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Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes Mystic-Humorous Stories By: Joseph Lewis French (1858-1936) |
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Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes
MYSTIC HUMOROUS STORIES Edited by Joseph Lewis French
[Illustration]
Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1922 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
NOTE
The Editor desires especially to acknowledge assistance in granting
the use of original material, and for helpful advice and suggestion,
to Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University, to Mrs. Anna
Katherine Green Rohlfs, to Cleveland Moffett, to Arthur Reeve, creator
of "Craig Kennedy," to Wilbur Daniel Steele, to Ralph Adams Cram, to
Chester Bailey Fernando, to Brian Brown, to Mrs. Lillian M. Robins of
the publisher's office, and to Charles E. Farrington of the Brooklyn
Public Library.
FOREWORD
There is an intermediate ground between our knowledge of life and the
unknown which is readily conceived as covered by the term mysticism .
Mystery stories of high rank often fall under this general classification.
They are neither of earth, heaven nor Hades, but may partake of either.
In the hands of a master they present at times a rare, if even upon
occasion, unduly thrilling aesthetic charm. The examples which it has
been possible to gather within the space of this volume are offered as
the best of their type. The humorist, thank heaven, we have always with us. Spectres cannot
afright him, nor mundane terrors deflect him from his path. He takes
nothing either in earth or heaven seriously, as is his God given right.
Some of the best examples of what he has done in the general field of
mystery are presented here for the first time in any collection. JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH.
CONTENTS
PAGE I. MAY DAY EVE 3
Algernon Blackwood II. THE DIAMOND LENS 38
Fitz James O'Brien III. THE MUMMY'S FOOT 77
Théopile Gautier IV. MR. BLOKE'S ITEM 96
Mark Twain V. A GHOST 101
Lafcadio Hearn VI. THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR 109
E. F. Benson VII. CHAN TOW THE HIGHROB 143
Chester Bailey Fernando VIII. THE INMOST LIGHT 158
Arthur Machen IX. THE SECRET OF GORESTHORPE GRANGE 203
A. Conan Doyle X. THE MAN WITH THE PALE EYES 230
Guy de Maupassant XI. THE RIVAL GHOSTS 238
Brander Matthews
Masterpieces of Mystery MYSTIC HUMOROUS STORIES
MAY DAY EVE Algernon Blackwood
I It was in the spring when I at last found time from the hospital work
to visit my friend, the old folk lorist, in his country isolation, and
I rather chuckled to myself, because in my bag I was taking down a book
that utterly refuted all his tiresome pet theories of magic and the
powers of the soul. These theories were many and various, and had often troubled me. In the
first place, I scorned them for professional reasons, and, in the
second, because I had never been able to argue quite well enough to
convince or to shake his faith, in even the smallest details, and any
scientific knowledge I brought to bear only fed him with confirmatory
data. To find such a book, therefore, and to know that it was safely in
my bag, wrapped up in brown paper and addressed to him, was a deep and
satisfactory joy, and I speculated a good deal during the journey how
he would deal with the overwhelming arguments it contained against the
existence of any important region outside the world of sensory
perceptions... Continue reading book >>
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