Priscilla of Alexandria

Maurice Magre (1877-1941) was one of the most far-ranging and extravagant French writers of fantastic fiction in the first half of the 20th century, and perhaps the finest of them, because of the fertility and versatility of his imagination and the manner and purpose for which he deployed it. This volume, the third of a series of twelve dedicated to Magre’s works, offers six stories featuring fictitious biographies of sexually voracious women, as well as his classic fantasy novel Priscilla of Alexandria (1925). Priscilla was a contender for the Goncourt Prize, but the jury decided against it because of its shocking imagery, violence and amorality. It is, however, those qualities that make it a masterpiece, and its perversity can now be seen as a virtue as well as a remarkable achievement. It has retained its power to shock today, when melodramatic inflation has raised the stakes in generic horror fiction.