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A boy recalls life in a remote, old-world village dominated by religious authority and local superstition, where a scandal isolates a gentle clergyman and his niece. The narrator and other youths witness the arrival of an enigmatic supernatural visitor whose astonishing displays and mordant lessons expose human folly, ethical ambiguity, and the illusory nature of reality. The narrative moves through anecdotal episodes blending humor, cruelty, and surreal spectacle while developing a bleak philosophical inquiry into conscience, free will, and the limits of knowledge, closing on an unsettling, reflective coda that undermines comforting beliefs about meaning and permanence.
| Eseldorf was a Paradise for Us Boys | Frontispiece |
| The Lightning Blazed Out Flash upon Flash and Set the Castle on Fire | Facing p. 20 |
| On the Fourth Day Comes the Astrologer from His Crumbling Old Tower | “38 |
| Marget Was Cheerful by Help of Wilhelm Meidling | “60 |
| The Astrologer Emptied the Whole of the Bowl into the Bottle | “74 |
| There Was a Sound of Tramping Outside and the Crowd Came Solemnly In | “108 |
| “Life Itself Is Only a Vision, a Dream” | “148 |