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Post by jonathan122 on Aug 24, 2010 15:27:16 GMT
The Dead of Night - The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions (Wordsworth Editions, 2010) Introduction by David Stuart Davies
Credo (Preface by Onions)
The Beckoning Fair One Phantas Rooum Benlian The Ascending Dream The Honey in the Wall The Rosewood Door The Accident Io The Painted Face The Out Sister "John Gladwin Says..." Hic Jacet The Rocker Dear Dryad The Real People The Cigarette Case The Rope in the Rafters Resurrection in Bronze The Woman in the Way The Smile of Karen Two Trifles: The Ether-Hogs & The Mortal The Master of the House Tragic Casements
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Post by dem bones on Aug 24, 2010 20:52:29 GMT
Thanks for posting, Jonathan. How lovely that this is more complete than the Tartarus The Collected Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions by (depending on which Tartarus edition you have) two/ three stories. i remember being very impressed with The Rope In The Rafters, in Mike Ashley's Mammoth Short Horror Novels and that will likely be the one i start on once i get this (i'm still wary of revisiting The Beckoning Fair One as why risk my beautiful memories of the first encounter). never had much time for the Two Trifles but am glad to see them included.
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Post by cw67q on Aug 24, 2010 21:45:08 GMT
Thanks for posting, Jonathan. How lovely that this is more complete than the Tartarus The Collected Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions by (depending on which Tartarus edition you have) two/ three stories. i remember being very impressed with The Rope In The Rafters, in Mike Ashley's Mammoth Short Horror Novels and that will likely be the one i start on once i get this (i'm still wary of revisiting The Beckoning Fair One as why risk my beautiful memories of the first encounter). never had much time for the Two Trifles but am glad to see them included. Yeah thanks for posting Jonathan. And don't miss the short novel, A Painted Face, Dem. (Or Rooum, or Io, or the Smile of Karen, with that last one probably being the most vaultish) - chris - chris
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 26, 2010 19:48:56 GMT
Picked up a copy of this today. I've only read the foreword so far, but I laughed out loud when I read of Onions' apparent "demise by a small press". A Freudian slip, maybe...
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 27, 2010 7:15:20 GMT
Picked up a copy of this today. I've only read the foreword so far, but I laughed out loud when I read of Onions' apparent "demise by a small press". A Freudian slip, maybe... It's still an amazing bargain, over 600 pages of the best ghost stories ever written for less than £3.00! I really don't know how Wordsworth Books can manage it, even when the writers are out of copyright. This makes them one of the most valuable publishers in the horror genre. In this era of high-priced limited editions of sometimes not particularly brilliant writers, we have a publisher who is making material like this readily available in affordable editions. If anyone is making suggestions next year for awards to publishers for their work in the genre they should be at the very top of the list.
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 27, 2010 7:43:46 GMT
Oh I totally agree, I just thought that was a funny little typo. I've also just ordered a trio of Victorian/Edwardian ladies from them - M Bowen, AB Edwards, and E Nesbit - though it could be quite a long time before I've had the chance to read them all. Still, it's nice to be able to stock up for the future like that without feeling that I'm being at all extravagent. And if it turns out that any aren't really to my taste, there's no real damage done.
Have to say, though, I do have one complaint - when I was looking through the Wordsworths in the bookshop I noticed that, in the multi-author anthologies, the contents pages only list the story titles and not the authors' names, which seems like a very odd (and unhelpful) thing to do.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 27, 2010 7:57:51 GMT
Dr Strange said: "Have to say, though, I do have one complaint - when I was looking through the Wordsworths in the bookshop I noticed that, in the multi-author anthologies, the contents pages only list the story titles and not the authors' names, which seems like a very odd (and unhelpful) thing to do."
I have to agree with you there. That is very odd and unhelpful. I wonder why they did that.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 27, 2010 8:16:00 GMT
This makes them one of the most valuable publishers in the horror genre. In this era of high-priced limited editions of sometimes not particularly brilliant writers, we have a publisher who is making material like this readily available in affordable editions. If anyone is making suggestions next year for awards to publishers for their work in the genre they should be at the very top of the list. I'd agree with that. I've had a bit of an epiphany over the last year about the high-priced books of small presses and Wordsworth have helped show me the way!
