A Phantom Lover: and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee

Description

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-de-siecle heyday.

Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of Violet Paget (1856-1935), a prolific and fiercely intelligent writer of essays on art, aesthetics, music and travel, and a significant pioneer of psychological supernatural fiction. Having grown up in Germany, France and Italy, she drew upon her fascination with the folk tales and cultural history of Europe to develop an intriguing and influential oeuvre.

"Lee is as dangerous and uncanny as she is intelligent, which is saying a great deal." -- Henry James