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Post by dem bones on Dec 1, 2008 11:16:47 GMT
Michel Parry - Beware of the Cat (Arrow, 1974) Introduction - Michel Parry
Gulielmus Baldwin - Beware The Cat Barry Pain - The Grey Cat Stephen Vincent Benet - The King Of The Cats Traditional - The Vampire Cat Byron Liggett - The Cat Man J. S. Le Fanu - The White Cat Algernon Blackwood - Ancient Sorceries Saki - Tobermoray Theodore Sturgeon - Fluffy Ramsey Campbell - Cat And Mouse H. P. Lovecraft - The Cats Of Ulthar Ambrose Bierce - Eyes Of The panther Walter Wintle - The Black Cat Ernest Hamilton - The Child WatcherBlurb Beware of the Cat...
For millennia cats have haunted human consciousness, either worshipped as gods or persecuted as the incarnation of Evil, no other creature has aroused such violent emotions.
In this collection of stories - which range from a macabre tale by a sixteenth century monk to the work of contemporary masters - all the cats are different. There are talking cats, starving cats, murderous cats, cannibalistic cats, cats that can take human form, ghost cats, and a cat who might be the Devil himself.
They only have one thing in common - all are terrifying ... Michel Parry's first horror anthology. Cats are obviously dear to him as he also wrote the screenplay for Sword & Sorcery productions' The Uncanny. includes: Theodore Sturgeon - Fluffy:The cat wants to be rid of its owner, the obscenely wealthy, pampering but insufferable Mrs. Benedetto. Ransome, professional house-guest and casual blackmailer, unwittingly provides the perfect opportunity. Before he reveals his dastardly frame-up to Ransome, Fluffy explains why cats have never been arsed to take over the world. Byron Liggett - The Cat Man: Nasty. Author Gerald Foster buys a tiny island in the Pacific, taking half a dozen cats with him for company. The narrator, Captain Rogers, agrees to deliver his supplies and over the next three years watches appalled as the cat population increases into the hundreds. It is all Foster can do to feed them and, now they've rid Tuo Atoll of its rats, birds and insects, the situation is desperate. Rogers makes him a present of two fierce dogs but they're easily overcome and eaten, so next he suggests poison. Foster won't hear of such cruelty, reasoning that this situation is down to him, not the ferocious felines. Rogers decides he's going to kill them with or without the recluse's consent, but his sloop is smashed in a hurricane and its four months until he can return to perform the operation. It's obvious from the first how this will end, but the sheer inevitability of it all adds to the horror of the thing. Traditional - The Vampire Cat: Lady O Toyo, favourite concubine of Prince Hizen, is attacked and drained of her blood by a demonic feline who buries her remains and assumes her form to prey nightly on his majesty. As Hizen weakens to the point of death, a hundred famed Samurai are placed about his bedside but each succumbs to a strange slumber before midnight arrives. A humble warrior, Ito Soda, is determined to save his Prince, but why should he succeed where his betters have failed abysmally? Ernest Hamilton - The Child Watcher: Her owner drowned Esther's kittens at birth. Guess what Esther has in store for her owners' new born baby?
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Post by dem bones on Jul 1, 2011 13:43:40 GMT
Ramsey Campbell - Cat And Mouse: A particularly thoughtless family set off on holiday without first making sure their five cats are provided for. As a result four either die of starvation or, worse, are ripped to ribbons by the survivor turned cannibal. The new owners are unaware of this. He's a frustrated artist, going through the motions with an advertising agency, and already showing signs of mental collapse. From the first he realises there's something unwelcoming about the house: it reeks of wet fur and he instinctively realises the blame doesn't lie with wife Hazel's sheepskin coat. As days go by so the portentous, unseen presence grows ever more overwhelming, until finally he's catching glimpses of the fang-faced entity. Is he losing it entirely or have a mob of hate-filled spectral felines found two new mice to toy with?
Saki - Tobermoray: Of all the attendees at Lady Blentley's house party, only Mr. Cornelius Appin has proved a disappointment. Reputedly 'clever', whatever talents he may or may not possess do not extend to interesting conversation. So when he announces that he's taught their cat, Tobermoray, the power of human speech they are incredulous. But ... it's true! Delight at witnessing such a miracle swiftly turns to horror as Tobermoray is revealed as an incorrigible gossip with plenty tittle tattle to reveal about guests and hosts both. Faced with the prospect of social ostracisation should the scandal make the newspapers, the Blentley's find it expedient to add strychnine to their beloved pet's diet. But Tobermoray is no mug and doubtless would have sold their secrets had not nature taken its course. if you must have talking cat stories you might at least make them hilarious and, god bless Saki, he does.
William J. Wintle - The Black Cat: Sydney has a morbid fear of cats. His obsession never manifests in acts of cruelty - Sydney even donates to a cat charity - but he hates the mangy rotten fleabags all the same. So it's just his luck when, researching a book on early Egyptian history, his rummaging in a London antique shop unearths a casket containing mummified remains of cat. The black spectre torments poor Syd through December before finally slashing him up good on Christmas eve.
H. P. Lovecraft- The Cats Of Ulthar: The old cotter and his wife get their kicks from trapping and dismembering the local feline population. An orphan arrives in Ulthar with a mysterious party of travellers and when his pet kitten goes the way of so many before it, he calls upon strange Gods for vengeance. The cats of Ulthar duly dispense horrible justice on the wretched couple.
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ben
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 22
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Post by ben on Jan 4, 2016 19:07:38 GMT
Got this book today. For a princely some of 50p. Really looking forward to reading it.
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Post by bobby on Jan 7, 2016 1:25:04 GMT
I have a hardcover edition of this book, but it's currently in a storage facility.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 31, 2020 15:44:25 GMT
Ambrose Bierce - The Eyes of the Panther: (San Francisco Examiner 17 Oct. 1897). Irene Marlow dearly loves Jenner Brenning, lawyer, which is why she turns down his marriage proposal and breaks off their engagement. When pressed for an explanation, Irene pleads hereditary insanity on her late mother's side, although, "I might myself prefer to call it a case of 'possession.'" It transpires that Mrs. Marlow was literally driven out of her wits by a panther glaring through the window of her home while husband was away. Terrified for her first born, she clasped the child too tight ....
Some months afterwards, Mrs Marlowe died giving birth to a second daughter, Irene. In the intervening years, there have been several mysterious deaths in the vicinity, and folk claim a wild animal is responsible.
As Irene heads home through the trees, Jenner glimpses a panther and calls out a warning. Pressing on through the forest, he finds no sign of the beast. What can it all mean?
Tragically, it won't be long before he finds out.
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