Wilhelm Hauff 16 min read

Born in Constantinople and sent to study medicine in Paris, a young man is drawn by a stranger into a dark bargain, and awakes to find, on a night of horror, a severed hand and a murder.

Wilhelm Hauff's 1826 tale is a classic of German Romantic fantasy and horror. Eerie, atmospheric, superbly told. Read it for a chilling story from a master of the wonder-tale, an innocent abroad, a sinister compact, and a night of blood, in a gripping fable of guilt and the uncanny.

In its time

Published in 1826, during the 1820s, tales of mesmerism, ghosts, and the fantastic voyage flourish in the romantic imagination.

Reading it

16 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).