Excerpt from The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy IT is a day in early summer, as beautiful as such days were in the Southern lands of 500 years ago. It is Italy steeped in golden sunlight which lies like a haze over the spreading View the year 1360, when cities were beautiful and nature all-pervading. Here is Lombardy, spread like a garden in the hollow of the hills, ringed about with the purple Apennines, covered with ﬂowers, white, yellow, purple, and pink. This wide road, one of the finest in Italy, winds from Milan to Brescia, its whole length through chestnut woods and plains covered with ﬂowering myrtle. Primroses in great clusters border its sides, and from the midst of their delicate blooms Spring the slender stems of poplar trees; these are red-gold, bursting into bloom against a tender sky tufts of young green; clumps of wild Violets. But for all its unspoiled beauty, the road was one of common use, for Milan was within hail. Villas, the summer dwellings of its wealthy peers, stood back among the trees, surrounded by magnificent grounds. Behind them beautiful Open country Spread into the blue distance, fragrant and glorious with budding trees. And cold and magnificent the great city itself, with its huge walls and gates, crowned and emphasised the landscape's beauty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy (Classic Reprint)

Romance

Marjorie Bowen

Paranormal

Forgotten Books

I Will Maintain (Classic Reprint)

Children's Books

The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Franklin Classics Trade Press

William, by the Grace of God: A Novel on William the Silent, Prince of Orange Nassau (Volume 2)

Inheritance Publications

A fascinating occult literature classic, Marjorie Bowen's Black Magic has the story of rise and fall of Anti-Christ movement deftly filled with living images of corrupted nuns, satanic rituals, spells, demons, intensely unscruplus church, violent thunderstorms, love triangles, witches, ghosts, medieval opulence, violence, comets, and much more. Her Heros face the trial of marching on Rome to fight the devil-driven pope to save the Christianity and the people who have their faith on Christ. "In the large room of a house in a certain quiet city in Flanders, a man was gilding a devil" the first line of this story lifts the curtain to take the reader to a thrilling time-travel. Dirk Renswoude, a craftsman of noble birth, mistreated in some way by his family, meets Thierry, a young scholar on his way to study at the university at Basle and they soon discover that they have a shared fascination for black magic. The story has a very gripping plot and well developed characters which makes this book one of the finest gothic novels. Marjorie Bowen (pseudonym of Mrs Gabrielle Margaret V[ere] Long née Campbell), was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography. Bowen had a difficult childhood; her alcoholic father left the family at an early age and was eventually found dead on a London street. She and her sister grew up in poverty with a less than affectionate mother. Bowen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and later in Paris. Her first novel, the violent historical The Viper of Milan was rejected by several publishers, who considered it inappropriate for a young woman to have written such a novel. It went on to become a best-seller when eventually published. She was married twice: first, from 1912 to 1916, to a Sicilian, Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died of tuberculosis, and then to Arthur L. Long. Bowen had four children; a son and a daughter (who died in infancy) with Costanza, and two sons with Long. In 1938, Bowen was one of the signatories to a petition organised by the National Peace Council, calling for an international peace conference in an effort to avert war in Europe. Her total output numbers over 160 volumes with the bulk of her work under the 'Bowen' pseudonym. She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell. After The Viper of Milan (1906), she produced a steady stream of writings until the day of her death. Bowen also wrote history books aimed at a popular readership. Her books are much sought after by aficionados of gothic horror and received praise from critics. Graham Greene stated in his Paris Review interview in 1953, "I chose Marjorie Bowen because as I have told you, I don't think that the books that one reads as an adult influence one as a writer...But books such as Marjorie Bowen's, read at a young age, do influence one considerably." Horror reviewer Robert Hadji described Bowen as "one of the great supernatural writers of this century". Fritz Leiber referred to "Marjorie Bowen's brilliant Black Magic". Jessica Amanda Salmonson, discussing The Last Bouquet, described Bowen's prose as "stylish and moody, dramatic to the highest degree" and stated "what in other hands is merely tacky or gross is, from Marjorie Bowen, a superior art, chilling and seductive". Sally Benson in The New Yorker, discussing the "Joseph Shearing" books: "Mr Shearing is a painstaking researcher, a superb writer, a careful technician, and a master of horror. There is no one else quite like him". Will Cuppy stated "Those who want a good workout of the more perilous emotions will do well to read Mr. Shearing's impressive tale of love, death and doom... Join the Shearing cult and meet one of the most malevolent females in song or story". In an article about women writers, the Australian newspaper The Courier-Mail described Bowen as "one of the best of our modern novelists"

Black Magic

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

<p>Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952) spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family. We are lucky that she did so, since among the results were these short stories of rare quality. In their use of dreams, ancient anecdote, and ruined or dilapidated buildings ('Florence Flannery', 'The Fair Hair of Ambrosine') they are at times in the finest tradition of The Castle of Otranto and the Gothic revival which had chilled the blood of the British public a hundred and fifty years earlier. But her stories are more subtle in their construction, and often use simple materials ('The Crown Derby Plate', Elsie's Lonely Afternoon'), interweaving their terror and mystery with the commonplace of everyday life. Their mastery of detail, sureness of expression and acute reading of human nature give them a sinister force, which is realistic and unnerving, yet at the same time tinged with pity and compassion.</p>

The Bishop of Hell & Other Stories

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Wordsworth Editions Ltd.

COLLECTED TWILIGHT STORIES

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Books by Marjorie Bowen