"Along the tavern's back wall he found a small writing desk, around which the floor was stained ink-black and littered with loose scraps of paper. Atop the desk he found a small stack of handwritten newsletters entitled The Archive of Human Nonsense. He picked one up. It was dated 17 April, 1817--eight months previous--and had been hand-penned in German running script. From front to back the small newsletter was eight pages long. It opened with a list of names, twenty-two in all, and closed with a watercolour picture of a giant red rooster . . ."

Thus begins an existential...

Frederick Rolfe, a.k.a. Baron -Corvo, though best known for his novel Hadrian the Seventh and his eccentric personality, was also a master of the short story, which found expression in odd pseudo-biographical pieces and unique fictions that expressed his own unique sense of style. The present -collection contains seven of Rolfe's best short prose works: three Venetian narratives written toward the end of his life, two tales featuring the Princess of Cinthyanum, and two other peculiar tales, the first of which, 'The Tattooed Wedding Ring, ' must certainly be seen as an early example of...