Invoking the Darkness

An original collection of short stories and poetry by the famous author. Compiled and with an afterword by Petr Boček.

When discussing the evolution of Czech dark fantasy and horror, the name Emanuel Lešehrad (1877–1955) is often mentioned; many have heard of him, but few have read his work. His writing is not commonly available today, with almost eighty years having passed since the last volume bearing his name was published. We aim to settle this debt with this extensive selection from his prose and poetry, based on the most powerful pieces from his famous collection, *The Stairway of Illusions*.

The pages of Lešehrad’s texts are filled with a procession of mysterious characters: occultists, globetrotters, femmes fatales, demonic men, scientists, researchers, and writers. His stories are predominantly set in Prague, but the well-travelled author also takes readers to exotic lands—to Dubrovnik, Granada, and Venice, to Iceland and the Sunda Islands... This selection is aptly titled *Invocation of Darkness*, as it presents tales of people whose actions, for various reasons, cross a certain conventional boundary, often with tragic consequences for their fate. In our anthology, eighteen mysterious short stories are interspersed with twenty-three poems in the spirit of symbolism and decadence, which made the author as famous, if not more so, in his time than his mysterious prose. In addition to an extensive afterword by editor Petr Boček on the life and work of Emanuel Lešehrad, we also offer a bonus in the form of excerpts from the works of two other representatives of the prolific Lešetický family—Emanuel's uncle Vojtěch and his cousin Jaroslav.

Contents

Short Stories: Dance of Death; The Mysterious House; Matilda Erhartová; The Rainbow Hydra; The Modern Witch; The Lighthouse Keepers; The Queen's Necklace; A Glass of Water; Duel with a Gamahé; Martyr of Desire - Two Episodes from the Novel (The Ritual and The Most Beautiful Coffin); The Wild Tomb; The Heavenly Colour; The Returned Shadow; The Demon; The Coward; The Petrified People; Memoirs of an Old Mirror

Poems: The Dead Kingdom; In the Dark Night; Suicide; Foreboding; In the Gorges; The Skylight; The Well; The Windmill; The Spectre; Demons; Hallucination; The Shackles of Matter; The Die is Cast.; The Roadside Inn; Dead Bruges; At Dusk; Nevermore; The Cemetery; The Hill of Souls; White Hands; Evocation; After Death

Bonus: There Are Things for Things (a poem by Vojtěch Lešetický); The White Hand + The Madman's "Nothing" + The Telegram (short stories by Jaroslav Lešetický)