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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2010 8:22:13 GMT
To the best of my knowledge Wordsworth have never once made the BFS long-list let alone won an award! Stephen Jones will sometimes afford a few titles a cursory nod in his annual round-ups but nothing special. Remember when they were running their 'author still in copyright/ out of copyright' polls? Derek, Helen, Avril and Emma came to an obscure, frequently diabolical board like ours to host them because we were just about the only ones showing any interest. i'm DELIGHTED they did, especially as some of those who only joined us to vote have stuck around to become valued contributors, but those polls should have been on the BFS. Don't people like that they're bringing horror & supernatural fiction to the masses? Have to say, though, I do have one complaint - when I was looking through the Wordsworths in the bookshop I noticed that, in the multi-author anthologies, the contents pages only list the story titles and not the authors' names, which seems like a very odd (and unhelpful) thing to do. Vault can help. Follow the links on the Wordsworth editions checklist - they'll see you alright for most of 'em.
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 27, 2010 8:43:02 GMT
Don't people like that they're bringing horror & supernatural fiction to the masses? Who knows, they might even remind some of the self-appointed guardians of high-brow "culture" that horror and ghost stories are as much a part of our "literary tradition" as the Brontes or Jane Austen.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 27, 2010 9:12:45 GMT
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 27, 2010 9:15:39 GMT
To the best of my knowledge Wordsworth have never once made the BFS long-list let alone won an award! Stephen Jones will sometimes afford a few titles a cursory nod in his annual round-ups but nothing special. Remember when they were running their 'author still in copyright/ out of copyright' polls? Derek, Helen, Avril and Emma came to an obscure, frequently diabolical board like ours to host them because we were just about the only ones showing any interest. i'm DELIGHTED they did, especially as some of those who only joined us to vote have stuck around to become valued contributors, but those polls should have been on the BFS. Don't people like that they're bringing horror & supernatural fiction to the masses? Have to say, though, I do have one complaint - when I was looking through the Wordsworths in the bookshop I noticed that, in the multi-author anthologies, the contents pages only list the story titles and not the authors' names, which seems like a very odd (and unhelpful) thing to do. Vault can help. Follow the links on the Wordsworth editions checklist - they'll see you alright for most of 'em. I'm as much to blame as any other BFS member, Dem. I'll try to set this right next time, though. And I do think we definitely need a thorough going article about Wordsworth in the next issue of Prism.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2010 12:41:41 GMT
Don't people like that they're bringing horror & supernatural fiction to the masses? Who knows, they might even remind some of the self-appointed guardians of high-brow "culture" that horror and ghost stories are as much a part of our "literary tradition" as the Brontes or Jane Austen. in my less charitable moments i get to wonder if maybe some people on the 'scene' prefer it all very exclusive, like it's no longer a club for the special, the frightfully intelligent, if the riff-raff are aloud in. of course, i soon realise that such an idea is preposterous .... David, i think you pointed out elsewhere that it takes a solitary vote to make the long-list and that's why i was genuinely astonished that Wordsworth have never even got that far! After all, we've a few BFS members among our contributors and some have been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the 'Mystery & the Supernatural' series. But then i checked the shortlist for the 2010 awards and realised they don't really fit into any category; the nearest is the 'PS Publishing Award for Best Small Press', but Wordsworth aren't small press. So there is no "blame" to be attached. Maybe the BFS should add an award for the mainstream publishers to contend?
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 27, 2010 12:49:33 GMT
demonik said:
"David, i think you pointed out elsewhere that it takes a solitary vote to make the long-list and that's why i was genuinely astonished that Wordsworth have never even got that far! After all, we've a few BFS members among our contributors and some have been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the 'Mystery & the Supernatural' series. But then i checked the shortlist for the 2010 awards and realised they don't really fit into any category; the nearest is the 'PS Publishing Award for Best Small Press', but Wordsworth aren't small press. So there is no "blame" to be attached. Maybe the BFS should add an award for the mainstream publishers to contend?"
You're right, of course, there isn't anywhere that Wordsworth could be recoimmended for an award as such. It most definitely is not small press. Its books, though, could come in for an award, and for that I hold myself to blame as much as anyone. I'll certainly put forward the Oliver Onions collection next time, just as I have for the Stokers. It's then up to others to do likewise.
My only excuse over the BFS awards is that I don't really pay very much attention to them anyway. I haven't recommended anything for ages and I didn't even vote this time, mainly because there was nothing amongst the finalists I'd read!
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Post by cw67q on Aug 27, 2010 14:18:24 GMT
David, whilst the Onions might well be wordworth's best collection this year, might one of the others not stand a better chance of winning as the Tartarus Onions collection came out only a few years ago. Maybe one of the collections that reprints stories that have been OOP for a longer period might do better?
(Though of course I agree that a wordsworth book is a very different thing from a Tartarus Press book in many levels, and I'm glad to see both available).
- chris
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