It looked at me from the glass, and when I tried to speak, its lips moved too. Miss Whateley uttered a sound that was hardly a cry, and caught me by the shoulder. I got up then and faced her; she was white as death, and her eyes were almost vacant with terror.’Olivia Shakespear (1863-1938) is best known today as the mistress and longtime friend of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, but she was also an important – if now neglected – author in her own right.Beauty’s Hour (1896), originally serialized in The Savoy and never before reprinted, is the story of Mary Gower, a young woman who is intelligent, charming, and witty – but too ‘plain’ to be noticed by the handsome Gerald Harman. Until she discovers that she possesses the ability to transform her physical appearance using only the force of her will. Now, as the beautiful Mary Hatherley, she will command the attention of all and can have any man she chooses. But will her terrifying power lead to unforeseen and terrible consequences?A fascinating rediscovered Victorian text, Shakespear’s novella deserves a place alongside such works as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. This edition features a new introduction and notes by Anne Margaret Daniel.“Certainly no novel to survive from the Gothic period is stranger, darker, or more precipitately irrational.” - Prof. Frederick S. Frank, The First Gothics

    This omnibus includes some of the best Macleod weird tales. "The Washer of the Ford" is a winnower of souls; "The Harping of Cravetheen" is one of the most grotesque heroic fantasies ever written; "The Dan-nan-ron" regards the musical power to control the moods & will of others; "Green Branches" is a tale of a murdered brother's ghostly return; "Sin-Eater" regards Celtic magic; and many other great tales. A Scottish poet and man of letters, William Sharp (1855 - 1905) wrote a series of well-regarded novels representative of the "Celtic Twilight" school popularized by William Butler Yeats under the nom-de-plume Fiona Macleod, a pseudonym that Sharp never publicly acknowledged. Sharp even composed a fictional biography of Macleod for publication in "Who's Who" and exchanged correspondence with such notables as George Meredith, Robert L. Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, and Dante G. Rossetti, sometimes as William Sharp, and sometimes as Fiona Macleod. In part two of this memoir, compiled by Sharp's wife from his diaries and letters, the story of his dual-identity is made public and explained for the first time.