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Post by dem bones on Jan 10, 2010 12:29:23 GMT
Second on today's Hugh triple bill, little more than a stub for now, copied across from old board. Terror by Gaslight - ed. Hugh Lamb (W.H. Allen, 1975, Coronet, 1977) Alan Lee Preface - Hugh Lamb
Robert Barr - Purification Grant Allen - The Beckoning Hand Rhoda Broughton - Nothing But The Truth Charles Ollier - The Haunted House Of Paddington Edwin Lester Arnold - A Dreadful Night Andrew Lang - The House Of Strange Stories Erckmann-Chatrian - The Invisible Eye Jonas Lie - The Earth Draws Fitz-James O'Brien - The Wondersmith R. Murray Gilchrist - The Basilisk S. Baring Gould - A Dead Man's Teeth Dick Donovan - The Doomed Man Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward - Kentucky's Ghost Anon - The Weird Woman Another great helping of Victorian vileness. Barr's story comes from his collection "Revenge", so that's a clue as to what Putrification (and everything else in there) is about. One of Andrew Lang's Strange Stories stands head and shoulders above the others - which are, admittedly, on the insipid side - and reads like the template for E. F. Benson's The Bus Conductor. **** I should mention that there's another Hugh Lamb anthology trading under the title Terror By Gaslight, this one published by Constable in 1992. It's a 14 story greatest hits package, the content mostly culled from previous Hugh anthologies. H. Rider Haggard - Only a Dream Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Lot No. 249 Mrs. J. H. Riddell - The Last of Squire Ennismore Charles Dickens - The Black Veil Mrs. Molesworth - The Shadow in the Moonlight M. R. James - The Experiment Rudyard Kipling - A Matter of Fact A. C. Benson - The Uttermost Farthing E. F. Benson - The Step Robert Hugh Benson - The Traveller Sir T. G. Jackson - The Lady of Rosemount William Hope Hodgson - From the Tideless Sea Mary Elizabeth Braddon - The Mystery at Fernwood Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Madam Crowl’s Ghost A nice enough selection to be sure, but perhaps over-reliant on big-hitters.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2012 13:16:29 GMT
Robert Barr - Purification: A nice 'n twisted variation on the old 'exploding cigarette' routine. Paris. Eugene Caspilier, poet, drinks absinthe in the Café Egalité and carries on with latest bit of fluff Denise while he waits for the world to recognise his genius. Caspilier admits to his friend Lacour that he only married fiery Russian Madame Valdoréme for her money - she's a celebrated pastry cook - but that is no reason for her to refuse to fund his latest infidelity. Lacour, slightly the worse for drink, agrees to confront Valdoréme at her shop on his behalf. Much to everyone's surprise, Valdoréme magnanimously agrees to her husband's wishes and invites he and Denise to breakfast in her room, she even lays on some hugely expensive smokes for the occasion. All would be most jolly were it not for that rather distracting smell .....
Charles Ollier - The Haunted House Of Paddington: Ten years ago it was the grandest property in the district, but now the mansion stands vacant and fast running to decay, has done since the wretched death of it's owner, a fantastically wealthy, gregarious, pillar of the community whose alms-giving was worthy a place in The Guiness Book of Records. This being a Victorian ghost story you just know that this saintly fellow will be exposed as an arch-hypocrite with a skeleton or several in his wardrobe and so it proves. One evening, a corpse-like woman in widows weeds appears from behind a tree clutching an equally dead-looking infant to her bosom. She warns the now quivering host to expect a third gatecrasher, far more terrible, and she is right. If we disclude the original Gothic horror brigade, nobody quite did overwrought like the Victorians ....
