The article examines the process of formation of a new myth in the era of romanticism. The term “le cadavre est vivant” by R. Barth is borrowed and rethought. Using the historical-comparative method, the socio-historical path of the emergence of characters, embodying the problem of tragic fates of children in the literature of the XIX century and the works of V. Hugo, is analyzed. There is a conclusion that the affect and the method of constructing a character with the “delayed death”, or “the talking dead”, contribute to the focus of readers' attention on children's characters with a miserable fate.