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Post by unholyturnip on Feb 24, 2009 11:41:54 GMT
It is that Horrid Mysteries, and, to be honest, much as it would be nice to know the Northanger books were easily available if you wanted them, it would be a brave publisher who took a chance on them as they're very much specialist interest. At the close of the 'eighties Skoob books set about reissuing all seven (?) but they only got as far as Teuthold's The Necromancer and Francis Lathom's The Midnight Bell, both of which are .... hard going. Also, i'm not so sure the Marquis Von Grosse actually wrote Horrid Mysteries - isn't he just the doomed hero of the novel? Whatever, the author seems to have taken their inspiration from Anne Radcliffe, so all the apparent 'supernatural' incidents are rationalised which always gets on my tits. If you're going to go for a Gothic revival, i reckon the best, most commercial place to start has to be the full-on, proper horrors of M. G. Lewis's The Monk, and i'm delighted there's a Wordsworth edition in the offing! To my way of thinking, and no matter that he never intended to, Lewis invented the sensationalist pulp horror novel with that book! The Northanger novels have mostly been reissued recently by Valancourt books, along with hundreds of other gothic novels. I review 'em sometimes for GZ. They're very well presented I must say, with scholarly intro's and the works. I just wish they were also available in hardback www.valancourtbooks.com/index2.htmlZittaw press also do a similar thing, but they've not put out nearly as many books. They do have a funky version of Varney The Vampire though www.zittaw.com/catalogue.htm
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Post by dem bones on Feb 24, 2009 12:09:56 GMT
What a labour of love that must be, whether publishing, collecting or reviewing them. How the Gothic Society would have swooned over this little lot. Some of these titles have only been rumours to me before now! The covers are absolutely gorgeous, too - The Necromancer and The Midnight Bell are a vast improvement on the bland Skoob artwork. What does $12.95 work out in sterling? Six or seven quid? That Zittaw Varney the Vampyre does indeed look the part, but I'm holding out for the Wordsworth edition! Thanks for these fascinating links, mr. turnip!
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Post by lobolover on Feb 24, 2009 18:42:27 GMT
Dem- just dont read the Necromancer. It's not worth it. Its not a bad book, but it's flat and insults the readers inteligence way to many times.
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Post by lobolover on Feb 24, 2009 18:53:44 GMT
Anyway, i'm pleasantly surprised to see respectable support for Amyas Northcote, and put me down for one of those The Complete Ghost Stories Of E. F. Benson - minus 'The Dust Cloud'. Sounds like a real winner, that. Oh boy, yes. I mean, doesn't it remind you of Dark Dignum from Capes? Both were stories by respected authors of weird and ghost stories, and both have wonderfull descriptions of graveyards slowly crumbling into the sea, as croocken bones stick out of the earth, but as far as the story goes To the Necromancer- I just found the general very efective descriptions of actual aparations, very detailed and from several people, explained away with the phrase "he disguised himself as a ghost" to be utterly insulting to the readers inteligence. That and you have a two volume series called "The necromancer", yet you indiscriminately call Necromancy "cheat, cheats, cheaters, fake, fakes" (all of these are used , many times )since midway through book one and not get wavered of in the slightest, I consider that bad planing. Apart from the fact Im just pissed as hell, considering it was called " one of strangest horror novels ever written", that makes me want to go "Angry Gothic Novel Nerd" on the ass of the person who wrote that and made me pay for it. I dont regret it, but at the same time, my expectations were shatered, picked up, stuck together, and shatered again.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 25, 2009 11:58:42 GMT
I was going to say that a book which could possibly manage to insult my intelligence has yet to be written, but then certain titles relating to 'real' vampire cases sprang unpleasantly to mind ... Anyhow, your warning came about ten years too late for me, Lobo, and .. I think you're being a little harsh. No, I didn't particularly enjoy The Necromancers - "Sporadically good, not without it's guilty laughs but turgid" was my not very considered appraisal - but then I think my approach to Gothic Literature was all wrong. I got into it via The Monk and some of the more manic shorts revived by Peter Haining and so, of course, any new title that came my way, I was expecting them to be just as racy, scandalous, gruesome and wildly exciting as M. G. Lewis. Wrong! Only very rarely - Melmoth The Wanderer, Vathek - did I experience the same buzz, and, as I came to realise that Anne Radcliffe's Mysteries Of Udolpho was arguably more influential on the writers of the day than Lewis, I knew I wasn't going to be very good at being a proper Goth aficionado. Reading Clara Reeves The Old English Baron - a book which damn near killed me. Oh, is it tedious! - rather painfully confirmed this. So I tend to ignore appraisals like "one of strangest horror novels ever written" as I accept they're aimed at people who appreciate all aspects of Gothic fiction and not the more specific cheap thrills - the real horrors - I'm out for. It certainly doesn't make the reviewer wrong to make that claim for The Necromancer if that's the way he or she sees it. And, you know, "he disguised himself as a ghost" certainly works for me.
