Supernatural Tales: Excursions into Fantasy

Rating:
Summary: Forgotten Author should be republished, reevaluated
Review: This author (real name Violet Paget)seems somewhat forgotten. She was noted in her time (the late 19th and earlier 20th centuries)as a critic of art, architecture and aesthetics. Her friends and admirers included John Singer Sargent, Robert Browning, G B Shaw and Edith Wharton. Her supernatural stories are sometimes found in related anthologies.While probably not masterpieces of the genre, they are at least interesting and have an historical-geographical locale related to Vernon Lee's life and writings. "Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady" deals with a regal youth's infatuation with a family legend, that of a snake women with whom the prince becomes enraptured. "Amour Dure" recounts a Polish student's obsession with a lethal, 16th century Italian seductress.The stories are written with a literate precision which fails to evoke atmosphere. Her language nonetheless evidences intelligence and appreciation of the surroundings (Italy, Spain)in which they are set. Hopefully she will be reappreciated, republished and included more in anthologies of that difficult story form: the supernatural.