I just got an interlibrary loan copy of the 1928 Oxford World's Classics edition of this 1844 English translation by Lady Duff Gordon. (Incidentally, Charles Williams must have been working for the Press, under his revered boss Humphrey Milford, when this book was prepared. Naturally I wonder if he was involved with that.)

I'm going to start a thread for discussion of the novel if anyone's interested. I know Dover reprinted this in a thick paperback with other works years ago, but I'm not sure if their version was the same translation.

It gets off to a nice (pseudo-)scholarly start that fits right in which the manner with which stories by M. R. James & others used to write, the old manuscript found in a church, etc.

i just downloaded this from Project Gutenberg.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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This story was convincing enough to fool Seabury Quinn, who wrote it up as fact in an early issue of WEIRD TALES.

I wonder if the author drew upon Grimmelshausen ‘s Simplicissimus.

In its antiquarian detail, it reminds me of John Meade Falkner and J. W. Shorthouse.