Jack Adrian (ed.) – Strange Tales from the Strand

[dem bones]

Jack Adrian (ed.) – Strange Tales from the Strand (Oxford University Press, 1991)

Mick Brownfield (Waxworks)....

Julian Symons – Foreword
Jack Adrian – Introduction

1. Revenants

Graham Greene – All But Empty (March 1947)
J. B. Harris-Burland – Lord Beden’s Motor (Dec. 1901)
Hugh Walpole – The Tarn (Dec. 1923)
Rina Ramsay – Resurgam ( Aug. 1915)
F. Tennyson Jesse – The Railway Carriage (Nov. 1931)
Beverley Nichols – The Bell (Aug. 1946)

2. Murder & Madness

W. W. Jacobs – His Brother’s Keeper (Dec. 1922)
Sapper – Touch And Go (Feb. 1926)
W. L. George – Waxworks (July 1922)
B. L. Jacot – White Spectre (Jan. 1950)

3. Odd Man Out

D. H. Lawrence – ‘Tickets, Please!’ (Apr 1919)

4. Sheer Melodrama

Villiers de l’Isle-Adam – A Torture By Hope (June 1891)
L. T. Meade – A Horrible Fright (Oct. 1894)
H. Greenhough Smith – The Case Of Roger Carboyne (Sept. 1892)
Ianthe Jerrold – The Orchestra Of Death (Dec 1918)

5. Superbeasts

C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne – The Lizard (June 1898)
L. G. Moberly – Inexplicable (Dec. 1917)

6. The Light Fantastic

L. de Giberne Sieveking – The Prophetic Camera (The English Review, Nov. 1922)
Henry A. Hering – Cavalanci’s Curse (March 1899)
H. G. Wells – The Queer Story Of Brownlow’s Newspaper (March, 1932)

7. Unnatural Disasters

Edgar Wallace – The Black Grippe (March 1920)
Morley Roberts – The Fog (Oct. 1908)
Grant Allen – The Thames Valley Catastrophe (Dec. 1897)
Martin Swayne – A Sense Of The Future (Aug 1924)

8. Two Story-Tellers

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Silver Mirror (Aug. 1908)
E. Bland (Edith Nesbit) – The Haunted House (Dec. 1913)
Arthur Conan Doyle – How It Happened (Sept. 1913)
Edith Nesbit – The Power of Darkness (April 1905)
Arthur Conan Doyle – The Horror of the Heights (Nov 1913)

Sources

Blurb:
The Strand Magazine, launched in 1891, was one of the most successful and influential popular magazines of its time. It ran until 1950, selling half a million copies a month in its heyday. Making its mark immediately with the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes stories, the magazine continued to attract the best writers from all areas of popular fiction.

This volume is a highly entertaining collection of twenty-nine stories, all originally published in the Strand. There are tales of the weird and uncanny — not simply ghost stories, although these are well represented, but tales of natural disasters, of horrifying monsters, of madness and revenge. Many of the stories have never before
appeared in book form.

Had been looking out for a copy of this one for ages, and it's a beauty. If several stories are quite familiar, this is more than made up for by the editor's informed commentary and biographical details throughout. Highlights among those covered elsewhere on this board include 'Sapper's hideous Touch And Go, which received favourable response when included on an early Vault Advent Calendar. The Torture Of Hope gently ushers us back in time to the horrors of the Inquisition - and abandons us there. Taking to the skies, Joyce-Armstrong's monoplane comes under attack from terrible entities in Conan Doyle's The Horror Of The Heights, and there's death on the road in his How It Happened. Henry and Ivy take shelter in an East London Waxworks whose exhibits are the least scary thing about it, while Mr. Craven spends an awful afternoon at the local cinema, a little place off the Edgware Road, in Graham Greene's All But Empty.

More to follow over coming days.

.... H. J. Ward (Spicy Mystery Stories, Feb. 1936)

[dem bones]

B. L. Jacot – White Spectre: A light aircraft bound for Reykjavík, comes down in the mountains. Although the two man crew and their four passengers survive the crash, come nightfall, the pilot is beaten to death in his sleep. Suspicion falls upon the engineer - until he suffers the same fate. Will there be anyone left standing to welcome the rescue party? Julian Symon's cites Ten Little Niggers in the foreword, but White Spectre is far more reminiscent of Mary E. Counselman's Weird Tales/ Not At Night classic, The Accursed Isle.

L. T. Meade – A Horrible Fright: Against mama's advice, thoroughly modern, frightfully independant Virginia, 24, insists on taking the night train from Euston to Hollyhead sans chaperone. How silly everyone is! Men are not monsters! Having said that, the gent who has just slipped into her carriage and pulled out a cut-throat razor does look a little bit sinister ....

Ianthe Jerrold – The Orchestra Of Death: In her impetuous youth, the famous ballerina, Josephine Dessars, joined the Secret Society of the Seven, a radical Socialist outfit, whose punishment for disloyalty is death! All these years later, Josephine has cause to regret her pledge. Three days ago, she denounced traitor Sir Marcus Pinder to the Home Secretary. Pinder, while never a fully-fledged member of the Seven, was regarded by their leader as a loyal and useful ally. Luckily for Josephine, the Secret Society of the Seven has since been reduced to the Secret Society of the One , as all of her cohorts have either been killed, or died by their own hand. So what has she to fear ahead of tonight's performance?

