Books published by Valancourt Books

Forrest Reid (1875-1947), the Ulster novelist, spent his life in Belfast, in the north of Ireland, save for a period as an undergraduate at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1908. He numbered among his many friends and acquaintances George William Russell (A. E.), E. M. Forster, Edmund Gosse, C. S. Lewis, and Walter de le Mare, as well as various Uranians such as Theo Bartholomew, Osbert Burdett, and Mark André Raffalovich.Despite his sixteen novels, his two autobiographies, and a range of other works, despite being a founding member of the Irish Academy of Letters and an honorary Doctor of Letters of Queen's University in Belfast, despite his novel Young Tom being awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Forrest Reid closely borders both oblivion and canonicity. However, this author, who has been aptly dubbed the "Arch-Priest of a Minor Cult," deserves reconsideration and perhaps a place in the pantheon of English letters.The Tom Barber Trilogy - composed of the very distinct novels Uncle Stephen (1931), The Retreat; or, The Machinations of Henry (1936), and Young Tom; or, Very Mixed Company (1944) - is Forrest Reid's magnum opus. The present scholarly edition presents those three novels as clean texts (in Volume I), followed by a study of Forrest Reid and explanatory notes for the trilogy (in Volume II).

After a falling-out with his father, Reginald de Brune travels to St. Michael's Monastery for a short stay. There, one night at midnight, he observes a beautiful young woman, Christabelle, swearing a mysterious vow at the altar. The two quickly fall in love, but Christabelle's father has other plans, deciding to immure her in a convent, where she is terrorized by a cruel abbess.But there is more to both Reginald and Christabelle than meets the eye, and quickly the two find themselves caught up in the intrigues of Henry II, his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their two warring sons, Princes Richard and John. Can the two lovers unravel the mysteries that surround their origins and survive the plots of their enemies?The Fatal Vow; or, St. Michael's Monastery (1807) is an inventive mix of an early historical novel with aspects of Gothic terror that remains thrilling even two centuries after its first publication. This edition reprints the unabridged text of the very rare first edition, of which fewer than five copies are known to survive worldwide. Also featured are a new introduction and notes by Gothic scholar Max Fincher.

After the untimely death of her beloved father, the valiant Chevalier St. Angouléme, innocent young Adelaide goes to live with her uncle and aunt, the Count and Countess St. Angouléme. Although the haughty and imperious Count keeps her confined nearly a prisoner within the castle walls, Adelaide is nonetheless happy in the company of her friend the Countess.But things begin to take a sinister turn when a villainous peasant, De Launé, arrives at the castle with apparent proof that Adelaide is really his daughter, switched at birth with the true heiress to the estate. Still reeling from this revelation, Adelaide's situation grows even worse when she is kidnapped by banditti in the service of a lascivious marquis and imprisoned in a remote castle. Yet all is not what it seems, and Adelaide must solve the mystery of her parentage and unravel a dark conspiracy against her, before it is too late!This 200th Anniversary Edition of Pyrenean Banditti (1811) reprints the unabridged text of the first edition of this engaging Gothic novel, which survives in only three known copies worldwide. Also included in this special edition is a new introduction in which the details of the life of the mysterious author, Eleanor Sleath, are revealed for the first time.