Dorothy L Sayers - Detection, Mystery & Horror

[dem bones]

Dorothy L. Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror (Gollancz, September 1928): US title The Omnibus of Crime (Payson and Clarke Ltd, 1929)

1. Detection & Mystery

The History of Bel
The History of Susanna
The story of Hercules and Cacus
The Story of Rhampsinitus
Mrs. Henry Wood - The Ebony Box
Hedley Barker - The Ace of Trouble
Edgar Allan Poe - The Mystery of Marie Roget
Baroness Orczy - The Mysterious Death of Percy Street
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventure of the Priory School
J. Storer Clouston - Coincidence
Ernest Bramah - The Ghost of Massingham Mansions
F.A.M. Webster - The Secret of the Singular Cipher
Bechhofer Roberts - The English Filter
E. C. Bentley - The Clever Cockatoo
Eden Phillpotts - Prince Charlie's Dirk
Robert Barr - The Absent-minded Coterie
L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace - The Face in the Dark
Austin Freeman - The Blue Sequin
Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace - The Tea-leaf
Anthony Wynne - The cyprian Bees
Raymund Allen - A Happy Solution
Percival Wilde - The Adventure of the Fallen Angels
Victor Whitechurch - Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture
G. K. Chesterton - The Hammer of God
H. C. Bailey - The Long Barrow
Sir Basil Thomson - The Hanover Court Murder
Alduous Huxley - The Gioconda Smile
Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - Her Last Adventure
E. W. Hornung - The Wrong House

2. Mystery & Horror

Margaret Oliphant – The Open Door
Charles Dickens – Story of the Bagman’s Uncle
Charles Collins & Charles Dickens - The Trial for Murder
M. R. James – Martin’s Close
Oliver Onions – Phantas
Robert Hichens – How Love Came to Professor Guildea
Saki – The Open Window
Arthur Machen – The Black Seal
Sax Rohmer – Tcheriapin
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
A. J. Alan – The Hair
E. F. Benson – Mrs. Amworth
Ambrose Bierce – Moxon’s Master
Jerome J. Jerome – The Dancing Partner
Robert Louis Stevenson – Thrawn Janet
R. H. Benson – Father Meuron’s Tale
Marjorie Bowen – The Avenging of Ann Leete
J. F. Sullivan - The Man With A Malady
William Fryer Harvey – August Heat
Morley Roberts – The Anticipator
Joseph Conrad – The Brute
May Sinclair – Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
J. D. Beresford – The Misanthrope
John Metcalfe – The Bad Lands
Alfred M. Burrage – Nobody’s House
Arthur Quiller-Couch – The Seventh Man
N. Royde-Smith – Proof
Walter de la Mare – Seaton’s Aunt
Michael Arlen – The Gentleman From America
R. Ellis Roberts – The Narrow Way
Traditional – Sawney Beane
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
Violet Hunt – The Corsican Sisters
Barry Pain – The End of A Show
H. G. Wells – The Cone
Ethel Colburn Mayne – The Separate Room

The first of three epic volumes in this classic series (stories listed are the Mystery & Horror content only), another recently selected by Kirby McCauley for his all-time top 10 horror anthologies and you can see his point. This three-volume set is The Dark Descent of it's day, with a lengthy and informed introduction by Sayers even if much of it is, understandably, devoted to her beloved detective fiction. It's open to debate whether the debut is the strongest of the three - two is certainly no also-ran. It's a pity Sayers doesn't seem to have paid much attention to the horror & supernatural short after the thirties' though there have been heavily diluted reprints of the series since then. A special mention for Panther Books who condensed the entire series into the seven-story Bedside Tales of Mystery and Suspense.

I've shoved the 'Mystery & Horror" content of Volumes II and III on WordPress Vault, though i shouldn't feel too relieved if i were you, it's all bound to be recycled on here sooner rather than later.

[dem bones]

Dorothy L. Sayers (ed.) - Human & Inhuman Stories from The Omnibus Of Crime (Macfadden-Bartell, Sept. 1967: originally Feb. 1963)

Michael Arlen - The Gentleman From America
R. Ellis Roberts - The Narrow Way
Traditional - Sawney Beane and His Family
Bram Stoker - The Squaw
Violet Hunt - The Corsican Sisters
Barry Pain - The End Of A Show
H. G. Wells - The Cone
Ethel Colburn Mayne - The Separate Room

Blurb:
Time: The Present
Plot: Murder
Scene: Anywhere

A colorful Mediterranean island, hiding its bloody past from the tourists.
A respectable boarding house, where death was frowned on - it made such a mess of the room.
A steel mill, whose awesome machines were more horrible than a medieval torture chamber.
A drowsy country village, where murder went unrecognized - they called it the judgement of God.

No place in the whole world is safe, when human passions run amok!

