Strange tales from a master of the short story There can be little doubt that the ideal length for the ghostly yarn is the short story. The writing of shorter fiction is a specific talent and it’s finest exponents, M. R. James, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the author of this volume of tales of the bizarre, are well-known to all. Aficionados of the genre know that supernatural fiction was exceptionally popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The proliferation of periodicals at that time offered numerous opportunities for the publication of the ghost stories and the quality of the writing of these justifiably well regarded authors ensured that supernatural fiction entered a ‘golden age.’ Quiller-Couch, who often published under the distinctive single letter pseudonym ‘Q, ’ was the archetypal literary man of the age. He may have belonged to an elite, but he was at ease with the writing of novels, short fiction, criticism, non-fiction, poetry and the compiling of anthologies. Indeed, it is widely accepted that Quiller-Couch’s most significant achievement was his learned compilation of the huge ‘Oxford Book of English Verse.’ Those unfamiliar with Quiller-Couch’s short fiction will find this special Leonaur collection to be a revelation and those who already know his work will value an volume dedicated solely to his tales of the ghostly and weird. This book contains forty-two masterful stories including ‘A Blue Pantomime, ’ ‘A Dark Mirror, ’ ‘The Haunted Dragoon, ’ ‘Not Here, O Apollo, ’ ‘Oceanus, ’ ‘Old Aeson’ and many more.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.