The Tale of the Ancient Mariner: A Descent into Madness

by Edward Freeman

When the sea calls, it never lets go.

In The Tale of the Ancient Mariner: A Descent into Madness, Edward Freeman transforms Samuel Taylor Coleridge's immortal poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner into a dark, psychological origin story of guilt, isolation, and eternal penance.

Through the eyes of Emrys, a sailor cursed for a single, damning act, readers embark on a harrowing voyage aboard the doomed ship Mercy's Light-where faith falters, the dead stir, and the sea becomes both confessor and executioner.

Written in the lush, evocative style of Clive Barker, the terrifying cleanliness of Edgar Allen Poe, and imbued with the mythic dread of H.P. Lovecraft, Freeman's retelling blends gothic atmosphere with profound emotion. The novel closes exactly where Coleridge's poem begins, when the Mariner grips the wedding guest's arm and speaks the first immortal words:

"There was a ship..."

A haunting descent for fans of dark literary fiction, psychological horror, and classic retellings.