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Post by dem on Nov 24, 2007 14:21:57 GMT
I'm certainly not going to apologise for the sudden Haining overload but I'm sorry if some of the posts are over-familiar. There are more to follow, but I'll drift them across over the coming weeks rather than clog up the 'last twenty' box. Anyhow, this is new. Attempting to select a single favourite Peter Haining book makes the 'Best Pan Horror cover' challenge seem relatively undemanding (and even more pointless) in comparison. The best I could do was narrow it down to a favourite decade of Haining and that decade is the 'seventies, no question, which is not to say he wasn't responsible for some great books before and after. Here are my 13 Haining books I'd rather not have to live without (subject to change at any moment): Devil Worship In Britain, (Corgi, 1964): His first (?), a collaboration with A. V. Sellwood. Reads like an extended News Of The World investigation into the dark world of sin, sex and toytown Satanism! Great British Tales Of Terror, (Gollancz, 1972): Ropey as to dates and attributions of authorship, immaculate as a crash course in late eighteenth century goth. The Penny Dreadful, (Gollancz, 1976): See above, substitute "eighteenth century goth" for "nineteenth century street literature". Terror! A History Of Horror Illustrations From The Pulp Magazines, (Sphere, 1978): Still my favourite compilation of horror and fantasy artwork. This set me to thinking "I've got to check out some of this nasty 'weird shudder' stuff!" The Dracula Scrapbook, (Nel, 1976): The 'Vampire' Scrapbook would have been more appropriate as it encompasses so much more than just the old count. Like Terror!, it's one I find myself returning to again and again, usually to scratch my head and wonder if such-and-such a tidbit was in there last time I looked. The Legend & Bizarre Crimes Of Spring-Heeled Jack, (Muller, 1977): Haining's understanding of the term 'non-fiction' was perhaps unique to him but who gives a fuck when a book's this entertaining? The Midnight People, (Ensign, 1968): The first of two indispensable vampire collections (I wasn't quite as smitten with The Vampire Omnibus or The Vampire Hunter's Casebook). Includes most of the usual suspects but with some welcome revivals from the pulps. Vampire: Chilling Tales Of The Undead, (Target, 1985): Worthy successor to the above. Fang-faced thrills from cover to cover. Beyond The Curtain Of The Dark, (Four Square, 1966: Nel, 1972): His earliest anthologies were perhaps a little too over-reliant on acknowledged genre classics. This one sees him taking up the mantle of his hero, August Derleth, and attempting something more in keeping with his own tastes. The Fantastic Pulps, (Gollancz, 1975): Several rare reprints from the late nineteenth century through to the pulps. Maybe not as must have as his mighty Weird Tales but I'll always love it because Suicide Chapel turned me on to Seabury Quinn. The Unspeakable People: Twenty of the World's most Horrible Stories, (Leslie Frewin, 1969): We can (and have) wondered at some of the inclusions but it's still a blinding collection. The Freak Show, (Corgi, 1971): Everything that his Dr. Caligari's Black Book should have been but isn't. Weird Tales (Neville Spearman, 1976: Sphere, 2 vols, 1978): Great selection from a great magazine. I'm going to start similar threads for Haining's contemporaries (Hugh Lamb, Michel Parry, David Sutton, etc.,) as I'd rather celebrate their huge contribution to horror literature while they're still with us. |
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Post by Steve on Nov 24, 2007 20:17:44 GMT
It would have to be The Unspeakable People for me. It's such a great idea to have an anthology of stories which push the boundaries of what's considered acceptable subject matter for the horror genre, or any other genre come to that. And I've always had a fondness for the cover on the 1974 Ensign reprint that I have; Certainly beats the psychedelic Quasimodo affair on the Leslie Frewin original. Sure, there's no great need for the excerpt from "The Monk" (although I'm not sure how widely available it was at the time), and what "The Raven" is doing in there is beyond me, but there's so much wonderful stuff on offer that any criticism of Haining's selections is really no more than minor quibbling. (I probably wouldn't have included the Ray Bradbury story myself either, but anyway...) "The Loved Dead" is a classic of deviant behaviour, with "A Thing Of Beauty" (mortuary attendant gets rather too fond of one of the bodies entrusted to his care) not far behind. Many don't rate "The Bird Woman" but I've always thought it was an under-rated, and genuinely affecting, obscurity. "Bianca's