Sabine Baring Gould - A Dead Man's Teeth: ...... which is probably just as well, as some of 'em weren't too hot on comedy. Cornish Quarrymen disturb a grave on the moors and one of their number removes three teeth from the skull and hangs them on a string as a sure-fire remedy against his own constant toothache. For the next three nights his dreams are haunted by their owner, Squire Trewenna, a century dead, notorious in the district as a drunken, womanising, bully with a love for the hunt. Far worse - small wonder the narrator faints at the recollection: i can barely bring myself to type it - the Squire was a Tory. The Quarryman ditches his not so lucky charm.
Edwin Lester Arnold - A Dreadful Night: "It was a damp, musty charnel house smell, sickly and wicked, with the breath of the slaughterpit in it - an aroma of blood and corruption."
Hunting stag in the Colorado mountains, our man falls through the earth, finds himself trapped in a pitch dark, steep-sided natural crypt. A human skeleton and the rotting remains of a bison attest that he's far from the first to have blundered into this trap, but the sheer dreadfulness of his plight strikes home when he lights the first of his two remaining matches...
More suspense-adventure than horror story, and for that we've to thank the interference of the narrator's "steadfast chum", Will bloody Hartland and his accursed tow-rope. Personally, i could also have done without the saintly animal rescue antics, too, but for all that, a very readable eight pages!
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2012 21:00:25 GMT
As a mini-self contained terror anthology it lacks a framing story - not to mention scares - but i'm still fond of this next effort: Andrew Lang - The House Of Strange Stories: The Squire's Story, as told him by the Bishop of Dorchester. Father Francis Wilton, a seventeenth century Catholic priest, was so entertained by the then Lady Birkenhead's juicy confession that he committed it to paper and slipped it inside a copy of De Officils for safe keeping. That afternoon he was thrown from his horse and killed. His ghost, which has haunted the library ever since, directs the Bishop to the sinful sheet which he burns unread. Miss Girton's Story: After complaining that the Squire's tale lacks a decent ending, the pompous little madam proves that she's no great raconteur either with a tepid account of a spooky stay in Dublin. A maiden aunt, rather than allow her young guest sleep in the haunted tower, gave up her own room and spent the night there herself. She was dead by morning. Aunt Judy's Story: Another Irish country house, a slightly more interesting spectre. Aunt Judy gets the feeling that she's being spied upon through the window even though she sees no-one and her guest room is on the second floor. Her hostess explains that the phantom Peeping Tom is a centuries dead butler who once dressed as a ghost and climbed through that same window to steal jewels belonging to the lady of the house. His disguise was so convincing that her Ladyship expired on the spot. The Bachelor Of Arts' Story. In his introduction, Hugh Lamb cites this sequence as a likely influence on E. F. Benson's The Bus Conductor which may well be the case. What is certain is that the narrator, Adolphus Jones, has read up on the day's supernatural 'non-fiction' as his is a very slightly tarted up version of our old friend 'The Dufferin Curse'. While holidaying in a Scottish castle, Jones looks down from his window after dark to see a horse-drawn hearse stood directly below. The driver fixes him with a terrible glare and then turns the carriage around, drives away in utter silence. A year later in Paris, Jones and Lang are about to enter the hotel lift when the former recognises the attendant is none other than the grim hearse driver. He pulls Lang away, saving his life as the elevator plunges through the floors to the basement, killing the attendant. Grant Allen - The Beckoning Hand: Lord P. gave this story a jolly good telling off on the Reign Of Terror 4 thread. It's a 25-pager, so will just make a note where i am with it now and finish up later. Harry Tristram and his sweetheart Irene first meet Cecarine Vivian at the London's Ambiguities Theatre during a performance of Faustina. Irene can't take her eyes off this exotic creature whose beauty she extols to the Heavens - if we didn't know better, we'd swear she wants to give her one. Harry plays it relatively stand-offish until a fire breaks out causing panic in the audience. Irene implores him to rescue "the poor girl" but Cecarine doesn't need rescuing. No sooner has Harry helped her to the exit than Cecarine realises she's left her opera glasses and goes back to fetch them. Harry sees her home ....
