Longsword: Earl of Salisbury

Thomas Leland

Swan River Press, Feb 28, 2022 - Fiction - 212 pages

"Death's but a Path that must be trod, / If Man wou'd ever pass to God" - Thomas Parnell

Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, by eighteenth century Dublin-born clergyman Thomas Leland, is a fast-paced historical romance of medieval menace and high excitement. Set in the early years of the thirteenth century, it features a blend of real and created characters in a mêlée of intrigue, corruption, lust, and revenge. In part a metaphor for the tug-of-war between the sexes, Longsword is the definitive precursor to the Gothic novel; both in trappings and in style, it provides vital elements of prototype for Walpole's The Castle of Otranto and Lewis's The Monk. Through Longsword, Leland emerges as a forerunner of fellow Dublin clergyman Charles Robert Maturin, author of Melmoth the Wanderer. This 250th anniversary edition is edited and introduced by Albert Power.

About the author

Thomas Leland (1722-1785) was born in Dublin. Ordained to ministry in the Church of Ireland, his works include History of Philip, King of Macedon (1758), History of Ireland (1773), and a posthumous collection of sermons (1788). His only work of fiction, Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, was published in 1762. It was adapted for stage in 1765 as The Countess of Salisbury by fellow Dubliner Hall Hartson. The play remained popular into the early nineteenth century. Albert Power is an established commentator on Irish writers of the macabre from the early 1700s to the mid-nineteenth century. He has written several articles on these writers for The Green Book, as well as commemorative essays on J. S. Le Fanu, and, in 2015, he edited and introduced a new edition of Le Fanu's 1848 novella, Marston of Dunoran. Albert's own Augustan-Gothic fiction, Slaver Heap: A Gothic Novel and Georgian Gothic: A Novella Quartet, appeared in 2013 (revised 2016) and 2014 respectively. His novella collection Azerbaijan Tales was published by Egaeus Press in 2021.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Longsword: Earl of Salisbury
• Author: Thomas Leland
• Contributor: Albert Power
• Publisher: Swan River Press, 2022
• ISBN: 1783807571, 9781783807574
• Length: 212 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Action & Adventure; Fiction / Gothic