The Blonde Tress and The Mask
Gilbert-Augustin Thierry
Translated by Brian Stableford
Presented here for the first time in English, in translations by Brian Stableford, the current volume contains two novels of the occult by Gilbert-Augustin Thierry (1843-1915), which were originally published in serial form in the Revue des Deux Mondes.
The first, The Blonde Tress (1888), addresses the question of the fundamental morality of a metaphysical system by which individuals are doomed by fate to expiate sins that they have not committed. It introduces an extra twist—taken from the Old Testament in which people are not even required to compensate for alleged misdeeds of their own immortal soul but for sins committed by their forefathers.
The second novel, The Mask (1894), is an important and intriguing contribution to the late nineteenth-century boom in fantasies featuring Egyptian mummies. Its intense interest in the psychology of reincarnation gives it an extra dimension of complication that differentiates it markedly from the majority of the thrillers and “karmic romances” employing the same motif that followed hot on its heels, and it is certainly entitled to be considered the most interesting work exploring the theme produced before the Great War.
About the Author
Gilbert-Augustin Thierry (1843-1915), the son of the writer Amédée Thierry and the nephew of the historian Augustin Thierry, was a novelist, poet and journalist, who published extensively in the Revue des Deux-Mondes. In 1875 he debuted with the intensively-researched historical novel L’Aventure d’une âme en peine, followed in 1882 by Le Capitaine Sans-Façon 1813 : épisodes de la contre-révolution. His subsequent works, which include Marfa (1887), La tresse blonde (1888), La Savelli (1890), Le masque (1894) and Le stigmate (1898), often dealt with the occult and the supernatural.
Paperback, 270 pages. Release date, February 16, 2021
ISBN-13: 978-1-64525-058-6
Price: US$18.00
Hardcover, 272 pages. Limited edition of 60 copies
Release date, February 16, 2021
Price: US$34.00