The new terror

"The new terror" by Gaston Leroux is a novel written in the early 20th century. It appears to be a romantic-psychological mystery with occult overtones, in which a devoted young man, Hector, sees his lifelong love for his cousin Cordélia undermined by an enigmatic English painter whose art exerts an uncanny influence. Themes of hypnotic suggestion, auras, and the idea of a “stolen heart” drive the tension as love, jealousy, and belief collide. The opening of the novel follows Hector from childhood betrothal to Cordélia through his American sojourn and return, where he senses a troubling change in her tied to her art and a mysterious painter. Summoned to the gloomy estate of Vascoeuil, he learns Cordélia and her father have been abroad, sees a shadowy man at Hennequeville, and then hastily marries Cordélia upon their return. At the wedding an unsigned gift arrives: a luminous portrait of Cordélia, clearly by the English painter “Patrick,” which radiates a strange power. That night Cordélia claims she is “as cold as the portrait,” speaks fervently of auras and suggestion, gazes on the painting, and falls into a rigid hypnotic sleep; a local doctor fails, but the specialist Dr. Thurel identifies hypnotic influence and, after blowing on the portrait’s eyes, rouses her. She wakes speaking as if she has shared a moonlit walk and a “golden chamber,” memories that do not match Hector’s reality. The next day she is loving yet altered, and on the second night she is again drawn to the moonlit park, asks Hector to recite Byron as if replaying another man’s words, begs him to save her, and collapses once more into rigidity—leaving Hector terrified that an unseen rival is directing her soul.