The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest

THE NECROMANCER, OR, THE TALE OF THE BLACK FOREST is a Gothic novel first published in 1794. It is one of the seven 'horrid novels' lampooned by Jane Austen in NORTHANGER ABBEY, and once thought not to exist except in that text. The novel, set in the Black Forest in Germany, consists of a series of lurid tales of hauntings, violence, killings and the supernatural, featuring the adventures of Hermann and Helfried and the mysterious wizard Volkert the Necromancer, who has seemingly come back from the dead. "For descriptions of 'horrid' episodes, for sheer stylistic fervour in the handling of the supernatural, the work can rank high among its contemporaries." - Michael Sadleir [from Wikipedia]