We are very excited to announce a new title for Winter 2025.
Nēpenthé will be publishing a fine press edition Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler.
Published originally in German as Traumnovelle, firstly in the magazine Die Dame, the first book edition was published in 1926 by S Fischer Verlag.
Dream Story was most famously adapted for film in 1999 by Stanley Kubrick and screenwriter Frederic Raphael as Eyes Wide Shut.
As a contemporary and indeed friend of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler’s work explores the dark shadows of human consciousness and subconscious desires.
Dream Story is a decadent masterpiece which takes you on journey beneath the civilized elegance of 1920s, to the red light district, seedy cafés and shadowy villas, lifting the veil on a haunted world of eerie reverie, a world in which we all wear masks.
We are doubly excited to confirm that we will be collaborating with Dave McKean, who will be illustrating our fine press edition of Dream Story. Dave McKean is one of the most prolific and respected artists working today, he has illustrated books by Dostoevsky, Mervyn Peake, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson and Stephen King and we only had one name in mind when it came to bringing Schnitzler’s haunted dream world to life.
Dream Story will be printed letterpress and hand bound in three states.
We hope it will be open for pre-orders December 2025.
