Sign-In
Cart
Twenty-Two Goblins: Tales from the Vikram and the Vampire Cycle
Hardcover
FantasyClassic FictionGeneral Fiction
ISBN13: 9781515438571
Publisher: Wilder Publications
Published: Apr 3 2018
Pages: 120
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.44 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Twenty-Two Goblins is Arthur W. Ryder's celebrated English verse translation of the Vikram and the Vampire cycle from classical Sanskrit literature.
Drawn from the ancient Baital Pachisi (Twenty-Five Tales of the Vetala), these interlinked stories follow King Vikrama as he repeatedly attempts to capture a spirit-variously described as a vampire, goblin, or ghoul-who inhabits a corpse hanging from a tree. Each time the king carries the being away, the creature tells a tale ending in a moral riddle. If the king knows the answer and remains silent, his head will shatter; if he speaks, the goblin escapes and returns to the tree. Thus unfolds a sequence of paradoxes, ethical dilemmas, dark humour, and narrative ingenuity.
Arthur W. Ryder's translation, first published in the early twentieth century, preserves the wit, irony, and structural precision of the original Sanskrit while rendering it in clear, rhythmic English verse. The work stands at the intersection of folklore, moral philosophy, and early detective-style riddle literature. Both macabre and playful, these tales offer insight into classical Indian narrative traditions and the enduring appeal of frame stories built upon logic and moral reasoning.
Also in
General Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Anniversaries, Volume 2: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, April 1968-August 1968
Johnson, Uwe
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
Philip Roth: Novels 1967-1972 (Loa #158): When She Was Good / Portnoy's Complaint / Our Gang / The Breast
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
Selected Writings: Robert Musil: Young Torless, Three Women, the Perfecting of a Love, and Other Writings
Musil, Robert
Agee, Joel
Paperback