Une peinture sombre de l’amour dans Les Ombres sanglantes
A Dark Portrayal of Love in Les Ombres sanglantes

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore the theme of love in Les Ombres sanglantes [The Bloody Shadows] (1820) by J. P. R. Cuisin. Four stories from the volume were chosen for this purpose, including “La demeure d’un parricide, ou le triomphe du remords”; “L’Infanticide, ou la fausse vertu démasquée”; “La guérite de la religieuse, ou la vestale prévaricatrice” and “Niobé, ou l’élève de la nature”. The analysis of these texts revolves around the crimes described by the author in each of the stories, namely parricide, infanticide, breach of religious vows and incest. The violent, destructive and sometimes grotesque manner in which these various sentimental relationships, often of an illicit or even pathological nature, are portrayed in Les Ombres sanglantes diverges considerably from the vision of love typical for the Gothic novel in France at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, clearly marking the advent of the frenetic genre, more and more present in the French literature of this period.

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