Another slimline selection from the above, snagged at Brick Lane market on Sunday for a bedroom tax defying 25p. A Gentleman From America and the ghastly consequences of the nasty prank played upon him by two English gents is surely Michael Arlen's finest contribution to the genre, not least for gruesome extract from Sir Gilbert Phelps' fabulously rare ghost story anthology, Tales Of Terror For Tiny Tots. In R. Ellis Roberts' The Narrow Way, an insane priest hits upon a foolproof method for decimating the population of a village. Horror stories don't come much more horrible than The Cone: hard to believe that Well's sadistic shocker was first published way back in September 1895 - wonder what kind of reception it received? Barry Pain's The End Of A Show is a gloomy short-short set among carney folk, wherein a phoney doctor is called upon by a sideshow freak to assist in his suicide. An uncredited Captain Charles Johnson provides the 'non-fiction' interlude, a worryingly enthusiastic celebration of the supposed antics of Sawney Beane and his cannibal clan. Stoker's The Squaw features the improbable death of a loud Nebraskan tourist in a medieval torture chamber.

[dem bones]

Dorothy L. Sayers - Bedside Book Of Mystery & Suspense (Panther, Feb. 1963)

John Dickson Carr - The House In Goblin Wood
Dorothy L. Sayers - The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey
W. Somerset Maugham - The Romantic Young Lady
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Diamond Lens
Frank R Stockton - The Griffin And the Minor Canon
Peter Cheyney - Exit Permit
Pearl S. Buck - The Good River

Blurb:

A sparkling array of exciting fiction to chill you, mystify and fascinate you - hours of breathless entertainment presented by some of the world's greatest literary talent at their unforgettable best

For years I had this down as yet another regurgitation of material from Great Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror, but I am crap, its nothing of the sort, and, if you don't already have copies elsewhere, it is worth having for the excellent contributions from John Dickson Carr and Fitz-James O'Brien (here given as "O'Brian") alone.

John Dickson Carr - The House In Goblin Wood: (The Strand, Nov. 1947). Eve Drayton and boyfriend, Dr. William Sage, prevail upon irascible Tory MP Sir Sir Henry Merrivale to help them solve a long-standing mystery. Twenty years ago, poor little rich girl Victoria Adams, twelve, disappeared from wealthy parents' Aylesbury bungalow, only to just as mysteriously reappear in her bed a week later. She claimed to have been abducted by the faerie folk.

Two decades on Vicky, who loves to be the centre of attention and enjoyed every moment of her first taste of celebrity, is sticking to her story. She boasts to Sir Henry that she can dematerialise at will, and is willing to prove it. Eve, her first cousin and last surviving relative, believes Vicky to be a fake, an opinion shared by Sage and Sir Henry who is otherwise rather smitten by "the wench" (our Posh Spice namesake is deuced attractive). They drive out to the bungalow on the edge of Goblin Wood. Dr. Sage accompanies Vicky inside, whereupon, as promised, she vanishes into thin air! Or so all the evidence suggests.

This is all very well, yet, up until now, you can't help wondering why House In Goblin Wood has gained a reputation as a (relatively) neglected masterpiece of horror. But we still have six pages to go, and what began as slapstick (the pompous-oaf-steps-on-banana-skin crowd pleaser), and veered off into locked room mystery, has one devastating card to play.

[dem bones]

Fitz-James O'Brien - The Diamond Lens: (Atlantic Monthly, Jan. 1858. Weird Tales, Apr 1929): The tragic and fantastic history of Linley, the mad microscopist, whose obsession drives him to murder a slave-trader acquaintance for possession of a priceless diamond. Linley fashions 'the eye of morning' into a lens so powerful, it can reveal an entire world in a droplet of water. And in that world, a solitary living creature, 'Animula', the-most-beautiful-woman-that-ever-lived, etc. It is mutual love at first sight. Linley is so happy he temporarily forgets his crime, but - the microscopic maiden is distressed. See how ill she looks! Will she never stop writhing in agony? What has gone wrong?

Should have thought twice before revisiting this one. Its a fabulous achievement for sure, but where once I rated The Diamond Lens even above The Wondersmith, now the natural order has been restored.

[dem bones]

Back with Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror ...

Morley Roberts - The Anticipator: Two successful authors. Esplan is a literary genius, Burford, an indifferent hack adept at committing his ideas to paper as they occur to him. Therein lies the friction. Whenever Esplan submits an original masterpiece, his publisher informs him that he accepted an inferior version of the same story from Burford but recently. That there is no question of plagiarism somehow makes it worse. Esplan's chum, a physician, can't see what all the fuss is about - "What are stories? Are they not opiates for cowards' lives? I would rather invent some little instrument, or build a bridge across a muddy stream, than write the best of them. - but Esplan, half out of his mind on drugs, resolves to murder "the anticipator" ...

J. F. Sullivan - The Man With A Malady: The thin man's curse is that he can foresee the future, and knows he will die horribly in seven years time. The weight of so great a burden has made him vindictive, and now he delights in breaking bad news to all he meets.

