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- Dreads and Drolls
- by Arthur Machen
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- This
volume contains sixty studies, mostly from real life,
each of which, by its capacity for inspiring terror or
causing amused wonder, qualifies as the 'Dread' or
'Droll' of Arthur Machen's general heading. 'To be able
so to tell the bare truth that it seems a magnificent
lie' is the qualification which has attracted Machen to
the most outstanding of his narrations.
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- When
Dreads and Drolls was first
published in 1926 it contained twenty-nine articles
reprinted from London's The Graphic. We have great
pleasure in more than doubling that number by including
all of his contributions from that magazine. To 'The
Euston Square Mystery', 'The Adventure of the Long-Lost
Brother' and others we have been able to add 'A Castle in
Celtic Myths', 'A Pretty Parricide', 'One Night When I
Was Frightened' and many more.
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- There is
a tendency towards the re-telling of notable
eighteenth-century crimes among these 'Dreads' and
'Drolls', but Machen also manages to illuminate such a
wide range of subjects as the Holy Grail, the 'Little
People' and cookery. In this entertaining and diverse
collection of essays, Machen manages to show how little
human nature has changed through the centuries.
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- We can
admire Machen, in the words he uses to commend Grimaldi,
as a man with an 'admirable scent for mystery and
capacity of creating it'.
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- Contents: ' 'Introduction, by R.B.
Russell, 'Note, by Arthur Machen, 'The Man With the
Silver Staff', 'The Mystery of Mr Haddock', 'Ceremony on
the Scaffold', 'Mr Lutterloh', 'A Lament for London's
Lost Inns', 'Madame Rachel', 'Sir Benjamin The "Baron" ',
'Our Betty's Day Out', 'How The Rich Live', 'The Highbury
Mystery', 'Deadly Nevergreen', 'Polite Correspondence',
'How Clubs Began', 'The Ingenious Mr Blee', 'Old Dr
Mounsey', 'Casanova in London', ' "Doubles" In Crime', '
"Characters" ', 'The Euston Square Mystery', 'More Inns',
'The Adventure of the Long-Lost Brother', 'The Power of
Jargon', 'The Little People', 'The Campden Wonder',
'Morduck the Witch', 'The Man From Nowhere', 'Before
Wembley', 'The Strange Case of Emily Weston', 'The Gay
Victorians', 'A Castle in Celtic Mists', 'A Tale of a
Turbot', 'Chivalry', '7B Coney Court', 'Concerning
Cocktails', 'Mothers-in-Law', 'A Pretty Parricide', 'The
Cry of a Captive', 'Our Funny Friends', 'Twins', 'Hungry
Weather!', 'The Medicine-Man's Magic', 'The Best of
Everything', 'The Merry Widow', 'Knocking Legends To
Smithereens', 'One Night When I Was Frightened', 'The
Wood Family', 'Houses', 'The People of the Wild', 'Laugh
When You Awake', 'The Little Brown Things',
'Shakespeare's 'Bare Bones', 'The Simplicity of Genius',
'Books that a Queen May Read', 'Society and the Savage',
'Those Doctors!', 'The "B" in Baconian Bonnets', 'The
Scholar and the Sun-Myth', 'Dr Johnson's Disappearing
Act', 'When the Much-Travelled Man Comes Home',
'England's Last State Lottery', Bibliographical
information.
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- ISBN
978-1-905784-04-2
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- Dreads and Drolls is a sewn hardback
of 241+vii pages.
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- Limited
to 350 copies.
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- Price
£35.00/$60 inc. p&p.
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-
-
  
- Five titles by
Arthur Machen in print from the Tartarus Press (from top
left): The Secret of the
Sangraal & Other Writings, Dreads and
Drolls,
Ritual and Other
Stories,
The Hill of
Dreams, and
Tales of Horror and the
Supernatural.
Page updated
5th September 2009
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