Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Nigel Tourneur, "Hidden Witchery"

Nigel Tourneur has acquired some cachet for his volume of short stories, Hidden Witchery, a late flowering of English decadence published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 in an edition of 450. The work is available for free download here though I notice some POD publishers are charging handsomely for print copies. Tourneur published stories, articles and novels under this and other pseudonyms, but none under his real name. Here is a short tidbit that appeared in the June 11, 1898 issue of The Outlook:

"Nigel Tourneur," the author of "Hidden Witchery" (Smithers), the latest contribution to symbolistic literature, is a Scot, and a literary critic of advanced and independent views. He calls "Hidden Witchery" a "tentative" book, and there seems little doubt that the writer's undoubted power will sooner or later find a very different artisitic outlet. But the present volume, curious mixture that it is, has touches of exceptionally happy artistry.