THE GRIMOIRE AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL STORIES
Book Details + Condition: The Fortune Press (London). First UK Edition (ND, 1936). Hardcover with original dust jacket. Black cloth boards with gilt title to spine. 295 pages. Includes a frontispiece titled "The Rivals", which per the book "is one of the four illustrations by Phiz to the anonymous GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF MYSTERY, 1851. This very uncommon book is the rarest of the Le Fanu items. The scene depicted is from SCHALKEN THE PAITER, p 142 of the present edition. It has never before been reproduced". Montague Summers collected and provides an extensive Introduction on the Gothic and the supernatural. Stories include:
- The Vampyre (John William Polidori)
- The Queen of Spades
- The Polish Jew
- Schalken the Painter (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu)
- Dickon the Devil (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu)
- The Story of Salmoe
- The Spectre Hand
- The Grimoire (Montague Summers)
- The Man on the Stairs
- And more.
Firm binding; bumped bottom corner; slight lean to book; interior is clean and free of markings; jacket has been price-cut, and has a newer (still vintage) price present. It is now protected with a mylar cover. The book has been little read - it retains UNCUT pages.
