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Post by dem bones on Nov 24, 2007 11:55:52 GMT
Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - The 5th Pan Book Of Horror Stories (1964) William Sansom - The Man With The Moon In Him Adobe James - I'll Love You - Always Martin Waddell - The Treat Seabury Quinn - Clair De Lune Christianna Brand - The Sins Of The Fathers Christine Campbell Thomson - Message For Margie John Keir Cross - The Other Passenger Basil Copper - The Spider Edward Lucas White - Lukundoo Alex Hamilton - The Words Of The Dumb Adobe James - The Revenge E. F. Benson - The Confession Of Charles Linkworth John D. Keefauver - Kali Gerald Kersh - Men Without Bones William F. Nolan - The Small World Of Lewis Stillman Rene Morris - The Living Shadow C. A. Cooper - Bonfire Martin Waddell - Hand In Hand Another classic cover, and another mixture of the old and the new. I've began rereading it because, despite remembering just how effective stories like the voodoo classic "Lukundoo" and "Bonfire" are, I can hardly recall a thing about the rest. I'm about halfway through and the stories that have most grabbed me so far include: William Sansom - The Man With The Moon In Him: A brave choice as opener. We follow a clearly unbalanced wretch as we wanders around an underground station at night, waiting for the last train. It's obvious this man is on the verge of doing somebody - a woman - serious harm, if not within the confines of the story, then shortly after it ends ... Christine Campbell Thomson - Message For Margie A semi-legitimate Psychic comes to grief in the great Christine Campbell Not At Night Thomson's final horror story, and according to Mike Ashley, her personal favourite. I much prefer her work as 'Flavia Richardson' myself. C. A. Cooper - Bonfire Kent: A deranged headmaster, murderously jealous of a younger teacher, decides to be rid of him. Guy Fawkes night provides a perfect opportunity. Reminiscent of Richard Davis' classic in #4, but still terrifying on it's own very nasty terms. John Keir Cross - The Other Passenger John Aubrey Spencer, concert pianist, is haunted to suicide by his doppelganger. Even when he strangles his persecutor and has the remains burnt as a guy, still the double returns. How much of all this is imagination and how much is real is never clearly defined, although a woman on a railway platform certainly witnesses the other passenger fall beneath the wheels of a train. A lot can change in 13 years. I detested this story as pretentious drivel when I first read it. Second time around wasn't much better. Third, and I snapped up a copy of his collection of the same name which I consider to be ... a neglected classic! I think Music When Soft Voices Die was the turning point. Apparently, JCK also once tried to summon Satan on a live radio broadcast. John D. Keefauver - Kali Calcutta is the setting for Keefauver's story of a beautiful tour guide who is either an incarnation of the Goddess, or has merely taken her name. She leads the narrator to the temple where he witnesses the blood sacrifice of a goat, then back to her room where he drinks a strange liquid. Returning to San Francisco, he discovers the terrible legacy of his soujourn East. Seabury Quinn - Clare De Lune Madelon Leroy, "The most wonderful actress in the world" visits Harrisonville on an American tour. Unfortunately for her, de Grandin notices straight away that she's not aged a day since he saw her perform as 'Madelon La Rue' at the Theatre Francois in his youth, nor from her previous incarnation as nude dancer 'Madelon La Rose', the toast of Paris, during his grandfather's. Why are so many young women enraptured of her, and why does their health go into terminal decline? William F. Nolan - The Small World Of Lewis Stillman. Skiprat nailed this as Matheson-esque and it certainly reads like a variation on (the far superior) I Am Legend. Stillman, possibly the last man alive, is holed up in the sewers below LA, hiding from the tiny savages the aliens have left in charge of the planet following their effortless conquest. Stillman's love of books proves his downfall - never take Ernest Hemingway to heart - and we end with a dramatic revelation. Chetwynd-Hayes ripped the plot off wholesale for his short story The Brats!
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Post by redbrain on Nov 24, 2007 14:15:38 GMT
I don't think I'd call it a classic cover. In fact, I always thought of this as the first volume in the series with a naff cover.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 24, 2007 14:48:33 GMT
There's not much to it but the cover has always haunted me for some reason. I certainly prefer it to that mangy cat on number one. As to the collection itself, I don't think it's quite up to the high standards set by 1-4 which I still consider to be the finest.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 24, 2007 16:04:43 GMT
I think the word 'classic' in the context of this cover does not necessarily mean 'good' but rather 'traditionally archetypal' or 'fundamentally typical' - as if opening up the possibility of admiring some of the later covers even more but for different reasons of taste. Something to do with Classic in the sense of the Classics of Literature or Classical Music?? But probably not in the sense of Classic in 'Classical versus Romantic'.
PS Also the cover is the whole cover rather than just the skull face. I think the way "HORROR STORIES" is designed is 'classic' in the terms of this series (nostalgic, sentimental as well as intrinsic)
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 24, 2007 21:56:50 GMT
Sure I mentioned this on the old board - Rockandroolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Apologies for the small scale. It's the picture cover to the Motorhead single 'Shine.'
