Denis Bracknel, Reid Forrest

At the end of his life, Forrest Reid (1875-1947) extensively revised his novel The Bracknels (1911), which had been acclaimed by critics and whose admirers included E.M. Forster and D.H. Lawrence; the result was the posthumously published Denis Bracknel (1947), and it remains one of his finest achievements. A story in the tradition of Henry Jamess The Turn of the Screw and with a slow-building dread reminiscent of the works of Sheridan Le Fanu, Reids novel opens with the arrival of young tutor Hubert Rusk, just down from Oxford, at the home of the well-to-do Bracknel family. Though the entire family is odd, none of them is stranger than Rusks pupil, fifteen-year-old Denis, a highly imaginative, unworldly boy who is attuned to the occult and performs bizarre rituals by moonlight. As Rusk befriends Denis and gains his trust, he gradually learns the startling and horrific truth behind the boys behaviour and will have to struggle to save him from a terrible fate... This new edition is the first-ever republication of Reids final novel and features a new introduction by Andrew Doyle and rare and previously unpublished archival materials, including photographs and letters.