Tartarus Press

publishers

Powers of Darkness

by

Robert Aickman

 

Introduction by Mark Valentine

 

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is considered by many to be one of the finest exponents of the modern ghost story, and he is certainly versatile. In this collection the reader is offered the experience of visiting a disused lead-mine, the Houses of Parliament, a séance in a dreary suburb, and a sun-drenched Greek island. The dust jacket for the first edition of Powers of Darkness (first published in 1966) stated ‘...in every case his readers will experience that authentic chill which is the hallmark of the supernatural.’

 

Mark Valentine points out in his Introduction to this new edition that Aickman was striving to achieve something approaching poetry in his writing, and ‘he often does this in the service of the strange and sinister.’

 

Contents: 'Introduction' by Mark Valentine, ‘Your Tiny Hand is Frozen’, ‘My Poor Friend’, ‘The Visiting Star’, ‘Larger Than Oneself’, ‘A Roman Question’ and ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’.

 

Cover artwork by Stephen J Clark of The Singing Garden.

 

Review

"As a reader, one can almost feel the haunting quality not just of the prose and the story, but also of the book." Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column

 

Also available:

We Are for the Dark (with Elizabeth Jane Howard)

Dark Entries

Powers of Darkness

Sub Rosa

Cold Hand in Mine

Tales of Love and Death

Intrusions

Night Voices

Go Back At Once

Selected Letters to Kirby McCauley

 

see also: Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography by R.B. Russell

 

Robert Aickman: Author of Strange Tales: