The Satyr and Other Tales

Cover image by Stephen J. Clark.

"The Horned Tongue" was long-listed for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year 2011!

"It was the straying that found the path direct." — Austin Osman Spare

In the final throes of the Blitz, Austin Osman Spare is the only salvation for Marlene, an artist escaping a traumatic past. Wandering Southwark’s ruins she encounters Paddy Hughes, a fugitive of another kind. Falling under Marlene’s spell Hughes agrees to seek out her lost mentor, the man she calls The Satyr. Yet Marlene’s past will not rest as the mysterious Doctor Charnock pursues them, trying to capture the patient she’d once caged. The Satyr is a tale inspired by the life and ethos of sorcerer and artist Austin Osman Spare.

Another three novellas of occult enchantment follow: a bookseller discovers that his late wife knew the Devil, in the Carpathian Mountains refugees shelter in a museum devoted to a forgotten author, and in Prague a portraitist must paint a countess whose appearance is never the same twice.

Contents:

• "Author's Preface"
• "The Satyr"
• "The Horned Tongue"
• "The Lost Reaches"
• "The Feast of the Sphinx"
• "Acknowledgements"

This omnibus is comprised of The Satyr (2010) and The Bestiary of Communion (2011); newly illustrated, expanded, and revised.