The  Saragossa Manuscript
Subtitle: A Collection of Weird Tales
By: Edited and with pref. by Roger Caillois. Translated from the French by Elisabeth Abbott.
Contributors: Caillois, Roger, 1913-
Edition: [1st American ed.]
Publisher: Orion Press
Published: 1960
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng; fre
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 233
Description: A set of tales within a tale of a wandering a French army officer's encounters of the supernatural as he travels after the siege of Saragossa. According to the preface by Roger Caillois, it was originally published in St. Petersburg around 1804 by the Polish writer Count Jan Potocki and part of the work was published in Paris in 1893. The French version was published in Polish in 1847 and several editions came out during the next century. Additional parts of the French version were found in Cracow in around 1956. This version follows the St. Petersburg text and does not include the new fragments.

The tales are marvelous. They contain illusion and fantasy as the characters tell their stories. The narrator (Officer) has a difficult time determining what is real, and so will you. There is death and corpses, beguiling spirit temptresses, phantoms, cabala, gypsies and much more - sometimes there is even a thread to connect the tales!

As a bonus, try to find the film version, which is just as fascinating. The entire film, but in segments, is available on YouTube in Polish. Somewhere, there is a version with English subtitles, which certainly adds to the dialog if you don't understand Polish.
Notes: Bibliographical footnotes.
Translation of Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse.