THE SCARLET SOUL
Stories for Dorian Gray
edited by Mark Valentine
Swan River Press
Printings: December 2017 (300)
Cover image by John Coulthart
Style: Dust jacketed hardback
Length: xii + 208 pages
ISBN: 978-1-78380-019-3
Available for pre-order.
Numbered edition of 100 also available while supplies last.
“Yet it was watching him, with its beautiful marred face and its cruel smile.” — Oscar Wilde
Art, obsession, love, lust, sorcery—ten contemporary writers respond to the imperishable themes of Oscar Wilde’s great Decadent romance, The Picture of Dorian Gray. What happens when a face, a form, an uncanny force changes everything we thought we knew? What survives of us when we stray into a borderland of the mind, where our deepest urges seem to call up remorseless powers?
Whether in fantastic imaginary realms or in the gritty noir of today, these new stories, all especially written for this anthology, take us into some of the strangest and darkest places of the psyche. These ten boldly original portraits in the attic take many disturbing forms, revealing strong truths about the secrets of our selves, our society, and our very souls.
Contents
“Introduction”
Mark Valentine
“Love and Death”
Reggie Oliver
“This Is How It Will Be”
Caitriona Lally
“Every Exquisite Things”
Lynda E. Rucker
“Speck”
John Howard
“Doreen”
D.P. Watt
“All That Is Solid”
Rosannne Rabinowitz
“A Little Chamber Music: Untology in C Minor”
Avalon Brantley
“The Yellow Book”
Timothy J. Jarvis
“A Labyrinth of Graves”
John Gale
“The Anatomy Lesson of Professor Stebbing”
Derek John
“Notes on Contributors”
Mark Valentine is the author of studies of Arthur Machen, and the diplomat and fantasist Sarban. His essays on book-collecting, folklore and the uncanny have been gathered in Haunted By Books (2015) and A Country Still All Mystery (2017) from Tartarus Press. He edits Wormwood, a journal devoted to literature of the fantastic. His books of fiction include Selected Stories (2012) and Seventeen Stories (2013), both from The Swan River Press.