Lust and remorse, adoration and hate, treachery, greed and revenge are heartfelt emotions Joanne Harris juxtaposes and artfully weaves into an intricate literary tapestry in her haunting Gothic tale, Sleep, Pale Sister.

This is not a new novel, but one Harris published abroad in 1993 before she gained international notoriety with the appearance of Chocolat and her other critically acclaimed novels, including Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange and Holy Fools.

Believing Sleep, Pale Sister was a "relic of a vanished time," Harris writes, "I rarely even thought about it anymore" a decade later. Others, including scores of her fans, apparently did and clamored for the novel to be reissued. It is now available in this country for the first time. "My book was not dead after all; only sleeping."

Four main characters alternate in narrating this hypnotic story that flows out of London's art world during the 18th century.

Henry Paul Chester, "the devil's creature" as he sees himself, is a pious and guilt-ridden soul whose main problem at the onset of his career as a young painter "was finding suitable models." While ambling through a London park, he glimpses a child of "spectral beauty," who, with her mother's solicitous consent, soon becomes his favorite model and, in time, also his youthful bride.

Henry is 40 years old, Effie merely 17, when they exchange vows, and although her maiden aunt objects to the union - "because (Effie) did not understand what was required of her - Henry cared none for her objections."

"She was mine," he affirms, "trained to grow along me like ivy on the trunk of an oak."

While she matures under Henry's prescribed tutelage, Effie is thrust between two other characters who join the pair as the novel's narrators: Mose Harper, an egocentric spendthrift and would-be painter, and Fanny Miller, owner of a brothel frequented by both Henry and Mose.

She was "good-looking in a heavy kind of style," Mose describes Fanny, "with a razor-sharp intelligence and a masculine, devouring ambition. Like myself, she was a Jack-of-all-trades . . ."

After Effie's miscarriage early in her marriage, remorseful Henry decides to keep his wife "pure" and henceforth regularly frequents Fanny's house of pleasure to appease his lust. When her passions are neglected by her spouse, Effie focuses her attentions instead on pleasure-seeking Mose, who readily responds to her playful advances.

Fanny, meanwhile, harbors a vengeance against Henry because of a treacherous act he committed in years past, a hatred that has been simmering within her heart. She enlists Mose and Effie's help to carry out her plot to avenge her loss and long-held grief.

What pulls the numerous threads of this colorful and potent novel together is the author's full command of language, the rhapsodic narrative passages that leave one virtually breathless.

When Effie speaks of her dreams, she describes them as "magical ships with sails like wings high in the clear air. For the first time in years I felt free of that hateful, anguished edifice of guilt Henry had constructed around me, free of Henry, free of myself. I was clear as glass, pure as spring water. I opened the windows of my chamber and felt the wind whistle through me as if I were a flute . . ."

Sleep, Pale Sister is a compelling book with a masterful blend of well-defined characters, all woven into her mystic brocade.

The novel is a must-read not only for Harris's devoted fans, but also for those who appreciate a literary work whose descriptive passages seemingly loft off the pages on gossamer wings.

Frank L. Kaplan is a retired University of Colorado professor who lives in Wheat Ridge.