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Post by dem bones on Jun 9, 2013 16:00:26 GMT
"There is a lofty, lonely, Lohengrenic castle in the clouds ..." Haunted ruins and gloomy graveyards: sepulchral statues and demonic gargoyles; a complete absence of tits and bums. it can only mean that the late and very great Sir Simon Marsden (1948 - 2012), Godfather of proper Goth, is belatedly honored with his own Vault thread. You'll find everything you need to know about Sir Simon on his official website (although, saying that, unless I missed it, there's no comprehensive listing of his cover artwork?), so am happy to let a selection of his beautiful photographs speak for themselves. Tales Of The Dead (Gargoyles Head Press/ The Gothic Society, 1992) Cover photograph: Simon Marsden, The Marsden Archive Blurb: This highly influential little book was the first English translation of the famous Fantasmagoriana; ou Recueil d'Histoires d'Apparitions, de Spectres, Revenans, Fantomes, etc. which was of such critical importance in the development of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. Lord Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Dr Polidori were all inspired by the book to write their own ghost stories.
This is a fascinating book, both for its illustrious place in literary history and for the wonderfully atmospheric flavour of its stories.
Terry Hale is based at Liverpool University. Past publications include an anthology of French detective fiction. He is currently completing a study of French horror fiction in the nineteenth century and a translation of JK Huysmans En Rade. Jennie Gray - Tales My Mother Never Told Me (Gargoyles Head Press/ The Gothic Society, 1994) Cover photograph: Simon Marsden, The Marsden Archive Grimley Maple Ward Fanny The Black Cabinet Parallel Experiments The Malignants The Double Dream The Mouse In The Wainscot Blurb: Jennie Gray is the founder of the Gothic Society and editor of The Goth. She lives in Kent in a Victorian pile which she shares with her husband and a menagerie.
These stories are set in the bleak dream hinterlands and crevices of the brain, with a full cast of incubi, succubi, murderers, phantoms, slugs, cats, wolf dogs, spectral mice, rot, blood, damnation, and all the usual endearing things.Simon Marsden - The Journal Of A Ghosthunter: In Search Of The Undead From ireland To Transylvania (Little Brown, 1994) Cover photograph: Simon Marsden, The Marsden Archive Jenny Uglow (ed.) - The Vintage Book Of Ghosts (Vintage, 1994) Cover photograph: Simon Marsden, The Marsden Archive Blurb: This landmark anthology is the first book to gather together the literature of ghosts, ranging from the Bible and Norse epics to a surprisingly wide range of contemporary writers, including Will Self and A.S.Byatt, Seamus Heaney and Peter Ackroyd. The result is a funny, moving and often shiver-invoking chronicle of the supernatural that charts the dark waters of fear, loss and our endless hope that life continues beyond the grave.Personally, I thought Vintage Book of Ghosts was a rubbish idea at the time. I still do, and I am right, as usual. Stephen Jones (ed.) - Dancing With The Dark: True Encounters With The Paranormal By Masters Of The Macabre (Vista, 1997) Cover by Splash: Photography by Simon Marsden Contents/ blurb/ running commentary HEREM. R. James - Ghost Stories (Vintage Classics, 2011) Cover photograph: Simon Marsden, The Marsden Archive Ruth Rendell - Introduction
Canon Alberic's Scrapbook The Tractate Middoth The Mezzotint The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral The Ash-Tree A Warning To The Curious Casting the Runes Number 13 The Uncommon Prayer Book Count Magnus 'Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad' Mr. Humphreys and His InheritanceBlurb SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY RUTH RENDELL 'A gnawing sense of unease, a steady accumulation of sounds, shadows and images finally meet in a single moment of sensational physical horror' - Daily Telegraph
M. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and rnodernise a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognisable world to, one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a lonely beach, a book missing from a library shelf - ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 9, 2013 17:31:06 GMT
He really sussed out atmosphere.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 19, 2013 16:05:36 GMT
I recognize that gargoyle.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 19, 2013 20:11:47 GMT
I recognize that gargoyle. He's been celebrating in the bottom picture
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 20, 2013 9:17:58 GMT
That gargoyle gets around a bit.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 20, 2013 16:36:02 GMT
That gargoyle gets around a bit. It's just THE gargoyle though isn't it. I love that wee gargoyle
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 20, 2013 17:13:34 GMT
I am going to apologise upfront for being pedantic, but it's technically not a gargoyle if it hasn't got a water spout - it's a 'grotesque'.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 20, 2013 17:52:33 GMT
I am going to apologise upfront for being pedantic, but it's technically not a gargoyle if it hasn't got a water spout - it's a 'grotesque'. I have to announce I'm coming out then, Dr Strange. I love a grotesque
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