Bruges-la-morte and the Death Throes of Towns

It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief who takes refuge in Bruges, where he lives among the relics of his former wife – her clothes, her letters, a length of her hair – rarely leaving his house. However, he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera who bears a likeness to his dead wife. He courts her, but in time he comes to see she is very different, coarser, and their relationship ends in tragedy.