Primary Texts
The Iliad
The epic poem includes the earliest written report of the god of sleep, Hypnos. Hera calls upon a reluctant Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep, so that Poseidon may rally the Greeks against the Trojans.
Check out a Print Version:
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
The Sandman
Author of the nutcracker story that inspired Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Hoffmann also distinguished himself as a writer of Fantastic tales. In “The Sandman,” a young boy discovers that the Sandman of his parents’ bedtime tales is quite real. Freud made this story famous in his essay “The Uncanny.”
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Hoffmann, E.T.A. “The Sandman.” Tales of Hoffmann. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 1982.
(German) Hoffmann, E.T.A. Nachtstücke. Der Sandmann, Das öde Haus, Das steinerne Herz. Patmos, 2000.
Theogony
Hesiod’s narrative poem details the origins of the gods of ancient Greece, including the gods of Sleep and Death, the twin sons of Night.
Check out a Print Version:
Hesiod. Theogony. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.
“Dornröschen [Briar Rose]"
The Grimm Brothers’ version of “Sleeping Beauty” removes the rape and cannibalism from earlier tales, and gives the princess a name, “Briar Rose.” This is also the first rendition where the sleeping princess is awakened by the prince’s kiss.
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. “Dornröschen” [“Briar Rose”]. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm. Ed. Jack Zipes. Trans. Jack Zipes. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. 696-698.
(German) Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. “Dornröschen” [“Briar Rose”]. Kinder- und Hausmärchen [Children’s and Household Tales]. Diederichs, 2001.
Germinie Lacerteux
Germinie Lacerteux by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
The Goncourt brothers’ naturalist novel about the miserable life of a maid and her aloof employer. Germinie talks in her sleep, expelling rage and sorrow in a somniloquy that the brothers allegedly based upon the real-life ramblings of a sleeping lover.
READ THE NOVEL ONLINE (IN FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. Germinie Lacerteux. Trans. Leonard Tancock. Penguin, 1984.
(French) Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de. Germinie Lacerteux. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1968.
Mademoiselle de Maupin
Gautier’s first novel (1835) was a Romantic sensation: a man and his mistress both fall in love with the title character, a woman who dresses as a man named Theodore. The novel includes a voyeuristic scene of sleep that is fascinating in its suggestion that the sleeping body should be an open book.
READ THE NOVEL ONLINE (IN FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Théophile. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Trans. Helen Constantine. Penguin, 2006.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Ed. Adolphe Boschot. Paris: Garnier, 1966.
Onuphrius
“Onuphrius” by Théophile Gautier
A parody that exploits several Fantastic themes, including burial alive, dreaming, and doubling. An artist dreams that he has died and that an imposter has taken his place. When he awakens, he discovers that the imposter is his own mirror reflection. The tale rides the edge of funny and horrific.
READ THE STORY ONLINE (IN FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(French) Gautier, Théophile. “Onuphrius, ou les vexations fantastiques d’un admirateur d’Hoffmann.” Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
The Hashish Club
“The Hashish Club” by Théophile Gautier
Gautier’s account of a drug trip, which he relates as a kind of waking dream. Gautier founded the club with Jean-Jacques Moreau de Tours, the infamous doctor who theorized that dream and madness were psychologically identical states. Gautier himself claims to have been interested in the creative inspiration fostered by hashish use. However, despite the vivid imaginary, this essay, as well as an earlier one, “The Opium Pipe,” lack the craftsmanship and narrative punch of Gautier’s non-drug-inspired tales.
READ THE STORY ONLINE (in FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Théophile. “The Hashish Club.” The Marijuana Papers. Ed. David Soloman. Panther, 1969.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. “Le Club des Hachichins [The Hashish Club].” Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
Omphale
A man dreams that a beautiful woman in a tapestry comes to life. When he wakes, he notices that the tapestry threads around her feet are frayed. So was it a dream?
READ THE STORY ONLINE (in FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Théophile. “Omphale.” One of Cleopatra’s Nights. Trans. Lafcadio Hearn. Wildside Press, 1999.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. “Omphale.” Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
The Mummy's Foot
A man buys a mummy’s foot to use as a paperweight. That night he dreams that a beautiful Egyptian princess visits to ask for her foot back. This is another of Gautier’s “do I wake or do I dream” fantastic tales.
