Supernatural Tales

by Vernon Lee, L. Cooper Willis (Editor)

Penned at a time when the literature of the fantastic was at its peak, this chilling collection of eerie tales fuses the fantastic with the decadent, creating new artistic forms redolent with satanic imagery, morbid atmospheres, and obsessive notions of decay. Soaked in the intoxicating warmth and aromas of Italian pastoral idylls, these stories are also pervaded by eerie or macabre sensations, particularly when the past suddenly intrudes into the life of the protagonists. The stories include "Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady," the tale of a handsome prince who falls for a beautiful woman who may well be a reptile; "A Wedding Chest," a story of love and assassination; "Amour Dure," which tells of Medea Malatesta, a dangerous beauty so compelling that wretches under the torturer's knife remain hopelessly faithful to her; "A Wicked Voice," which concerns a Norwegian composer whose style is corrupted by the ghostly voice of a male soprano; "The Legend of Madame Krasinka," the tale of the American wife of a Polish count who is saved from hanging herself by the ghost of a beggar; and "The Virgin of the Seven Daggers," an intricate admixture of several elements, part dream within a dream.

Genres: Short Stories, Gothic, Fantasy, Fiction, 19th Century, Horror

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Violet Paget, known by her pen name Vernon Lee, is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music, and travel, poetry and contributed to The Yellow Book. An engaged feminist, she always dressed à la garçonne, and was a member of the Union of democratic control.

Her literary works explored the themes of haunting and possession. The English writer and translator, Montague Summers described Vernon Lee as "the greatest [...] of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction."

She was responsible for introducing the concept of empathy (Einfühling) into the English language. Empathy was a key concept in Lee's psychological aesthetics which she developed on the basis of prior work by Theodor Lipps. Her response to aesthetics interpreted art as a mental and corporeal experience. This was a significant contribution to the philosophy of art which has been largely neglected.

"The Lie of the Land", in the voume "Limbo, and other Essays", has been one of the most influential essays on landscaping.

Additionally she wrote, along with her friend and colleague Henry James, critically about the relationship between the writer and his/her audience pioneering the concept of criticism and expanding the idea of critical assessment among all the arts as relating to an audience's (or her personal) response. She was a strong, though vexed, proponent of the Aesthetic movement, and after a lengthy written correspondence met the movement's effective leader, Walter Pater, in England in 1881, just after encountering his famous disciple Oscar Wilde. Her interpretation of the movement called for social action, setting her apart from both Wilde and Pater.

Reviews

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of Gothic short stories was magnificent. Vernon Lee aka Violet Page is a wonderful and eerie writer. She has a knack for setting the scene. Her imagery is spot on. My favorite stories were 'A wedding Chest' and The Legend of Madame Krasinkas'. The former was heart-racing. The snippets of diary entries made for the perfect medium to tell the tale. My heart quickened as the story unfolded. I needed to know what was happening next. I loved the darkness of the events. I loved that the protagonist was driven by scholarly curiosity at first and by gut-wrenching need in the end. The latter was just too damn real. It was the perfect way of dealing with a sentiment we have all felt 'I don't feel like myself anymore, who am I?, what is happening to me?'. Brilliant!


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[Steve Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun. Very gothic and baroque, with dense descriptions, the stories feel both of their time and out of time. Her love of Italy and art shine through all the stories - she was also known for her writing about aesthetics and her travels through Europe, especially Italy, and it is her knowledge in these areas that provides the density, the colour, the richness.

Possibly the best of the stories for me were "A Wedding Chest" and "Amour Dure". The final story, "The Virgin of the Seven Daggers", I found a little clumsy, as if it wasn't quite sure whether it wanted to be humorous or serious, and didn't quite maintain the style of the other stories. All the stories, however, have something to commend them -- riots of descriptive prose, for example, provide pools of interest.

Of course, these stories are unlikely to shock or to scare a modern audience, but the best of them have the feel of fairy-tales, a kind of timeless quality.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading some of these tales for Bibliogoth back in the summer, the four that were part of that collection were some of the best ghost tales I've read. Very atmospheric, well written and with very interesting women. It felt odd to be reading such great stories in the heat of summer so decided I'd wait till it got cold to finish the book. Unfortantely by the time I got around to finishing it I didn't care for the rest of the tales as much. This may have been partly because they didn't have as many women focused stories. But still a good book.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I was hoping for, I only finished half of the tales. They were too drawn out and some had far too many characters for the length of the story/novella. I just did not appreciate these and they were not what I was longing for in a new Halloween read.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful and eloquent style but a little dense, heavy on description. Aptly named; the stories are definitely more supernatural than scary.