The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales

This 1888 Toronto edition compiles four supernatural and mystery stories by John Charles Dent, a Canadian author and historian. The prefatory sketch details Dent's career: born 1841 in England, emigrated to Canada, practiced law briefly, then pursued journalism and historical writing in Toronto. His scholarly works include *The Canadian Portrait Gallery* (four volumes), *The Last Forty Years: Canada since the Union of 1841*, and *History of the Rebellion in Upper Canada*. The present volume rescues his fiction from periodical obscurity before his death. "The Gerrard Street Mystery" opens with William Francis Furlong, a Montreal commission merchant, recounting events from his Toronto youth. His uncle Richard Yardington settled in Little York (1829), building a prosperous commercial business before retiring to Gerrard Street in 1854. Raised by his uncle after losing both parents, Furlong developed a childhood attachment to his adopted cousin Alice Playter that ripened into engagement. After reaching age twenty-one, Furlong contemplates emigrating to Australia following an old friend's accounts of mercantile opportunity there.