Theological fear, profane fear Barbey d’Aurevilly and the aesthetics of terror

Barbey d'Aurevilly contrasts Blaise Pascal's theological fear, inspired by hell, with the simply metaphysical fear that Edgar Poe's tales seek to produce, a fear provoked by the unknown and mysterious aspects of death. In his fictional tales, he shifts the object of horror, so that it arises not so much from strange or disquieting phenomena, but from an awareness of the transcendence of Evil. Christian fantasy thus distances itself from secular fantasy.