The Book of the Beast
core novel 1988 The Secret Books of Paradys
Record
| First published | 1988 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.99 (516 ratings, collected 2026-10-28) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780044401520 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The second of the Secret Books of Paradys is a single, tightly interwoven story rather than a set of novellas. A young scholar arrives in Paradys to study at the university and takes rooms in an old house, where a beautiful phantom of a young bride begins to visit him and draw him towards her. Through the haunted house and the ghostly woman an ancient curse is released on the city: the scholar becomes infected by the Beast, a horror whose origins reach back through the centuries of Paradys's history.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Secret Books of Paradys
- Series: The Secret Books of Paradys core; position 2 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Tanith Lee
Notes
- From the series record (The Secret Books of Paradys): Four books set in Paradys, a Gothic shadow of Paris across the centuries.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Secret Books of Paradys: position 2 of 4: previous The Book of the Damned (1988) · next The Book of the Dead (1991)
Sources
- Black Gate: The Novels of Tanith Lee, The Secret Books of Paradys
- Reader ratings: Secret Books of Paradys series page
- Reader reviews: The Book of the Beast
- eReaderIQ: The Secret Books of Paradys (publisher description)
- FantasticFiction: The Book of the Beast
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