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Post by ripper on Sept 4, 2016 13:59:38 GMT
The Sumach: Another tale that features a vampire tree. As soon as a character in the opening line comments on the redness of the sumach, you know where this one is going, but it is a fun journey getting there. Good Lady Ducayne: More familiar than many in this collection and none the worse for it, as I like this tale quite a bit. As in many such stories it takes a while before characters realise what is going on. Sinister old lady...innocent heroine...exotic setting...great stuff. Let Loose: Jamesian story of a crypt that shouldn't be opened. Another story that I rate highly and it should be better known than it is. Very atmospheric, particularly in that crypt, plus a hero dog, so all in all a fine tale.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 4, 2016 14:43:00 GMT
The Living Stone: This one doesn't hang about and I thought it was an enjoyable and highly unusual tale. I warmed to the Professor and wondered if Punshon featured him in any other stories. I found this list of weird tales from Punshon on the ISFDB website: "The Avenging Phonograph" (1907); "The Last Ascent (1916); "The Unknown Quantity" (1916); "The Haunted Chessmen" (1916) and "The Living Stone" (1939). You can find publication details here: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?18356Given the original publication dates it looks like Punshon did not feature the Professor in any other stories. Anonymous [ed.] - Uncanny Stories (Pearson, 1916) E. R. Punshon - The Unknown Quantity W. G. Litt - The Armless Man Scudamore Jarvis & Cecil Morgan - The Tomtom Clue Margaret Strickland - The Case of Sir Alister Moeran M. E. Royce - The Kiss Roy Vickers - The Goth E. R. Punshon - The Last Ascent Lewis Lister - The Terror by Night Gladys Stern - The Tragedy Of The Loup Noir I've not read it yet, but The Unknown Quantity features a Professor William James Maynard who may or may not be our man (I don't think his name is given in The Living Stone?). You can read Uncanny Stories in its entirety via Project Gutenberg
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Post by dem bones on Sept 5, 2016 7:03:25 GMT
But ...
E. R. Punshon - The Unknown Quantity: "It was exactly a month by the calendar since he had murdered this cousin, and everything had gone most satisfactorily since."
Ah. Professor William James Maynard is probably not our professor after all. This nasty piece of work, a master mathematician, murdered - horribly - for money, the £20,000 he estimates will fund his research for two decades. Now he is tormented by a spreading indelible bloodstain on his kill hand. We think we know how this will end and we are right.
E. R. Punshon - The Last Ascent: Radcliffe Thorpe, confirmed bachelor and adventurer, woos the crowd with his daring feats at the Attercliffe aviation festival. The plane lands safely - but minus it's pilot! Narrator recalls that his friend has recently been obsessed with sketching the imaginary woman of his dreams, "spectral, unreal, and lovely." A fellow who photographed Thorpe's last ascent shows him an eerie snapshot.
Neither are a patch on The Living Stone if you want my honest.
Also from Uncanny Stories (couldn't resist the title).
Roy Vickers - The Goth: "Can't you see what that legend meant to us?" she went on. "It was a thing of beauty. And now you have spoilt it. It's like burning down the trees of the Fairy Glen. You — you Goth!"
To gaze upon the sunken village at Tryn yr Wylfa is to offend the Old Ones and invite death by drowning within a year. Jack Cargill, a brash young Londoner and champion amateur swimmer, has no time for local superstition and defies the curse. Jack's showing off greatly upsets his intended, Betty Lardner, who won't forgive him unless he does the decent thing and meets a watery doom.
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Post by ripper on Sept 5, 2016 8:45:36 GMT
Thanks for the pointer to Uncanny Stories, Dem. A shame the Professor doesn't seem to have had any further adventures, but the single tale he is featured in is a very original and memorable one.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 6, 2016 9:27:55 GMT
Thanks for the pointer to Uncanny Stories, Dem. A shame the Professor doesn't seem to have had any further adventures, but the single tale he is featured in is a very original and memorable one. Uncanny Stories is not the most dynamic collection, but am enjoying it probably more than I should. Hugh Lamb revived Lewis Lister's contribution for Gaslit Nightmares 2. I've never really been sure why. At least this next is proper gruesome. Scudamore Jarvis & Cecil Morgan - The Tomtom Clue: " ... his tomtom was particularly large and most obnoxious ..." Bulawayo, Rhodesia. Jack Bridges learns the horrible circumstances behind his father's death. Mum has always assured him that pa died a hero, but contemporary newspaper reports have it that Richard Bridges, thief and forger, was hanged for the cowardly murder of his fellow prospector, Symes. Jack knows in his heart of hearts that father he was a decent man and travels to Africa with friend Jim determined to prove his innocence. A set of novelty tomtoms belonging to a drunken Barotse skin-basher reveals the hideous truth.
