Phantom Lover - Vernon Lee

A tale of two Alices, in this decadent Gothic tale the young Alice Oke finds herself captivated by the tale of her namesake seventeenth-​century ancestor, who was involved in a scandalous affair. Surrounded by portraits and relics, as time goes on she seems more and more consumed by the tale, and those around her start to worry.

A beautifully crafted novella that upends the Gothic genre, this is a tale of portraits and mirrors – views snatched through reflections in other faces – and the full extent of the haunting is left to the reader to decide. Decades ahead of its time, this psychological tale of obsession by one of the highest-regarded supernatural writers of all time is ripe for rediscovery.