Archie Hunter is on vacation on Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, when he begins to see strange visions of death. An old local woman, Gormala, possesses the same gift -- the 'second sight' -- and informs Archie of an ancient legend of "the mystery of the sea."  According to this legend, when a "golden man" with "death as his bride" should die at Lammas-tide, the mystery will be revealed.

But more mysteries ensue: Archie purchases an old chest to furnish his new home, and finds inside a number of 16th century papers in code, which he believes give the location of a lost treasure of the Spanish Armada.  While meditating on these puzzles, he perceives two women shipwrecked and in distress, and he rushes to save them.  One of the women is Marjory, a beautiful young American with a dangerous secret...

Lost treasures, ancient codes, and strange prophecies are not Archie and Marjory's only problem.  She is pursued by a group of bandits seeking to kidnap and ransom her, and a sinister Spaniard will stop at nothing to prevent them from discovering the treasure...

Can Archie and Marjory avoid the snares of the spies, survive the Spaniard's wiles, decipher Gormala's riddle, and solve the Mystery of the Sea?  One of Stoker's most successful novels, and a brilliant blend of horror, suspense, adventure, and romance, The Mystery of the Sea has been out of print in America for almost a century.  The Valancourt Books edition includes a new introduction and notes by one of the world's foremost Stoker experts, Carol A. Senf.

About the Author

Bram Stoker was born in Dublin in 1847.  As a young man, he worked as a civil servant in Dublin Castle before embarking on a literary career.  His first book, Under the Sunset (1882), was a collection of dark fairy tales for children; during this period, he published a number of short stories and lesser works in magazines.  Stoker divided his professional life between writing and working as manager for the actor Henry Irving.  With Irving, Stoker travelled to America and spent time in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco; this trip became the source of his A Glimpse of America and inspired the character of Marjory Drake in The Mystery of the Sea.  Stoker's greatest success was Dracula (1897), recognized as one of the greatest horror novels of all time, and never out of print since its first publication.  Unfortunately, however, the unheard-of success of Dracula overshadowed the rest of his novels, some of which possess great merit and are unduly neglected.  Among the best of his novels are The Snake's Pass (1890), The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

About the Editor

Carol A. Senf is Associate Professor of English at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she teaches courses in Victorian studies and the Gothic.  She is the author of Science and Social Science in Bram Stoker's Fiction (2002), and her "Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism" won the Lord Ruthven Society prize in 1995.