The Case Against Satan

(Paperback)

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By the twentieth century, the exorcism had all but vanished, wiped out by modern science and psychology. But Ray Russell resurrected the ritual with his classic 1962 horror novel,giving new rise to the exorcism on page, on screen, and even in real life. Before The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, there was The Case Against Satan By the twentieth century, the exorcism had all but vanished, wiped out by modern science and psychology. But Ray Russell-praised by Stephen King and Guillermo del Toro as a sophisticated practitioner of Gothic fiction-resurrected the ritual with his classic 1962 horror novel, The Case AgainstSatan, giving new rise to the exorcism on page, screen, and even in real life. Teenager Susan Garth was "a clean-talking sweet little girl" of high school age before she started having "fits"-a sudden aversion to churches and a newfound fondness for vulgarity. Then one night, she strips in front of the parish priest and sinks her nails into his throat. If not madness, then the answer must be demonic possession. To vanquish the Devil, Bishop Crimmings recruits Father Gregory Sargent, a younger priest with a taste for modern ideas and brandy.As the two men fight not just the darkness tormenting Susan but also one another, a soul-chilling revelation lurks in the shadows-one that knows that the darkest evil goes by many names. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.

Reviews

Provocative, shocking, moving * Kirkus Reviews *
[Sardonicus is] perhaps the finest example of the modern gothic ever written -- Stephen King
Russell links postpulp literature and the Grand Grand Guignol tradition with the modern sensibilities of America in the 1960s... a fascinating combination of the liberal and the heretic -- Guillermo del Toro

Author Bio

Ray Russell was born in 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, and served in the U. S. Army in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war, he attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music and the Goodman Memorial Theatre and soon became executive editor of Playboy, where he played a vital role in turning the magazine into a showcase for imaginative fiction. His first novel, The Case Against Satan, was published in 1962, and his best known work, Sardonicus, was called by Stephen King "perhaps the finest example of the modern gothic ever written." Russell received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991. He passed away in Los Angeles in 1999. Laird Barron is an award-winning writer of horror fiction. He has received three Shirley Jackson Awards, for his collections The Imago Sequence and Other Stories and Occultation and Other Stories and for his novella Mysterium Tremendum. He has also been nominated for the Crawford Award, Sturgeon Award, International Horror Guild Award, World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award.