Klosterheim; Or, the Masque - Tapa blanda

Reseña del editor

The year is 1633. Tensions are running high in the small German city of Klosterheim. The Thirty Years' War rages on, as the Emperor contends with invading Swedish forces, and, closer to home, the marauding robber chieftain Holkerstein and his armies threaten to destroy the town and kill every man, woman, and child in Klosterheim.

But not all the townspeople's anxieties originate from without: within the city, too, there is danger at every turn, as the usurper prince tightens his grip on the town and targets those, like the brave Count St Aldenheim, the virtuous Maximilian, and the lovely Paulina, who pose a threat to his reign. And when a mysterious, disguised figure known only as The Masque appears on the scene, apparently murdering and kidnapping Klosterheim's residents with impunity, terror runs rampant. Who can he be, and who is his next victim? The evil prince is determined to find out, and he devises an elaborate trap in the form of a masked ball, but little does he realize that The Masque is always one step ahead of him, plotting a deadly and inscrutable vengeance!

Klosterheim; or, The Masque was first published in 1832, and it reveals De Quincey's love for the Gothic novels of Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, which he had read in his youth. It is also, as Ed Cameron discusses in his introduction to this edition, inextricably linked to De Quincey's theories on aesthetics and murder, as most famously expressed in his essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts."

Biografía del autor

Despite being born into a wealthy family, Thomas De Quincey had a difficult childhood. He was forced to move quite often, and his father passed away when he was only eight years old. He attended several prestigious schools before running away when he was seventeen, returning home several months later. De Quincy studied at Oxford University for a short while, but he soon became addicted to opium, and dropped out in 1807; he would suffer from this addiction for the rest of his life. In 1821, De Quincey s struggles inspired him to write Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, which was published in London Magazine and served as a professional breakthrough for him. After his wife passed away in 1837, De Quincey s addiction became dramatically worse and his finances suffered as a result. He managed to write several more books, including a second memoir, Suspiria de Profundis, before passing away in 1859.