Valentine Penrose was a French surrealist author whose work delved into the mysteries of mysticism, alchemy, and the occult. Her poetry, influenced by automatic writing and techniques such as frottage and fumage, often explores themes of female mysticism and esoteric knowledge. While best known for her biography of Elizabeth Báthory, her oeuvre also features striking collages and poetry collections that engage with personal relationships and femininity. Admired by Paul Éluard and André Breton, her work represents a unique vision within Surrealism.
This is the true, disturbing case history of a female psychopath, a chillingly lyrical account which has an unequalled power to evoke the decadent melancholy of doomed, delinquent aristocracy in a dark age of superstition.