William's Angel
by S. Henry Berthoud
Adapted by Brian Stableford
cover by Aurelien Hubert
“Come and take your place among the choir of martyrs,” said the angel, “where William is waiting for you, his head circled by an immortal aureole.”
William’s Angel (1838) is based on the story of William FitzOsbert, who led a popular uprising by the citizens of London in the spring of 1196, and was executed. S. Henry Berthoud goes on to weave a semi-mythical retelling of this incident, that includes the characters of Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart.
This book also includes a collection of ten other stories illustrating how Berthoud became an important pioneer of the conte cruel, and one of the first writers to experiment with that would later be called “stream-of-consciousness” narration.
The love of reckless fantasy that was evident in many of his early works is still evident in these conspicuously Gothic horror stories.
William’s Angel (1838)
Heads or Tails (1831)
The Damoiselles de Béthencourt (1830)
The Wedding Night
The Chaplain
The Bloody Forehead
Hector de Avese
Michel d’Esnes
A Soirée chez la Comtesse du Barry
The Boatwoman
The Widow
The Red Nose