Fantastic Tales
San Francisco: Mercury House, 1992. First edition thus. Hardcover. First edition in English translation from the Italian. Fine in fine dust jacket. Hardcover. 191 pp. With original illustrations by Jim Pearson. A collection of Gothic tales by Igenio Ugo Tarchetti (1839-1869) of which he is considered to be the first "modern" practitioner. According to an article by Lawrence Venuit (the editor and translator of this volume) in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Tarchetti had by 1866 established himself as a known literary figure in Milan. He wrote most of his Gothic tales in 1868 or early 1869, designing them to bait the bourgeoisie by leaving behind concepts of "good sense and decency to explore dreams, insanity, violence, and aberrant sexuality". His tales also challenged "scientific rationality by treating alchemy, spiritualism, and even popular legend with the utmost verisimilitude." Fine / fine. Item #E33945
ISBN: 156279020X
Price: $14.95