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 24, 2007 22:00:57 GMT
Even smaller? The Misfits - Die, die, my darling! (Incidentally, the US title of the Hammer psychological thriller Fanatic)
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Post by paisleycravat on Nov 25, 2007 19:24:02 GMT
I've just finished this one. Personally, I love the cover. It's both eerie and very, very 60s.
Observations on stories that stuck in my memory:
I hated Clair de Lune, but then I'm really not a big fan of Seabury Quinn and his whole 'Paranormal Poirot' thing.
Adobe James is always annoyingly macho in his approach to telling stories, and the light-hearted homophobia of I'll Love You - Always really stuck in my craw (but perhaps, being of the homosexual persuasion myself, I'm more sensitive to these things than most). The Revenge actually manages to be quite chilling, but throws mixed messages abut all over the place.
William Sansom isn't the man to go to if you want grisly. But if you want stories which are genuinely disturbing, with moments that stick oddly in your memory, go straight to him. What happens in The Man with the Moon in Him? Practically nothing. It just invites you to spend the minutes while you read it in the mind of a very unhealthy young man. I love it.
Both the Waddell stories are pretty throwaway, I think. The Sins of the Fathers is pretty marvellous. It's a reflection on Brand's writing skills the ending is absolutely horrifying even if you have no religious convictions and think the whole soul thing is nonsense.
The Other Passenger was a very unusual story for a Pan, being surprisingly highbrow. But the brief tone-raising is justified, as it's a marvellous story.
Lukundoo is a gleefully gruesome wonder. The Words of the Dumb isn't all that horrific but is at least enjoyably odd. Kali was a bit of a snooze. If it was children that were being sacrificed rather than goats, then we'd have a story. I enjoyed the pulpy, Twilight Zone-y feel of Lewis Stillman. The Living Shadow had a nice idea, but could have been told a bit more engagingly. Bonfire was a rather neat 'inside a madman's head' story, but it's a shame it's thunder was stolen a bit by The Other Passenger.
And that's about it, really. Not the best Panthology I've read, but certainly not the worst.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 25, 2007 19:54:24 GMT
Good to hear from you again, paisley!
We seem to be in agreement as to the highlights. Personally I love Seabury Quinn's de Grandin's although I'm surprised that Clair de Lune has seen comparatively regular reprints: it's never struck me as one of the better ones.
Against Lukindoo I had:
Edward Lucas White - Lukundoo: Stone learns the hard way that it doesn’t do to humiliate a witch-doctor. From carbuncle-like swellings on his body emerge tiny Negroid men, the heads of which he lops off with a razor. But it’s a never-ending battle and, forced to endure the shrill taunts and gesticulations of the pigmy’s, he’s driven to madness and death.
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Post by paisleycravat on Nov 25, 2007 20:02:20 GMT
Hello. Thankyou. My internet access and Horror antho-interest are both a bit intermittent at the mo, which is why I post in fits and starts.
I can't stick that bloody de Grandin. Agatha Christie should've sued.
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Post by redbrain on Nov 27, 2007 10:17:37 GMT
I can't stick that bloody de Grandin. Agatha Christie should've sued. Name of a Pan anthology, friend Trowbridge! This is probably blasphemy on this board, but I have rather an affection for Jules de Grandin stories. I used to own a copy of The Phantom Fighter, the Arkham House (all right - Mycroft & Moran) collection of de Grandin stories. I sold it in a time of financial need and - truth to tell - have never been tempted to buy another copy. But I would regret it if I didn't have a few of these ridiculous stories scattered through the anthologies in my possession.
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zyx
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 10
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Post by zyx on Oct 2, 2008 16:57:54 GMT
There's not much to it but the cover has always haunted me for some reason. The Revenge actually manages to be quite chilling, but throws mixed messages abut all over the place. Childhood flashback (and apologies for possible *SPOILERS*) ... I think I may have skimmed this volume many years ago when I was about 10 years old. Does "The Revenge" involve rape, castration, and mistaken identity? I recall another story in the same book which was (I think) about a gravedigger who ended up being eaten alive by rats after being chased through an underground passage by a zombie. As a kid I found these two stories too disturbing to finish the rest of the book.
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Post by lukemorningstar on Oct 2, 2008 22:23:40 GMT
Hi there zyx and welcome aboard - you know I think I am going to read Pan 5 (don't think I ever read it all the way through) purely on your promise of the gravedigger, rats, zombie tale - sounds bloody marvellous!
You will love this site. I only joined 4 weeks ago and already it feels like home - there are some great people around here and an absolute weath of information.
Also no chat is deemed to trivial (even mine) although I sometimes surpass myself on the level of sheer trivia
All the best
Colin ('Luke')
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Post by lukemorningstar on Oct 2, 2008 22:28:22 GMT
Actually (Dem) you have just completely sold me Lukundoo too - sounds excellent - I must have passed this one over in my younger years.
Colin
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 3, 2008 7:33:57 GMT
I've been avoiding this one for some time but reading the above does make it sound better than I remembered (and thanks for your contribution zyx!)
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zyx
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 10
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Post by zyx on Oct 3, 2008 10:12:51 GMT
Well, the cover looks familiar, but I'm not 100% sure whether it's the same book that spooked me as a child. Could someone who's read this volume actually confirm whether it contains the two stories I described above?
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