Castle Eppstein (English and French Edition). This item is unavailable.Castle Eppstein (English and French Edition)

A prophecy of Merlin foretold that the Countess von Eppstein, who died on Christmas Eve, would forever be only half dead. A lone hunter, lost in Germany's Taunus Mountains, discovers the truth of this legend when his sleep is interrupted by the specter haunting the castle's "Red Chamber."

The experience forces him to seek out the tale of how the last von Eppstein countess comes to the neglected and crumbling Gothic castle, an appropriate symbol for a once-proud family. He learns of the romance of two innocents and hears of the dashing of a young girl's dreams, the betrayal of a son by his own father, and how a concealed identity led to a wife's tragic and husband's ghastly death.

The Castle of Eppstein by Alexandre Dumas was originally published in 1843 as Chateau d'Eppstein.

If Dumas pere were alive today, he would still be Prince of the Potboilers. Here is a tale, never before translated into English, of ghosts and godliness, of rosy-cheeked virgins and dark-visaged villains, every bit as florid and swashbuckling as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. The House of von Eppstein is cursed with a dire secret: the women of the family who die on Christmas Eve actually remain half-alive, returning when it suits their purpose on the anniversary of their death. On such a night, lovely Albina is killed during childbirth by her vicious husband, Count Maximilian von Eppstein, who believes the baby is not his. The boy, Everard, is brought up by the wife of a forester, whose daughter Rosamund, is born on the same day. Albina, still "half alive," assures Everard of her love, her voice emanating from a tree in a secret grotto. From time to time, she also frightens Maximilian out of his wits with her corporeal presence, but can never dissuade him from the practice of evil, including his towering rages over the love that develops between Rosamund and Everard. Clumsy though the translation, Dumas's rollicking plot and wild imagination compel the reader to suspend disbelief.
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