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The article deals with the story of the French pre-romanticist J. Cazotte “The Devil in Love” and the late novella of the German romanticist E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Elemental Spirit”, in which, as in a “magic mirror”, recurring fantastic events of the temptation of heroes by evil spirits are presented. The relevance of the study is related to the problem of the formation of science fiction as a historical concept. It is shown that the characters have a love feeling for the messengers of the natural world. Faced with a miracle, they become participants in supernatural events and experience the “pernicious consequences of fiery imagination.” It is noted that the dream of carnal love, its bodily embodiment, sobering up are presented through a deep penetration into the psychology of the characters. It describes how the supernatural is introduced into everyday life with the help of symbolic images: a mirror, a dagger, a dream, a mother, etc. It is emphasized that the motive of temptation in conjunction with the motives of trial, fall, suffering, fate create a kind of “circle”. The novelty of the study is connected with the identification in the system of characters of the tempted person image as a direct participant (witness) of supernatural events. This approach made it possible to present a historical perspective, complicated and refined, of J. Cazotte temptation motif functioning in the romantic era in the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann and in the works of Russian writers.

The motive of revenge is analyzed on the basis of the French topos, considered as a space of crime and punishment. It is noted that the novel by E. T. A. Hoffmann and the novel by J. Janin are united by attention to fate as a catastrophic concept inscribed in the picture of life in France. The relevance of the study is associated with the problems of the formation of national identity, national image by romantics of Germany and France. It is shown that the German romantic, who relied on fantasy as a means of understanding and cognizing life, became a model for J. Janin in the perception of “observed material”. Special attention is paid to the artistic embodiment of life as an “ugly abyss” in which the heroines of E. T. A. Hoffmann and J. Janin find themselves. The results of a comparative analysis of the novel, the action of which belongs to the second half of the 17th century are presented in the article. But the writer discusses the morals of the heroes from the point of view of the romantic canon, and the novel, the action of which is attributed to the end of the 20s of the 19th century. The novelty of the research is connected with the fact that the drama of human existence (female) is viewed as a result of the fragility of earthly existence, the loss of faith in the rationality of the universe. This approach made it possible to analyze the national forms of romanticism, the individual approach of Hoffmann and Janin to understanding the moral and the sinful.