did, however, come to the attention of Joris-Karl Huysmans, who praised Villiers's work in his highly influential novel À rebours. By this time, Villiers was very ill with stomach cancer. On his deathbed, he finally married Marie Dantine, thus legitimising his beloved son "Totor". He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, though a planned tomb monument designed by Frédéric Brou was abandoned at the maquette stage. Writings Villiers' works, in the Romantic style, are often fantastic in plot and filled with mystery and horror. Important among them are the drama Axël (1890), the novel The Future Eve (1886), and the short-story collection Contes cruels (1883, tr. Sardonic Tales, 1927). Contes cruels is regarded as an important collection of horror stories, and the origin of the short story genre conte cruel. The Future Eve greatly helped to popularize the term "android" (Androïde in French, the character is named "Andréide"). Villiers believed the imagination has within it much more beauty than reality itself, existing at a level in which nothing real could compare. Axël Villiers considered Axël to be his masterpiece, although critics preferred his fiction. He began work on the play around 1869, and had still not completed it when he died. It was first published posthumously in 1890. The work is heavily influenced by the Romantic theatre of Victor Hugo, as well as Goethe's Faust and the music dramas of Richard Wagner. The play's most famous line is Axël's "Vivre? les serviteurs feront cela pour nous" ("Living? Our servants will do that for us"). Edmund Wilson used the title Axel's Castle for his study of early Modernist literature. Works Premières Poésies (early verse, 1859) Isis (novel, uncompleted, 1862) Elën (drama in three acts in prose, 1865) Morgane (drama in five acts in prose, 1866) La Révolte (drama in one act, 1870) Le Nouveau Monde (drama, 1880) Contes Cruels (stories, 1883; translated into English as Sardonic Tales by Hamish Miles in 1927, and as Cruel Tales by Robert Baldick in 1963) L'Ève future (novel, 1886; translated into English as Tomorrow's Eve by Robert Martin Adams) L'Amour supreme (stories, 1886; partially translated into English by Brian Stableford as The Scaffold and The Vampire Soul) Tribulat Bonhomet (fiction including "Claire Lenoir", 1887; translated into English by Brian Stableford as The Vampire Soul ) L'Evasion (drama in one act, 1887) Histoires insolites (stories, 1888; partially translated into English by Brian Stableford as The Scaffold