"There are other beings who know the roads of life and are curious about the paths of death." So says the eccentric Doctor Tribulat Bonhomet of the Eventualists' Society, adding "if we were able to see Nature as it truly is, it is probable that we would shiver in horror," And shiver he does when he meets the Vampiric Soul of one of the savage OTTYSOR...

Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-1889), pioneer of the Symbolist Movement, is known for his proto-science fiction works Axel (1885) and L'Eve Future (1886). He also chronicled the colorful adventures of Doctor Bonhomet collected in The Vampire Soul. Poet Paul Verlaine called Villiers' works a "genial melange of irony, metaphysics and terror"and translator Brian Stableford dubs it "a bizarre literary landmark."