Naomi Royde-Smith - Proof: The ghastly Agnes Blundell believes herself universally adored, so when her husband Graham is killed during the war, she just knows he'd want her to visit a medium that she might pester him beyond the grave. In life Blundell was party to sensitive information as a confidante of the Home Secretary, but Agnes managed to wheedle his every secret from him - or so she thought.

Ethel Colburn Mayne – The Separate Room: (Come In, 1917).

"In the purely human sphere of horror, spiritual cruely now holds its place alongside with bodily cruelty, and we can place Ethel Colburn Mayne's 'The Separate Room' next door to H. G. Wells' 'The Cone' as examples of man's inhumanity to man." - Dorothy L. Sayers, Introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror, 1928.

Marion Cameron, is justly proud of her position as secretary to Bergsma, the celebrated music critic. She is so diligent in her work that Bergsma even trusts her to ghost-write his newspaper columns. While outwardly supportive, her mother, Millie, a pathetic if domineering woman, is hatefully jealous of Marion's independence. When Bergsma decides he no longer needs a secretary and dispenses with Marion's services, Mrs. Cameron cannot help but revel in her daughter's misery and takes every step too see that she never again tastes freedom. Tragically, her efforts are only too successful.

Well, it's certainly an interesting psychological horror story, but, either I was too knackered to begin with or The Separate Room crawls along at a pace so funereal it makes John Metcalfe read like early Shaun Hutson, so some patience may be required of the reader. When it is too late to matter, Dr. Ferguson, a disciple of Freud, correctly diagnoses Mrs. Cameron's condition; "That amiable old lady ... as she appears, or appeared, to us to be, and in her own view, still is. She knows nothing of the 'wish,' you must consider, either as a psychological theory or in herself - the wish in her case being to dominate, nay, humiliate, her daughter."

[Michael Connolly]

Has anyone else read Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers? First published in 1928, this collection of short stories it is still in print (and you can find it online).  It includes "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention", which is the best detective story involving the supernatural that I have ever read.   Also, considering what the villain does with his victims in "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", if it isn't a horror story I don't know what it is.

[dem bones]

Apr 15, 2016 12:10:40 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Has anyone else read Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers? First published in 1928, this collection of short stories it is still in print (and you can find it online).  It includes "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention", which is the best detective story involving the supernatural that I have ever read.   Also, considering what the villain does with his victims in "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", if it isn't a horror story I don't know what it is.

Not me, but thanks to Project Gutenberg will try give "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers" and "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" a go over coming days.

[humgoo]

Oct 21, 2009 10:41:40 GMT dem bones said:

M. R. James – Martin’s Close

Ms. Sayers was the first to anthologise Martin's Close if I'm not mistaken, and she even penned a spoof of it (on page four). What a fan! I hope she will come back to watch the BBC adaptation.

[Michael Connolly]

Aug 27, 2019 17:39:00 GMT humgoo said:

Oct 21, 2009 10:41:40 GMT dem bones said:

M. R. James – Martin’s Close

Ms. Sayers was the first to anthologise Martin's Close if I'm not mistaken, and she even penned a spoof of it (on page four). What a fan! I hope she will come back to watch the BBC adaptation.

I thought she was dead!

[ropardoe]

Aug 28, 2019 12:04:09 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Aug 27, 2019 17:39:00 GMT humgoo said:

Ms. Sayers was the first to anthologise Martin's Close if I'm not mistaken, and she even penned a spoof of it (on page four). What a fan! I hope she will come back to watch the BBC adaptation.

I thought she was dead!

I think that's maybe the point!  Incidentally, I've just finished reading Martin Edwards' The Golden Age of Murder, which is absolutely five-stars fascinating.  It's certainly pretty revealing on the private life of Dorothy Sayers, among others.  

[Michael Connolly]

Aug 29, 2019 9:52:41 GMT ropardoe said:

Aug 28, 2019 12:04:09 GMT Michael Connolly said:

I thought she was dead!

I think that's maybe the point!  Incidentally, I've just finished reading Martin Edwards' The Golden Age of Murder, which is absolutely five-stars fascinating.  It's certainly pretty revealing on the private life of Dorothy Sayers, among others.  

Well, wherever she is, she'll need a strong WiFi connection to see Martin's Close, which looks like it's going to shown on Christmas Eve:  www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-08-22/when-is-peter-capaldi-ghost-story-martins-close-on-tv/

I can also recommend The Golden Age of Murder. 

I've read a number of biographies of Dorothy L. Sayers (she was very insistent on the "L"). While The Nine Tailors is the best of her novels, I don't think it is as sustained in terms of good descriptive and funny prose, and inventiveness etc as the best of her Wimsey short stories.  In that respect her closest rival in short stories is Edmund Crispin whose best novels are better sustained than hers.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Aug 29, 2019 12:16:07 GMT Michael Connolly said:

I can also recommend The Golden Age of Murder.

I was not too thrilled with THE GOLDEN AGE OF MURDER, but it has been several years since I read it and I do not remember why, so my opinion is meaningless. I thought you might nevertheless be interested.