George Soane

The Stranger Knight, with the Bond of Blood George Soane

2012 marks the 200th anniversary of George Soane's alluringly titled Gothic novel Knight Daemon and Robber Chief. There's only one problem: no one's ever located a copy, and there's no proof it ever existed. But Valancourt Books has unearthed a similarly titled text also by Soane, published the same year, with the same publisher: could there be a connection to Soane's lost novel?

In The Stranger Knight, originally serialized in eight parts in The Theatrical Inquisitor in 1812-14, Count Ottocar returns from a bloody battle to find the black banner, the emblem of death, flying above the battlements of his castle. His wife is dead, his son has been abducted, and his favourite page is near death. But little does he know that far more terrible events are yet to come! Also included in this edition is Soane's other Gothic tale from the same periodical, The Bond of Blood, never completed by Soane, and of which only the first four parts appeared in 1815.

This edition marks the first ever reprinting of these two Gothic tales by George Soane (1790-1860), who went on to be better known as a prolific playwright and translator of key German Romantic texts. Also included in this edition are a new preface and a portrait of the author.