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Serapion
"Serapion" by Francis Stevens is a compelling blend of science fiction and fantasy, immersing readers in a world where the boundaries between reality and the supernatural blur. The story follows the enigmatic Serapion, a powerful figure whose presence stirs both awe and fear. Set against a backdrop of political intrigue and mystical occurrences, Serapion's arrival in a once-peaceful kingdom sparks a series of events that threaten to unravel the fabric of society. As he weaves his influence through the corridors of power and the underbelly of the magical realms, the kingdom's fate hangs in the balance. With richly developed characters and a plot full of twists and turns, Stevens crafts a narrative that explores themes of power, destiny, and the hidden forces that shape our world. "Serapion" invites readers to ponder the nature of authority and the cost of ambition in a world where magic and reality collide.
141 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1920
67 people want to read
About the author
Francis Stevens
111 books58 followersGertrude Barrows Bennett (1883–1948) was the first major female writer of fantasy and science fiction in the United States, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Francis Stevens. Bennett wrote a number of highly acclaimed fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy." Among her most famous books are Claimed (which H. P. Lovecraft called "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read")[4] and the lost world novel The Citadel of Fear. Bennett also wrote an early dystopian novel, The Heads of Cerberus (1919).
Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born in Minneapolis in 1883. She completed school through the eighth grade, then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as a stenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life. In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, a British journalist and explorer, and moved to Philadelphia. A year later her husband died while on an expedition. With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother.
During this time period Bennett began to write a number of short stories and novels, only stopping when her mother died in 1920. In the mid 1920s, she moved to California. Because Bennett was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 (the date of her final letter to her daughter). However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.
Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born in Minneapolis in 1883. She completed school through the eighth grade, then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as a stenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life. In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, a British journalist and explorer, and moved to Philadelphia. A year later her husband died while on an expedition. With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother.
During this time period Bennett began to write a number of short stories and novels, only stopping when her mother died in 1920. In the mid 1920s, she moved to California. Because Bennett was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 (the date of her final letter to her daughter). However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2016
This is the last novel published by Gertrude Barrows Bennett, using throughout her brief career the pen name of Francis Stevens. Like her others, it ran as a serialization, this time in the leading fantasy magazine of its day, Argosy. All her serializations appeared between 1918 and 1920.
This is one of the most intense, complete and unrelenting tales of psychological horror ever put together. No gore, guts and physical putrescence so common to horror, but the utter dissolution of a human spirit, as told by the victim. It is also perhaps the saddest book I've ever read, a perfectly realized story of unredeemed personal degradation and its effects on all it touches.
Clayton Barbour, the narrator, is a protected bourgeois son just weak enough to allow himself to be overwhelmed by a sly, dissembling force of evil, just strong enough to be constantly tormented by his weakness. Invited to a séance by a casual acquaintance, Moore, who sees in him a psychic force, he becomes the inadvertent victim of Moore's wife's contact with a channeled malignant force.
From this point on, the life of Clayton, his family and his friends is slowly, inextricably ripped asunder by events and in ways that seem unconnected but are manipulated by the Fifth Presence within him.
Bennett pulls no punches, provides no happy ending. In that, it is her most honest work (and perhaps a summing up of her own life to this point, when she had lost a husband, father and invalid mother). So far as the published record goes, she wrote nothing more. And after Serapion, it's hard to imagine what more she could write.
Dark, wrenching, truly horrifying, but a book I can recommend without the least reservation.
This is one of the most intense, complete and unrelenting tales of psychological horror ever put together. No gore, guts and physical putrescence so common to horror, but the utter dissolution of a human spirit, as told by the victim. It is also perhaps the saddest book I've ever read, a perfectly realized story of unredeemed personal degradation and its effects on all it touches.
Clayton Barbour, the narrator, is a protected bourgeois son just weak enough to allow himself to be overwhelmed by a sly, dissembling force of evil, just strong enough to be constantly tormented by his weakness. Invited to a séance by a casual acquaintance, Moore, who sees in him a psychic force, he becomes the inadvertent victim of Moore's wife's contact with a channeled malignant force.
From this point on, the life of Clayton, his family and his friends is slowly, inextricably ripped asunder by events and in ways that seem unconnected but are manipulated by the Fifth Presence within him.
Bennett pulls no punches, provides no happy ending. In that, it is her most honest work (and perhaps a summing up of her own life to this point, when she had lost a husband, father and invalid mother). So far as the published record goes, she wrote nothing more. And after Serapion, it's hard to imagine what more she could write.
Dark, wrenching, truly horrifying, but a book I can recommend without the least reservation.
December 12, 2019
This was an audiobook from LibriVox.
https://librivox.org/serapion-by-fran...
https://librivox.org/serapion-by-fran...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews