I find some of [the short stories in Le Coq de bruyère] disturbing, just as I found Michel Tournier's magnificent novel The Erl-King disturbing, and for the same reasons. In The Erl-King, M Tournier's understanding of the spirit of the Teutonic powers of evil underlying the actions and "philosophy" of the Nazis was so complete that it almost seemed legitimate to assume that he felt some obscure complicity with them. Some of the stories in Le Coq de bruyère … are orientated towards the same dark, saturnine forces—and again, with charm and persuasiveness.

"La jeune fille et la mort" is one of the longer stories. Death has always acted as a magnet for Mélanie, ever since she was a "docile, intelligent, hard-working" little schoolgirl. Death, and also sadism and torture, for Mélanie was born bored—bored by everything in life. The way M Tournier treats with such calm, and apparent approval, his protagonist's concept of all life being boring may perhaps disturb others, too….

In "Le Nain rouge", a dwarf takes his revenge on nature in many ways, urged on by his fantasy of being the governor of a women's concentration camp. In the end, however, he finds a less terrible fulfilment as a circus clown: one Christmas Eve he hires the whole circus and gives all the seats, free, to children from schools, reformatories and orphanages, "none of whom was a single centimetre taller than he".

Children play a large part in these stories, some of which were actually written for them…. There are also free fantasias on fairy stories and myths: Tom Thumb trying to run away from his narrow bourgeois home is good, and M Tournier's new version of the story of Adam and Eve is better still, and full of light-hearted humour….

M Tournier has a wide range of subjects, and of course he writes extremely well—but he still frightens me.