His twenty-four resulting prints, which include architectural studies, local landscapes, still lifes, close-ups, and even a carefully executed portrait, remain strikingly modern and quietly beautiful. The Pencil of Nature has been published in several different incarnations, yet this edition is the first to have been reproduced from the original plates held in England’s National Media Museum, each page of the original work published here as Fox Talbot had intended. A 44-page illustrated introduction by Colin Harding gives shape to Fox Talbot’s life and times, how he became interested in the notion of a “photogenic drawing” process, how he invented the Calotype, and how he conceived of The Pencil of Nature—the means by which he could show the art of photography to the world for the first time in a book. This is an essential volume for historians, photographers, and anyone interested in the development of photography.

    Winding staircases descend into damp crypts of discarded skeletons while rat-infested secret passages lead to satanic altars. Towering over the castle’s dank moat is the mysterious Grey Turret. Filled with legends of shadowy ghosts and terrifying demons, its only door has been locked for centuries.Until now!Someone has discovered the key and wants the terrifying power locked away in the Grey Turret. Who dares to defy the legend of the Grey Turret? Agatha? Hungry for power, nothing can stand in her way! Eldred? Her nervous brother, the perfect foil for a murderous plan? Sir Rupert? The brave knight suffering from a heartbreaking loss? Nemoni? The mysterious wild-man of the woods? The Black Monk? Aided by Satan’s black magic, can he be stopped?Serialized in British newspapers throughout 1844, The Black Monk is an excellent example of the Victorian penny dreadful. Each week, eager readers would await the next penny’s installment and The Black Monk delivered so many thrills and terrors that it became the mid-century’s publishing phenomenon.This edition includes the unabridged text of the 1844 edition along with all 54 original illustrations and features a new introduction by Curt Herr, Ph.D.James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a major contributor to Victorian literature, yet remains largely unknown today. He wrote the first vampire novel in English, Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood, and the original Sweeney Todd novel, The String of Pearls. One of the most popular penny dreadful writers of the 1840s, his serialized novels are being rediscovered as excellent examples of mid-Victorian pop culture.Curt Herr, Ph.D. has prepared the critical editions of several Victorian Sensation novels, such as Ziska, Vendetta, Dene Hollow, and the notorious penny dreadful Varney the Vampire, or, The Feast of Blood. He teaches Gothic and Victorian Sensation fiction at Pennsylvania’s Kutztown University.