Description

This volume is the first of a set of three books showcasing the work of Frédéric Boutet, the other two volumes being The Voyage of Julius Pingouin and Other Strange Stories and Claude Mercoeur's Reflection and Other Strange Stories. Viewed as an ensemble, they illustrate the range and development of Boutet's early work, and provide representative samples of its later evolution. Although several stories by Boutet were translated into English in the 1920s, especially in America, they were selected from his later works, when he was writing sentimental stories and crime fiction for popular magazines; no examples of his early work, most of which consisted of offbeat supernatural fiction, have previously been rendered into English. Included in this first collection are thirteen examples of the work of a highly distinctive writer of weird and baroque fiction, among them: "The Last Adventure," "The Idol," "The Clement Shades," "The Valley Named Solitude," "Journey to the City of the Dead," and "The Antisocial Man." Great reading by a newly-discovered horror writer!