The Bloody Countess

Fülszöveg

The Bloody Countess
Valentine Penrose
Translated by Alexander Trocchi
In 1729 a Jesuit priest unearthed in the Archives in Budapest a document which, because of the horrific nature of its contents had lain under lock and key for more than a century. It w^'^ the record of the trial of the Countess Erzsébet Báthory who believed that her beauty would be everlastingly preserved if she bathed in the blood of young and beautiful virgins. The Beast of Csejthe, as she was locally known, proved to be a female Gilles de Rais; and like that renowned French nobleman whose perverted taste she shared, Erzsébet too had to stand trial. But because she was a member of one of Hungary's most illustrious families and wife of a famous general, Ferencz Nádasy, she was not put to death but immured in one of her own castles, where after three years she died in 1614 —unrepentant of her crimes.
Was she a psychopath, or merely a sexual sadist, who in an age when witchcraft flourished, resorted to the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The Bloody Countess
Valentine Penrose
Translated by Alexander Trocchi
In 1729 a Jesuit priest unearthed in the Archives in Budapest a document which, because of the horrific nature of its contents had lain under lock and key for more than a century. It w^'^ the record of the trial of the Countess Erzsébet Báthory who believed that her beauty would be everlastingly preserved if she bathed in the blood of young and beautiful virgins. The Beast of Csejthe, as she was locally known, proved to be a female Gilles de Rais; and like that renowned French nobleman whose perverted taste she shared, Erzsébet too had to stand trial. But because she was a member of one of Hungary's most illustrious families and wife of a famous general, Ferencz Nádasy, she was not put to death but immured in one of her own castles, where after three years she died in 1614 —unrepentant of her crimes.
Was she a psychopath, or merely a sexual sadist, who in an age when witchcraft flourished, resorted to the final outrages out of boredom and frustration? We shall never know the devious perplexities that drove this beautiful and gifted woman to the most inhuman pastimes.
Valentine Penrose has written a magnificent study in darkness and evil which vividly evokes the atmosphere of medieval Hungary. The book has been translated from the French by Alexander Trocchi, the novelist and poet. Vissza