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.