Felix culpa

I owe Clark Ashton Smith a posthumous apology. In a previous post, I accused him of recycling plots. It seems that what actually happened is that the publishing industry recycled one of his stories, including it in two separate collections under two different titles. I read the second collection years after having read the first one, and I vaguely noticed the familiarity of the plot without noticing that I was, in fact, reading exactly the same story. Lest others fall prey to the fiendish misdirections of Mal Dweb, please note that "The Maze of Mal Dweb", as published in Xiccarph, from Ballantine's famed 1970's series of adult fantasy reprints edited by Lin Carter, is essentially the same story as "The Maze of the Enchanter" as published The Double Shadow, from Wildside's recent Fantasy Classics line (no editor noted).

Nitpickers should be advised that I did not compare the text line by line to look for minor editorial changes.