The Evil Eye is a novella about a young Frenchman who is the victim of circumstances. Paul travels to Naples to see his young British fiancé Alicia who is visiting the Italian city with her uncle a retired British naval officer. Alicia is consumptive and has been recovering for the previous six months in relative isolation from weight loss and weakness due to her illness. Paul is anxious to be with her again.

Paul is a man in his middle 20s who has regular features but is not handsome. There is something about him that is not at all attractive. It is his eyes that are the focus of his face. They are pale gray and in stark contrast to his auburn hair. When he becomes irritated, his eyes "pupils" turn green tinged with little black spots and streaked with yellow. This attracts the attention of witnesses.

The Neapolitans are superstitious and quickly notice the change in Paul's eyes when he is upset. They associate the eyes with the idea of "Trattadore," the legendary evil eye. They believe if the evil eye is turned on someone, he must protect himself from misfortune with hand signs and coral amulets.

The story describes circumstances that lead Paul, Alicia, and Alicia's uncle (the Commodore) to believe that Paul is a Trattadore. The disruptive circumstances are coincidental, but that does not lessen with the fear of evil. A competing suitor takes advantage of the situation by reinforcing the idea of Paul's evil eye causing tension, anxiety, and doubt among the characters.

Theophile Gautier was one of the most influential writers in the romantic style of the 19th Century using artful descriptions of characters and environments in his work. The Evil Eye is a good example of his ability to give a wistful sense of Florence and an idealized description of social values across cultures in the 1850s. I enjoyed this novella as much as I did some of his other work, Captain Fracasse and selected short works The Essential Theophile Gautier Collection (8 works) (see product descriptions and my reviews on Amazon). ( )