The Book of the Beast - Softcover

Lee, Tanith

3.98

481 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879516984 ISBN 13: 9780879516987

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 1997

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A haunted house and a ghostly woman are the instruments that release an ancient curse upon the forgotten city of Paradys. As a savage, unholy beast prowls the city’s streets, a young student seeks to uncover the secrets that will lead to his salvation. Lee infuses this dark tale, the second volume in the series, with a dreamlike quality that hovers, like the world in The Book of the Damned, on the border of reality.

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About the Author:

Tanith Lee is one of the leading fantasy authors working today. She has written over 50 novels and short story collections, among them the bestselling Flat Earth Series. She has won the World Fantasy Award numerous times as well as the August Derleth Award.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Second of Lee's projected four-book fantasy series (The Book of the Damned, 1990), set in the forgotten French city Paradys: nine linked stories that add up to a well-rounded, satisfying whole. Young university student Raoulin discovers in his ruined- palace lodgings a ghostlike, sexually charged woman, Helise, whose horrible secret is that she is possessed by a mindless, ancient, bird-headed demon; the demon propagates itself through the sperm or womb of its victims. Helise was infected by her husband, a chaste and honorable man, because she could not restrain her lust for him. Now, having achieved the demon's purpose by infecting Raoulin, she collapses into dust. Raoulin attempts suicide, but the demon will not let him die; eventually coming to his aid will be a Jewish magician and his daughter, who are aware of the demon's Roman origins and subsequent history. Together they will attempt to cast forth the Beast. Top-notch demonology and atmosphere, with convincingly developed characters, but it is Lee's talent for realizing an exquisite and appalling mingling of lust and horror, sexual pleasure and loathing, yearning and revulsion, that drives the book and its readers from cover to cover. Enthralling. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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