SECRETS OF THE CLOISTER. FROM DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE FAMILY OF THE LATE FATHER F ---

Father F --- (pseudonym of Bracebridge Hemyng)

Published by C. H. Clarke, London, 1869

About this Item

16mo, pp. [1-6] [1] 2-149 [150: blank], rebound in quarter cloth and marbled boards. First edition. A shilling shocker issued in August 1869 in paper wrappers only. "A collection of seven sensational stories supposedly drawn from a series of confessions discovered among the papers of a deceased Catholic priest. The stories feature typical Victorian tropes, such as the wealthy heiress imprisoned in a cloister in 'Against Her Will' and the notorious robber who reforms because he falls in love in 'Barbone, the Bandit.' 'A Terrible Tale' is a particularly nasty piece in which a spurned lover attempts to kill his beloved and her fiancé horribly by sending them over a waterfall in a rowboat, only to end up beating his rival to death with a rock because he survives the plunge. 'Secrets of the Red Inn,' the longest story in the book, is a strange tale involving Prince Sulatsky and Princess Olga, Tartar nobility who pay the owners of the Red Inn in Bishopsgate to drug young travelers whose blood the prince drinks and bathes in because he believes it will cure the leprosy that has left him hideously deformed. The princess also drinks blood because she believes it maintains her beauty. While these characters are referred to as 'vampires,' they are not supernatural in any way, nor is there any indication that their drinking blood has the restorative effects they believe it does. The scenes of them feeding on the blood of the hero of the story, Herbert Avoncourt, after piercing him with a hatpin are suitably gruesome, and the story contains numerous instances of characters in disguise, shocking revelations, and a murderous giant mastiff just for good measure. While most of the stories are merely mediocre, if 'Secrets of the Red Inn' were written with more skill and in a less dry prose style, it would be a lost classic of Gothic fiction" (Boyd White). Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperback, 1849-1905 VI, p. 212. COPAC and OCLC report three copies (British Library, Oxford University, and Cambridge University). (#171063).

Seller Inventory # 171063

Bibliographic Details

• Title: SECRETS OF THE CLOISTER. FROM DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE FAMILY OF THE LATE FATHER F ---
• Publisher: C. H. Clarke, London
• Publication Date: 1869
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Victorian Fiction
  • Horror
  • Mystery & Crime