Mandylion Press

Often compared to Huysmans'' A Rebours, The Hill of Dreams is a meditation on alienation and the lure of the fantasticalFrom his earliest literary experimentation, Arthur Machen refused to sit in his own time, clawing his way back to a past inhabited by false gods and terrifying fairies. The Hill of Dreams thus performs a kind of reverse archeology. Instead of the writerly excavation of character development and world-building, Machen entombs his main character, Lucian Taylor, in his own mind, cutting him off from the living world of sensation. Lucian journeys "all the long way from the known to the unknown," into the ruins of an old Roman fort, imbued with the Celtic magic that stirred in the Welsh hills of Machen''s childhood. From this idyll, the story becomes a classic künstlerroman, following Lucian to the gray streets of London where he succumbs to his worse nature. Written in 1897 but not published until 1907, the book was, in Machen''s own estimation, his masterpiece. All Mandylion books come adorned in a translucent dust jacket that emphasizes the unique material qualities of the book.Arthur Machen (1863–1947) was born Caerleon, Wales. His most well-known works include The Great God Pan and Ornaments of Jade. He has influenced writers as diverse as H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Jorge Luis Borges and Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Oliver Wendell Holmes confronts humanity''s original sin in this medical case study-cum-romanceElsie Venner is your typical teenage girl. But unlike her classmates at the Apollinean Female Institute, her mother was bitten by a rattlesnake while pregnant. Not girl, not yet a woman and also not quite human, Elsie must battle a conflicted nature while suffering the advances of lovers, teachers, doctors and ministers, all intent on conquering and curing her. Elsie Venner was one of three "medicated novels" written by physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes. In this work, he coined the phrase "Boston Brahmin," and dissected the eccentricities and hypocrisies of his local culture. Published after Darwin''s On the Origin of Species and before Freud''s Studies on Hysteria, Elsie Venner is a scientific mystery that undresses Puritanism and anticipates psychoanalysis. This Mandylion edition includes the publisher''s signature visual glossary that illuminates the world of 19th-century society, science and medicine.Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–94) was an American physician, writer and public intellectual. He established a medical practice in Boston and served as a professor and dean at Harvard Medical School, while also cofounding the Atlantic Monthly, a magazine he named. His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., served as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932.