Beautiful unknown

In the eighth replacement miniseries, we bring you three dramatic short stories by acclaimed 19th century foreign authors.

´Beautiful Unknown by Pedro de Alarcón´

This thrilling story is about a mysterious woman whose fate is linked to love, guilt and inevitable punishment. The narrator's encounter with the beautiful stranger gradually reveals her tragic past and the dark secret of her murder. The work shows how cruelly human feelings can clash with the relentless law and justice.

´The Invisible Eye by Erckmann-Chatrian´

This short story follows the narrator, who stays in a cheap, gloomy Parisian room during his travels. The atmosphere thickens when the man realises that he is being watched by a mysterious "invisible eye" from the seemingly empty apartment next door. The suspenseful plot gradually reveals a terrifying secret connected to the previous inhabitants and a room that becomes a trap.

´Guy de Maupassant´

The short story from 1887 is stylized in the form of a diary. The main character records his feelings connected with the presence of an invisible, threatening being. The narrator, who calls this entity Horla, falls deeper and deeper into his chimera until he finds himself on the verge of madness.

This story is both a tragic experience and a premonition. Its author was later stricken with madness and before its outbreak claimed to be haunted by his own double.