Asphodels

In Greek mythology, the asphodel is a flower associated with death
the souls of ordinary mortals are sent to the Asphodel Meadows, vast fields of the underworld. In the twelve stories of Asphodels, Mexican author Bernardo Couto Castillo (1879-1901), a cult figure in Mexico due to his short life and French-influenced Decadent writings, explores death in its many varieties, from Lady Death wandering the streets of the city in merciless search of her next victim, to a hypochondriac who goes mad out of fear of death, to an ultra-refined killer turning to murder due to the beauty of its "symphony in White and Red", to the extraordinary final metaphysical account of the torture of a soul. Although asphodels do not make a single appearance in this collection, they are like death itself: invisible, everywhere.

Asphodels, originally published in 1897, was the only book to appear in the author's lifetime. Presented here for the first time in English, in a superb translation by Jessica Sequeira, it will be sure to gratify lovers of Decadent fiction, horror and modernismo.