Tales of Fantasy

By Edward Page Mitchell

Can an impossible event become credible simply because it arrives as a signed statement, a careful measurement or an official report? These self-contained prose fantasies turn the sober language of evidence into a playground for deception, credulity and doubt. Eccentrics, inventors and self-appointed experts confront phenomena that resist ordinary explanation, while professional liars and spiritualists test how readily authority can be manufactured. From a Brooklyn workshop to ships, ancient castles and a subterranean cavern, each setting opens onto a different collision between rational enquiry and fantastic belief. Visionary theories acquire alarming consequences; supernatural beings enter worlds governed by records and testimony; absurd institutions expose the vanity of those who claim special knowledge. Fantasy, science fiction and horror meet comic exaggeration, satire and the grotesque, yet the extraordinary is repeatedly presented through interviews, letters, eyewitness accounts and documentary detail. Beneath the impossible happenings lies a sharp fascination with the stories people accept, the experts they trust and the ideas they insist on taking literally. Religious and scientific authority are subjected to the same ironic scrutiny, alongside greed, intoxication, social hypocrisy and the desire to appear certain. The shifting forms and varied focal figures keep every tale distinct, while unreliable testimony binds the collection into a sustained exploration of belief, proof and persuasive falsehood. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9378412319
• ISBN13: 9789378412318
• Release Date: February 2027
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 86 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"