Les Diaboliques consists of six tales of female temptresses, or she-devils, in which horror and the wild Normandy countryside combine to send a shiver down the spine of the reader. Barbey D’Aurevilly (1808-1889) gave up the law for literasture and left Normandy for Paris where he led a very dissolute life until he converted to Catholicism. A dandy, literary critic and writer he was one of the most well-known figures of his days. The publication of Les Diaboliques when he was 66 made him famous as a writer and also very rich.