The Red Spider

Delphi Fabrice (the pseudonym of Gaston-Henri-Adhémar Risselin 1877-1937) the most adamant of Jean Lorrains disciples is credited with authoring over one hundred books. None however is more bizarre than The Red Spider here presented in English for the first time in a virtuoso translation by Brian Stableford. The novel seeking to out-Decadent the most decadent of its predecessors features Andhré Mordann an ether-drinking hero seemingly modelled on Lorrain himself who in this black black black tale-a tale of true horror and madness-traverses the boulevards of decline hobnobbing with drunken prostitutes and homosexual strong-men licentious merrymakers and waterfront idlers-and of course the dancer gloved in imperial crimson.