In the last days of the Venetian Republic, the successive wives of Count Alvise Lanzi suffer mysterious, agonizing deaths. Murder Most Serene offers a cruel portrait of a beautiful but corrupt city-state and its equally extravagant and corrupt inhabitants. Redolent of darkness, death, poison and transgression, it is also an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek Venetian romp
Translated for the first time into English, this masterpiece of French literature is striking, not only for its astonishing subject matter but for the poetic beauty of the late author?s subtle, intricate prose. As the haunting protagonist Lucien grapples with a taboo desire, the novel goes far beyond mere gothic horror to explore the melancholy in the loneliest depths of the human condition, forcing readers to confront their own mortality with an unprecedented intimacy. The Necrophiliac has become a cult classic in the 40 years since its original publication, one that is especially intriguing due to the insight it lends into the author's fascinatingly reclusive mind