The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of R. Murray Gilchrist

Thirty-Six Short Stories of the Strange and Unusual Including 'A Night on the Moor,' 'The Crimson Weaver,' 'Sir Toby's Wife,' 'Dame Inowslad,' 'The Lover's Ordeal,' and 'The Holocaust'

Sensational stories of the supernatural and bizarre from the 'Golden Age'.

Robert Murray Gilchrist, (1868-1917) was an English author, born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and recognized in his early work for his atmospheric "weird" Gothic horror fiction. Though he later became established as a writer of regionally based fiction set in the Peak District, his supernatural writing is highly regarded for its lush, morbid imagery and depth, inspired by the 'Decadent' literary movement of the 1890s, which featured obsessive passion and macabre beauty. While Gilchrist eventually wrote over twenty novels and nearly100 short stories, his enduring reputation in "weird fiction" rests largely on these tales of dread. Gilchrist's works are sometimes compared to those of Arthur Machen and Vernon Lee for their shared ability to combine the beautiful and the horrific within their prose. Robert Gilchrist died of pneumonia on 4 April 1917,at his home in Derbyshire at 49 years of age. Among his tales the reader will discover,'The Crimson Weaver', a surreal story, often cited as a masterpiece of late Victorian weird fiction, 'The Basilis' , which recounts fatal obsession and supernatural transformation. 'The Return': is a classic ghost story possessed of a decadent twist, whilst 'A Night on the Moor', enabled the author to combine his life-long affection for his familiar landscapes with a gothic dread .

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.