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There is no honor among thieves when a girl named "Cruchette" is involved. Four stars to this very short, but effective tale.

"The Return to the Fold" is about exactly that: the abandonment of the allures of the city for the simple life of the rural. This story felt a little too "sudden" for me, even. Three stars.

In "The Horned Tongue," a young bookseller finds that his dead wife had had congress with the Devil. Clark does what he does best, weaving an intricate web of intrigue and betrayal, though one must not pity the young bookseller . . . Five luciferian stars for this beautiful weaving of deceipt and desire, with language itself as a supporting character (or is that "characters")?

[note: quote first para in full]. An uncharacteristically hopeful(?) ending (at least for all those who aren't the narrator) punctuates this sluggishly-whimsical story. I absolutely loved "The Blue Country" and even have a soundtrack recommendation to go with your grey, drizzly-day reading of this fine, dark tale. Five gloomy stars!

If I used the phrase "Shades of Carcosa," I could not use a more appropriate phrase, full of multi-layered meaning, to describe the story "The Sleeping City". Part Robert E. Howard, part Clark Ashton Smith, part Robert W. Chambers - a beautifully-wrought weird tale that could be a sequel to the other seafaring tales. Five stars.

I was completely baffled by "The Cart" until the last 1/3rd of the story. Beautiful descriptions of the landscape made for an atmospheric, if confusing tale. Three bloodied stars awaiting execution.

Thus ends the dream-labyrinth that is "The Satyr". The question is: "Who is dreaming and who is the dreamed". Our view from the labyrinth (or from the wartime "trenches," psychogeographic trenches, really) it's never completely clear. Five stars.

A group of blood-sated pirates picks up an old man on the open sea, the man who carries "The Flute". Music evokes, silence prevails -and punishes! Finally, a pirate tale that is not hackneyed! Four stars.

Note to self: quote p.91 in its entirety and 1st para p.92. Beautiful, dark, surreal prose.

Kafka's got nothing on "The Salt Smugglers" - a real exercise in misery and despondence. Four hopeless stars chained together.

"The Grand Briere" seems to start as a pastoral set-piece, but ends up being a short, sharp piece of gothic fiction that makes one want to know and understand the stories behind the story here. Four stars.

"Bloody Blanche" didn't hit all the right cylinders for me. Still, this story of usurping a throne from the kind of man who deserved everything he got was entertaining and, at times the prose was beautiful. Three stars.

The contrast between the innocence of the title "The Talking Machine" and the actual story - filled with horrific implications and a surreal monstrosity of a machine(?) - is stark, even a bit jarring. I voice five stars for this unnerving tale, which is more "modern" in its . . . voice . . . yes, "voice" is the word I will un-ironically use, more modern than one would expect from a tale of its provenience.

"The Sabbat at Mofflaines" is about exactly what the title says it's about. No surprises here, though it is a well written synthesis of many of the varied reports - whether admittedly fictional or ostensibly factual - of what takes place at a witches' Sabbat.

Now this is turning into some strange, esoteric thriller, as if David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock had collaborated on a film script. I love it.

Clark's ability to clearly describe "dream logic" is awe-inspiring. Such a difficult thing to describe, yet Clark does so in such a way that reading the words on the page invites one into the dream there portrayed. It is a spell, a summoning of the reader into Morpheus' realm.

Clark has the ability (and a way) to infuse the knockabout underworld of London with a certain mysticism, even a shift from the banal mean streets to a series of transcendental portals. Grit and magic meld together in a way that seems not only natural, but logical.

I can't quite tell if Marlene is half-crazy, outright insane, or the wisest person on the crumbling streets of London. Maybe she's bluffing. Maybe not. In any case, though, I find her fascinating.

Who thinks that innuendo, jealousy, and vengeance are reserved for the young? "52 and 53 Orfila" do not! Three stars for this petty tale - and by petty, I mean the characters.

Suddenly, without a soul knowing why, the virgins of Miletus began to hang themselves. Do you need more of an introduction to a story than that? "The Milesian Virgins" goes downhill from there; down, ironically, to five stars.

There is something about Clark's syntax that I love. I can't place my finger on it, but In Delirium's Circle has the same "fingerprint". I need to tease this one out.

As depressing a work as I've read in months, "The Eunuchs" is still endowed (pun intended) with a certain somber beauty of quiet desperation. Four stars, sadly.

If you have a creative bone in your body and have not seen "Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski" go to Netflix and watch it. What an incredible story!

Murray's battle with encroaching winter is epic, or at least it consumes all of his attention. It's almost like nature is grabbing him by the collar and declaring "I am here! Look into my eyes when I'm talking to you!" But that personification (mine, not his) is all human vanity - or is it? Do have more influence than we think? Or far less?

"The Faulx-Visaiges" is far more brutal and graphic than other literature that I've read from this same time period. The auctorial gloves are off and Schwob is not pulling any punches here. There's still an epic fairytale lying under the skin, but the body is gashed and bleeding in the middle of the town square. Four bruised stars.

The tone of "The Plague" lies somewhere between the dark, but humorous irony exhibited, at times, in Calvino's work and the tragic timing and fatalism of Poe. Stylistically, the story hits the perfect midpoint of the two. Four blackened stars on the pale skin of a practical jokester turned thief turned victim.

I've asked this before, but then my life went haywire and I didn't have time to actually try it: How does one embed JPGs or GIFs in a review? Where do you store the GIF or JPG to reference and what tags do you use to reference the file? Any help is much appreciated.

Okay, that last para on page 160 and the following para have clinched it. I know how this review will go now.

When I think about how many ways I may review this book, the mind boggles. I may focus on the sense of smell, temperature on the skin, wind, and my body in space as a starting point. Maybe.

Gene Wolfe dies and Notre Dame Cathedral burns within a day of each other. The world of art lost a lot in the past 24 hours.