''Fantasmagoriana'' is a French anthology of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

ghost stories, translated anonymously by

Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès (; 24 June 176713 June 1846) was a French geographer, author and translator, best remembered in the English speaking world for his translation of German ghost stories '' Fantasmagoriana'', published anonymously in 18 ...

and published in 1812. Most of the stories are from the first two volumes of

Johann August Apel Johann August Apel (17 September 1771 – 9 August 1816) was a German writer and jurist. Apel was born and died in Leipzig. Influence ''Die Jägerbraut'' was his version of "Der Freischütz", and it was published as the first story of the f ...

and Friedrich Laun's (1810–1811), with other stories by Johann Karl August Musäus and

Heinrich Clauren Carl Gottlieb Samuel Heun (20 March 1771 – 2 August 1854), better known by his pen name Heinrich Clauren, was a German author. Biography Born on 20 March 1771 in Doberlug, Lower Lusatia. Heun went into the Prussian civil service, and wrote i ...

. It was read by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

John William Polidori John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was a British writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most suc ...

and

Claire Clairmont Clara Mary Jane Clairmont (27 April 1798 – 19 March 1879), or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known, was the stepsister of the writer Mary Shelley and the mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra. She is thought to be the subject of a poe ...

at the

Villa Diodati The Villa Diodati is a mansion in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, notable because Lord Byron rented it and stayed there with John Polidori in the summer of 1816. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had rented a house ...

Cologny Cologny () is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History Cologny is first mentioned in 1208 as ''Colognier''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a Neolithic lake side village which was discovered near the village ...

, Switzerland, during June 1816, the

Year Without a Summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest on record between the years of 1766–2000. This ...

, and inspired them to write their own ghost stories, including "

The Vampyre "The Vampyre" is a short work of prose fiction written in 1819 by John William Polidori taken from the story Lord Byron told as part of a contest among Polidori, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley. The same contest produced the novel '' ...

" (1819), and ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

'' (1818), both of which went on to shape the

Gothic horror Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

genre.

Title

''Fantasmagoriana'' takes its name from

Étienne-Gaspard Robert Étienne-Gaspard Robert (15 June 1763 – 2 July 1837), often known by the stage name of "Robertson", was a prominent Liégeois (now part of Belgium) physicist, stage magician and influential developer of phantasmagoria. He was described by C ...

's , a

phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or sem ...

show (french:

fantasmagoria Fantasmagoria is an Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical o ...

, from , "fantasy" or "hallucination", and possibly gr, αγορά, agorá, "assembly" or "meeting", with the suffix ) of the late 1790s and early 1800s, using

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

projection together with

ventriloquism Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

and other effects to give the impression of ghosts (french: fantôme, links=no). This is appended with the suffix , which "denotes a collection of objects or information relating to a particular individual, subject, or place". The subtitle "" translates as "anthology of stories of

apparitions Apparition may refer to: Supernatural *Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience * A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy *Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear ...

of spectres,

revenant In folklore, a revenant is an animated corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word ''revenant'' is derived from the Old French word, ''revenant'', the "returning" (see also the related French verb ''reve ...

s, phantoms, etc.; translated from

the German ''The German'' is a short film written and directed by Nick Ryan, Starring Toby Kebbell and Christian Brassington. It premiered at the 2008 Cork Film Festival and has subsequently been screened at Palm Springs Film Festival, LA Shorts Fest and S ...

by an amateur". The book and its title went on to inspire others by different authors, named in a similar vein: ''Spectriana'' (1817), ''Démoniana'' (1820) and ''Infernaliana'' (1822).

Stories

Eyriès chose a selection of eight German ghost stories to translate for a French audience. The first story ("") was from Johann Karl August Musäus' satirical retellings of traditional folk tales (1786). The next ("") was by

, first published in Johann Friedrich Kind's (1805), but reprinted in Apel's anthology (1810). Of the remaining six tales, five were from the first two volumes of Apel and Laun's (1810–1811), and one ("") was by the highly popular author

, which had been parodied by Apel in one of his stories ("", translated as ""). ''Fantasmagoriana'' was partly translated into English in 1813, by

Sarah Elizabeth Utterson Sarah Elizabeth Utterson (3 November 1781 – 22 September 1851) was a British translator and author. She anonymously translated most of ''Fantasmagoriana'' (1812) as ''Tales of the Dead'' (1813), which also included her own short story " The St ...

as ''

Tales of the Dead ''Tales of the Dead'' was an English anthology of horror fiction, abridged from the French book ''Fantasmagoriana'' and translated anonymously by Sarah Elizabeth Utterson, who also added one story of her own. It was published in 1813 by White, Jo ...

'' containing the first five stories (see list, below); thus three of the five stories from . Three editions in three countries and languages over a period of three years shows that these ghost stories were very popular.

List of stories

References

{{Authority control 1812 anthologies Horror anthologies German horror fiction French horror fiction Translations into French German short story collections Works published anonymously German anthologies