Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and

Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris

A delicious account of a murder most gallicâ€”think CSI Paris meets Georges Simenonâ€”whose lurid combination of sex, brutality, forensics, and hypnotism riveted first a nation and then the world.

Little Demon in the City of Light is the thrillingâ€”and so wonderfully Frenchâ€”story of a gruesome 1889 murder of a lascivious court official at the hands of a ruthless con man andÂ his pliant mistress and theÂ international manhunt, sensational trial, and an inquiry into the limits of hypnotic power that ensued.

In France at the end of the nineteenth century a great debate raged over the question of whether someone could be hypnotically compelled to commit a crime in violation of his or her moral convictions. When Toussaint-Augustin GouffÃ© entered 3, rue Tronson du Coudray, he expected nothing but a delightful assignation with the comely young Gabrielle Bompard. Instead, he wasÂ murderedâ€”hanged!â€”by her and her companion Michel Eyraud. The body was then stuffed in a trunk and dumped on a riverbank near Lyon.

As the inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the woman the French tabloids dubbed the "Little Demon" escalated, the most respected minds in France debated whether Gabrielle Bompard was the pawn of her mesmerizing lover or simply a coldly calculating murderess. And, at the burning center of it all: Could hypnosis force people to commit crimes against their will?
Country USA
Brand Doubleday
Manufacturer Doubleday
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2014-02-25
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780385536035

Country	USA
Brand	Doubleday
Manufacturer	Doubleday
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2014-02-25
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780385536035

Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris

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