The Stratagem and other Stories

Infobox Book |
name = The Stratagem and other Stories
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = dust-jacket of "The Stratagem and Other Stories"
author = Aleister Crowley
illustrator =
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Fantasy short stories
publisher = Mandrake Press
release_date = 1929
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 140 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
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"The Stratagem and other Stories" was a small book of short stories written by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), occult magician, poet and self-proclaimed prophet of a new anti-Christian era going under the name of The Beast 666.

Contents

The book was originally published in 1929 and one of a series of Crowley's works to be published on the new Mandrake Press label after a difficult period in which Crowley found it difficult to publish due both to financing and notoriety. The works published by Mandrake Press in 1929 were "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley" volumes I and II, and "Moonchild".

Crowley hardly ever published collections of short stories, only the title story received such a good review from British novelist Joseph Conrad when he published it in the English Review that he thought it a possible calling to conventional fame. "The Testament to Magdalen Blair" is the longer of the three and was originally published in "The Equinonx" volume I, no.9 in 1913. It tells the haunting story of a psychic woman who delves into the dying, subconscious psyche of her husband and bares resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe's "Mesmeric Revelation" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". The third short story "His Secret Sin" was first published in "The Equinox" volume I, no.8 in 1912 and has a pervert absconding a photograph of the Venus de Milo.

The inscription at the front of the book read:

"To the Memories of Three Dead Friends: Joseph Conrad, who applauded the first story; Allan Bennett, Bhikku Ananda Metteya, who suggested the second, and Eugene John Weiland, who bowled me out over the third."

Editions

* Mandrake Press, UK, 1929
* Temple Press, UK, 1990, ISBN 1871744105

References

*cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | pages=90 | date=1948

See also

* "Collected Works of Aleister Crowley 1905-1907"
* Works of Aleister Crowley
* "Clouds without Water"