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Post by dem bones on Jan 25, 2012 20:34:10 GMT
The Beckoning Hand continued.
For all that she's incredibly beautiful, intelligent and charming company, when he's away from Cecarine, Harry is both appalled by, and not a little terrified of her. He's learned from Mr. Vivian, a Cornish trader who made his fortune in the West Indies, that his daughter was born in Haiti and still dreams of returning home.
Harry makes up his mind to propose to Irene, but can't get his words out. The saintly Irene reads the signs and leaves London, consigning him to his "horrible love." Cecarine is delighted to be rid of her rival. Now Harry will be hers forever!
Much to Harry's surprise, the first months of his marriage are blissfully happy ones, but Cecarine's health is playing up and her doctor suggests a return to the warmer climes of Port-au-Prince. No sooner have they arrived than Cecarine bashfully requests that Harry let her visit her dear grandmother - alone. "Of course", agrees her husband, and promptly sets about spying on her. It is even worse than he suspects. Gran is not only black, she's a toothless hag who presides over the local voodoo cannibal cult. So that's how Cesarine snared him!
That night, Harry watches from a window of the Voodoo Temple as his wife participates in an orgy of human sacrifice!
Despite it all, Harry can't bring himself to denounce his wife to the authorities, but how is he going to get out of this mess? Unfortunately for the reader, 'divine providence' is about to dispense justice as it had an annoying habit of doing in Vict. lit., and brings the whole sorry saga to a piss poor conclusion. Chris and Lord P's strong reservations on the earlier thread notwithstanding, i thought it was a better than passable ripping yarn up 'til then.
Rhoda Broughton - Nothing But The Truth: Told in an exchange of letters between the well-heeled Elizabeth De Wint and her friend Cecilia Montresor. Cecilia and her family are looking after Elizabeth's new house at 32 --------- Street, Mayfair, while she's away tending her sick child, and, like her friend, is astonished that such a dream home could be had at a paltry rent of £300 a year. The local Butcher informs Cecilia's maid, Sarah, that he wouldn't bet on her becoming a regular customer as number 32 is known locally as a haunted house and has changed hands so many times in the past four years that he's given up counting. The last tenant moved out after a single day. The Montresor's better that by three weeks.
Sarah is the first to encounter the whatever-it-is, an experience that sends her violently insane and necessitates her removal to a lunatic asylum. Dashing Ralph Gordon of the Hussars, who has been eyeing up Adela, comely daughter of the house, insists on spending a night in the supposedly haunted room and Cecilia is not one to deny a man in uniform. Armed with just a lantern and a stout poker in case of any funny business, he cheerfully bids them all a good evening and sets about his watch. This ghost will have to be made of terrifying stuff indeed if it is to reduce such a hale and hearty fellow to a babbling imbecile!
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Post by dem bones on Jan 27, 2012 7:03:07 GMT
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Invisible Eye Nurenberg. Aspiring artist Christian takes a garret overlooking the Bouet-Gras public house which has recently achieved notoriety, three people having inexplicably hung themselves from the stanchion supporting the sign in the past ten months. Could the mad, vindictive old witch known locally as Fiedermausse and said to be possessed of the evil eye have some involvement in the affair?
Perhaps the day's conventions dictated that Erckmann & Chatrian (or their translator?) could not be seen to allow evil to triumph, so early in the next century Hans Heinz Ewers did the job for them when he rewrote The Invisible Eye as the far nastier The Spider. That small misgiving aside, it's still a hell of a story, as are the same authors' The Child Stealer and The Three Souls.
Dick Donovan - The Doomed Man: Why is Tredegar, captain of The Pride Of The Ocean, such a miserable git? Am planning to devote a thread to Dick shortly, so we'll move on.
