Böcker utgivna av Valancourt Books

The discovery of piles of bones seeming to belong to a previously unknown species of monster will help to unfold a macabre and grisly tale. - A lady is found dead in her bed, the apparent victim of a murder the coroner proves could not possibly have occurred. - A merman found by fishermen off the coast of Brighton in 1745 will reveal the truth behind one of the most terrible events of the 20th century. - A desperate man makes a bad bargain with a man in black; an extraordinarily horrible dummy exercises a frightful control over his terrified ventriloquist; a condemned murderer lives again through the eyes of an innocent child . . . These are the plots of just a few of the brilliant tales you will find in this volume as you enter the bizarre world of master storyteller Gerald Kersh. With a focus on Kersh's science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, On an Odd Note (1958) contains thirteen of his best. This first-ever reprint features a new introduction by Nick Mamatas. Contains: Seed of Destruction, Frozen Beauty, Reflections in a Tablespoon, The Crewel Needle, The Sympathetic Souse, The Queen of Pig Island, Prophet Without Honor, The Beggars' Stone, The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy, The Brighton Monster, Fantasy of a Hunted Man, The Gentleman All in Black, and The Eye."Gerald Kersh had a wild imagination matched by a vivid, near-hallucinatory style. Many of his concepts are so original that they blur the distinction between fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror, but the cumulative impact of his short stories is horrific in the extreme." - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural"Kersh tells a story, as such, rather better than anybody else." - Pamela Hansford Johnson, Daily Telegraph"Gerald Kersh has a strange, perverted sort of genius. And how he can write!" - Virginia Kirkus

Forrest Reid (1875-1947), the Ulster novelist, spent his life in Belfast, in the north of Ireland, save for a period as an undergraduate at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1908. He numbered among his many friends and acquaintances George William Russell (A. E.), E. M. Forster, Edmund Gosse, C. S. Lewis, and Walter de le Mare, as well as various Uranians such as Theo Bartholomew, Osbert Burdett, and Mark André Raffalovich.Despite his sixteen novels, his two autobiographies, and a range of other works, despite being a founding member of the Irish Academy of Letters and an honorary Doctor of Letters of Queen's University in Belfast, despite his novel Young Tom being awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Forrest Reid closely borders both oblivion and canonicity. However, this author, who has been aptly dubbed the "Arch-Priest of a Minor Cult," deserves reconsideration and perhaps a place in the pantheon of English letters.The Tom Barber Trilogy - composed of the very distinct novels Uncle Stephen (1931), The Retreat; or, The Machinations of Henry (1936), and Young Tom; or, Very Mixed Company (1944) - is Forrest Reid's magnum opus. The present scholarly edition presents those three novels as clean texts (in Volume I), followed by a study of Forrest Reid and explanatory notes for the trilogy (in Volume II).

After a falling-out with his father, Reginald de Brune travels to St. Michael's Monastery for a short stay. There, one night at midnight, he observes a beautiful young woman, Christabelle, swearing a mysterious vow at the altar. The two quickly fall in love, but Christabelle's father has other plans, deciding to immure her in a convent, where she is terrorized by a cruel abbess.But there is more to both Reginald and Christabelle than meets the eye, and quickly the two find themselves caught up in the intrigues of Henry II, his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their two warring sons, Princes Richard and John. Can the two lovers unravel the mysteries that surround their origins and survive the plots of their enemies?The Fatal Vow; or, St. Michael's Monastery (1807) is an inventive mix of an early historical novel with aspects of Gothic terror that remains thrilling even two centuries after its first publication. This edition reprints the unabridged text of the very rare first edition, of which fewer than five copies are known to survive worldwide. Also featured are a new introduction and notes by Gothic scholar Max Fincher.

After the untimely death of her beloved father, the valiant Chevalier St. Angouléme, innocent young Adelaide goes to live with her uncle and aunt, the Count and Countess St. Angouléme. Although the haughty and imperious Count keeps her confined nearly a prisoner within the castle walls, Adelaide is nonetheless happy in the company of her friend the Countess.But things begin to take a sinister turn when a villainous peasant, De Launé, arrives at the castle with apparent proof that Adelaide is really his daughter, switched at birth with the true heiress to the estate. Still reeling from this revelation, Adelaide's situation grows even worse when she is kidnapped by banditti in the service of a lascivious marquis and imprisoned in a remote castle. Yet all is not what it seems, and Adelaide must solve the mystery of her parentage and unravel a dark conspiracy against her, before it is too late!This 200th Anniversary Edition of Pyrenean Banditti (1811) reprints the unabridged text of the first edition of this engaging Gothic novel, which survives in only three known copies worldwide. Also included in this special edition is a new introduction in which the details of the life of the mysterious author, Eleanor Sleath, are revealed for the first time.