Bellefleur, along with A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982) and Mysteries of Winterthurn (1986), mark a distinct trend in Oates's fiction, which she has since abandoned: the huge, Gothic romance with naturalistic elements. While in her more naturalistic novels, the events are almost unbelievably violent, they are almost comically improbable in Bellefleur: a spider that nestles on the bare back of his beautiful mistress, a girl that is born after the male parts of her twin are cut away, a slavish dwarf that is found in the Bellefleur woods, a man that disappears in a room and is never heard or seen again, a vampire that comes from Sweden to claim a bride. The narrator is omniscient, but subtly sympathetic. The lake and the setting of Bellefleur castle, in the wilds of.....
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