" A] book of strange adventures, of ghostly, nightmare visions; you will want to read it at a sitting, but do not begin it at bedtime unless your nerves are in a thoroughly healthy condition" - "The Reader"
" Q]uite a remarkable book . . . Mr. Henham has the exceptional gift of lending an atmosphere of reality to the fantastic. . . . Some people will find the book enthralling: others may pronounce it quite mad, but everyone must recognise its undeniable cleverness." - "The Outlook"
"This strange story . . . has a tropical luxuriance of imagination quite unusual in works by English writers . . . an atmosphere of eeriness and mystery strongly reminiscent of Poe. The plot is clever, the characters well-drawn; but it is in his power to create an atmosphere of vagueness and suggestion that Mr. Henham may be said to possess something very like genius." - "The Publisher"
In the remote hamlet of Thorlund stands the manor house known as the Strath, an eerie place that exercises a mysterious hold over anyone who enters it. The site of tragedy in 1742 when its owner, Sir John Hooper, turned highwayman and met his death on the gallows, the Strath has remained vacant for over a century, a pair of hideous masks its only occupants. When the novel opens, the Strath's new owner has just arrived from America to take possession of the house, but he is soon found horribly murdered. Now the next heir, young Charles Conway, has come to the Strath, and the house begins to work its baneful influence on him and on the local residents, causing them to behave in bizarre and violent ways. What is the connection between the sinister power of the Strath and the ghastly masks that adorn the wall? And once Conway and the others are drawn within the evil place, can any of them possibly survive?
"One of England's lost novelists, a writer of startling abilities" ("Times Literary Supplement"), Ernest G. Henham, who also published under the pseudonym "John Trevena," was the author of bizarre Gothic fantasies such as "Tenebrae" (1898) and "The Feast of Bacchus" (1907), as well as a number of unusual and highly imaginative works set in Dartmoor. This first-ever republication of Henham's novel includes a new introduction by Gerald Monsman.

"It would be difficult to find a novel more unusual or more original. That it is beautifully written, full of poetic passages, and contains many fascinating descriptions ...] will be regarded as a matter of course by those who have read any of his] preceding books, and therefore know that John Trevena is unquestionably one of the most notable of living writers." - "New York Times," Jan. 10, 1915
"The construction of the book is very artistic and is difficult to accomplish, but apart from its structural merits 'Sleeping Waters' has high value. ...] Our admiration for this author has been expressed over and over again. There is grasp and reach and power in his] books ...] and they are books that place their author among the foremost of the English novelists." - "Los Angeles Times," Feb. 21, 1915
"The story is magnificently told. . . . The vividness and monstrosity of the characters remind one of the Brontes." - "Chicago Tribune," Jan. 13, 1915
""Sleeping Waters" is a unique novel, and it discloses still further and more emphatically the genius of John Trevena." - "Boston Transcript," Jan. 13, 1915
Father John Anger is worn down from a hard life as a Catholic priest ministering to the poor of London's slums. He travels to a remote village in Dartmoor seeking to recover his health by means of the salubrious air and medicinal waters, and he anticipates a long and tedious convalescence in the sleepy place. But Anger soon finds that despite the village's rustic appearance, it holds as much drama and tragedy as even London. Curgenven, a humpbacked dwarf and scheming attorney, has a diabolical plot to steal the ignorant villagers' land and resell it at a huge profit. Anger resolves to thwart the lawyer's plan, but he is not prepared for the dangerous secrets he will uncover, or the violent climax that his interference will provoke. . . .
Ernest G. Henham (1870-1946) published melodramatic popular novels as a young man before moving to Dartmoor for his health and reinventing himself as "John Trevena." Trevena was regarded as one of the finest novelists of his time, but today he has fallen into total neglect, and his books are all but unobtainable. This 100th anniversary edition of "Sleeping Waters" (1913) includes a new introduction by Prof. Gerald Monsman, who argues for reconsideration of Trevena as an important Edwardian writer and regional novelist as significant as Thomas Hardy.

The narrator of "Tenebrae" inhabits a decaying, desolate mansion in the remote and wild countryside with his younger brother and their mad old uncle, driven insane by abuse of opium and alcohol. This nameless narrator is a morbid young man who passes most of his time in a room painted all black, poring over arcane manuscripts dealing with the mysteries of death, while sipping garishly coloured liquors brewed by his uncle or cups of coffee flavoured with arsenic.
When he falls in love with a neighbour, he looks forward to marrying her and trading his life of despondency for one of joy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, she finds him rather unpleasant company and instead falls in love with his brother. Driven to murderous jealousy, he resolves upon a brutal crime. But after the consummation of his terrible act, he finds himself haunted by a huge, monstrous spider. Is it a delusion brought on by incipient madness? the reincarnated soul of his murdered victim, returned for vengeance? or does it foretell a fate even more horrifying than can be possibly imagined?
Published in 1898, at the end of a decade in which English writers explored the literary possibilities of the Gothic with such characters as Dorian Gray, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, and The Beetle, Ernest G. Henham's weird horror novel "Tenebrae" is reminiscent of the works of Poe. Perhaps unequalled in its extreme darkness and gloom, and yet at times grimly, though possibly unintentionally, hilarious, "Tenebrae" remains one of the strangest productions of this fertile literary period. This newly typeset edition includes the unabridged text of the first edition, as well as an introduction and notes by Gerald Monsman, the foremost scholar of Henham (1870-1946), who later published under the name John Trevena. Also featured is a reproduction of the cover of the incredibly scarce first edition.

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone