In the dark of night, one light still yet burns.

Frightened fingers tremble as brittle pages turn.

Fireside Mystery Theater presents The Midnight Reading,

a summer series of dramatic recitations of dark masterpieces in miniature

by the masters of the macabre.

Good evening.

I'm James Reeser.

Maurice Lavelle, a French writer from the late 19th and early 20th century,

specialized in a genre of macabre short stories known as

Comte-Cruel. He dramatized much of his work for a performance on the stage of La Teatroe de Gran

Gignolle in Paris, a theater company that featured both comic burlesques, and most notably, short

plays celebrated with the public for their violence, horror,

and sometimes repugnant subject matter. The gratuitous acts of violence and stunning

climactic twists characteristic of the grand guignolle are, in essence, the precursors to modern

horror and slasher films.

Lavelle's tales often more unnervingly deal with the human condition,

moral frailty, and the wrongs we humans can inflict upon each other

rather than anything supernatural,

which, perhaps, is even scarier.

Here to read for us the English translation of one of Maurice Lavelle's more popular tales,

The Last Kiss, is our own Miss Allie Silva.

Forgive me.

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