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Post by ripper on Sept 6, 2016 11:44:34 GMT
Gutenberg is a site that can come up with some real obscurities. Before the internet, books like Uncanny Stories would have remained mostly inaccessible, unless you were willing to do a lot of phoning and probably walking, until you found a copy, but now the text is just a few mouse clicks away, and that is something I think we are beginning to almost take for granted.
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Post by helrunar on Sept 6, 2016 14:36:11 GMT
Novelty tomtoms... it is for such as this that I come to this site.
Thanks, Dem Bones!
H.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 6, 2016 15:16:16 GMT
W. G. Litt - The Armless Man: "If only I could give you my arms! A poor, weak woman's arms, but better than none, dear."
When Bob Masters is captured by South African tribesmen, he forfeits both arms in attempting escape back to England for a last embrace with his dying wife. He makes it just in time. Such is their mutual devotion that the late Mrs. Masters assists him from beyond the grave, lending her arms to help him accomplish everyday tasks that should be beyond the capabilities of an amputee. Masters falls in with our narrator, Mr. Riverston, aboard a ship bound for the West Country. Riverston is returning home to marry his fiancée, Nancy, and asks the man with the stumps to serve as his best man.
As the happy couple set off on honeymoon, Nancy falls from the station platform into the path of an oncoming train. Bob sacrifices his spectral arms - and his unhappy life - to save hers.
M. E. Royce - The Kiss: Man loves secretary, secretary reciprocates, but there is a fly in the ointment - man's wife. Unable to bear the torment, he is leaving the office for good. He won't even risk awakening desire in Miss Carryll by granting her request for a kiss.
Miss Carryll retires heartbroken to the top floor. But then she hears his tread on the stair. He's coming back! He's coming back for a first and last glorious smooch!
Gladys Stern - The Tragedy Of The Loup Noir: "They sit long at that table, for the man has much to tell of his young brother Claude; of the ruin she has made of his life; of the little green devils that lurk in a glass of absinthe, and clutch their victim, and drag him down deeper, ever deeper, into the great, green abyss."
Lou Arnaud, artist, is accused of the murder of man-crazy Jehane, the innkeeper's beautiful daughter. It doesn't help Arnaud's cause that he had earlier accused the girl of driving his brother to suicide. Worse, on the night of the murder, Lou began a new carvas depicting a pair of hands encircling Jehane's neck, strangling the life from her. He claims to have created this morbid masterpiece in his sleep!
Margaret Strickland - The Case of Sir Alister Moeran: "He had probably no more idea than I what far-reaching, evil strain it was that came out in his blood and turned him, every seven years, practically into a vampire."
Wimberley Park, Cumberland. Captain Maurice Kilvert returns from India to learn the dreadful news that Ethne,his adored cousin, is engaged to marry Sir Alister Moeran. Sir Alister is a handsome devil, popular with all he meets, but Kilvert can't help but think he's a wrong 'un. Dogs don't like him. His eyes glow gold in the dark. He smells like a jungle. The Captain suspects that, even if he's not half breed, he is something equally uncanny and despicable. As it turns out, Kilvert is right. Although entirely oblivious to his affliction, Sir Alister is a were-tiger, and Ethne is in deadly peril!
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Post by ripper on Sept 7, 2016 11:28:41 GMT
It sounds like you are having a good time with Uncanny Stories, Dem, and it seems like a fun collection of tales. Most of the authors are completely unknown to me, but that's part of the enjoyment in discovering new writers of whom you have no idea what to expect.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 7, 2016 15:47:30 GMT
It sounds like you are having a good time with Uncanny Stories, Dem, and it seems like a fun collection of tales. I did! The stories are bare bones direct and at a slimline 126 pages there is little chance of the collection outstaying its welcome. It's the kind of anthology the late E. F. Bleiler would dismiss as "routine commercial fiction" except in his case this was not intended as a compliment. Reading these very traditional ghost stories it is hard to believe that Weird Tales was only seven years around the corner. Turns out Mr. Mains already posted a thread for Uncanny Stories here.
