The Grey Chamber: Stories and Essays by Marjorie Bowen

$25.00

 

  • Selected and edited by John C. Tibbetts.
  • 361 pp
  • Paperback
  • ISBN 9781614983477
  • Cover painting by John C. Tibbetts. Cover design by Daniel V. Sauer

 

British writer Marjorie Bowen (the pseudonym of Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, 1885–1952) was a prolific author of short stories, novels, essays, and other works, many of them reflecting her turbulent life as she lived through two world wars and the death of her first-born child and first husband. She retains a stellar reputation as an author of powerful weird stories, including such classics as “The Avenging of Ann Leete” and “The Crown Derby Plate,” both included in this volume.

 

But editor John C. Tibbetts, author of a pioneering recent study of Bowen’s work, has combed through her entire corpus of fiction to present a wide-ranging selection of stories and essays in this volume. We find less celebrated horror tales such as “The Scoured Silk” and “Florence Flannery”; stories on the changing roles of women in Bowen’s era; and even a time-travel narrative involving the composer G. F. Handel. These and other stories make clear why August Derleth long desired to publish a book of her supernatural tales with Arkham House.

 

Among Bowen’s essays, Tibbetts has selected those that reflect her interest in the Elizabethan magician John Dee, the artist William Hogarth, and other subjects. Also included is a previously unpublished essay on her own work, “Through the Eyes of an Author.”

 

All in all, this volume exhibits Bowen’s remarkable breadth and range; but her recurring interest in the weird permeates every one of these pieces.

 

John C. Tibbetts is a professor at the University of Kansas and the author of The Furies of Marjorie Bowen (2019), the first full-length critical study of her work. He has also written The Gothic Imagination (2011) as well as books on music and film.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction: “An Enchanting Brewer of Dread”

Prologue

Part One: Selected Short Stories

The World’s Gear

Scoured Silk

The Grey Chamber

Serenata

Sheep’s-Head and Babylon

The Avenging of Ann Leete

Jessie’s Pink Balloons

The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes

“He Made a Woman—”

The Accident

The Proud Pomfret

Madam Spitfire

The Burning of the Vanities

A Famous Woman

An Initial Letter

The Crown Derby Plate

The Blue Glove

Florence Flannery

Part Two: Selected Essays

Two Memoirs

Women and the Arts

Magic, Alchemy, and Witchcraft in the Age of John Dee

Royal Pageantry

A Polemic against “Official” Christianity

William Hogarth’s London

Through the Eyes of an Author

Appendix: Timeline of Marjorie Bowen

 



This product was added to our catalog on Friday 01 October, 2021.