The Mystery of the Black Tower (1796)
John Palmer, Jun.
Set in the violent times of Edward III, when England is at war against the Scots and the French, The Mystery of the Black Tower is the story of young Leonard, who longs to escape the anonymity of his peasant's life. Seeking to win fame and renown, Leonard enlists in England's army, where he earns knighthood and the favour of the King.
But when his true love, the beauteous Emma, is kidnapped and imprisoned in the haunted Black Tower, Leonard must save her. Aided by his loyal but cowardly squire Owen, Leonard will face a series of adventures along the way. Finally, he will have to face an old nemesis in a duel to the death and escape a troop of robbers before he can rescue Emma and discover the secret of his own birth!
Influenced by Don Quixote and Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron, The Mystery of the Black Tower was popular with the Gothic reading public upon its release in 1796. Critically acclaimed in its own time, and influential on later writers such as Scott and Ainsworth, it ranks among the finest historical Gothic novels. This edition includes a new introduction for modern readers, as well as the text of contemporary reviews.
John Palmer, Jun.
Set in the violent times of Edward III, when England is at war against the Scots and the French, The Mystery of the Black Tower is the story of young Leonard, who longs to escape the anonymity of his peasant's life. Seeking to win fame and renown, Leonard enlists in England's army, where he earns knighthood and the favour of the King.
But when his true love, the beauteous Emma, is kidnapped and imprisoned in the haunted Black Tower, Leonard must save her. Aided by his loyal but cowardly squire Owen, Leonard will face a series of adventures along the way. Finally, he will have to face an old nemesis in a duel to the death and escape a troop of robbers before he can rescue Emma and discover the secret of his own birth!
Influenced by Don Quixote and Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron, The Mystery of the Black Tower was popular with the Gothic reading public upon its release in 1796. Critically acclaimed in its own time, and influential on later writers such as Scott and Ainsworth, it ranks among the finest historical Gothic novels. This edition includes a new introduction for modern readers, as well as the text of contemporary reviews.
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Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-0976604815 List Price: $17.99 U.S. Pages: 204 Published: 2005 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Palmer, Jun. was born in 1776, one of eight children of John Palmer (1744-1798), a celebrated stage actor. The younger Palmer’s life was difficult: his mother died young, and his father—who was known as a rather dissolute and untrustworthy character, nicknamed “Plausible Jack”—had difficulty supporting his large family. The older Palmer famously died on stage in 1798 while acting in Kotzebue’s The Stranger, speaking the line “There is another and a better world” before dropping down dead.
Following in his father’s footsteps, John Palmer, Jun. made his acting debut on June 20, 1791, playing Prince Hal to his father’s Falstaff in Henry IV, Part One. Later, he supplemented his income by writing. His first novel, The Haunted Cavern, appeared in December 1795, was widely reviewed, and apparently sold well, or at least well enough to be reprinted in Dublin, New York, and Baltimore the following year. Palmer’s second effort, The Mystery of the Black Tower (1796), was printed by William Lane’s Minerva Press and was sold by subscription. Other novels followed: The World as it Goes; or, Portraits from Nature (1803) and The Mystic Sepulchre; or, Such Things Have Been (1806).
Palmer died at Plymouth Dock of a fever on March 27, 1809, aged 33. His final novel, Like Master Like Man, was published posthumously for the benefit of Palmer’s widow in 1811, with a preface by George Colman, the Younger. In his preface, Colman paints a somewhat tragic picture of Palmer: “The tenderest mutual affection, between husband and wife, urged him to struggle hard against poverty, upon emergencies:—he travell’d from minor town to town, after managers who would engage him; he wrote novels for booksellers who would purchase, or advance a few guineas upon them, in his need;—latterly, he labour’d to exist, more, I think, on account of her he loved than for himself; and, in tugging for life, the thread snapp’d:—I have every reason to believe he died of a broken heart.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, John Palmer, Jun. made his acting debut on June 20, 1791, playing Prince Hal to his father’s Falstaff in Henry IV, Part One. Later, he supplemented his income by writing. His first novel, The Haunted Cavern, appeared in December 1795, was widely reviewed, and apparently sold well, or at least well enough to be reprinted in Dublin, New York, and Baltimore the following year. Palmer’s second effort, The Mystery of the Black Tower (1796), was printed by William Lane’s Minerva Press and was sold by subscription. Other novels followed: The World as it Goes; or, Portraits from Nature (1803) and The Mystic Sepulchre; or, Such Things Have Been (1806).
Palmer died at Plymouth Dock of a fever on March 27, 1809, aged 33. His final novel, Like Master Like Man, was published posthumously for the benefit of Palmer’s widow in 1811, with a preface by George Colman, the Younger. In his preface, Colman paints a somewhat tragic picture of Palmer: “The tenderest mutual affection, between husband and wife, urged him to struggle hard against poverty, upon emergencies:—he travell’d from minor town to town, after managers who would engage him; he wrote novels for booksellers who would purchase, or advance a few guineas upon them, in his need;—latterly, he labour’d to exist, more, I think, on account of her he loved than for himself; and, in tugging for life, the thread snapp’d:—I have every reason to believe he died of a broken heart.”