Three dramatic novellas and four chilling shorter tales form this first complete collection of Ray Russell's exceptional Gothic work.
Stephen King called the novella 'Sardonicus' "Perhaps the finest example of modern Gothic ever written." Christopher Lee, a famous film Dracula, said of the novella 'Sagittarius': "It is a wonderfully flamboyant Chinese puzzle of a story which rewards close scrutiny by yielding up further mystery upon mystery."
The characters in this book form a fascinating gallery. There is Maude Randall, and her lover Sir Robert Cargrave, and the heartless monster who holds a terrible threat over them. There is the beautiful Elisabeth, who journeys down a hellish road from virginal innocence to the depths of depravity; Dorottya, the evil gypsy corrupts her; Vassily, whose genius may be the result of a pact with Satan; dark-eyed Fiammetta, who is virtually a prisoner of her mad brother, Carlo; Laval, a great actor whose stage crimes spill out of the theatre into real life; a young duchess and a young countess who are thrown into dungeons by their jealous old husbands...these and more, all depicted with the 'vivid characterization' for which Russell rightly has been praised.
Stephen King called the novella 'Sardonicus' "Perhaps the finest example of modern Gothic ever written." Christopher Lee, a famous film Dracula, said of the novella 'Sagittarius': "It is a wonderfully flamboyant Chinese puzzle of a story which rewards close scrutiny by yielding up further mystery upon mystery."
The characters in this book form a fascinating gallery. There is Maude Randall, and her lover Sir Robert Cargrave, and the heartless monster who holds a terrible threat over them. There is the beautiful Elisabeth, who journeys down a hellish road from virginal innocence to the depths of depravity; Dorottya, the evil gypsy corrupts her; Vassily, whose genius may be the result of a pact with Satan; dark-eyed Fiammetta, who is virtually a prisoner of her mad brother, Carlo; Laval, a great actor whose stage crimes spill out of the theatre into real life; a young duchess and a young countess who are thrown into dungeons by their jealous old husbands...these and more, all depicted with the 'vivid characterization' for which Russell rightly has been praised.
