Novel
The Crumb Fairy
La Fée aux miettes
Charles Nodier · 1832
Synopsis
An inmate of a lunatic asylum in Glasgow, Michel, a carpenter from Granville, tells his story. As a young man, he helped an old beggar woman known as the Fée aux miettes at Mont-Saint-Michel, and promised to marry her. She followed him on his travels and showed him the portrait of Belkiss, the Queen of Sheba, with whom he fell in love, and he must find the singing mandrake in order to be happy.
Context
The novel appeared in 1832. It leaves the reader uncertain between delirium and the marvellous: everything Michel reports may be true or may be only the invention of a madman, and the book questions the boundary between madness and wisdom. Classed among fantastic tales, it nourished the Romantic tradition before being claimed by the Surrealists. An English translation, by Ruth Berman, has appeared from Black Coat Press.
Who it is for
A novel of modest length, somewhere between a fairy tale for adults and a fantastic narrative, set in part in Scotland.
Prizes and reception
One of its author's most famous works, and one of the first great successes of the fantastic in France.
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