![]() ![]() ![]() “From the church of Saint-Landolphe nine o’clock sounded, when Blitz hurriedly entered, shaking his hat like one possessed, and saying in his husky voice: ‘Surely the Evil One is about his work! The white and the black are having a tussle. 2Īmong the drinkers is the eccentric church organist Theodore Blitz, whose reaction to the storm gives you an idea of the story’s offbeat tone: In this case, the town is Vieux-Brisach, 1 and the patrons clustered in the inn are some of its most prominent citizens, including the burgomaster and the local notary. “The White and The Black” begins in a locale reminiscent of any classic Universal Pictures horror movie, an alehouse in an isolated town during a thunderstorm. ![]() Atmosphere is key, and Erckmann-Chatrian dole that out in copious quantities. Fantastique plots are frequently non-linear or inconclusive, and the events they describe may be cryptic or unexplained. Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian wrote in a specifically French genre called fantastique, a mashup of horror and fantasy with its roots in the medieval chansons de geste, such as The Song of Roland. In which visionary experiences, Death personified, some truly awful weather, and characters with freaky names all come together to make life odd in a remote part of Alsace-Lorraine.Īnthologized in The Invisible Eye, edited by Hugh Lamb (translator unknown).Įrckmann-Chatrian might sound like the moniker of a rather tiny law firm, but it’s a name that any lover of the macabre should seek out. ![]()
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