Masquerades : $b Studies in the morbid

Description

"Masquerades" by Shane Leslie is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. A suite of “studies in the morbid,” it marries ecclesiastical parable, Irish gothic, and medieval cruelty with satiric bite and luxuriant prose. Central figures include a world-weary pontiff battling temptation, a pragmatic London governess out of her depth in Connemara, and a ruthless Spanish noble presiding over a siege. The tone is ornate, fatalistic, and darkly ironic. The opening of the collection moves from a baroque Vatican vision to Irish eeriness and bohemian tragedy. In the first tale, a Pope endures a day of ritual burdens, confesses to an Inquisitor, and in a night vision faces three classic temptations—power, spectacle, and the ache of home—resisting with doctrine until the Inquisitor wryly concludes the Tempter is “damned home-sick.” Next, a level-headed governess accepts a post in wild Connemara, meets a fox-obsessed squire and his feral, lovable children, and, after ominous hints in the family Bible, witnesses uncanny packs of foxes haunting the house when the master dies, culminating in a shocking wake. “Inspiration” follows an undertaker’s clerk turned dramatist, lifted by the sacrifice of Queenie—his true muse—into fame, only to discard her, lose his gift, and find her dead, prompting a bitterly literal order for a coffin to bury his “Inspiration.” The final story begun here introduces Don Balthasar, a connoisseur of cruelty besieging a castle where a loyal seneschal, starved of options, is coerced by two soldiers to trade his daughter and wife for their continued defense—the narration breaking off as he wrestles with duty, faith, and despair. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Subjects

• Short stories
• Fantasy fiction
• PR