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Post by severance on Dec 4, 2008 14:25:41 GMT
S.F. Roland - The Witch Mark, NEL (1977) I haven't read this, haven't even got it - but I do have it's progenitor. In this picturesque narrative of medieval England, Janson vividly captures the colour and mood of the time - the privilege and the poverty; the cruelty and the fear; the superstition and the hopelessness that give the lie to that euphemism, "The Good Old Days."
You will follow the strange and exciting story of Mary True, of low estate but of high-born blood, destined to rise from humble peasantry to consorting with the noblest in the land. Yet it was a hard and bloody road to eminence, strewn with lives condemned by intrigue and trickery in the plot to rob Mary of her birthright.
Crooked was much of the so-called justice dispensed by the corrupt in high places. But there was a deal of rough justice too for those who conspired so ruthlessly to condemn the innocent for their own aggrandisement.'Daughter of Shame' was the last book that Stephen D. Frances wrote as Hank Janson, and was originally published by Compact Books in 1963. Steve Holland wrote this in his excellent 'The Trials of Hank Janson' - " His latest novel, an Elizabethan historical called 'Avenging Daughter' (actually a heavily revised version of his earlier Hank Janson novel 'Daugher of Shame'), was sold to New English Library, who also accepted a proposal for a series of books set in the violent and erotically abandoned world of Ancient Rome... The series, all published as by Dael Forest, sold only modestly when it appeared in 1975-76; but a reissue in America in 1978, noted Frances, "helped to keep the wolf from my door". 'Avenging Daughter' was eventually published in 1977 under the title 'The Witch Mark' by S.F. Roland.So there you have it, for those that care about these things!! |
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Post by andydecker on Dec 5, 2008 16:30:02 GMT
The Roland novel was also published in Germany in the Vampire Heftroman series. I only bought this for the cover and because it was one of the then rare translations . The series was on its last legs at the time (1980) and mostly published boring crap. Never bothered to read it either. And this is the infamous Hank Janson?  Who would have thought. Guess it is worth a look after all. I read the Holland article, as a couple of Janson's were published here. I bought one and couldn´t comprehend why this tame (and boring) stuff could cause such an outroar at the time. Guess the witchhunters never truly died. |
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Post by pulphack on Dec 7, 2008 20:44:01 GMT
the whole Hank Janson affair is one that really highlights how permissiveness in popular culture has changed over the years. Francis' stuff is very tame, and in truth later Jansons written by the likes of Jim Moffatt are much stronger (some of the turn of the seventies Compact stuff is quite nasty in tone) but still plae into nothing compared to what we can buy now.
having read your 'groovy age' article the other day (sterling stuff, btw), it strikes me that you had this problem much more in germany than here by the seventies. the Lady Chatterly trial at the turn of the sixties, where penguin went to court to fight for the publication in the uk of a book deemed obscene, was a watershed that can't be underestimated. after that, the floodgates (thankfully) creaked open. to be a bit marxist, it was really about whether or not the working classes (ie low culture readers) should have access to a more open form of expression. thankfully, the working classes won. as did the posh publishers who peddled the new filth. oh well.
back to the point. to read a Francis' Janson now, and think that trial was only a few years before Chatterly, just shows how repressed things were. and don't get me started on No Orchids For Miss Blandish...
got more to say about Francis, but that'll continue over on the Hank Janson thread.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 20, 2011 20:59:30 GMT
S. F. Roland - The Witch Mark (Trojan, undated) Blurb: Life in Tudor England was very hard for all but the landed gentry. The fear of witchcraft was prominent in people's minds.
When Mary True's parents are taken to London and burned as witches, she knows that they — as well as so many others — are innocent.
She follows them to the big city.
Penniless, barefoot, lost, and knowing no one, she is determined to know the truth. Why were her parents so wrongfully punished?Have you read Daughter Of Shame yet, Sev? The NEL edition of The Witch Mark with the ferocious barmaid cover still eludes me, but found this undated edition earlier. Haven't a clue who 'Trojan Publishers - London' were, but an RRP of £1.50 suggests this came after the NEL (or explains why Trojan went out of business!).
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Post by noose on Mar 20, 2011 21:13:27 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Mar 20, 2011 21:43:51 GMT
Ah, thanks Johnny. in that case they're almost certainly one of World Distributor Library's short-lived offshoots like Five Star/ PBS and Zenith Publications.