Hands" is another one which seems to evoke a bit of a mixed response - for my money it's a beautiful piece of writing and probably my favourite from a very strong collection. "The Head And The Feet" is a genuine surprise coming from the pen of C. S. Forester, and Henry S. Whitehead's "Williamson" makes you wonder why more writers haven't explored the whole 'being raped by a gorilla' thing. "The Graveyard Rats" is one of those stories I can read over and over without ever tiring of it, wonderfully morbid atmosphere, and John Wyndham's "The Cathedral Crypt" is perhaps lesser known, but similarly fine (Lovecraft's "The Outsider" is also a classic, but not one I necessarily feel the need to come back to that often). "The Idol Of The Flies" is brilliant stuff with wonderful characterisation, "The Copper Bowl" and "The Feast In The Abbey" should keep fans of torture and cannibalism (respectively) more than happy, and Kudos also to Peter Haining for including a Tennessee Williams story - not an especially popular choice perhaps, but certainly a brave and interesting one. Admittedly there is some, for want of a better word, 'filler' ("My Own Tale", "A Night At A Cottage") but I'll never turn my nose up at a bit of Dennis Wheatley. And the whole thing finishes marvellously with Haining giving Laurence James his first break. Thank you, Peter. A bit of a personal reminiscence to finish - Several years ago, I was teaching English in Italy and was desperate for something to read (being heartliy sick of The Classics of English Literature). One day I was sorting out the book cupboard at the school where I worked and, stuffed down the back, I found a copy of the 1975 Everest edition of The Unspeakable People. I believe I may actually have wept with emotion. (I also found one of Michael Avallone's pseudonymous Gothic Romances which my friend borrowed and subsequently declared to be one of the worst books he'd ever read, but why lower the tone...) The Unspeakable People - blinding indeed. |
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Post by sean on Nov 24, 2007 20:29:15 GMT
I'll have to go along with Steve on this one.
Here's my gibber on the subject, copied across from the old board:
__________
Aha, this is a lovely anthology!
The extract of 'The Monk' is a bit irritating, but thats just because I hate reading extracts of things. The modern descendant of 'The Monk' has to be (intentionally, I guess) 'The Priest' by Thomas Disch which takes many of the same elements but works them into a carefully written moral tale containing many of the elements and themes of the earlier work.
'The Raven' - these days I picture Homer and Bart every time I think of this!
'The Bird Woman' is a strange little, almost flash fiction, piece. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten it until I picked up the book yesterday. It's a nice little oddity though.
'My Own Tale' I found a bit dull. A miss.
'Williamson' and 'A Thing of Beauty' I can't remember at all...
'The Outsider' was probably the first Lovecraft I ever read (more than likely in this very volume). I'm still a big admirer of good old HP, so the story obviously did its job. Creepy. No tentacles.
'The Loved Dead' actually shocked me when I first encountered it. Not sure how much of that was due to the subject matter or the writing, but it still sticks in my mind as a great sick story. '...new and unspeakable ways of lavishing my affections upon the dead' urggh.
'The Copper Bowl' - Nasty. Liked it.
'The Feast in the Abbey' is by Bloch therefore it is cool.
'The Cathedral Crypt' is creepy as hell. Wyndham wrote quite a few tales that could be classed as horror, and this is one of the best.
'The Graveyard Rats' is a nice enough rattytype tale. Nice.
'Bianca's Hands' is absolutely bloody brilliant. Disturbing. The effect of the story as a whole is far greater than its individual parts. I love it.
'The Head and the Feet', set in World War 2, is a non-supernatural tale (if I recall rightly) about a concentration camp doctor. Neat, tidy and effective.
'The Idol of the Flies' is great fun. The kid, Pruit, is bloody horrible!
'A Night at the Cottage' is a fairly short ghost story. Nothing special.
'The Shape of Things' is typical Bradbury (ie: great). I'm sure I've read this story under a different title. (I checked, and it appears as 'Tomorrow's Child' in 'The Stories of Ray Bradbury vol 2')
'Desire and the Black Masseur' - well, I didn't find it as disturbing as Peter Haining did (according to the story notes) but it still has something unpleasant about it, a story from the same area as the later 'Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff' by peter Straub.
'The Coffin' - another bloody extract!
'Mercy' - a classic. Horribly inevitable.
