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Post by dem bones on Oct 20, 2007 9:23:46 GMT
Hugh Lamb (ed.) - Victorian Tales of Terror (W.H. Allen, 1974, Coronet, 1976)  Alan Lee
M. P. Shiel - Xelucha
Charles Dickens - The Black Veil
Elizabeth Braddon - The Mystery At Fernwood
Guy Boothby - The Black Lady Of Brin-Tor
Guy De Maupassant - The Mother Of Monsters
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Murderer's Violin
Richard Marsh - The Mask
Anon - The Dead Man Of Varley Grange
Ambrose Bierce - My Favourite Murder
Mrs. Molesworth - The Shadow In The Moonlight
Mrs. J. H. Riddell - The Last Of Squire Ennismore
J. A. Barry - The Red Warder Of The Reef
Grant Allen - Wolverden Tower
J. S. Le Fanu - Madam Crowl's Ghost
Dick Donovan - The Cave Of BloodRichard Marsh - The Mask:Mary Brooker is a Broadmoor escapee with a genius for disguise. But what has this to do with the man suspected of drugging and robbing passenger Mr. Fountain, or the beautiful fellow traveller Mrs. Vaynes and her wizened mother? Fountain, doped and helpless, learns all when Mrs. Vaynes demonstrates the secret of the masks and finds himself glaring into the hideously mutilated visage of a maniacal human vampire. J. A. Barry - The Red Warder Of The Reef: Australia. 'Combo' Carter, a 23 year old killer, make a daring escape from the condemned cell and heads off toward the harbour at Port Endeavour with the law in hot pursuit. Due to a number of catastrophic shipwrecks, the marine authority have finally invested in a huge metal buoy 'The Red Warder' and tomorrow it is due to be capped, sealed and launched. "What a top place to hide!" thinks Combo ... Anon - The Dead Man Of Varley Grange: Westernshire. When young Henderson takes over the Grange, he unwisely invites eight friends to spend the Christmas holiday with him. Prior to his arrival the property had remained vacant for years due to the dreadful family curse as it is reputed that, some centuries ago, Captain Varley murdered his sister after she fled the Convent and ran off with her lover. Now their phantoms stalk the Grange and if you're unfortunate enough to see the dead nun's face you die within the year! Erckmann-Chatrian - The Murderer's Violin: Young Karl is a technically accomplished musician but he can't compose for toffee. His tutor's advice is to lose weight, so he waddles off on a walking tour of Switzerland where he takes a room in a hovel with an old man and an idiot girl. The man bears an uncanny resemblance to the violinist Melchier, hung in chains for the murder of an innkeeper. That night as Karl lies abed, a skeleton treats him to a ghastly recital on the fiddle.  Ad for Victorian Tales Of Terror from back cover of Hugh Lamb's The Thrill Of Horror (W. H. Allen, 1975) : Bierce invents the serial-killer, and this one certainly takes the greatest pride in his work! Begins with the chatty "Having murdered my mother under circumstances of singular atrocity, I was arrested and put upon my trial, which lasted seven years. In summing up, the judge of the Court of Acquittal remarked that it was one of the most ghastly crimes that he had ever been called upon to explain away." This being Bierce, our friend leaves the court a free man "without a stain on my reputation". J. S. Le Fanu - Madam Crowl’s Ghost: Old Mrs. Joliffe relates a terrifying incident from her youth when, as a thirteen year old, she first arrived at Appelwaite House to wait on Lady Arabella Crowl. Her ladyship, 93, dying and three-quarters demented is a handful and the servants often resort to the leather straitjacket to curb her excesses. In her youth she had been a beauty and caught the eye of the widowed Squire Crowl. After they wed, his son by his first marriage vanished presumed drowned on account of his hat being found by the lake. In reality, his fate was even grimmer and the secret is exposed when the mad old horror finally breathes her last. Guy de Maupassant - The Mother Of Monsters: A peasant farm-worker falls pregnant and, ashamed, constructs a corset of wood and rope to conceal the evidence. The child is born hideously deformed, earning her mother the nickname 'the She-devil'. However, her misfortune turns to advantage when the owner of a travelling show offers to buy the monstrosity. She then becomes a one woman atrocity factory, pumping out a mutant offspring to order (in as much as it's physically possible, of course) and setting herself up for life.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 23, 2017 1:59:16 GMT
Nice to see M. P. Shiel's "Xelucha" included. That tale made a huge impression on me when I first read it a few years before this book was published. I got hold of a very handsome cloth reprint of a volume of Shiel's tales named after this story--it had a marvelous cover. I have no idea just what happened to that book. It was a long time ago.
