Victor Joly

Vincent-Victor Joly (1807-1870), was born in Brussels where, in the 1830s, he built his reputation as a journalist and playwright, cultivating a strong interest in Belgian history and legendry episodes, which he dramatized in several plays and a number of short novels. He also published tourist guides to his homeland. The last of his works of fiction was Histoires ténèbreueses [Dark Stories], here translated as The Unknown Collaborator and Other Legendary Tales. The title story is a fine Faustian fantasy, and “The End of a Story of which the Beginning is Familiar” is a highly original fantasy featuring the seven-league boots of legend.