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This collection of works by Charles Nodier (1780-1844) juxtaposes three essays with six items of fiction, all the items being concerned to some degree with what he called the fantastique, a genre of literature that he helped to define and in which he was greatly interested. Such a mixture is useful because it is impossible fully to appreciate his relevant works of fiction-of which the items included herein are a very limited sample-without some knowledge of the philosophical and psychological context by which they were inspired, and which their composition helped him continually to reformulate. Two of the contes are incomplete, but a knowledge of the nature and subject matter of the essays enables conjectures to be formed as to how the stories might have developed had they been continued, and perhaps also why they were not.
As an ensemble, therefore, the stories and essays provide a spectrum illustrating and embodying the awkward evolution of Nodier's ideas in the course of his troubled life and career, offering insight into the way that the development of his personal philosophy both assisted and impeded the exemplary contributions he made to the literature of the French Romantic Movement.
