creep of the unknown on your skin.

Can you feel us?
Here, at the edges.


From the Foreword of Cautionary Tales - by Emmanuelle de Maupassant”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales

“Inside, there was a bed, and upon the bed there was a woman. More beautiful was she even than the damask rose while her scent, drifting through the open window, was that of the night dew. Her hair was silken as the raven's wing. Quite naked, she lay, so still upon the bed, her eyes closed in reverie.

The young man looked first upon her breasts, where her hand rested. And upon each breast, there was a rosebud nipple. Upon each nipple there was a tip most tender. Upon each tip there was a milky drop.

Chin lifted, lips parted, she milked her maiden breast.

'What I would give to suckle at that teat,' thought he.

from 'Against Faithlessness' in Cautionary Tales”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales

“Ha!’ cackled the fiend, ‘I expect you’d like revenge on that husband of yours. Murder shouldn’t go unpunished, and no creature enjoys delivering chastisement as much as I. What about giving him a taste of his own medicine? If you’d be so kind as to lend me your body, I’ll set him dancing to my tune.’

The wife’s spectre grimaced and nodded, at which the wicked Likho stripped off the nightgown, then the dead woman’s pliant skin, peeling back the flaccid folds. These it left in a slack heap.

It gobbled her flesh and sucked the bones clean. These it hid behind the stove, before inserting itself inside the empty, wrinkled carcass, taking the former position of the corpse. Its fat tongue swiped the last juices from around its lips.

When the husband returned home, all was as it had been; there was not a speck of blood to be seen, although the strangest smell of rotten eggs lingered”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales

“Listen,
listen with your eyes,
and your lips.
Listen with your skin,
and your blood.
Can you hear us,
at the edges?”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales

“Crook your finger;
they’ll come closer.
Pull the covers tighter to your chin;
in beside you they’ll creep.”
― Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Cautionary Tales: a collection of darkly delicious folktales