Gruppen-Galerie
The Chapel of the Abyss
An effervescently entertaining and instructive book, with nods to classical literature (particularly Suetonius, particularly his curious commentary regarding the effervescent entertainments of…
A novel of decadence in early 20th century Charlottesville, VA, rediscovered and republished by erudite Optimate and much missed friend, Matthew S. Farrell.
"Salvation through sex and universal copulation as a world religion: the tale of Hans Termaden, the sexual Messiah, who leads a postwar Berlin to a fornicating resurrection—told through a feverish…
" 'Twas not long before the invaders began to enjoy the first fruits of their expedition, plucking them in the most seductive manner with their smooth fingers, and feasting lip and tongue and tooth,…
"There is wind where the rose was; Cold rain where sweet grass was; And clouds like sheep Stream o'er the steep Grey skies where the lark was. Nought gold where your hair was; Nought warm where your…
Early English novel of erudition, available from Four Courts Press (or early editions for less on ABE).
" Written at various times throughout the 1920s and 1930s following the deaths of its subjects, Necropolis is a literary graveyard in which an entire movement, Russian Symbolism, is buried. Recalling…
The author appears to have had an unwavering focus. Other titles deal with matters of flagellation and self-wounding, animal cruelty, and witchcraft.
Stefan Eggeler for Arthur Schnitzler's comedy, Reigen ("La Ronde") - an entertaining piece in which each act ends in some variety of sexual intercourse by one of the two characters involved in the…
In memory of Philippe Jullian, for whom the cloche tolled on this day (25 September) in 1977. Plus:…
800 pages of unhinged erudition. Looking forward to it, alongside Paul's sprawling yarn of rivalries and rubber sheets.
If anyone has any biographical information on this author, or any opinions on this novel, please contact me.
Sadakichi Hartmann Born: November 8, 1867, Dejima, Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan Died: November 22, 1944, St. Petersburg, FL
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 18 October 1741. Illustration by Alastair, from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Black Sun Press, 1929 (tr. Ernest C. Dowson).
Though other sources list his birthday as 23 August, librarything says the 25th. Whatever the date may be, it's a good time to commemorate Marcel Schwob by reading The Book of Monelle, or any of his…
I have not read much by this author, but in the few things I have I have enjoyed his curious vocabulary and sensual style (by way of example, and off the tip of my head, I will direct the chance…
Remembering John Gawsworth (Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong, Orpheus Scrannel, King Juan I of Redonda), born 29 June 1912. The illustration is from the cover board of Thrills, Crimes and Mysteries,…
BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a…
HBD Carl Van Vechten (6.17.1880): American novelist, photographer, cultural critic, blues and jazz apostle.
Beasts, Men and Gods is an account of the author's flight from Bolshevik Russia, in the course of which he encounters the "Bloody" White baron Roman von Ungern-Sternburg, murderous Tibetan lamas, and…
This meditation, or prose poem (not really a story or a novella)on the enigma of Erzsebet Bathory, is available in English translation in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Chris Baldick, ed.).
Bibi la Purée (André-Joseph Salis). Ever since I bought the unflattering Picasso print, my umbrellas have gone missing. And we're in our 15th straight day of rain.
"Versatility of Satan" - Alexander King illustration from Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators Celestial and Human (Covici, 1929)
Alexander King illustration from Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators Celestial and Human (Covici, 1929)
Happy birthday Peter Greenaway: my favorite director of the 80s and subject of my revered graduate advisor's first book.
A true love story is always a tale of cruelty. These are the exemplary tales of Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590 – 1661), published by the SUNY Press (the University of Chicago has also published a…
Support the Swan River Press (particularly while the dollar is neck-and-neck with the euro)! This is an illustrated, limited edition hardback: $28.00.
Exemplary Departures: one of the two new Gabrielle Wittkop translations published by the Wakefield Press.
Henry Keen for The Twilight of the Gods, and other tales by Richard Garnett (London: John Lane The Bodley Head/NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1924).
Julian Hawthorne, 1874: "a weird fantasy with Byronic hero and dark priestly villain, enchanted rings, tombs and crypts in a strange house on the New Jersey Palisades, immurement, incest, murder and…
Juan Montalvo Gaspar Blondin / Gaspar Blondin Rubén Darío El rubí / The Ruby Ricardo Palma El alacrán de fray Gómez / Brother Gómez's Scorpion José Martí La muñeca negra / The Black Doll…
Illustration for "The Harlot's House", by Jean de Bosschère, in The Poems of oscare Wilde (Boni & Liveright, 1927).
One of two collections of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's fantastic tales in English. The pictured is the more comprehensive and contemporary of the two (1909!). Bécquer was marketed as "The Spanish Poe".
"Forced to commit suicide after a life of appalling debauchery, in the records of Roman vice and crime the notorious Messalina stands supreme". Maurice Magre: decadent, voluptuary, occultist, drug…
The cover illustration is one of two Beardsley illustrations used as frontispieces to Walt Ruding's 1896 novel, An Evil Motherhood. It is a client's tale retold by a lawyer, of a young man,…
Arthur Machen, Little Blue Book, No. 969 [1926]. Contents: The priest and the barber --The lost club --A wonderful woman --The shining pyramid.
Something I picked up while under the influence of envy of the holdings of the wonderful Side Real Press:…
From Pierre Louÿs' Satyrs and Women (1930). Gyno illustrations by Majeska. I guess we know the sensibilities of the audience this targeted (demurely typed...)
Bruce Angrave's illustrations from John Keir Cross's collection of macabre tales, The Other Passenger (John Westhouse Ltd., 1944).
By the author of "History of Prostitution Among All the Peoples of the World from the Most Remote Antiquity to the Present Day".
Monica Cook, artist. (Those of you who, like me, see this picture and feel a rise in appetite, might wish to consult Portrait of an Englishman in His Chateau for the cephalopodesiac banquet André…
J. Y. F. Cooke (John Long, 1906): Obscure and tepidly "decadent", this is a collection of tales of near or long-past adulteries and accidental, on the verge of naughty, incidents of transvestitism…