maurice level

Maurice Level (1875-1926), was a French writer of fiction and drama who specialized in short stories of the macabre which were regularly printed in the columns of Paris newspapers and sometimes staged by le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, the repertory company in the Pigalle district devoted to melodramatic productions which highlighted blood and gore. Level’s short stories may be weak in characterization and motivation, but they are strong on obsession and violence. Their surprise endings are reminiscent of the stories of Guy de Maupassant. British critics see Level as the successor of Edgar Allan Poe; American critics, as the contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft.