open
Upgrade to a better browser, please.

Search Worlds Without End

Advanced Search
Search Terms:
Author: [x] Thomas De Quincey
Award(s):
Hugo
Nebula
BSFA
Mythopoeic
Locus SF 		Derleth
Campbell
WFA
Locus F
Prometheus 		Locus FN
PKD
Clarke
Stoker
Aurealis SF 		Aurealis F
Aurealis H
Locus YA
Norton
Jackson 		Legend
Red Tentacle
Morningstar
Golden Tentacle
Holdstock
All Awards
Sub-Genre:
Date Range:  to 

Thomas De Quincey


Klosterheim, or The Masque

Klosterheim, or The Masque

Thomas De Quincey

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."

On Murder

On Murder

Thomas De Quincey

A collection containing:

  • "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" essay 1823
  • "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts" essay 1827
  • "The Avenger" novella 1838
  • "Second Paper - On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts" essay 1839
  • "Postscript to On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts" essay 1854

Can't find the Thomas De Quincey book you're looking for? Let us know the title and we'll add it to the database.