One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances

The volume gathers a handful of Gautier’s most vivid fantasies, each a bright tableau of love and wonder set against richly imagined pasts. In the opening tale, a night in ancient Egypt glitters with enchanted sarcophagi, murmuring hieroglyphs and a kiss that holds the power of a kingdom, while the prose paints the desert’s shadows and palace’s opulence with painterly detail. Other stories wander through the smoldering streets of Pompeii, the gilded courts of Lydia, and medieval mystic realms, all suffused with the author’s lyrical reverence for beauty and the uncanny.

Readers will feel the pull of antiquity’s scent, the sparkle of vanished frescoes, and the tender ache of youthful desire that haunts each romance. Gautier’s language works like a brush, layering colour, scent and feeling so that every scene seems both historically grounded and dream‑like. The collection invites anyone who loves a blend of scholarly detail and imaginative storytelling to linger awhile in worlds that are as enchanting as they are brief.