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Post by Red Hook on Sept 3, 2008 12:58:05 GMT
"Some novels are meant to comfort. This novel is not one of them."
© 1976 Ramsey Campbell: this is the First Jove/HBJ Edition (US) published March 1978 $1.75 This appears to be pretty rare. A quick scan of the web doesn't show any scans of this cover. Purchased new. Now, I usually take good to excellent care of all my books, so I'm a bit perplexed at the fair amount of scratches to the cover. I can only surmise the ink/lamination used was vulnerable to minor scratching and this is thirty years old. I teach Photoshop on the side and I thought about retouching this, but I decided to leave it in all its much-loved glory. It's almost as if something gave it a good working over with sharp edges. Red "The evil that springs from innocence is the theme of this gripping novel. Over the entire book lies the shadow of a power-motivated and warp-minded Satanist and the monstrous birth he induced... The author catches the odd colors of the characters... it's as if we were locked in a closet with them - an unnerving experience, yet one with an unholy fascination... at once beautiful, shocking and thoroughly terrifying: we see and hear, we smell and feel the acid stench and spider touch of fear. An outstanding achievement!" - Fritz Leiber - guess he liked it!
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Post by dem bones on Sept 3, 2008 15:01:57 GMT
Thanks Mr. Hook. Hadn't seen that cover before and I'm glad you resisted the temptation to give it a photoshop makeover. There's something about a battered paperback that gives it more character than a pristine copy. Makes it look as though people have read and enjoyed it.
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Post by Red Hook on Sept 3, 2008 18:16:53 GMT
You know... as my books get less and less pristine and take on more "character"....I actually enjoy handling them and reading them more.
I suspect I'm far from alone on that. :-)
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Post by dem bones on Sept 4, 2008 8:23:22 GMT
When they're new, I'm reluctant to touch them, but if someone's already bashed 'em around and creased the spine then there's no stopping me. Unless, of course, they bear the dreaded words 'Author of The Vampire Chronicles' on the cover. In those circumstances, there's no starting me.
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Post by allthingshorror on Sept 4, 2008 8:36:17 GMT
Unless, of course, they bear the dreaded words 'Author of The Vampire Chronicles' on the cover. In those circumstances, there's no starting me. How DARE you speak ill of Anne Frank! Writing all that stuff about Lestat in a cramped attic in Holland was murder for that poor woman!!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 4, 2008 9:22:19 GMT
Which is why in the stage version when the nazis turned up members of the audience were shouting 'She's in the attic!'
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Post by sean on Sept 5, 2008 8:44:45 GMT
If anyone's interested, when I set up Mr C's myspace page I tried to collect cover scans of all editions of all his books. Its very much a work in progress, but theres around 140 covers up there so far. www.myspace.com/smilemime...and click on 'pics'. I intend to get them all posted here on the vault eventually... just not today!
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Post by Red Hook on Sept 5, 2008 15:42:53 GMT
Extremely nice! I have a British Fantasy Society chapbook of RC's for "Through the Walls". Do you have a scan of that? I didn't see one. I'll post it shortly.
Red
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Post by Red Hook on Sept 5, 2008 15:49:34 GMT
Date on this is June, 1981: from a print run of 500 copies Art by David Lloyd
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Post by sean on Sept 5, 2008 19:46:08 GMT
Cool, Mr Hook. I'll snaffle that when I've got a few spare seconds.
Bloody strange story isn't it?
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Post by Red Hook on Sept 5, 2008 21:44:06 GMT
I'd say. Snaffle away!
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Post by stuyoung on Aug 12, 2010 7:59:00 GMT
Just read The Doll Who Ate His Mother and The Parasite. Only read Campbell's short fiction up until now so I was curious to see how his novels would compare. Doll was interesting for the ambiguity of the supernatural element and the fact that the whole thing read more like a crime novel, with the intrepid gang of amateur sleuths out to catch the killer. Parasite meanwhile was interesting in the way the inventive prose was at odds with the commercial plotting. And after the multiple viewpoints in Doll it was interesting to compare the use of a single POV in Parasite. Also enjoyed the New Age/occult elements, with all the references to the Golden Dawn. I thought the story's pacing was a bit off but after reading the afterword it turned out that Campbell wrote the book at his agent's prompting in order to have a bestseller and so ignored a lot of his natural instincts as a writer then made a lot of cuts to try and salvage the story. Consequently he isn't happy with the way the novel turned out. Actually, he was more critical of it than I was.
Anyway, I enjoyed both books enough that I want to read some more of his novels.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Aug 12, 2010 10:05:03 GMT
Anyway, I enjoyed both books enough that I want to read some more of his novels. I've read them all! The Nameless was the first one I ever read. I found it in a secondhand bookshop in the States and was an instant fan. Incarnate and Grin of the Dark are probably my favourites. The Overnight is also loads of fun. If that's the word.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 12, 2010 10:45:56 GMT
damn, all the images have gone AWOL. i'd go for The Face That Must Die and Ancient Images as my favourites. Also had great fun with The Grin In The Dark and The Doll Who Ate His Mother, maybe not quite so good a time with Obsession. I stuck religiously to short stories for so long that novels tended to pass me by unless they had really lurid covers, so i'm not as familiar with Ramsey's prodigious output as i should be. Of the short story collections, its really difficult as i've come to love all those i've read, but Dark Companions and - yeah, yeah, its a quirk of mine - Scared Stiff are beauties. And, God help me, i like the look of Inconsequential Tales.
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albie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 134
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Post by albie on Aug 12, 2010 11:06:47 GMT
And, God help me, i like the look of Inconsequential Tales. The Offering to the Dead is good. Only The Wind is hilarious.
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