Bibliotheca Dracula - Black Masses

[andydecker]

Ulrich K. Dreikandt: Bibliotheca Dracula: Schwarze Messen – Dichtungen & Dokumente (Bibliotheca Dracula: Black Masses – Fiction & Documents)

(Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, 1970 – this edition Manfred-Pawlack-Taschenbuch-Verlagsgesellschaft

Content:

Livius - Bacchanalia (excerpt)

Jules Michelet - The Black Mass (excerpt from La Sorciére – Satanism and Witchcraft)

Gilles de Rais - The Trial

Francois Ravaisson - The Masses of the Abbé Guibourg (excerpt The Satanic Cult , 1870s)

Joseph Görres - Das Geständnis der Magdalena Bavent (The confession of Magdalena Bavent) (Joseph Görres, 1776-1848, Christian writer)

Marquis de Sade - Justine in the convent Sainte-Marie-des-Bois (excerpt from Justine)

Charles Baudelaire - Les Litanies de Satan (from Les Fleurs du Mal)

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer - The Witches of Trasmoz (excerpt, 19th century)

Joris Karl Huysmans - The Black Mass of Canon Docre (excerpt from La-bas, 1891)

Gustav Meyrink - The Master (1916)

E. F. Benson - The Sanctuary (1934)

Dennis Wheatley - The Black Magician (excerpt from The Satanist, 1960)

Robert Bloch - Sweet Sixteen (1958)

Afterword by the editor

Bibliography

Translations of titles and original sources are mostly mine.

The Bibliotheca Dracula was an edition of classic Gothic novels and some original anthologies published from 1967 to 1974. The 14 books were done as well-crafted hardcovers and a few later as paperbacks. The whole list may not be of much interest, but aside Stoker's Dracula, the first one, there was Shelley, Lewis, Radcliff and the usual suspects. Black Masses was one of the four original theme-anthologies.

As the editors were working for an up-market publisher it is no wonder that these anthologies are concentrating of classic literary writers and not pulp. Indeed this book with its Bloch and Wheatley comes as close to pulp as is possible. The afterword, a kind of short historical essay about the sabbat and the Black Mass, is short and to the point. The bibliography of German, English and French books about the topic gives the interested reader a lot of pointers, even if most of them were out of print at the time. A. E. Waite's Devil-Worship in France, London 1896, surely was hard to get in 1970.

Despite its fiction this is more of a non-fiction book about the topic. Undeniable stuffy here and there, but rock-solid nonetheless. Of course no longer avaiable, but easy to get on the second hand market.

[dem bones]

Hi Andreas. In case you weren't aware, Sweet Sixteen, The Sanctuary and the Wheatley extract all feature in Peter Haining's The Satanists, from 1969. His books sure got around fast in those days.

[andydecker]

Oct 29, 2021 14:51:21 GMT dem bones said:

Hi Andreas. In case you weren't aware, Sweet Sixteen, The Sanctuary and the Wheatley extract all feature in Peter Haining's The Satanists, from 1969. His books sure got around fast in those days.

He really delivered the blueprint, did he?

You can be sure that back then only a handful of German readers had heard of Wheatley or Bloch. For some reason Wheatly wasn't published in Germany, which is sometimes a bit a puzzle. Of course no publisher would have touched his Gregory Sallust series with a stick, the secret agent who had a standing invitation to Göring's dinner-table or whatever, but the Duc de Richleau novels are solid adventure novels which surely would have sold. Bloch had quite a few translated collections at the time, but the average customer of those books seldom would have bought the expensive Bibliotheca Dracula. And most of its Gothics were hard-core. I mean, who would read Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents voluntarily?

[dem bones]

Oct 29, 2021 16:12:45 GMT andydecker said:

For some reason Wheatly wasn't published in Germany, which is sometimes a bit a puzzle. Of course no publisher would have touched his Gregory Sallust series with a stick, the secret agent who had a standing invitation to Göring's dinner-table or whatever

From memory, They Used Dark Forces is a shocker, Sallust treating a concentration camp like the most carefree open prison, coming and going as the mood takes him. Must have been around 19 when I read it. Still sticks in my mind as a horrible book.

Could be wrong, but am pretty sure I read The Italian during Goth.Soc days and lived (technically) to tell the tale. It was her Mysteries of Udolpho I found a grind, not sure I finished that one. Certainly wouldn't have the stamina these days. Anything over 200 pages and that's me knackered.

[andydecker]

Oct 29, 2021 17:53:34 GMT dem bones said:

From memory, They Used Dark Forces is a shocker, Sallust treating a concentration camp like the most carefree open prison, coming and going as the mood takes him. Must have been around 19 when I read it. Still sticks in my mind as a horrible book.

I have this novel on my shelf for years, but never read it. I still have to read a Sallust, but as the first ones were written during the war they seem to be a bit strange. No benefit of the hindsight. But TUDF is from 1964, so good old Dennis would have a hard time to justify this one.

Oct 29, 2021 17:53:34 GMT dem bones said:

Could be wrong, but am pretty sure I read The Italian during Goth.Soc days and lived (technically) to tell the tale. It was her Mysteries of Udolpho I found a grind, not sure I finished that one. Certainly wouldn't have the stamina these days. Anything over 200 pages and that's me knackered.

Seems the translation has over 600 pages. I don't think I could stomach this today. Even if a long novel about evil papists - pure guesswork, I haven't a clue what this is about and am too tired to look it up - could be amusing.