Circus freaks. Transgressive desires. Murder and exploitation. ‘The Demon of the Lonely Isle’ is a fever-dream of betrayal and revenge, a gothic adventure story that along with Ranpo’s ‘Strange Tale of Panorama Island’, inspired the 1969 cult Japanese film ‘Horrors of Malformed Men’.
Born as Hirai Tarō, Edogawa Ranpo (1894-1965) was an influential author and critic known for his tales of the mysterious and macabre. His pseudonym is a rendering of ‘Edgar Allen Poe’ using Japanese characters.
Ranpo often dealt with themes of sexual perversion and the grotesque, as well as writing more conventional detective fiction.
Alexis J Brown is a translator living in London.