SNUGGLY TALES OF FEMMES FATALES

ed. by Brian Stableford

Snuggly Books
(https://www.snugglybooks.co.uk/)
2022, 291 pages, $20

ISBN 978-1-64525-100-2

Click here to purchase

Whether she is an enchantress, siren, temptress or seductress, there are plenty of tales of these femmes fatales. Here are some of the best:

“The Fay Lubantine” by Catherine Durand. Lubantine, the daughter of a fay queen, a young princess, desires only happiness, delightful experiences and endless fun, being surrounded by happy people. There’s no room for gloom in Lubantine’s world. But Lubantine receives a warning from her mother to avoid the deer hunt, because she will experience dire consequences. But the princess is stubborn and determined to live out her fate.

“The Willis” by Alphonse Karr. It’s all about a dance and dancers that lure Henry into a forest after a curse is placed on him for untoward behavior, where forest fays called Willis lure him to certain doom.

“An Old Story” by Charles Barbara. Monsieur Paul, a man with clear emotional insecurity, is taken by a fay-like, highly manipulative woman, Madam Clemence, who grabs the attention of men and discards them like used tampons. This fatal attraction tale puts a LOT of the blame on one evil woman who is so narcissistic that you can’t even tell how, why or when she is being evil.

“The Idol” by Frederic Bouter. A man on a journey on horseback through a forest finds men lured to the forest ruled by a woman, an idol, a temptress that turns men into zombies.

“The Saurienne” by Renée, Vivien. A man encounters what can only be described as a woman crocodile and devises a way to defend himself from her bloody fascinations.

“The King of Persia” by Maurice Magie. A dimwit boy is whisked away to marry a Persian princess, who is wild enough to make the young prince very worried.

“The Rendezvous” by Maurice Renard. A man obsessed with a woman, coupled with his dangerous hypnotic powers, can spell disaster when, after her death, she can’t resist him.