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Théophile. “The Mummy’s Foot.” One of Cleopatra’s Nights. Trans. Lafcadio Hearn. Wildside Press, 1999.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. “Le Pied de Momie. [The Mummy’s Foot]” Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
The Dead in Love
A priest falls in love with a woman who may be dead, who may be a vampire, who may exist only in his dreams. This is a fascinating study of identity, desire, and transgression in one of Gautier’s most sophisticated Fantastic tales.
READ THE STORY ONLINE (IN FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Théophile. "The Dead in Love." Demons of the Night: Tales of the Fantastic, Madness and the Supernatural from Nineteenth-Century France. Ed. Joan Kessler. U Chicago P, 1995.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
The Coffee Pot
In this early 19th-century Fantastic tale, a young man sees the objects in his bedchamber spring to life, and people emerge from portraits to dance. He meets a beautiful woman named Angela. Is it a dream or a ghostly visitation?
READ THE STORY ONLINE (IN FRENCH)
Check out a Print Version:
(English) Gautier, Theophile. "The Coffee Pot." The Oxford Book of French Short Stories. Ed. Elizabeth Fallaize. Oxford UP, 2002.
(French) Gautier, Théophile. “La Cafétière.” Récits fantastiques. [Fantastic Tales]. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.
The Sandman
Neil Gaiman’s 10 volume graphic novel series took the name of an early comic book hero and turned the whole genre on its head. Meet the Endless: embodiments of eternal forces including Destiny, Death, Desire, Delirium, and of course, Dream. The novel largely follows the evolution of Dream, otherwise known as Morpheus or the Prince of Stories. Interweaving Shakespeare, Greek mythology, pop culture, British history, and various religions, The Sandman is a tour de force of storytelling. Gaiman summarizes it thus: "The king of dreams learns one must change or die and then makes his decision."
Check out the Print Version:
Gaiman, Neil, et. al. The Sandman. Vertigo. 10 vols. 1993-1999.
Left-Handed Dreams
An Italian academic living in New York City records her dreams using a machine of her own creation, hoping to integrate her dream life and waking life.
Check out a Print Version:
Duranti, Francesca. Left-Handed Dreams. Troubadour, 2000.
The Minority Report
In a future America, murderers are apprehended before they commit their crimes, thanks to three mutants who dream of future murders. But the chief of police goes after the “pre-cogs” when they predict he will kill a man he’s never heard of. Published in 1956, Dick’s short story was adapted to the silver screen in 2002 by Spielberg.
Check out a Print Version:
Dick, Philip K. The Minority Report: The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick. Vol. 4. Carol Publishing Group, 1991.
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
During a deep space flight, a passenger’s cryosleep chamber malfunctions and he awakens prematurely. The ship’s AI attempts to keep the man sane by inducing dreams over the 10 year trip. However, the dreams tap into nightmarish memories.
Check out a Print Version:
Dick, Philip K. I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon. Doubleday, 1985.
The story appears in a collection of the same name, which includes Dick’s excellent essay/speech “How to Build a Universe that Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.” Here, he reveals his one sentence definition of reality: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Deckard is a bounty hunter who hunts rogue androids and retires them. During the course of a job, he realizes that these simulated humans are sentient, and perhaps just as human, or more human that he is. Dick’s novel was the basis for the film Blade Runner.
Read a Print Version:
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Del Ray, 1996.
Through the Looking Glass
The sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this novel plays on the idea of mirror worlds, opposites, and simulacra. Tweedledee and Tweedledum insist that Alice is nothing but a character in the sleeping Red King’s dream. At the end of the novel, she confronts the conundrum—“which dreamed it?”
Read a Print Version:
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Modern Library, 2002.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
A bored little girl tumbles down a rabbit hole and finds herself in a peculiar world of talking animals, playing cards, and mad tea parties. At the end of the tale, we learn that Alice had fallen asleep and that presumably her adventures unfolded according to the logic of a dream.
Read a Print Version:
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. New York: Norton, 1971.
Life is a Dream
An imprisoned man wakes to learn that he is the king’s son and stands to inherit the throne. This 17th-century Spanish play deals with the themes of fate, free will, deceit, loyalty, and the nature of reality. It is remarkably suggestive of certain Buddhist themes too: “For the whole of life is just a dream, and dreams… dreams are only dreams.”
Read a Print Version:
(English) Calderon, Pedro. Life is a Dream. Nick Hern Book, 1999.
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