The Accursed · Two Diabolical Tales

With these two chilling novels of the supernatural, a distinguished French writer makes his first appearance in English. Both stories take place during the nineteenth century, in the swampy farmland of the Sologne region, near Orléans, where its peasantry lives in the grip of medieval witchcraft and local legend. From their infancy, the heroines of *Malvenue* (The Unwelcome One) and *Marie the Wolf* have been possessed by evil spirits. Unable to escape the power of the Devil, they are given to irrational and sometimes perverse behavior--behavior that leads inexorably to tragedy.

THE ACCURSED is rich in the atmosphere one associates with Poe, Mary Shelley and Isak Dinesen. Yet there is no question that Claude Seignolle is a wholly original, even unique writer. An acknowledged authority on witchcraft and French folklore, he has drawn his stories from supernatural tales handed down from one generation to the next. What he has created is virtually a new genre, writing that stands on is own as literature, as superlative entertainment, and as authentic folklore.