Lucian Taylor believes he has been damned through contact with an erotically pagan world--or possibly through something degenerate in his own nature--in this critically acclaimed horror story. Moving to London to shake off his fears of being trapped by the dark imaginings of a creature inside him, Taylor soon finds his hallucinations becoming increasingly real. An important and moving work, this story is one of the first explorations in fiction of the figure of the doomed artist. A forward that provides literary and historical context from renowned author Ramsey Campbell is also included.