Once upon a time Fernando Roncorone was a happy youth with a loving family, friends, and the affection of his beloved Rosolie. Now he lives alone, a hermit, and a terror to the local villagers, who know him only as the “Mad Man of the Mountain.”Mad Man of the Mountain recounts Roncorone’s descent into madness as he loses everything he cherishes through the dastardly schemes of the villainous Salvini. And once Salvini’s unthinkable cruelty has taken from Roncorone everything that is dear to him, the “Mad Man” will set out after Salvini, intent on wreaking a savage vengeance!Replete with murder, gloom, and horror, Summersett’s novel tapped into the late-eighteenth century craze for Gothic novels and remains compulsively readable today. This edition reprints the unabridged text of the rare two volume first edition published in 1799 by the Minerva Press, the great purveyor of sensational Gothic fiction, and includes the complete text of contemporary reviews.