Adelbert von Chamisso 1 hr 15 min read

A young man sells his shadow to a mysterious gray stranger for a bottomless purse of gold, and discovers too late what it means to walk the world without a shadow.

This 1861 English edition presents Chamisso's 1814 'Peter Schlemihl,' the classic German fable of a fatal bargain. Haunting, resonant, foundational. Read it for one of the great parables of the fantastic, a moral tale of a man who trades his shadow and pays a lonely price.

In its time

Published in 1814, during the 1810s, frankenstein's decade.

Reading it

1 hr 15 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

George Cruikshank