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Post by mrhappy on Sept 8, 2016 1:45:49 GMT
It sounds like you are having a good time with Uncanny Stories, Dem, and it seems like a fun collection of tales. I did! The stories are bare bones direct and at a slimline 126 pages there is little chance of the collection outstaying its welcome. It's the kind of anthology the late E. F. Bleiler would dismiss as "routine commercial fiction" except in his case this was not intended as a compliment. Reading these very traditional ghost stories it is hard to believe that Weird Tales was only seven years around the corner. Turns out Mr. Mains already posted a thread for Uncanny Stories here. These tales are fun! Uncanny Stories and More Uncanny Stories were gathered together in 1931 as Ghost Stories and Other Queer Tales. For those who reside in the States, Wildside released both volumes as The Uncanny Stories Megapack in 2015. A kindle exclusive (unfortunately), it is available on Amazon for $0.99. Mr. Happy
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Post by pulphack on Sept 8, 2016 4:44:45 GMT
Just had a look at the thread for Uncanny Stories and can only echo what I said there - Roy Vickers was immensely imaginative but an untidy writer, while ER Punshon is someone who I like more now than I did when that thread went up about seven years back. His detective fiction - for which I'm more familiar with both Punshon and Vickers - was solid and of the kind Julian Symons called 'humdrum' (pejoratively). Over the last few years, I've grown to admire that kind of writer more: they never did anything world shattering, but if you wanted a good solid piece of entertainment, you could rely on them to give you an hour or two of entertainment without fail - which is a rare thing, really.
It sounded a good read at the time - looks more so seeing it mentioned now.
(As an aside, when I saw Television on their first reunion tour, it really struck me how Richard Lloyd's solos were fiery and like an erupting volcano, with bum notes peppering the flights of fancy, while Tom Verlaine's were icy and cold, worked out in advance to the note, but a wonderful contrast. Neither would have been as impressive without the other. For some reason, thinking of Punshon and Vickers together in this collection made me remember that - it's a masterful piece of anthologising, and more than you would expect from a seemingly flung together volume.)
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Post by dem bones on Sept 8, 2016 6:18:12 GMT
Over the last few years, I've grown to admire that kind of writer more: they never did anything world shattering, but if you wanted a good solid piece of entertainment, you could rely on them to give you an hour or two of entertainment without fail - which is a rare thing, really. That perfectly sums up Uncanny Stories for me, Mr. Hack. No airs and graces, no "classics", just a neat selection of solid magazine pieces. Biggest compliment I can pay the book is that, if we overlook the Lewis Lister story, it's the first anthology I've read entirely from the screen. As a physical book guy, usually, I can only manage two stories at most before the experience becomes anti-enjoyment, but there was never any question of giving up on this one. Happy hundredth birthday, Uncanny Stories!
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Post by ripper on Sept 8, 2016 11:21:44 GMT
I made a start on Uncanny Stories last night and managed to get through the first four tales in one sitting, and I must say that I had a thoroughly good time.
The Unknown Quantity: Not so good as the author's The Living Stone but very readable. A touch of Macbeth's "Out, damned spot," though the blood appears when the Professor is with someone and only on the first of each month.
The Armless Man: Interesting and unusual. The narrator seemed to accept the phantom arms of his friend rather blithely.
The Tomtom Clue: Grim and moderately nasty. I did smile when the wedding was back on again so quickly after the truth came out. A bit of a coincidence coming upon that particular native in all that wilderness, but in this kind of story you have to just go along with it.
The Case of Sir Alister Moeran: So far, my favourite of the stories. Poor Sir Alister has no idea that every 7 years he becomes a were-tiger. There's no explanation as to why it happens other than a vague reference to him having the soul of a beast. Funny, though, when the lights went out only the narrator could see Sir Alister's glowing eyes.
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Post by ripper on Sept 10, 2016 8:59:53 GMT
The Kiss: Conventional ghost story about two people madly in love with each other but held back by one being married. I thought possibly this was going to be a pesky wife has convenient accident and returns from grave for one last kiss from unwilling husband kind of thing, but it's nowhere near as complex as that--just two people in a forbidden romantic situation who are gagging for a snog--how things have changed in a century...
The Goth: I was unsure if there was any supernatural element to this tale or not. Also, I was unclear what actually was our hero's fate after he bravely dived into the water to rescue the stricken steamer's passengers. If I'm reading it correctly the ending is left open.
The Last Ascent: I have no idea who or what the misty figure in the photograph is supposed to represent. The author doesn't really give any background to the pilot's obsession of drawing the girl and my best guess was that it was a representation of a nature spirit of air who either was in love with our pilot or was angry with him for trespassing into her domain so much--he was trying to break altitude records.
The Terror by Night: Another tale where we don't get any explanation of the 'thing' that pursues our hero. I am unclear as to the significance of the stone and fish in the matter, but I think it probably had no bearing on him being chased. The author tried to present the hero as a likeable dreamer but I was hoping the 'thing' would get him.
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