King Candaules by Theophile Gautier, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology 12+

📗 BEHIND THE VEIL!The rapid apparition of Nyssia had dazzled his eyes like the keen zigzag of a lightning flash. He beheld her floating before him in a luminous whirlwind, and felt that never through all his life could he banish that image from his vision. His love had grown to vastness; its flower had suddenly burst, like those plants which open their blossoms with a clap of thunder. To master his passion were henceforth a thing impossible.*She was the most beautiful woman on Earth -- but Nyssia's husband, King Candaules, could not flaunt his wife's beauty, because tradition and decorum demanded she wear a veil.This drove King Candaules quite literally mad.Enter Gyges, who falls in love with the Queen -- and enter with him drama . . . and tragedy.