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Wondersmith: "Treacherous, cruel, bloodthirsty. All goes remarkably well!" Christmas Eve on Golosh Street, a New York slum district. Herr Hippe the toymaker and his gypsy gang are preparing to visit retribution on the despised Christians by distributing a batch of evil manikins among their children. The sinister dolls are animated by the souls of sinners which Hippe's henchwoman, Madame Filomel collects in a black bottle. To get the dolls in the mood, Hippe & Co let them loose in Mr. Pippel's bird-shop and settle back to enjoy the carnage as tiny poisoned swords slash flesh.
A sub-plot, concerning the romance between our hero Solon, a hunchbacked cripple, and sweet sixteen year old Zonéla, the child Herr Hippe adducted so he could subject her to a life of misery after his son died a Gin fiend, may prove too gooey for our Men Of Violence contingent to endure, but when The Wondersmith gets nasty (the aforementioned senseless slaughter of our feathered friends) it is nasty indeed and admirers of Sarban's The Doll Maker surely love it to death (unless they happen to be gypsies)? Watch out for Monsieur Kerphomes magnificent, balloon-size false eye!
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Post by dem bones on Dec 30, 2020 18:02:57 GMT
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps - Kentucky's Ghost: (Atlantic Monthly, November 1868). "You'll be sorry yet for every time you laid your hands on me." Kentucky Hodge, fifteen-year-old stowaway aboard The Madonna, is bullied to his death by the sadistic ship's mate, Job Whitmarsh. The crew are none too fussed when Kentucky's ghost make's good on his threat to settle the score.
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Post by Swampirella on Jan 10, 2021 19:29:46 GMT
This came out on K*indle a few days ago "Terror By Gaslight: Memorial Edition" for those with no more room on their shelves or outside the UK where prices for the print edition are high(er).
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Post by helrunar on Jan 10, 2021 23:51:34 GMT
Thanks, Miss Scarlett! That sounds like an excellent option for my commute reading this winter.
cheers, Hel
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Post by helrunar on Jan 10, 2021 23:57:43 GMT
I don't see the usual "look inside" option, but thus readeth ye blurbe:
First published in 1975, this collection is renowned anthologist Hugh Lamb’s companion piece to his popular Victorian Tales of Terror. This new Memorial Edition features the original fourteen stories plus three more selected from Hugh’s collection of unused material, marking their first appearance in an anthology of this type. You will also find a new Afterword from Mike Ashley, noted anthologist and longtime friend of Hugh Lamb.
If I do see a table of contents listed, I'll post here, unless somebody else gets to it first.
cheers, H.
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Post by mrhappy on Jan 11, 2021 1:04:04 GMT
The three additional stories are:
The White Woman of Slaith - Isabella Banks Not Explained - Theo Gift A Wonderful Guy - George R. Sims
Mr Happy
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Post by helrunar on Jan 11, 2021 2:31:28 GMT
Thanks, Mr Happy!
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 2, 2021 20:19:41 GMT
Hugh Lamb [ed] - Terror By Gaslight (Kingsbrook, 2020) Preface - Hugh Lamb
Robert Barr - Purification Grant Allen - The Beckoning Hand Rhoda Broughton - Nothing But The Truth Charles Ollier - The Haunted House Of Paddington Edwin Lester Arnold - A Dreadful Night Andrew Lang - The House Of Strange Stories Erckmann-Chatrian - The Invisible Eye Jonas Lie - The Earth Draws Fitz-James O'Brien - The Wondersmith R. Murray Gilchrist - The Basilisk S. Baring Gould - A Dead Man's Teeth Dick Donovan - The Doomed Man Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward - Kentucky's Ghost Anon - The Weird Woman Theo Gift - Not Explained George R. Sims - A Wonderful Guy Isabella Banks - The White Woman of Slaith
Mike Ashley - Afterword: The Delver in the Stacks Richard Lamb - Acknowledgements About the EditorBlurb: The village cursed by a vengeful ghost. A series of inexplicable suicides. The helpless man trapped in a dark place (but not alone). Two sinister tales of seafaring spirits.
