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    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)
    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)
    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)
    Ebook23 pages18 minutes

    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)

    By Richard Dehan

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    About this ebook

    This early work by Richard Dehan was originally published in 1917 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Great Beast of Kafue' is a short story about a the hunt for a mysterious creature in South-eastern Rhodesia. Clotilde Augusta Inez Mary Graves - who wrote under the pseudonym 'Richard Dehan' - was born at Buttevant Castle, County Cork, Ireland in 1863. Graves' short stories - usually about witchcraft and pagan religions - were also well-regarded, appearing in the two collections 'Off Sandy Hook and Other Stories' (1915) and 'Under the Hermes' (1917), as were her high novels of high adventure. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateFeb 17, 2015
    ISBN9781473399822
    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)

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    Reviews for The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)

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    • 3/5
      A colonial African hunter tells his young son about his pursuit of a legendary monster, akin to that of Loch Ness.
      The writing is high-quality, and the setting comes through with a vivid sense of place (even though I don't believe that the author ever visited Africa). Unfortunately, unpleasant and offensive stereotypes also come through in a couple of places in the story.
      Still, the story retains its power as a discussion around the symbolism and significance of the hunt, balanced by an emerging sense of empathy.

    Book preview

    The Great Beast of Kafue (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures) - Richard Dehan

    The Great Beast

    of Kafue

    By Richard Dehan

    A Cryptofiction Classic

    Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

    This book is copyright and may not be

    reproduced or copied in any way without

    the express permission of the publisher in writing

    British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

    A catalogue record for this book is available

    from the British Library

    Introduction

    The genre of cryptofiction has grown up in the shadow of its older brothers, science fiction and fantasy. While the latter two continue to move towards the mainstream of literary tastes – as evidenced by reaction to modern series such as Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle and George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire – many readers have probably never even heard of cryptofiction. Odd, when one considers that some of the most famous authors in the Western tradition have dabbled in cryptofiction, and that even today works of cryptofiction frequently feature on bestseller lists.

    Cryptofiction takes its name from another, non-literary practice: cryptozoology. Cryptozoology is generally regarded as a pseudoscience by mainstream scientists, relying as it does upon anecdotal, often unverifiable evidence. However, it still boasts many enthusiasts, and continues to exert considerable artistic allure. Focused on the search for animals whose existence has not been established – who are literally kryptos, Greek for hidden – cryptozoology traces its roots to the work of the 19th-century Dutch zoologist Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans (1858-1943). Oudemans’

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