Stories by Théophile Gautier

Contains

Canonical title

Stories by Théophile Gautier

Original publication date

1836 (La morte amoureuse) (La morte amoureuse); 1840 (Le pied de momie) (Le pied de momie); 1844 (Le Roi Candaule) (Le Roi Candaule); 1908

People/Characters

Théophile Gautier; Clarimonde; Sérapion; Romauld (narrator); Barbara (housekeeper); Margheritone (Clarimonde's groom) (show all 11); Hermonthis (Egyptian princess); Xixouthros (pharaoh); Candaules (king of Lydia); Nyssia (Candaules's wife); Gyges (Candaules's captain of guards)

Important places

Venice, Veneto, Italy; Sart, Turkey (as Sardes, Lydia)

Epigraph

[None]

Dedication

[None]

First words

Théophile Gautier was born at Tarbes on August 20, 1811, and taken to Paris in 1814.

Summarised chronology.

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The East is an invention of the nineteenth century.

Introductory essay, by Arthur Ransome.

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Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved.

Clarimonde.

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I had entered, in an idle mood, the shop of one of those curiosity vendors who are called marchands de bric-à-brac in the Parisian argot which is so perfectly unintelligible elsewhere in France.

The m... (show all)ummy's foot.

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Five hundred years before the Trojan war, and seventeen hundred and fifteen years before our own era, there was a grand festival at Sardes.

King Candaules.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)never gaze upon a woman, and walk abroad only ever with eyes fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and watchful one may be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one lose eternity.

Clarimonde.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I started to find it, but fancy my astonishment when I beheld, instead of the mummy's foot I had purchased the evening before, the little green paste idol left in its place by the Princess Hermonthis!

The mummy's foot.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The Sardians, indignant at the death of Candaules, threatened revolt; but the oracle of Delphi having declared in favour of Gyges, who had sent thither a vast number of silver vases and six golden cratera of the value of thirty talents, the new king maintained his seat on the throne of Lydia, which he occupied for many long years, lived happily, and never showed his wife to any one, knowing too well what it cost.

King Candaules.

Original language

English; French

Disambiguation notice

This book contains the stories 'Clarimonde', 'The mummy's foot' and 'King Candaules'. Clarimonde is a vampire story. Please do not combine with different combinations of stories.