__________
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Post by dem on Nov 24, 2007 21:55:38 GMT
It's such a great idea to have an anthology of stories which push the boundaries of what's considered acceptable subject matter for the horror genre, or any other genre come to that. Very true. Being 40 years removed from his selection definitely adds to its interest and even charm. Thanks gents. I very much enjoyed both posts! * Steve, in case it's uncredited in the Ensign book, that cover photo is the work of Bob Marchant - it also graces Kurt Singer's Ghouls & Ghosts (W. H. Allen, 1972) * |
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Post by redbrain on Jan 9, 2008 14:23:12 GMT
This morning, I picked up a copy of The Necromancers for 60p. Not his best anthology - but a pretty good price.
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Post by dem on Jan 9, 2008 15:13:50 GMT
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Post by Calenture on May 4, 2008 20:57:30 GMT
First published 1969; this Everest edition 1975 Foreword by August Derleth Preface by Peter Haining The Monk (excerpt) - M G Lewis The Raven - Poe The Bird Woman - Henry Spicer My Own Tale - R H Benson Williamson - Henry S Whitehead A Thing of Beauty - Wallace West The Outsider - H P Lovecraft The Loved Dead - C M Eddy The Copper Bowl - Captain George Eliot The Feast in the Abbey - Robert Bloch The Cathedral Crypt - John Wyndham The Graveyard Rats - Henry Kuttner Bianca's Hands - Theodore Sturgeon The Head and the Feet - C S Forester The Idol of the Flies - Jane Rice A Night at a Cottage - Richard Hughes The Shape of Things - Ray Bradbury Desire and the Black Masseur - Tennessee Williams The Coffin - Dennis Wheatley Mercy - Laurance James Two short pieces: The Bird Woman by Henry Spicer: The woman posts an advertisement “in which she set forth her willingness to take charge of an invalid, infirm, or lunatic person, or to assume any office demanding unusual steadiness of nerve.” She gets a reply and visits a house in a sinister neighbourhood where the mistress herself opens the door and quickly advises her that the service required of her was of a very peculiar nature. She escorts the woman to a room where she sees what appears to be a heap of clothes flung together on the floor. It appears to be in motion however... Mercy by Laurance James: As I’d just finished reading the new Paperback Fanatic Laurance James special, I decided to hunt down some of that writer’s short stories. In this one, Ken regains consciousness in his wrecked car, which has crashed on an isolated country road. His injuries are extensive: both arms are badly broken, a foot crushed and one leg has been impaled on the gear lever. It’s a baking hot day and he’s tangled in the seat belt. But not to worry, coming soon will be little Jerry Milne, a chap who’d be in line for help with special educational needs, if this were the city. Jerry’s dad has taught him that when an animal’s in pain, the best thing to do is to finish it off. The way that Jerry had to finish off a small bird tortured by older children recently. Justin Marriott wrote of this one that “Laurance’s fluid style and flair for graphic violence were already well-developed.” And goes on to say that in 2000, a comic strip entitled Mercy with a similar story was contributed to a Dark Horse anthology by Frank Miller. Another similar story - and more satisfying, I think - is Jugged Hare by Joan Aiken, which was the first story in the first Pan Horror in 1959. |
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Post by redbrain on May 5, 2008 17:18:54 GMT
First published 1969; this Everest edition 1975 I used to have a copy of this book with that very cover. Worth adding for those who don't know - The Loved Dead by C M Eddy was a Lovecraft revision story and - with its necrophilia theme caused quite a rumpus when it was first published. Perhaps the only thing in which HPL had a hand with an overtly sexual theme. |
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Post by Calenture on May 17, 2008 19:18:26 GMT
My Own Tale by R H Benson: Told that he must contribute a story of his own, the narrator proceeds with a tale which he admits is ‘unsatisfactory... because it has no explanation of any kind.’ The tale concerns a house in Brittany where he had once stayed. The house is extremely untidy and the bedrooms thick with dust. The chambermaid admits that she has never seen the owners of the house, because they haven’t stayed there in thirty years. Her only explanation is that it’s an unhappy place. Haining admitted that tastes had changed since the story first appeared, so readers might not agree with Montague Summers’ comment that “there are few stories more horrible;” but Haining hoped that the appearance of the story might encourage readers to seek out more of the authors work. The story would have been more fitting as one of the Unknown Tales of Horror. It hardly belong in this anthology, but at least it's short.  Williamson by Henry S Whitehead: Not long before Williamson’s birth, his mother had ‘gone through a more than ordinarily harrowing experience.’ His father had treated his mother and Williamson himself with contemptuous indifference. But Williamson is an excellent sportsman and generally well-liked by other students. His only eccentricity is his refusal to share the showers at school, preferring a dry rub-down. One day he saves a servant from burning to death when her clothes catch fire. His friend, remembering Williamson’s clumsily bandaged hands, which render him almost helpless, enters his room to see if he needs a hand... Haining says that to even hint at the story's theme would spoil it, and he's right. So after reading this thread, forget about the story... I really liked the next one. It's already mentioned on the Sex With the Dead thread. A Thing of Beauty by Wallace West: Despite his solitary hunchback existence, John Short is a cheerful person, and people smile to see him whistling as he walks along the streets of Cloverdale to his place of work. But it isn’t his job opening the furnaces at the Medical College that makes him so cheerful; it’s his other job in charge of the brine vault where corpses are kept for dissection that really put a smile on his face. Those who looked down on him in life, or mocked him, are here at his mercy as they float in the dark vault. But then the body of an unclaimed suicide, Miss X, is delivered into John’s tender care. “Before him was the most beautiful creature he had ever looked upon. Slim, long-limbed and exquisite, lying as if she were only asleep, Miss X seemed to light up the dingy room.” Before long, he’s stroking her hair and reading her poetry. Then the college takes a turn for the worse; money is drying up and the number of corpses floating in the brine vat decreasing. Soon they'll want Miss X for the dissection table... West must have wondered which of at least two possible endings could have been written here. The Outsider by H P Lovecraft: This early Lovecraft tale of a strange life-beyond-death has become one of my favourites, largely due to the adaptation made for the legendary Black Mass radio series. This early Sixties radio series was splendid, intense and atmospheric. Other stories presented include The Rats in the Walls, and stories by Poe, Bierce, Dunsany, Henry James, M R James, Gogol and Virginia Woolf. Most of the readings were by the producer, Erik Bauersfeld; the sound designer was John Whiting. If you want to hear the show, you can download it or hear it as streaming audio from this archived file (click that link). The page takes a few moments to open completely, and downloading the file to your desktop will give a better listen than listening online. The download link appears nearly a minute after the rest of the page. A lot of the radio sites seem to be hit by copyright problems at the moment and a lot of radio links here now don't work, so I've just uploaded this one myself. The Black Mass presentation does seem to have some additional phrases of Bauersfeld’s invention. In the third paragraph of the story, after Lovecraft wrote: “I think that whoever nursed me must have been shockingly aged, since my first conception of a living person was that of somebody mockingly like myself, yet distorted, shrivelled, and decaying like the castle...” Bauersfeld continues with a description of a bizarre living-dead woman. Otherwise, it seems a pretty faithful - and I think very successful – radio presentation.
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Post by Calenture on May 19, 2008 20:52:51 GMT
The Feast in the Abbey by Robert Bloch: This one opens with a strong Lovecraftian-gothic feel as the narrator rides through a dark storm-bound forest on the way to visit his brother, the good curé at Vironne.
By chance he arrives at a monastery hidden deep in the trees where he seeks shelter for the night. He is disturbed by the unseemly noise and gluttony shown by the brothers as they gorge themselves at a luxuriously-laid table. He has previously noted that no crosses hang in the abbey which is unusually decorated by rich hangings and finery.
As the gathering grows increasingly raucous and a final huge dish of succulently prepared meat is presented, the abbot begins a strange tale of a lost monastery of evil repute once believed to have stood in the forest...
The Cathedral Crypt by John Wyndham: “The past seems so close here,” says Clarissa, as she and Raymond explore the cathedral of a Spanish city. She’s reluctant to enter the dark vaults, and becomes more frightened still when she realises that they’ve stayed too late and are now locked in.
Then they realise that they’re not alone. In the chapel, they see a strange procession of monks and nuns. And at the rear, ‘Two more monks, holding by ropes a lonely nun...’
They realise that they’re watching the ages-old spectacle of a nun found guilty of breaking her vows. And they know the awful punishment for that.
The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner: Old Masson has a feud with the rats in one of Salem’s oldest and most neglected cemeteries. They have grown huge and ravenous, stealing the bodies from the coffins before Masson has a chance to steal the bodies' precious ornaments or pull their gold teeth. It’s almost as if the rats are driven by some malign intelligence; but Masson gives no credence to tales of ghoulish things that occupy the tunnels below the cemetery.
Seeing the latest valued corpse being dragged from view into a tunnel before he can reach it, Masson jumps down into the grave and begins to crawl after it.
