Snuggly Tales of the Afterlife

Images of a hypothetical afterlife experienced by the human psyche following the death of the body are among the purest products of the human imagination: a blank canvas on which creativity can be exercised with complete freedom. In the present volume, edited and translated by Brian Stableford, thirteen exemplars of the genre are featured, several of which appear in English for the first time. Including entries by such figures as Judith Gautier, Maurice Renard, and Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, the stories included here, though not offering "answers" to questions that are, in fact, fundamentally unanswerable, do illustrate the fact, that just because a question is rationally unanswerable, it does not mean that there is no philosophical and psychological advantage to be gained by its contemplation. There is pleasure in that contemplation, but that pleasure is dependent on the ability to provide nourishing food for thought as well as piquant taste sensation. Afterlife fantasies, composed with intelligence and esthetic verve-all the examples assembled here have both-are life-enhancing, even, and perhaps especially, when they are infernal rather than paradisal. After all, as the French put it, c'est la vie.