The Dead Woman in Love

Book excerpt: First published in 1836, Th�ophile Gautier's 'The Dead Woman in Love' is a supernatural tale, recounting the life of the priest named Romuald who falls in love with the beautiful and enigmatic Clarimonde, who the reader later learns to be a vampire. At the beginning of the tale, Romuald is asked whether he has ever loved and to which he responds, "yes." On the day of his Ordination, when he was a young man, he sees a beautiful woman whose hypnotic voice promises to love him and to make him happier than he would be in heaven. Torn between his amorous attraction to her and his Christian beliefs, he finishes the ceremony despite her appeals. However, he is captured by her beauty and he is taken away from his life as a priest to live in Venice with the alluring vampire, who subsists by drinking his blood while he sleeps.