The Virgin of the Seven Daggers and Other Stories

I entered the church...It struck me suddenly that all this crowd of men and women standing all round, these priests chanting and moving about the altar, were dead...

Vernon Lee was a polymath whose copious writings include deeply learned studies of art, music, literature, and history, but also a small but exquisitely crafted group of Gothic tales, most of which first appeared in fin de siècle periodicals including the iconic Yellow Book. In these stories of
obsession and possession, transgressive desire reaches out from the past -- through a haunting portrait, a murdered poet's lock of hair, the uncanny voice of a diabolical castrato -- dragging Lee's protagonists to their doom. Among those haunted by Lee's 'spurious ghosts' was Henry James, who
praised her 'gruesome, graceful...ingenious tales, full of imagination'.

This new edition includes Lee's landmark 1890 collection Hauntings complete, along with six additional tales and the 1880 essay 'Faustus and Helena', in which Lee probes the elusive nature of the supernatural as a 'vital...fluctuating...potent' force that resists definite representation. Aaron
Worth's contextual introduction, drawing upon Lee's newly published letters, reassesses her place in the pantheon of the fantastic.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert
introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Vernon Lee

Aaron Worth is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Boston University who has previously edited The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories (2019) by Arthur Machen and Green Tea and Other Weird Tales (2020) by Sheridan Le Fanu for Oxford World's Classics. His own horror fiction has appeared in
publications including Cemetery Dance Magazine and Vastarien.

Introduction
Winthrop's Adventure
Oke of Okehurst; or, the Phantom Lover
Amour Dure
Dionea
A Wicked Voice
The Legend of Madame Krasinska
The Virgin of the Seven Daggers
Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady
The Doll
Marsyas in Flanders
Appendix I: Faustus and Helena
Appendix II: Preface to Hauntings
Explanatory Notes