Set in France during the Dark Ages, where the good Count Richard has mysteriously disappeared and the usurper Albert and his evil wife Brunchilda reign tyrannically in his place, The Animated Skeleton is a masterpiece of Gothic horror.
On a dark, snowy winter's night, the innocent wife of the peasant Jacquemar returns home, savagely violated and near death. Jacquemar learns that he and his friend Grodern have been marked out for Brunchilda's vengeance, and they must flee to a distant abbey. Brunchilda frames them for murder and will stop at nothing to destroy them. But her plots will be foiled by the animated skeleton which haunts the castle, a skeleton which just may hold the key to Richard's fate.
A bestseller when published in 1798, The Animated Skeleton features an unusual blend of horror and dark comedy unlike any other Gothic novel. This edition, the first in more than two centuries, includes a new foreword and explanatory notes for modern readers.