Little demon in the city of light : a true story of murder and mesmerism in Belle Époque Paris / Steven Levingston
- Author:
- Levingston, Steven
- Published:
- New York : Doubleday, [2014]
- Copyright Date:
- ©2014
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Physical Description:
- 333 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Summary:
- "The thrilling--and so wonderfully French--story of a gruesome 1889 murder of a lascivious court official by a ruthless con man and his pliant mistress, an international manhunt, a sensational trial, and an inquiry into the limits of hypnotic power. In France at the end of the nineteenth century a great debate raged over the question of whether someone could be hypnotically compelled to commit a crime in violation of his or her moral convictions. When Alexandre-Toussaint Gouffe entered a Parisian building at 3 rue Tronson Ducoudray for what he thought would be a delightful assignation with the comely young Gabrielle Bompard, only to be murdered--hanged!--by her and her ruthless companion Michel Eyraud, stuffed in a trunk, and dumped on a riverbank near Lyon, that question became the burning center of an inquiry into the guilt or innocence of a woman the French tabloids dubbed "The Little Demon.""--
- Subject(s):
- ISBN:
- 9780385536035 (hbk.) and 0385536038 (hbk.)
- Bibliography Note:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-333).
- Source of Acquisition:
- Purchased with funds from the Edward J. and Eleanor Black Nichols Library Endowment Fund; 2013
View MARC record | catkey: 12133217