Hannibal's Ring

Written in 1834, but not published until eight years later, in 1842, due to its bizarre style and format, Hannibal’s Ring is one of the most interesting of the early works of Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly.

Presented here for the first time in English, in a translation by Brian Stableford, this short novel or extended prose poem is an autobiographical tale of amorous obsession, featuring the protagonist Aloys, who later became a paradigm example of the mind-set of the dandy, and helped to secure the work’s importance as a prototype of Decadent prose.

Tinged with a bitterly jaundiced flavor, this is a story like no other, in more ways than one; readers cannot be required to sympathize with its hero, or even to comprehend him, any more than they can be required to sympathize with and comprehend its author, but they surely ought to find both of them intriguing, and challenging.