Anonyme - Le Livre des prodiges, ou Histoires et aventures merveilleuses de spectres, revenans, esprits, - 1821

[ANONYME]. The Book of Wonders, or Marvelous and Remarkable Stories and Adventures of spectres, revenants, spirits, ghosts, demons, etc., told by trustworthy persons. New edition. Paris, at Masson, bookseller, quai des Augustins, No. 19, 1821.

1 volume in-12. 11x18 cm.

Popular collection of stories of revenants, apparitions, and haunted houses, drawn from ancient chronicles and from old authors (Plutarch, Appian…), whose motto, “My aim is to amuse and not to frighten,” signals the tone. This small book bears witness to the taste for the fantastic and the “romance noir” at the beginning of the 19th century.

Frontispiece engraved showing a skeleton leading away a man armed with a sword, with the legend “Il lui fit signe de le suivre.”

Bradel-style binding, boards and spine covered in marbled paper, red title label on the spine. 191 pp.

Condition: margins of the first leaves frayed and browned, some stains and foxing, frontispiece stained at the margin.