Erckmann-Chatrian achieved their first successes between 1856 and the beginning of the 1860s with fantastic stories that appeared in various Parisian newspapers, such as Le bourgmestre en bouteille (1856), Requiem du corbeau (1856), Le Cabaliste Hans Weinland (1860) and the Fantastic short novel Hugues-le-Loup (1860). All of these stories often let something latent in reality appear for a short time and thus expose the ideal world of everyday life. The uncanny that appears just as quickly as it disappears is often the animal in humans.