In a sublime valley hidden from the world, a community of zealots trains for a singular, chilling purpose: assassination.
High in the remote mountains of Syria lies the Valley of the Assassins, a hidden community living in perfect seclusion and governed by radical virtue. To the world, they are a secret cult of murderers; to themselves, they are the sole guardians of a higher ethical truth.
Shelley's visionary prose explores the terrifying question at the heart of their society: Can the execution of a single tyrant, the most horrific act imaginable, be justified as a selfless duty necessary to save thousands and usher in a utopian age of peace?
From the master of Romantic verse comes a mesmerizing prose fragment that weaves Gothic atmosphere with a radical political vision.