ABSTRACT
Viewed from a distance, the twenties — that laboratory where so many Fausts, Frankensteins and Prosperos set to work — are revealed as the most fascinating, fruitful and decisive period of the Interbellum, if not the century. The Contes du whisky do not in any way betray the spirit of the time in which they were written, and this becomes all the more obvious when one considers that Jean Ray, in the next stage of his career, abandons the contemporary period. Le grand Nocturne, La ruelle tenebreuse and Le psautier de Mayence and the novella Malpertius owe their trenchant strength all to the fact that they are set in an artificial stylized world which lacks any connection with its surroundings. The Contes du whisky would have been inconceivable without the rise of other artistic trends of the time in Europe. In the Contes du whisky, a majority of the texts are made up of between roughly 550 and 1600 words.
