Synopsis
The Marvellous History of the Shadowless Man and The Cold Heart (English Edition) brings together two hauntingly imaginative tales by Adelbert von Chamisso, exploring the perilous bargains people strike when they trade away what makes them fully human. In these stories, wonder and dread walk side by side, and the supernatural is never mere spectacle—it is a mirror held up to desire, shame, loneliness, and the cost of ambition.
In “The Marvellous History of the Shadowless Man,” a mysterious transaction promises prosperity, yet the price is strange and irreversible: the loss of a shadow. What begins as fortune quickly curdles into isolation, as the hero discovers that the world reads absence as guilt and difference as danger. With mounting tension and a dreamlike atmosphere, the tale unfolds as a moral fable about identity, belonging, and the limits of what wealth can redeem.
In “The Cold Heart,” the forested world of legend becomes a stage for temptation and transformation. A yearning for status and comfort invites a darker exchange—one that threatens to harden feeling itself. As the story deepens, it asks what remains when compassion is surrendered, and whether a person can reclaim their heart after choosing ease over empathy.
Elegant, unsettling, and rich with Romantic-era imagination, this volume is ideal for readers who love classic European fantastical literature, psychological folklore, and timeless cautionary tales—where the true horror is not the magic, but the human choice that summons it.
Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