First published in 1975, Terror By Gaslight was renowned anthologist Hugh Lamb’s companion piece to his popular Victorian Tales of Terror. This Memorial Edition features the original fourteen stories plus three more selected from Hugh’s unused material, marking their first appearance in an anthology of this type. You will also find a new Afterword from Mike Ashley, noted anthologist and longtime friend of Hugh Lamb.
Switch on the gas lamp, close the window against the fog and settle back to enjoy the pleasing terror of these Victorian tales of the macabre.George R. Sims - A Wonderful Guy: ( Stories in Black and White, 1885). Night of November 5th. Fred and Jack Marshall wheel a life-size effigy of the Pope through the mean streets of the Borough before an argument over the sum of pennies raised sees them accidentally tip their guy into the Thames. Coincidentally, this is the same foggy night Fred's violent, dipso wife goes missing. There's plenty going on off story, too. Victorian London depicted in all its terrifying violent glory.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 3, 2021 11:17:36 GMT
Theo Gift - Not Explained: (All The Year Round, 4 Dec 1876). Le Fane, artist, witnesses the spectral re-enactment of what it eventually transpires was a murder in Ditchley Wood shortly prior to the Restoration. Lady Dorothea Marloes, young, very beautiful, and an incorrigible flirt, has long been held in disgrace as the solitary ancestor we don't talk about, having let down the family by eloping with a common servant and the family jewels. The grim truth paints Dorothea in a tragic light. Supernatural horror, murder most foul, melodrama, etc. I'd forgotten how much fun Hugh's selections invariably were. Would like to think there will be further reissues with bonus stories?
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Post by dem bones on Mar 4, 2021 18:38:43 GMT
Anon - The Weird Woman: (Bow Bells Annual, 1871, as The Tregethan's Curse).
From Hugh's introduction:
Nearing death, rich, old family-hating Jaffrey Tregethan summons his orphaned nephews to Holme Grange, North Wales, to inform them that one will inherit his entire fortune, the other will get not a single halfpenny. Uncle Jaffrey makes no bones that his intention is to bring down the curse of Tregethan's. "There'll be rare fighting and scratching ...I only regret dying because I shalln't see it." Of course, neither Frank nor Oswald would begrudge his brother a fortune - it would take more than money to come between them! So Jaffrey insists on a clause. For an entire year, before the reading of his will, they shall share the Grange with their beautiful cousin, Cicely Mostyn, which will surely stir up a bitter love rivalry between them. If that doesn't encourage the Weird Woman with the Dead Eyes from her grave, nothing will ....
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Post by dem bones on Mar 5, 2021 12:26:16 GMT
Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks - The White Woman of Slaith: (Through The Night, 1882). A North Eastern coastal community is all but wiped out by the vengeful ghost of a woman abandoned to drown while wreckers went about looting the spoils of the disaster. Only the Blackburn's, who attempted a rescue, are spared. Most severely punished, the Rae's, who reveled in the tragedy and made off with much of the trove.
Seventy years on, the White Lady has passed into local legend. The Blackburn and Rae sons are now best pals and business partners. All appears well until Steve Rae proposes marriage to Hilda Sanderson, and gifts her a fine silk handkerchief the like of which has not been seen in the community for many years. As for the wedding ring, let's hope his infamous long-dead grandfather came about it honestly ....
By my reckoning, Terror By Gaslight certainly benefits from inclusion of the three from the files. And, fittingly, to round it all off.
Mike Ashley - The Delver in the Stacks: A loving tribute to a most treasured ghost/ horror anthologist, highlighting Hugh's achievement in hunting down so many neglected macabre greats long before access to newspaper & magazine archives were just a subscription and mouse-click away.
As mentioned, would love to see more reissues-with-extra's, perhaps a guest 'remembering Hugh' afterword from friends and contemporaries like Ro Pardoe, Ramsey, David Sutton?
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