Horthólary: Tales from Montagascony

These four tales from Montagascony span almost the entire life of investigator extraordinary Professor Summanus Horthólary, from a few days before his birth to within two years of his death. They are among the more unusual of his cases: encounters with flying machines, meteors, witchcraft and giants are not entirely mundane experiences, and they are (unlike many of his related adventures) complete: an ending is indisputably an advantage in the telling of a good tale. Taken together, these four cases tell us the story of the man himself, of his progression from an impoverished village in eighteenth-century France to his emergence as an international polymath and, perhaps most intriguing of all, of his life-long battle with the Archbishop of Pessane. Further adventures of the Professor can be found in Five Degrees of Latitude by Michael Reynier (Tartarus Press, 2011).