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Post by dem bones on May 23, 2011 22:16:33 GMT
An odd one, this, and no mistake. Writing in Paperback Fanatic #8, Justin remarked that it's "never quite sure if it's Horror or Gothic Romance" and he is not wrong. The first half of the novel comes on like a low-budget version of De Sade's Justine with heroine Mary True (and others) undergoing all manner of brutal treatment - rape, imprisonment in Newgate, mutilation, public flogging, slavery, branding, burning at the stake, etc, etc., but once she's been deposited in a beggar camp outside the city walls, there's an uneasy lurch into familiar Paperback Library territory. The story begins with Mary True bathing in the lake. Local lad John Wilkes gets so turned on he attempts to rape her, only for her father Will to emerge from the bushes and beat seven shades out of him. In retaliation, Wilkes denounces Will and his wife Joan as witches. On the instructions of the bent local magistrate Bonner, the dashing Captain Goodwin transports the couple to London to stand before sadistic witch-finder Edward Pope. As they're escorted from their home, Joan presents Mary with a gold ring and tells her to follow the cart to London and seek out a blacksmith, Walt Ridley, who will be able to help her. Trouble is, when she eventually locates Walt (with the help of Captain Goodwin, who, against all odds, is revealed to be a thoroughly decent chap), he's had his tongue torn out on the orders of the dashingly handsome rake Lord Tynne. It's only very late in the novel that we realise why. Her parents suffer torture and excruciating death at the stake and Mary, lost in a city where vagrancy is considered a criminal offence (see also Westminster council in 2011), falls prey to all manner of dastardly aristocrats. Incredibly, the love story aspect revolves around Mary's relationship with Lord Clive, a sympathetic rapist (!) who at least treats her with some degree of kindness, unlike his boorish pal Sir Percy who dresses her in a lavish gown and then has his debauched friends throw dice for first crack at her. Lord Clive is so ashamed of their collective behaviour that he employs Mary as his servant - mighty big-hearted of him - which only brings her into the orbit of his pathologically jealous mistress, Helen. When Helen tires of slapping and humiliating her, she pays a bunch of lowlifes to shear, brand and disfigure Mary then dump her outside the city walls. Luckily for Mary the gang only comply with the last of her orders. At the beggar camp she's reunited with Captain Goodwin and the tongueless blacksmith whereupon the story mutates into some kind of feelgood Witchfinder General as the unlikely trio break back into the capital on a revenge mission. By now 'Roland'/ Frances has completely dispensed with the horror trappings in favour of decidedly Victorian melodrama and even a spot of Devil's Swishes-style ribald humour. i guess what i'm saying is, it's a bit wobbly and then some, but i read it in one sitting and can't help but think Hammer should have snapped up the rights and filmed it immediately!
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Post by andydecker on May 24, 2011 9:49:05 GMT
I still haven´t read this but I guess the german edition is heavily abridged. Sounds like a lot of plot. How many pages has this?
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Post by dem bones on May 24, 2011 11:13:49 GMT
Don't have the NEL, Andy, but the Trojan comes in at under 140 pages so there isn't much to abridge. Almost every chapter is prefigured by a few short paragraphs on 'England Under The Tudors', recounting many of the atrocities perpetrated on those accused of witchcraft/ petty criminals / the impoverished. There certainly is plenty of plot - The Witch Mark it's all story, zero padding - and it's not dissimilar in pace to Peter Saxon's frenetic Satan's Child. My hunch is you'd enjoy it!
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Post by andydecker on May 24, 2011 18:43:45 GMT
Almost every chapter is prefigured by a few short paragraphs on 'England Under The Tudors', recounting many of the atrocities perpetrated on those accused of witchcraft/ petty criminals / the impoverished. Ah, here they put the knife. I browsed through the edition. I discovered only two of those paragraphs which made in this form not much sense. One paragraph about breast-free fashion at queen Bess court (which was a new one for me  and I have seen The Tudors) and another about sheeps. The atrocities were left out lol. Typical. |
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Who would have thought. Guess it is worth a look after all.
and I have seen The Tudors) and another about sheeps. The atrocities were left out lol. Typical.