Graven Images: Classic Stories of Ghastly Paintings and Dreadful Effigies

Art, and artists, have long resided in supernatural fiction. The artist gives life with each brushstroke or tap of the chisel, but what if that vital spark arises not from what is true, what is noble, what is lovely-but something darker? Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, M. R. James, Lovecraft, and more offer 20 tales, and one novella, exploring uncanny art and haunted artists in this anthology.

Contents include: La Venus d'Ille (Merimee); The Prophetic Pictures (Hawthorne); Schalken the Painter (Le Fanu); Edward Randolph’s Portrait (Hawthorne); The Oval Portrait (Poe); Man-size in Marble (E. Nesbit); The Ebony Frame (E. Nesbit); The Phantom Model (H. Nisbet); Huguenin’s Wife (Shiel); The Old Portrait (H. Nisbet); The Mezzotint (James); The Man with the Roller (Swain); The Room in the Tower (Benson); The Picture in the House (Lovecraft); A Square of Canvas (Rud); Pickman’s Model (Lovecraft); Nude with a Dagger (Flanders); The Sinister Painting (La Spina); The Golgotha Dancers (Wellman); The Adventure of the Mysterious Picture (Irving); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde).