The Flaw in the Crystal And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

At that moment, in a flash that came like a shifting of her eyes, the world she looked at suffered a change... It was the same world, flat field for flat field and hill for hill; but radiant, vibrant, and, as it were, infinitely transparent.

Tales of eternal damnation, love, sexuality, death and supernatural talents form the core of May Sinclair’s essential and groundbreaking oeuvre. Literary and still thrilling today, her stories explore the strangeness at the heart of human experience and relationships, where the mundane and the everyday meets lurking, otherworldly weirdness.

Including the contents of the classic collections Uncanny Stories (1923) and The Intercessor and Other Stories (1931), this new volume also features two rare strange tales from a third, lesser-known book which explore further facets of Sinclair’s fascination with the uncanny.

May Sinclair (1863–1946) was a pen name for Mary Amelia St. Clair, an English suffragist known for her extensive publications. These written works ranged from novels and short stories to poetry and political criticisms. Her limited work in supernatural fiction has been highly celebrated for its delicacy and precision, making her a must-read author.

Mike Ashley is an author, anthologist, and editor with a specialism for seeking out rare strange stories from the periodicals and magazines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is an expert in the fields of weird fiction and classic mystery stories, and a leading authority on the history and development of the occult detection tale.

CONTENTS

Introduction
A Note from the Publisher

Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched
The Token
The Flaw in the Crystal
The Nature of the Evidence
If the Dead Knew
The Victim
The Finding of the Absolute
The Pictures
Portrait of My Uncle
Heaven
The Intercessor
The Villa Désirée
Jones's Karma
The Mahatma Story