A Phantom Lover: and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee
An anthology of the best stories, snippets and imaginative pieces by Vernon Lee, the pen name of Violet Paget.
During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as ‘the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction’, and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short stories and dark fantasies proves why she was once considered among the best of the genre, and why she deserves to return to those ranks today.
From modernised folk tales such as ‘Marsyas in Flanders’ and ‘The Legend of Madame Krasinska’ to ingenious psychological hauntings such as the titular ‘A Phantom Lover’ and ‘A Wicked Voice’, Lee’s own voice is just as distinctive and captivating – her weird imaginings just as freshly unsettling – as in her fin-desiècle heyday.
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Mike Ashley
Mike Ashley is the author and editor of more than 100 books, and is one of the foremost historians of popular fiction. His books include Adventures in The Strand (British Library, 2016), Out of This World, a brief illustrated history of science fiction (British Library, 2011), and The Age of Storytellers: British Popular Fiction Magazines 1880-1950 (British Library, 2005). Most recently he is the author of a multi-volume history of science fiction magazines, published by Liverpool University Press.
British Library Tales of the Weird
The British Library Tales of the Weird series revives and unearths classic strange fiction from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the form of novels, single-author collections and thematic anthologies, complete with new introductions and fascinating notes by expert editors.
British Library Tales of the Weird consists of seventy books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
