The spectre of Gilles de Rais, satanist and child-killer, eclipses French history like a dark star. A fallen general, once the champion of Jeanne d'Arc, de Rais' riches and experimentations led him to the very gates of hell. Dark Star is a testament to the enduring legend of Gilles de Rais and his mythic alter-ego, Barbe-Bleue, and the way in which the two have fused in the popular imagination. With quotations, essays and fiction from some of the most fertile imaginations of the last centuries, this is a rich evocation of the satanic allure of this mass murderer.