Adelbert von Chamisso & Wilhelm Hauff 2 hr 30 min read

Peter Schlemihl sells his shadow to a strange gray man for a bottomless purse of gold, and learns, too late, that a man without a shadow can find no place among his fellows.

Chamisso's 1814 tale, paired here with Hauff's 'The Cold Heart,' is a classic of German Romantic fantasy. Haunting, profound, timeless. Read it for two masterworks of the fantastic, a man who bargains away his shadow, and a charcoal-burner who trades his living heart for one of stone, on the true cost of what we sell for wealth.

In its time

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

Reading it

2 hr 30 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).

Illustrated by

Forster Robson