[ripper]

Dem, I will be interested in what you make of the F. Tennyson Jesse story. I have read a few of her true crime accounts and enjoyed them quite a bit, but have not come across any of her fiction as yet.

[dem bones]

Jun 3, 2015 9:50:23 GMT ripper said:

Dem, I will be interested in what you make of the F. Tennyson Jesse story. I have read a few of her true crime accounts and enjoyed them quite a bit, but have not come across any of her fiction as yet.

OK, F. Tennyson Jesse's up next. In the meantime, a pair of forgotten gems.

Morley Roberts - The Fog: When London is shrouded in pitch black super-fog, war veteran Tom Crabb, ten years a blind beggar, is one of few who can find his way around the increasingly hostile streets. Crabb's services prove invaluable to Lord Gervase and his family, who have always been kind to him. As the city descends into a riot of looting, drunkenness, murder and cannibalism (!), the party make for the gasworks where the Gervais hot air balloon is moored. It is imperative they take to the skies in double-quick time, as her Ladyship is on death's door, but the basket only holds four! Crabb - quite possibly the most heroic man who ever lived - staunchly refuses to board, likewise beautiful young Julia Gervase and her fiancée, Bentley, their places sacrificed to an engineer who just happens to be insane!

By far my favourite of the lesser-known's to date. This wonderful story would have been equally at home in the 'Sheer Melodrama' section.

Beverley Nichols - The Bell: After forty years, Hugh is secretly relieved when his domineering servant, Frank, is killed in a road accident. But Frank isn't about to leave the master to his own devices and jealously clings to his post beyond the grave.

[ripper]

Hi, Dem, and ta very much for pushing Miss Tennyson Jesse's tale up the list :-D.

Morley Roberts' 'The Fog' sounds rather familiar...any idea if it has been published previously? I remember reading something very similar in an anthology probably around 15 years ago, but it is possible I am getting it confused with one of Frederick White's 'Doom of London' stories, a series of 6 tales describing various catastrophes to hit the capital and written around the same time as the Roberts piece.

[dem bones]

F. Tennyson Jesse - The Railway Carriage: Chances are you'll enjoy it, Rip, as will our other resident phantom of the tracks, Dr. Proof. It's a Solange Fontaine adventure, Solange being F.T.J.'s pet psychic sleuth who, according to Jack Adrian, "relies on a 'feeling' for evil to solve her cases." In this story, she's travelling home to London at culmination of another successful case. Sharing her compartment, a pair of gas-bagging farmers, a tight-lipped red-haired man, and a despondent old woman. The farmers discuss this morning's hanging in Merchester, young Tom Jackson ("a good fellow, though he was a Londoner"), paying with his life for the murder of a love rival. Suddenly the train derails and crashes downhill. Solange is trapped inside the burning carriage with the old woman, and seems certain to perish, until a mysterious young chap appears at the smashed window, urging her to wake the unconscious redhead who has a length of thick rope in his bag. This is no time to look a gift horse in the mouth, but who is he, and how can he possibly know what's in the fellow's luggage?

It's not included in Strange Tales ..., but F. Tennyson Jesse's most anthologised supernatural horror story is:

Treasure Trove: Farmworkers Tim and Jack are lifelong friends, having attended the same Council school, played in the same "footer team", fought in the same regiment, etc., etc. That was until yesterday morning, when they dug up a silk cloth binding thirty shapeless Roman coins in the field. Now each is prepared to kill the other rather than share the spoils. Farmer Brandon is only just in time to prevent murder, but what is it about the coins that could cause such a marked change in the two pals?

You'll find it in Dennis Wheatley's Quiver Of Horror, Hamlyn's The Best Horror Stories, and Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders In Suspense. Wheatley also included her The Canary in A Century Of Horror

Morley Roberts' The Fog - gloomy illustrations and all - is available for free download from SSF Audio's PDF page.

Here's the direct link:
The Fog

[ripper]

Thanks very much, Dem. I didn't know about Miss Tennyson Jesse having written stories about a psychic detective, and Jack Adrian's selection sounds right up my street. 'Treasure Trove' I may have encountered before as its plot rings a very faint bell, but where I may have read it I don't know, and I was convinced my only exposure to FTJ was in her accounts of murder and trials.

I shall be reading 'The Fog' tonight. Hope it is the story I read ages ago as I really enjoyed it back then.

[dem bones]

Solange Fontaine is a new name on me, too, but Heinemann published a collection of her adventures as The Solange Stories, in 1931.

All I know of The Fog's publication history is what Jack Adrian tells us, namely that, following it's appearance in The Strand, it was included in Roberts' short story collection of the following year, Midsummer Madness (Eveleigh Nash, 1909), along with the bizarre, vampire-themed, The Blood Fetish. Anyway, hope you find it as entertaining as I did!

