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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.
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