Jules Janin (1804-1874) was one of the major exponents of the frénétique school of literature, which reveled in excesses, dark themes, and ghoulish situations, and The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman, originally published in 1829, and long out of print in English, is certainly the most frénétique of his novels-and, in fact, one of the greatest landmarks left behind by that school as a whole.

A cruel story of great artistry, at once sly, desperate, and immensely tragic, The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman, though filled with quips and dark humor, is a blood-curdling exercise in literary flamboyance that is no less devastating today than when it was first released.