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Post by lobolover on Feb 25, 2009 12:18:25 GMT
It doesnt necessarily work when its done several times , is not even explained properly, but is treated as an obvious fake- god, didnt you hate all the constant "fake, fakes,cheat, cheats,etc." used throughout.
The Old English Baron- what do yous think bad about that? I know that it was referenced in a certain document about supernatural horror in literature, so I would want to avoid it, should there be a chance.
And its nice to see Capes in 2nd place for now. As for the Whitehead, whom I never read , yes.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 25, 2009 12:52:25 GMT
Ok, a couple of *ahem* considered and even handed mentions from our old board (be fair. You could hardly expect me to re-read it ... )
"If you've not already had the dubious pleasure, I'd advise you to approach Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron with caution. It might just be me, but ... well, think "the entire works of Anne Rice" and you've some indication of just how tedious I found the experience. And its only 130 pages long. Damn! I can still picture good old Edmund bursting into tears, dropping to his knees and praising God every other paragraph. I wouldn't mind, but God has been a total bastard towards him from the moment he was born."
and ....
" ... even a short extract from Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron will have you pining for the thrills and spills of Etienne Aubin ..... Masochists can torment themselves to a peak of unbridled agony with the full version in Seven Masterpieces Of Gothic Horror (Bantam, 1971)."
And now i'm worried that i'm making it sound more appealing than is decidedly not the case. Lets put it this way. If you couldn't get along with The Necromancer, I don't much reckon your chances with The Old English Baron.
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Post by unholyturnip on Feb 25, 2009 21:03:04 GMT
For those who've looked at the Valancourt page, what do you think are their best titles? I review books for a magazine you see, but I'm not as well read in the Gothic as I am in ghost stories, so I don't wanna just review any old thing ya know? What would be the recommends of you guys?
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Post by lobolover on Feb 25, 2009 22:33:18 GMT
Well, The Necromancer has a nice cover (a diferent one then was posted), and informative entry about the real author, so presentation, Id say that except for mentioning "Mysterious Warnings" twice on the back cover in the Northanger Abbey quote and the more then dubiously decieving title of "strangest horror novel ever writen", its fine I guess, but as the story goes, its above mediocre because of the style (A friend of mine at SFFchronicles told me horror stories about the readability of "Horrid Mysteries" too) being fluent, but nothing else.
Incidentely, you know of a magazine interested in old/obscure and out of print or public domain book reviews, because that's what I do all the time.
And I find Capes' sudden jump to be pleasently surpising. I just hope you include A VOICE FROM THE PIT ,DINAH'S MAMMOTH and BLACK VENN from "At a winter's fire" the first is good to have as the last story with "Moonstricken" as first, to make sort of a cycle., and the last, though strictly not supernatural, is surely cruel and slightly non natural, in the course of the events.
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Post by wordswortheditions on Mar 1, 2009 10:14:43 GMT
Right, the voting polls are now closed!
Thanks for the votes, we'll combine them with our email votes etc and let you know who the winners are in the week.
We'll also do the prize draw for the Amazon vouchers this week so will announce the winner shortly.
Thanks again!
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Post by wordswortheditions on Mar 4, 2009 19:02:35 GMT
The lucky dip (of contributors to the polls) has been conducted and the winners of the £50 Amazon vouchers are...
(drumroll please)
apostate and mattofthespurs
Congratulations!
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Post by mattofthespurs on Mar 5, 2009 7:51:50 GMT
Wow! Quite amazed that I won! Thanks. I don't contribute too often here but I do read everyday. One of the reasons I don't contribute is that the level of knowledge on this site is huge and it makes me feel quite small and insignificant in comparison, but I do learn something nearly every day.
So thanks very much and WOO-HOO!
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Post by dem bones on Mar 5, 2009 8:56:44 GMT
Congrats to matt and apostate, and delighted to see that Chris is already continuing with the suggestions! Once the overall results have been announced, i'll collect these and any others that were overlooked onto the new thread as i'm sure between us we can give Wordsworth Editions plenty of food for thought. Quite apart from publishing a fascinating selection of long-sought ghost and horror titles, they've also been very good for Vault, taking three of our most underachieving sections (unjustly, i thought: there's some great stuff in there) and turning them into happening ones.
Did anyone else notice the surge in votes for Amyas Northcote and Vincent O'Sullivan, in the last few days of the voting? O'Sullivan in particular came out of nowhere to almost win it!
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Post by mattofthespurs on Mar 5, 2009 10:14:15 GMT
Thanks Demonik. The money will be well spent on, I'm guessing, about 17 of the Wordsworth books that I need. Over joyed.
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Post by wordswortheditions on Mar 10, 2009 14:31:14 GMT
I'm still waiting to hear from apostate to claim his £50 Amazon voucher from the Wordsworth New Author Poll. So apostate, if you're out there!
I'll give it to the end of the month, and then do a redraw if I don't hear.
And after I spent all that time cutting out pieces of paper with the names on...
Cheers,
Derek@Wordsworth
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