This one has a sort of frenzied energy that time and re-reading hasn’t diminished at all. It can also be found in The 5th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories and 65 Great Spine Chillers.
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alansjf
Devils Coach Horse
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Post by alansjf on May 19, 2008 22:46:11 GMT
I can add my vote for The Unspeakable People - I'm pretty sure I read Kuttner's 'The Graveyard Rats' for the first time in this one, and it's been a favourite ever since.
I'll also mention Beyond the Curtain of Dark, Dead of Night, Late Night Television Omnibus and especially Detours into the Macabre, again because it contains one of my all time favourites - this time Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'.
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Post by dem on May 21, 2008 10:29:07 GMT
It would have to be The Unspeakable People for me. It's such a great idea to have an anthology of stories which push the boundaries of what's considered acceptable subject matter for the horror genre, or any other genre come to that. And I've always had a fondness for the cover on the 1974 Ensign reprint that I have .... Certainly beats the psychedelic Quasimodo affair on the Leslie Frewin original.  The "psychedelic Quasimodo" cover, painted by Stuart Perry (1968) Cannibalised from old board, but, for once, my viewpoint is much the same as it was two years ago. Horror is very much in the eye of the beholder, I guess, and to say I'm mystified at some of the selections is an understatement. There are indeed a fair number of ghastly tales on offer, but I'd say the corresponding Pan Horror #10 required a far stronger stomach. Among the more deserving entries in a "most horrible" selection, I doubt too many people would argue with the inclusion of Henry Kuttner's gruesome The Graveyard Rats, or Robert Bloch's downright nasty The Feast In The Abbey. C. M. Eddy's laugh-out-loud funny The Loved Dead - a necrophiliacs progress - probably deserves a look-in, purely on the strength of its uncomfortable subject matter and the fact that the protagonist is drawn as a sympathetic character, and Captain George Eliot's Chinese torture outing , The Copper Bowl (familiar from the first Pan Horrorcollection), still packs a punch. Jane Rice's brilliant The Idol Of The Flies features one of the most loathsome infants in literature, but you have to wonder what his parents were thinking, naming him bloody Pruitt. The Wyndham story is another choice one which sees a couple witness the incarceration of a Nun who's broken her vows, when they're accidentally locked in for the night. Laurence James' Mercy which, according to Haining, struggled to find a publisher on account of it's bloody content, is the heartwarming story of a badly injured man, trapped in his car after a smash and passing in and out of delirium. A well-meaning (but disturbed) young boy decides to help him ... I'm not usual keen on the practice of lifting chapters from novels and presenting them as stand-alone stories, but the burial alive from Wheatley's The Ka of Gifford Hillary works surprisingly well, although it's just plain sacrilege to extract a racy episode from Matthew Lewis's The Monk, a novel which quite simply has to be read in its entirety or not at all. As to the rest, well, given the subtitle, the R.H. Benson, Richard Hughes and Henry Spicer stories quite simply don't belong, and however much a work of genius Poe's The Raven may be, I'd have settled for seeing it replaced by, say, The Black Cat or Berenice, if only to keep the collection flowing. |
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neil
New Face In Hell
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Post by neil on Oct 27, 2008 2:32:01 GMT
Back in the 1970's I used to read the old horror magazines CREEPY and EERIE from which I ordered my first real book called "The Ghouls". I still have it to this day and fondly recall reading and re-reading those original stories behind the movies. I've also collected "Dead of Night" and "The Frankenstein Omnibus" over the years, with the Frankenstein book being a treasure trove of classic and modern horror fiction. I've just recently ordered "Peter Cushing's Monster Movies" as I'm a big Cushing fan and am told he has a 13 page forward to the book, so I'm looking forward to it.
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Post by dem on Oct 27, 2008 14:22:32 GMT
Hi Neil As far as i'm aware, Monster Movies is a retitled but otherwise straight reprint of Tales Of A Monster Hunter (Futura, 1977), so you should be alright for that introduction and the brief but fun comments on the stories. Decent collection, too. |
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Post by caminoreal on Nov 19, 2008 23:19:30 GMT
I've read many of Haining's anthologies over the years but my fondest memories are of Unspeakable People which I read when I was probably 12 or 13. I remember being repulsed by "The Copper Bowl" in particular and was also strangely drawn to Desire and the Black Masseur (the reason why didn't hit me for another few years). My parents would have been shocked if they knew what I'd been reading.
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