Histoires tragiques
Histoires tragiques were a genre of French fiction in 16th-17th centuries, a Baroque rendering of Boccaccio's type of short stories, concentrating on the dark side of human nature.
The progenitor of this kind of a story was Pierre Boaistuau with his translation of Matteo Bandello's Novelli published in French as Histoires tragiques. Boaistuau selected from Bandello six most dark and gorey stories and changed them for his means. He was followed by François de Belleforest who adapted 12 more stories for the new edition in 1570.
Those dark mood stories were imitated by writers like Jacques Yver, Vérité Habanc, Bénigne Poissenot, Alexandre Sylvain, and Bruneau de Rivedoux.
François de Rosset began to borrow plots for his tragic stories from contemporary crime chronicle, and this innovation proved to be extremely popular.
Another important author is Jean-Pierre Camus who adds infernal and diabolical theme.Literature
