In 1831 Charles Nodier began to publish a series of "Extraits des mémoires de Maxime Odin" in the Revue de Paris. Although "Odin" is an anagram of the first four letters of Nodier, the relationship between the author and "Maxime Odin" is far more complicated than a simple transfiguration, and although all the stories in the present collection are entirely fictitious, the intensity of the author's imaginative involvement with them should not be underestimated.

The Memoirs of Maxime Odin, presented here for the first time in English, in a magnificent translation by Brian Stableford, is one of the great works of French romanticism-exquisite, entertaining and touching, this is a masterpiece, the arrival of which has been long overdue in the English speaking world.