THE NECROMANCER: OR THE TALE OF THE BLACK FOREST: FOUNDED ON FACTS: Translated from the German of Lawrence Flammenberg, by Peter Teuthold. In two volumes. London: Printed for William Lane, at the Minerva Press, Leadenhall-Street, MDCCXCIV [1794]. 12mo, two volumes: pp. [1-8] [1] 2-227 [228: ad]; [1-4] [1] 2-248, half titles present, contemporary three-quarter red calf and marbled boards, marbled endpapers, all edges speckled blue. First edition. "This Gothic has plenty of supernatural action but is encumbered by a plot which defies comprehension ... When Jane Austen included THE NECROMANCER in her list of Gothic titles, she had in mind a prime example of the German Gothic at its most outrageous." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 1-48. Regarded by Michael Sadleir as the most formless and incoherently plotted of the seven NORTHANGER titles, the work is now considered to be an inconsistent and incompetent translation of Kahlert's DER GEISTERBANNER (1792) which "was not a novel at all but an anthology of legends about the Black Forest. This thesis explains THE NECROMANCER's baffling structure, amorphous incident, and disintegrative story line. Sadleir's view, that 'THE NECROMANCER would naturally be what it is, a conglomerate of violent episodes thrown loosed together and not always achieving even a semblance of logical sequence' does not detract from what he calls the author's 'sheer stylistic fervour in the handling of the quasi-supernatural.' Even if the plot cannot be comprehended (and it cannot), the book abounds in stunning Gothic effects and Schauerromantik climaxes ... When Jane Austen included THE NECROMANCER in her satiric reading list of approved Gothic titles, she no doubt did so deliberately to suggest the extremes in Teutonic absurdity among the various Gothic fashions and factions. But if the novel is an outrageous example of German absurdity, it is at the same time a splendid instance of the Schauerroman at a point of no rational return" (Frank, pp. 176-177). "One of the more interesting Gothic novels." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1760. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1760. Blakey, The Minerva Press 1790-1820, p. 166. Frank, The First Gothics 209. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1794: 34. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 84. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 1-186. Bleiler (1978), p. 74. Reginald 05462. See Bloch (2002) 987. An excellent copy of an ultra rare book. Enclosed in a custom quarter leather clamshell box with leather spine label. (#168020).
Price: $42,500.00
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