Appearing here in English for the first time, in a translation by Shawn Garrett, is Robert Scheffer’s minor masterpiece of decadence, Prince Narcissus. Glutted with over-the-top imagery and set largely against a backdrop of Venice, it tells, in glistening prose, of the bizarre suffering of Prince Mitrophane Moreano, impassioned by his own image and armed against fleeting youth with only the science of the cosmetic box and his singular madness.

Included in the current volume are four additional tales which show Scheffer’s broad range, covering the grounds of the conte cruel, horror, the occult, and the naturalist nouvelle.