The Jorkens stories are "told" in the setting of a London gentleman's or adventurers' club of which the title character and the narrator are members, and usually open with another member mentioning an interesting experience he has had; this rouses Jorkens, who in return for a whisky-and-soda goes the other member one better with an extraordinary tall tale, supposedly from his own past. His stories often tip well over the boundaries of the plausible, into the realms of fantasy, horror, or even science fiction, and his auditors can never be quite sure what proportion of what he relates was truly experienced and to what degree he might have embellished.
Contents
The first volume comprises The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, first published in London by G. P. Putnam's Sons in April, 1931 (and then in the USA), and Jorkens Remembers Africa, first published in New York City by Longmans, Green & Co. in 1934 (and then in the UK).
The second volume gathers the third and fourth books of Dunsany's Jorkens tales, with two previously uncollected pieces. The books, Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey and The Fourth Book of Jorkens, were originally published in 1940 and 1947 respectively (the latter's 1948 USA edition from Arkham House was for many years the only Jorkens volume widely available).
The third volume gathers the fifth and sixth books of Dunsany's Jorkens tales, with three previously uncollected pieces, including the last Jorkens story written. The books, Jorkens Borrows Another Whiskey and The Last Book of Jorkens were originally published in 1954 and 2002 respectively (the latter, prepared for publication around 1957, and only discovered in 2001, was published in a limited edition, with an introduction explaining its origins - not reproduced in the omnibus volume). The fifth book brought one key story in which Jorkens is joined by his most frequent adversary, Terbut, while the sixth book contains two stories written as late as 1957 (February and August); the author died in October 1957.
The first volume was issued in a leatherette-bound hardback, with a stamped illustration (from Sidney Sime) and no dust jacket, in early 2004. It had originally been scheduled for release in 2003 with a dust jacket illustrated by Charles Vess but the publisher announced initially delays, and then a change to the format, due to the artist's heavy schedule. The second volume was also published in 2004, while the third was published in 2005.
Volume One
Brief Foreword to the Complete Edition of Jorkens by the 20th Baron of Dunsany (in Table of Contents as Preface)
^(a 2003 version of an earlier essay, noting "if anybody suggests that my own Tales from the White Hart was inspired by the Jorkens stories, they will not be hearing from my solicitors...")
^An overview of the book and its context, and some themes and stories.
^Some publication data for the books and stories, noting, inter alia, that of the first book's contents, two stories appeared in periodicals at or after the date of the first edition, and one, "The Witch of the Willows" had no periodical appearance, and that of the stories in the second volume, one, "The Slugly Beast" had no periodical appearance.
^A long short story, not believed to have been previously published.
^Previously published in a chess magazine and in the posthumous collection The Ghost of the Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms (1980), and noted in the front matter as having been left out of the Jorkens collections deliberately by Lord Dunsany, who felt it might not be so good a read for a non-chess audience. The version in the collected Jorkens is the original, with an error in the problem. Dunsany's correction appears in the 'Heaviside' collection. Anyone wishing to do the problem should use the corrected diagram in ‘Heviside’.
