Part of Series
"I hear from Mrs Barlow, who is a good gossip, that your mother and your sister are both ill. You must, then, have very little company." "Very little human company," she replied. On a moonlit night, a man dressed as the Devil arrives at the door of the ill-omened Holcot Grange the hereditary owner of the manor which has been uninhabited for two generations, he has come to escape his past and proceeds to reclaim his seat. But the tenants are not passive to his new tenure. As he is enthralled by the aura of one of the current denizens, the otherworldly Julia Roseingrave, a sultry romance begins to bubble, overlooked always by the shadow of conflict and the spectre of death. A deliciously atmospheric novella blending witchcraft and superstition with the Gothic trappings of a cursed love, this edition will also be complete with a number of companion short stories by Marjorie Bowen.
Author
Marjorie Bowen (pseudonym of Mrs Gabrielle Margaret V[ere] Long née Campbell), was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography. Her total output numbers over 150 volumes with the bulk of her work under the 'Bowen' pseudonym. She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye, and Margaret Campbell. As Joseph Shearing, she wrote several sinister gothic romances full of terror and mystery. Many of these stories were published as Berkley Medallion Books. Several of her books were adapted as films. Her books are much sought after by aficionados of gothic horror and received praise from critics. Bowen's alcoholic father left the family at an early age and was eventually found dead on a London street. After this, Bowen's prolific writings were the chief financial support for her family. She was married twice: first, from 1912-16, to a Sicilian named Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died of tuberculosis, and then to one Arthur L. Long. Her first novel was The Viper of Milan (1906), after which she produced a steady stream of writings until the day of her death on 23rd December 1952. Her last, posthumous, novel was The Man with the Scales (1954).
