The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections

Jacket painting is by Paul Lowe

'Porges is probably the only major writer of the macabre in America not to have had a collection of his work published at any time. I would recommend any publisher in search of a good book of short stories to turn in the direction of Arthur Porges.'

Thus wrote Hugh Lamb in 1977, when he included Arthur Porges' story 'The Man Who Wouldn't Eat' in his anthology Cold Fear. By then the author, having published hundreds of stories, had made his name in the fields of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, horror, and the supernatural; yet apart from a collection of Sherlockian parodies, Porges' work had not been gathered together into book form. Now, twenty-five years after Hugh Lamb made his suggestion, a collection of Arthur Porges' weird and supernatural tales at last appears between hard covers.

The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections gathers together twenty-eight tales, ranging from the whimsical to the horrifying. Readers will meet such characters as the Great (though small) God Eep, who can perform any wish as long as the value does not exceed $1.98; Bryce Donaldson, prepared to do anything—or sacrifice anyone—to get what he wants; Redi, one of a dwindling band of shadowsmiths the sorcerer Don Esteban, who has been met with ingratitude on too many occasions; and the mysterious creature known as the grom, invisible to humans, yet possessed of a sense of mischief which can lead to deadly results.

Porges' work, writes editor Mike Ashley, cannot easily be compared with the work of anyone else in the genre. Readers may detect a hint of Poe here, a little Hodgson there, perhaps a soupçon of M. R. James. At the end of the day, however, Arthur Porges's stories stand on their own as elegant exercises in the macabre and terrifying, which will longer in the memory long after the book is closed.

CONTENTS

• Preface by Mike Ashley
• Introduction
• The Mirror
• What Crouches in the Deep
• Solomon's Demon
• Swamp Demon
• The Shadowsmith
• Brilliant Career
• The Shakespeare Manuscript
• $1.98
• The Other Side
• In the Tomb
• Puddle
• The Fanatical Ford
• The Grom
• The Second Debut
• The Moths
• The Man Who Wouldn't Eat
• The Fanatic
• Nightquake
• Josephus
• Mystery and Magic on the Steppe
• The Lonesome Game
• The Forerunner
• Modelled in Clay
• Words and Music
• The Radio
• Two Lunchdates with Destiny
• 3rd Sister
• The Tidings
• Acknowledgments and Credits

Limited to 500 copies