Randolph "Dilda" Carter

Sort of a Decadent version of the Frankenstein story. Somewhat ignored or even despised because of Ewers Nazi affiliation (the Nazi's later proscribed it).

Where Frankenstein's monster is a thing of ugliness Alraune is a thing of delicate beauty but who because of her Genesis ends up as sort of the ultimate femme fatale. She's the product of a hanged murderer's seed at the crossroads and a prostitute. It all has to do with folklore surrounding mandrake roots, something that crops up in other fairytales and folklore.

In a sense she doesn't deserve her reputation, it's kind of her fate, but she is still largely a negative/evil character that Ewers still manages to effectively bathe in tragic sympathy. Her decadence as an adult actually merely reflects the pernicious nature of those around her; she's like a mirror for everyone else's sins. As a child she is simply a demon, but a somewhat helpless one. She never does anything per se but most people feel eerily compelled to do what she "suggests" with the same results. She's just bad news if she doesn't take a liking to you, and sometimes even if she does.

Her torrid love affair with her "cousin" Frank Braun, who actually came up with the "idea" of Alraune, is the climax of the narrative and their more than passionate love/hate relationship sets the stage for the endgame. She unwittingly becomes literally the blood sucking vampire of her nature even as she sleepwalks to her own fate.

Pretty good stuff. I really got into it and couldn't put it down eventually. Ewers was, on top of everything else, trying to be shocking for his time, there is nudity, fornication (although tame by today's standards), incest, necrophilia, murder, and all other sorts of Decadent fun. It comes off as pretty tame today, but in context would have been quite nasty. A brown paper wrapper sort of thing.

This edition has some fantastic historical illustrations that add nicely to that fin de siecle feel.