The Dead Donkey & The Guillotined Woman • Jules Janin • Illustrated 1993

The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman and it was written by Jules Janin, Honoré de Balzac, with a preface and afterward by Terry J. Hale.

I was a member of The Gothic Society and got the book direct from Jennie herself.

During the early part of the nineteenth century there flourished in France a literature of horror on a par with the English Gothic novel or the German Schauerroman. Rapidly christened "the frenetique school", several of its practitioners including Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac went on the have highly successful literary careers in other fields. The frenetique was at its peak in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Of this short-lived literary movement Jules Janin's "The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman" is one of the finest and certainly one of the most unpleasant examples. Jules Janin is supposed to have begun the tale as a spoof of the fashionable frenetique style; however, with its wealth of horrible incidents and its sinister and claustrophobic atmosphere, it seems likely that the author actually fell in love with his subject. The bizarre duality of the novel becomes as a consequence one of its most striking qualities.

• Illustrations by Tony Johannot, book editor and designed by Jennie Grey.
• A used secondhand vintage paperback. 
• Published by The Gothic Society, 1993.
• Condition is good - just dusty edges with foxing and minor shelf wear, discolouration on the spine and cover. The spine colour has sun fading. Spine intact.
• Pages 168.