A painter who became a novelist, Theophile Gautier formulated the notion of "art for art's sake." In this literary gem, the gaze is the central character as the eye of the beholder turns deadly. Paul d' Aspremont, on holiday in Italy, meets his fiancee in all but name, a young English girl named Alicia Ward. What begins as an urbane and courtly affair descends into a Gothic nightmare as Paul is revealed to possess the "evil eye," a jinx that kills all those he befriends. Novelist, poet, and critic, Theophile Gautier was a key figure in the Romantic movement in France.