Forthcoming

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	Forthcoming Titles


			Whiskey Tales Jean Ray Translated, with an afterword, by Scott Nicolay The first collection of stories, originally published in French in 1925, from the Belgian master of the weird, whose writings charted out a meeting ground between H.P. Lovecraft and Charles Dickens. This first complete translation will be the first in many volumes of Jean Ray's books that Wakefield Press will be bringing out over the coming seasons. More information


			The Sundays of Jean Dézert Jean de La Ville de Mirmont Translated, with an introduction, by André Naffis-Sahely Before his death at the age of 27 on the front lines of World War I, Jean de la Ville de Mirmont left behind one undisputed classic, an understated tale of urban solitude and alienation that outlines the crushing mediocrity of bureaucratic existence. Through his strangely psychogeographical efforts at injecting some content into his life by structuring his days off through a rigorous use of advertising flyers, the character of Jean Dézert emerges as something of a French counterpart to Herman Melville’s own rebel bureaucrat, Bartleby the Scrivener. Save that when it comes to being an existential rebel, Jean Dézert prefers not to... More Information


			Samalio Pardulus Otto Julius Bierbaum Illustrated by Alfred Kubin Translated, with an introduction, by W. C. Bamberger Bierbaum’s 1908 Gothic novella, the first of his Sonderbare Geschichten (“Weird Stories”) offers the account of the blasphemous painter, Samalio Pardulus, whose monstrous artwork stems from his distorted Gnostic outlook in which the grotesque is but the reflection of a grotesque god. More information


			Curl T. O. Bobe Translated, with an afterword, by Sean Cotter A melancholic poem and prose portrait of the superhuman Mr. Gică, the world’s greatest barber, as well as of his barbershop: a world that includes opera singers, football players, gladiators, the secret police, fantasies of Edith Piaf, four lost hippies, and a longing for sincerity. More Information


			A Short Treatise Inviting the Reader to Discover the Subtle Art of Go Pierre Lusson, Georges Perec, and Jacques Roubaud Translated, with an introduction, by Peter Consenstein Written by a mathematician, a poet, and a mathematician-poet, this 1969 guide to the ancient Chinese game of go was not just the first such guide to be published in France, but something of a subtle Oulipian guidebook to writing. Go a User’s Manual, or how a set of simple rules and constraints can not only lead to infinite complexities, but also an endless array of bad puns. More Information


			Domesticity Joris-Karl Husymans Translated, with an introduction, by Purdey Lord Kreiden and Michael Thomas Taren Huysmans’ semi-autobiographical third novel, pubished in French in 1881, tells the tale of the novelist André Jayant and the artist Cyprien Tibaille: two men struggling between the urges of their body and the urges of their soul, and with the failure of matrimony or the artistic endeavor to fulfil the needs of either. Steeped in sardonic pessimism, this ode to sterility was one of the author’s own favorite novels of his career.


			Brief Lives of Idiots Ermanno Cavazzoni Translated, with an introduction, by Jamie Richards A parody of the Lives of the Saints from the Middle Ages, Brief Lives of Idiots offers us a perfect month of 31 portraits of contemporary idiots drawn from real life: fools unable to recognize their family, who fail miserably in their attempts at suicide, are convinced that Christ was an extraterrestrial, or find the experience of a concentration camp to not be so bad.


			New Inventions and Latest Innovations Gaston de Pawlowski Translated, with an introduction, by Amanda DeMarco A friend to Alfred Jarry, Alphonse Allais, and Guillaume Apollinaire (and a later inspiration to Marcel Duchamp), Gaston de Pawlowski was the France’s Albert Einstein of humor. First published in book form in 1916, New Inventions and Latest Innovations collects in one volume the endless inventions Pawlowski imagined and wrote up for Le Rire rouge, forming a dizzying catalog of absurd imaginary gadgets and “improvements” to everyday life. An early satire on consumer society and the cult of the inventor, the collection would also become a noteworthy precursor to the sort of imaginary science that would influence the Collège de ’Pataphysique.


			Small Castles of Bohemia Gérard de Nerval Translated, with an introduction, by Napoleon Jeffries One of Nerval’s last works: an assemblage of memoir, poetry, and theater he himself culled together from the vagabond fragments of his writing in an effort at posterity and mental stability toward the end of his life. Nerval’s “castles” trace out a thread from his early “Odellettes” to his forays into the theater to the hermetic sonnets with which he concluded his oeuvre.


			The Messengers Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud Translated, with an introduction, by Edward Gauvin In an unnamed country, in an unspecified time, a messenger and his young assistant pursue a dreamlike chain of clues and horror in order to deliver a message sealed in a tube. A Kafkaesque quest told through the lens of Alain-Fournier. One of Chateaureynaud’s earliest works, and winner of the 1974 prix des Nouvelles LittéŽraires.


			Munchausen and Clarissa A Berlin Novel Paul Scheerbart Translated, with an introduction, by Christina Svendsen In this never-before-translated fantasical excursion from the defiantly undefinable Paul Scheerbart, the fabled Baron Munchausen awakens after centuries of sleep, to the delight of young Clarissa, who proceeds to arrange a party to end all parties in his honor. Over the course of a week, the two discuss a range of cultural topics, from glass architecture and painting to music and literature, all within the context of the wonders to be admired in a World Exhibition taking place in Melbourne, Australia.


			A Death Diary of a Suicide Zalman Shneour Translated, with an introduction, by Daniel Kennedy Jewish modernist Zalman Shneour’s first novel, originally published in Yiddish in 1905, tells the story of a love affair between Shloyme, a young man in an unnamed city in Eastern Europe, and the revolver he purchases, ostensibly to protect himself. A disturbing exploration of alienation, mental health, toxic masculinity, and violence.


			At the Blue Money Thirty-Three Outrageous Tales Walter Serner Translated, with an introduction, by Erik Butler Thirty-three stories of criminals, con artists, prostitutes, and gadabouts told in underworld slang by ex-doctor Dadaist and “Maupaussant of crime," Walter Serner. A mordant humor that renders the criminal code into something nearly occult.


			Cruise of Shadows Haunted Stories of Land and Sea Jean Ray Translated, with an introduction, by Scott Nicolay Jean Ray’s second collection of stories written in French appeared six years after his inaugural collection, Whiskey Tales. Seven novellas written in the solitude of prison, including the one widely acknowledged to be his masterpiece, “The Shadowy Street.” With this collection, even as his pseudonyms began to multiply, Jean Ray began to realize his full talent as the godfather of the Belgian School of the Weird.