Thirty Hours with a Corpse: And Other Tales of the Grand Guignol

Characterized by gratuitous acts of brutality and surprise endings, these tales of obsession and violence are the creations of a twentieth-century French writer whose works were staged by the legendary Théâtre du Grand-Guignol of Paris. The precursors of modern thrillers and slasher films, these stories have been specially selected for this edition and introduced by horror specialist S. T. Joshi.
Thirty-nine conte cruel (＂cruel tales＂) include ＂In the Light of the Red Lamp,＂ in which a husband’s photographs of his dead wife reveal a deeper tragedy; ＂Fascination,＂ the tale of a morbid passion that develops when the narrator, determined to stay at home, shoots his mistress for the sake of peace and quiet; and ＂The Bastard,＂ concerning a father’s suspicions about his son’s paternity. Other stories include ＂The Taint,＂ a view of infanticide as mercy-killing; ＂The Test,＂ in which an accused murderer is forced to reenact his crime; and ＂A Maniac,＂ recounting a thrill-seeker’s ghoulish impulse to witness death-defying stunts gone wrong.

French author Maurice Level (1875-1926) specialized in macabre short stories that appeared in Parisian newspapers and were staged by the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, a repertory company famed for its gory melodramas.
S. T. Joshi is a literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction.