Vikram and the Vampire

About this book

A king must retrieve a corpse occupied by a supernatural storyteller. Each time he carries it away, the being tells a tale and demands a judgment. If the king answers, his troublesome companion escapes and the task begins again.

Richard Burton's adaptation of the Indian Baital cycle is full of riddles about loyalty, desire, cleverness and duty. Its nested stories turn the journey into a contest of understanding. Ernest Griset's illustrations add strange faces and theatrical incident to the repeated encounters between Vikram and his impossible burden.