Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume is the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the legends I sought especially for "weird beauty"; and I could not forget this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad" "The supernatural, though appealing to certain powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race, is, nevertheless, a "spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its elasticity by being too much pressed upon."" -- Lafcadio Hearn

This invisible life referred to by Mr. Mitford is the Unfamiliar Japan of which I have been able to obtain a few glimpses. The reader may perhaps be disappointed by their rarity; for a residence of little more than four years among the people-even by one who tries to adopt their habits and customs-scarcely suffices to enable the foreigner to begin to feel at home in this world of strangeness.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The word kokoro translates to heart, capturing a spectrum of meanings such as spirit, courage, resolve, and sentiment. Here Lafcadio Hearn provides fifteen poignant glimpses into the spiritual and emotional makeup of Japan, getting to the "heart" of a proud and often misunderstood nation.

Lafcadio Hearn (18501904) was an expatriate and famed writer of Japanese culture.

Lafcadio Hearn's non-fiction article was originally published by Harper's Magazine in 1889. Detailing skulduggery and supernatural phenomenon on the island of Mozambique, 'The Country of the Comers-Back' marked the first mention of the zombie in Western literature. Many of these zombie stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork."

Theophile Gautier (1811-1872), one of the French masters of the Romantic novel, wrote one of the early masterpieces of vampire fiction, in the sensuous Clarimonde, or La Morte Amoureuse. The story of a priest named Romuald who falls in love with Clarimonde, a beautiful woman who turns out to be a vampire. From that night my nature seemed to have become halved -- and there were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman -- at another, that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could no...

This is an unusual exotic novel of coastal Louisiana, unique in the local color movement for its impressionistic use of the southern landscape. Introduction by Arlin Turner.

Originally published in 1969.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.