Talking of cover, the art for this one seems to have been inspired by the Hammer film Countess Dracula. Beautiful execution.
"The Cave of Blood" is a great title, I would think from the penny-dreadful era.
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2017 11:47:44 GMT
"The Cave of Blood" is a great title, I would think from the penny-dreadful era. The same year as Hugh's Victorian Tales Of Terror hit the shops, Peter Haining included The Cave Of Blood in his The Magic Valley Travellers: Welsh Stories of Fantasy & Horror except this time it had somehow become The Fatal Prediction, a "lost" Gothic short by 'Anne Of Swansea'! |
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Post by helrunar on Apr 23, 2017 12:44:57 GMT
What a curious occurrence! I wonder what Mr. Lamb's thoughts on the matter were?
I seem to recall mention of this kind of thing in a thread about Peter Haining elsewhere here, and it actually did surprise me since he was the only one of these anthologists whose books I saw and read back in the early to mid 1970s. For some reason, the local library system (in Maryland) got quite a few of the cloth editions in. It's been fascinating to learn about the other people active in the field such as Mr. van Thal, Mr. Lamb and your friend Mr. Parry.
Best, H.
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 23, 2017 15:23:31 GMT
"The Cave of Blood" is a great title, I would think from the penny-dreadful era. The same year as Hugh's Victorian Tales Of Terror hit the shops, Peter Haining included The Cave Of Blood in his The Magic Valley Travellers: Welsh Stories of Fantasy & Horror except this time it had somehow become The Fatal Prediction, a "lost" Gothic short by 'Anne Of Swansea'! And that's Peter Haining for you! |
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Post by dem bones on Nov 4, 2019 19:03:34 GMT
Reissued edition with extra story; Hugh Lamb - Victorian Tales of Terror (Kingsbrook, 2019)  Richard Lamb
Richard Lamb - Foreword
Hugh Lamb - Introduction
M. P. Shiel - Xelucha
Charles Dickens - The Black Veil
Elizabeth Braddon - The Mystery At Fernwood
Guy Boothby - The Black Lady Of Brin-Tor
Clemence Housman - The Werewolf
Guy De Maupassant - The Mother Of Monsters
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Murderer's Violin
Richard Marsh - The Mask
Anon - The Dead Man Of Varley Grange
Ambrose Bierce - My Favourite Murder
Mrs. Molesworth - The Shadow In The Moonlight
Mrs. J. H. Riddell - The Last Of Squire Ennismore
J. A. Barry - The Red Warder Of The Reef
Grant Allen - Wolverden Tower
J. S. Le Fanu - Madam Crowl's Ghost
Dick Donovan - The Cave Of BloodBlurb: The dead man playing a violin, the young doctor tasked with saving a doomed life, the deformed creatures and their mysterious mother, the desperate chase to kill a murderous monster.
The Victorian era was a heyday for tales of the supernatural and macabre. Alongside such well known stories as The Signalman, The Monkey's Paw and A Warning to the Curious were hundreds of other, lesser known but equally accomplished, short stories. Victorian Tales of Terror, first published in 1974, brought together 15 long forgotten works of spooky fiction by writers such as Charles Dickens, J. Sheridan le Fanu and Ambrose Bierce.
Over the course of 47 years, Hugh Lamb became one of the most celebrated anthologists of lost or forgotten tales of the supernatural and macabre.
This new edition of Victorian Tales of Terror, featuring an extra story not found in the original edition, is presented as a commemoration of his life and his work. |
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