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Henry Summersett, the author of a number of extremely scarce Gothic
romances with lurid, alluring titles like "Mad Man of the
Mountain," "Final Retribution," and "The Wizard and the Sword," is
one of the most fascinating and mysterious of the forgotten
novelists of the long eighteenth century. His dark, brooding, and
often shocking novels, told in a unique prose style influenced
heavily by Shakespearean tragedy and German Romanticism, are
intriguing rediscoveries that will be of great interest to scholars
and fans of classic Gothic fiction alike.
In "Leopold Warndorf" (1800), Summersett combines the two dominant
modes of popular fiction of the era, infusing a sentimental novel
with a heavy dose of Gothic gloom. The title character is a young
man of beauty and virtue who finds himself unjustly shunned by the
world because his birth was illegitimate. Many years earlier, the
libertine Baron Altenburg had seduced Leopold's mother, the
ingenuous Josephine, who then died in childbirth. The unhappy
outcast Leopold begins to see a brighter future ahead when he falls
in love with the lovely and charming Augusta and plans to wed her.
But little does he know that Augusta is in fact his sister, another
illegitimate offspring of the rakish Baron. The unsuspecting
Leopold is faced with tragedy on both sides: will he unknowingly
consummate an incestuous marriage with his sister, or will he
discover the truth and instead be forced to resign the only love he
has ever known?
Published by the legendary Minerva Press in 1800, Summersett's
powerful novel has never before been reprinted and is known to
survive in only two copies worldwide. This new edition reprints the
unabridged text of the original two-volume edition from the copy in
the British Library and features a new introduction and notes by
Steve Orman of Canterbury Christ Church University. Valancourt
Books has previously published Summersett's "Mad Man of the
Mountain" (1799) and "Martyn of Fenrose" (1801), and several of
Summersett's other rare works, also edited by Orman, are
forthcoming.
After critics condemned his sensational Gothic novel "Martyn of
Fenrose; or, The Wizard and the Sword" (1801) as blasphemous, Henry
Summersett returned with the very different "The Worst of Stains"
(1804), ostensibly a moral tale about the importance of marital
fidelity, but ironically featuring an ending far more horrific than
anything found in his Gothic novels.
"The Worst of Stains" opens on a cold winter's night, when the
village sexton, Gabriel Fellers, and his wife Mary have their quiet
evening by the fireside interrupted by the arrival of a frantic
stranger at their cottage door. The unexpected visitor is a young
mother, driven mad with illness and shame, having been seduced and
deserted by a rakish libertine. In a fit of insanity, she kills
herself, leaving her infant, William Berrington, to be raised by
the sexton's family.
Despite the stain of being born out of wedlock, Berrington grows
into a fine young man and wins the love of the beautiful Lorina.
But their domestic felicity is fated not to last: Berrington's
friend Russel sows the seeds of jealousy in Lorina's mind, telling
her that her husband is having an affair with the unprincipled Lady
Augusta Hartley. Slowly and insidiously, Lorina observes the signs
of her husband's supposed adultery while the wicked Russel schemes
to win his friend's wife for himself. But Russel's machinations
have unexpected consequences and will lead to a grisly and
unforgettable climax . . .
An updating of Shakespeare's "Othello," Summersett's tale of love,
jealousy, vengeance, and murder was first published in 1804 in an
edition now so rare that only one copy is known to survive. This
first-ever republication of the novel features a new introduction
and notes by Steve Orman of Canterbury Christ Church University and
a reproduction of the title page of the original edition.
About the Author
Henry Summersett was the author of several lurid Gothic novels,
including "Mad Man of the Mountain" (1799), "Jaqueline of Olzeburg,
or, Final Retribution" (1800), and "Martyn of Fenrose; or, The
Wizard and the Sword" (1801). Little is known about his life,
except that he was apparently a self-taught man who was
passionately fond of Shakespearean tragedy and works of German
Romanticism, both of which are significant influences on his
novels.
About the Editor
Steve Orman is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of English
& Language Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Once upon a time Fernando Roncorone was a happy youth with a loving
family, friends, and the affection of his beloved Rosolie. Now he
lives alone, a hermit, and a terror to the local villagers, who
know him only as the Mad Man of the Mountain. Mad Man of the
Mountain recounts Roncorone s descent into madness as he loses
everything he cherishes through the dastardly schemes of the
villainous Salvini. And once Salvini s unthinkable cruelty has
taken from Roncorone everything that is dear to him, the Mad Man
will set out after Salvini, intent on wreaking a savage vengeance
Replete with murder, gloom, and horror, Summersett s novel tapped
into the late-eighteenth century craze for Gothic novels and
remains compulsively readable today. This edition reprints the
unabridged text of the rare two volume first edition published in
1799 by the Minerva Press, the great purveyor of sensational Gothic
fiction, and includes the complete text of contemporary reviews.
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly
growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by
advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve
the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own:
digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works
in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these
high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts
are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries,
undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary
study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope,
Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann
Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others.
Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the
development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields
in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as
an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++British LibraryT124785London: printed at the Minerva-Press, for
William Lane, 1799. 2v.; 12
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
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly
growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by
advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve
the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own:
digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works
in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these
high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts
are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries,
undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary
study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope,
Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann
Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others.
Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the
development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields
in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as
an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++British LibraryT060940London: printed for William Lane, 1797.
2v.; 8
Domestic tranquillity reigns at the castle of Lord Alwynd, where
the noble lord lives in happiness with his two adopted children,
William and Agatha, his cousin Celwold, and Celwold's ward, Edward.
But their peace is threatened when Alwynd is summoned to battle
against the treacherous De Stacey.
On his way to war, Alwynd meets the wizard Martyn of Fenrose,
but even the magical sword he gives to Alwynd is not enough to save
the hero from death Now William, Agatha, and Edward find themselves
wholly in the power of the scheming Celwold and his cruel
concubine, Lady Mercia. The three youths, with the help of Martyn
of Fenrose, must solve the mystery of their origins and escape
Celwold's tyranny. But who is Martyn, and why does he seem to be
all-powerful and immortal?
First published in 1801, "Martyn of Fenrose; or, The Wizard and
the Sword" shocked contemporary critics, who condemned it as
blasphemous. Summersett's novel is strikingly original and is
written in an unusual, almost Shakespearean style. This edition,
the first since its original publication, reprints the complete
text of the three volume first edition (which survives in only
about five copies worldwide), and also includes the complete text
of two contemporary reviews.
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.
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