The Black Monk; Or, the Secret of the Grey Turret (Valancourt Classics)
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The Black Monk; Or, the Secret of the Grey Turret (Valancourt Classics) by James Malcolm Rymer
Brandon Castle is full of mysteries and terrorsLonely candles give feeble light to the eerie chill of the castle's endless hallways. Winding staircases descend into damp crypts of discarded skeletons while rat-infested secret passages lead to satanic altars. Towering over the castle's dank moat is the mysterious Grey Turret. Filled with legends of shadowy ghosts and terrifying demons, its only door has been locked for centuries.
Until now.
Someone has discovered the key and wants the terrifying power locked away in the Grey Turret.
Who dares to defy the legend of the Grey Turret?
Agatha? Hungry for power, nothing can stand in her way
Eldred? Her nervous brother, the perfect foil for a murderous plan?
Sir Rupert? The brave knight suffering from a heartbreaking loss?
Nemoni? The mysterious wild-man of the woods?
The Black Monk? Aided by Satan's black magic, can he be stopped?
Serialized in British newspapers throughout 1844, The Black Monk is an excellent example of the Victorian penny dreadful. Each week, eager readers would await the next penny's installment and The Black Monk delivered so many thrills and terrors that it became the mid-century's publishing phenomenon.
This edition includes the unabridged text of the 1844 edition along with all 54 original illustrations and features a new introduction by Curt Herr, Ph.D.
James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a major contributor to Victorian literature, yet remains largely unknown today. He wrote the first vampire novel in English, Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood, and the original Sweeney Todd novel, The String of Pearls. One of the most popular penny dreadful writers of the 1840s, his serialized novels are being rediscovered as excellent examples of mid-Victorian pop culture.
Curt Herr, Ph.D. has prepared the critical editions of several Victorian Sensation novels, such as Ziska, Vendetta, Dene Hollow, and the notorious penny dreadful Varney the Vampire, or, The Feast of Blood. He teaches Gothic and Victorian Sensation fiction at Pennsylvania's Kutztown University.
James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a British penny dreadful novelist who co-wrote both Varney the Vampire (1847) and The String of Pearls (1847) with Thomas Peckett Prest, in which the legendary villain Sweeney Todd makes his literary debut. Rymer's background is unknown. Despite being born in Clerkenwell, London on February 1, 1814, he was of Scottish heritage. He is mentioned as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, in the London Directory of 1841, and the British Museum collection identifies him as editing the Queen's Magazine in 1842. He wrote 115 bestselling novels for Edward Lloyd, an English bookseller and publisher, between 1842 and 1867, including the best-sellers Ada the Betrayed, Varney the Vampyre, and The String of Pearls.
In England, Rymer's novels were published under his own name and anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Malcolm J. Malcolm J. and Errym
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781934555996 |
| ISBN 10 | 1934555991 |
| Title | The Black Monk; Or, the Secret of the Grey Turret (Valancourt Classics) |
| Author | James Malcolm Rymer |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Valancourt Books |
| Year published | 2014-04-29 |
| Number of pages | 636 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |