The Death-Mask and Other Ghosts

Although this author wrote under the pen-name of Theo Douglas she was in fact a British woman- Henrietta Dorothy Everett. Born in 1851, she was the daughter of an officer of the Royal Marines. In 1869 she married Edward Everett, a solicitor. Her writing career began when she was 44 years old and over the following quarter of a century she wrote 22 books. Several of her novels were historical, set during the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods, but at least 50% of her literary output concerned the supernatural and fantastic, a genre which very popular among readers of her time and in which female authors were acknowledged to be exceptional exponents. The highly regarded novella, 'Iras: A Mystery', written in 1896, concerning a re-animated Egyptian mummy is included in this special Leonaur edition which also includes her ghostly short story collection. There can be no higher praise attributed to Everett's work than that it came under the incisive gaze and assessment of M.R. James-an undisputed master of supernatural fi ction. His own very reserved views of the works of other authors in the genre could be on occasion cutting, but of H.D.Everett's efforts he wrote, 'a quieter tone on the whole, but with some excellently conceived stories'-so a worthy encomium, indeed!. Mrs. Everett died in 1923.