Monday, July 2, 2012
STEFAN GRABINSKI - ON THE HILL OF ROSES
Hieroglyphic Press have just published a translation (by Miroslav Lipinski) of Stefan Grabinski's first full collection of fantastical and macabre stories, On the Hill of Roses (1918). Grabinski's work has gradually been appearing from independent and small presses over the last couple of decades. This quiet renascence of interest allows us to appreciate the late and strange flowerings of a sombre but exquisite Symbolist. This edition is well-designed, with a beautiful dustjacket appropriate to the title. Mark Samuels provides a brief, affectionate foreword about discovering Grabinski, and the translator a very helpful introduction, explaining just how singular Grabinski was in the Polish literature at the time, and outlining the tragedy of the author's life, and subsequent neglect. The stories will appeal to all connoisseurs of the fantastic and decadent in European literature.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is wondrous news and I can not wait to receive my copy of ON THE HILL OF ROSES. Grabinski's collective work forms a genuine jewel in the diadem of weird and personally haunting fiction. Although inspired by past masters at times, he was such a true & original master of the genre who found a unique and exquisite path of self-expression. I treasure and am in awe of the living machines and obsessive manias which dance through his stories - as I might covet rarified memories of glittering life itself. His story "Strabismus" and "The Area" are things that I live with forever, now that I have read them. His ideas and imagery has gotten under my skin and I can never shed them. They change the future for the reader. If only he knew how much he was beloved. All hail the great, mighty and sorrowful soul that was, is and shall forever be Stefan Grabinski.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Charles, you make the case far better than I do.
Delete