[jamesdoig]

Jun 3, 2015 18:10:14 GMT dem bones said:

it was included in Roberts' short story collection of the following year, Midsummer Madness (Eveleigh Nash, 1909), along with the bizarre, vampire-themed, The Blood Fetish.

I've got Midsummer Madness - it's a mixed collection that only has a few horror stories in it. Roberts lived in Australia for a while, so I used "A Thing of Wax" in an anthology, which is more psychological horror and not as good as The Blood Fetish and The Fog. "The Anticipator" is another story of his that's been anthologised a fair bit and is worth reading.

[ripper]

I am almost certain that 'The Fog' is the story I read all those years ago. When Julia gets kissed in the fog as Tom is leading the Gervase party along the fog-shrouded streets it really struck a chord in my memory. It's certainly a fine tale and I enjoyed reading it last night, but I wish I could recall where on earth I first encountered it.

[dem bones]

Jun 4, 2015 0:07:48 GMT jamesdoig said:

I've got Midsummer Madness - it's a mixed collection that only has a few horror stories in it. Roberts lived in Australia for a while, so I used "A Thing of Wax" in an anthology, which is more psychological horror and not as good as The Blood Fetish and The Fog. "The Anticipator" is another story of his that's been anthologised a fair bit and is worth reading.

Yeah, The Anticipator is another corker. Have another of his, Grear's Dam, in C. A. Dawson Scott & Ernest Rhys's neat "terror" anthology, Twenty & Three Stories, so will dig that out when time permits.

J. B. Harris-Burland – Lord Beden’s Motor: Ralph Strang, the seventh Earl of Beden, has never been a popular man. 'tis rumoured locally that he was responsible for the suicide of his genius inventor brother, who ended his days confined in the County Lunatic Asylum. Strang has just purchased a top-of-the-range motor - capable of reaching speeds of 40 mph downhill - and prevails upon our narrator, Dr. Scott, to teach him to drive. Soon pupil excels master, and his Lordship is forever tearing around the Stour Valley. But something's wrong. Whenever he reaches Rockshire, a weird coal-driven contraption appears from the trees to queer his progress. It's almost as if the unseen driver were intent on causing an accident!

Rina Ramsay - Resurgam: Poor Kitty! Young, gorgeous, everything to live for - how could she be so selfish to take her own life? The tragedy drives the parish priest, Father Stackhouse, to a complete nervous breakdown. Is he imagining things, or does the "suicide"s ghost regularly attend Mass, watching him as though she were trying to communicate some important information? Matters reach a head when her pious uncle makes a production of passing around the offertory plate.

Next up, a strangely strange "it could happen!" catastrophe yarn, part Roberts's The Fog, part Day Of The Triffids (minus the predatory plants).

[ripper]

I couldn't resist searching for a reasonably-priced copy and ordering it. Also, Adrian seems to have edited a companion volume entitled 'Detective Stories from the Strand,' with the same guy supplying a foreword.

[dem bones]

Jun 5, 2015 20:50:37 GMT ripper said:

I couldn't resist searching for a reasonably-priced copy and ordering it. Also, Adrian seems to have edited a companion volume entitled 'Detective Stories from the Strand,' with the same guy supplying a foreword.

I'm quietly confident you'll enjoy it, Rip. Very odd how Julian Symons name features prominently on the front cover, but no mention of Jack Adrian! Wonder what that's all about?

[dem bones]

Edgar Wallace - The Black Grippe: Dr Hereford Bevon's research with a rabbit convinces him that the next manifestation of the recent mystery virus will strike entire world population blind for, at best five, at worst ten days. Sir Douglas Sexton, pompous old duffer, pooh-pooh's Bevon's findings and lets it be known that his Government are considering cuts to the faculty's budget. And then - the unthinkable. It must be said that the people of London cope with the terror far better than their counterparts in The Fog: plenty of screaming and panic, for sure, but no eating one another, or anything like that. If there's such a thing as a catastrophe without casualties, then this is it. But what will happen should Bevon have miscalculated and universal sightlessness continue indefinitely?

This next is an old favourite, an unremittingly bleak supernatural vengeance horror, which am sure has been commented upon elsewhere:

Hugh Walpole - The Tarn: Foster isn't a bad egg, but he's eminently, effortlessly successful, and that's too much for a loser like Fenwick to stomach. If Golden boy has a weakness its his fear of water, so perhaps an extended dip in the fathomless black tarn will do him the world of good!

[pulphack]

In the case of the Detective story anthology, it could be because Julian Symons was president of the Detection Club at that time (was for well over a decade), and was highly respected as a writer not just of, but about, detective and crime fiction. I guess that would make him a better marquee name for crime than our Jack. Symons was an odd one for me, as he seemed to be very 'literary' yet worked in a market perceived as 'populist' and seemed torn between the two. Like Dorothy Sayers, he had leanings that could come over as pretentious, but on form he could write the talk. I've read two novels by him, one of which was great, the other missed the mark, but both had the same aim of mixing popular and lit aspirations. His writing on crime fiction showed the same leanings - he was very iffy about crime pulp, even though it has a different aim to the work he loved, and this clouded his judgement of it on its own merits. His work is well worth reading though, despite my reservations.