Hugh Lamb - Stories In The Dark

[lobolover]

A colection of strange tales from the primarily humoritst Barry Pain.

www.horrormasters.com/SS_Col_Pain1.htm

Have read all the stories,except one,during one single day,so it isnt any potential loss.

Contents

The Diary of a God
This Is All
The Moon-Slave
The Green Light
The Magnet
The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit
The Bottom of the Gulf
The End of a Show
The Undying Thing
The Gray Cat

Ive "ilatic"-ed those that I full heartily recomend-however,all the others are worth a read,just that,if you dont have enough time,you can skip them for now.

(Note:Anything beyond THIS POINT are Spoilers)

Though,im more then 50% inclined to recomend "The End of a Show" as well- except that it is a LITLE rushed-even a bit more then M.P.Shiel's "The Pale Ape".The Gray Cat is a typical "african negro transformation story"-(note:using the word to denote the period,as well as the contents,though it goes nowhere NEAR the levels of racism found in Bram Stokers "The Lair of the white worm"-the only time I was glad the black guy died,so I wouldnt have to bear through it any longer),while "The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit" is a ,what is now considered,"typical" ghost tale, but one must consider the fact this was published in 1901 and most certainly writne even sooner-so one has to accept that in this time,this particular device was by no means so ovr-used as typecast as "cliché" or repetive by the degrees it is today.

"This Is All" is a short story of psychological horror and again ,while the pointe may seem used-up from the view-point of a reader of today,once again th period of publication and writing have to be considered.

"The Magnet" is a psychological horror tale too,but of the "unsupernatural" sort-but anyone whose read Henry Béraud's "Lazarus" knows a good Weird tale can be composed even without the supernatural geting involved,however it is stil good if its there,for my part.

"The Green Light" is a sort of a crime story,but we have implications here that could link to both madness and or some supernatural influence,but that is all up to the reader.

Now to discus the stories I DO recomend:

* The Diary of a God-I would use the words HPL used to describe "Lazarus"-"a remarkable study of a vivid phase of madness".The image of the desolate, lifeless moors and the protagonist wandering upon them,his mind absorbed by their stilness is superb and thusly would get a 7.04/11

* The Bottom of the Gulf -a short,working tale.The opening lines could have been done a bit beter to not ilustrate the Roman scene in a tad sardonic light, but that efect only last half a page (of the tales two)-so for that, 7.56/11

* The Moon-Slave-a remarkable litle story,whose final lines give a double pointe-to the person use to average "satanic" elements,it could simply sugest hell,however,whose read Bensons "The Man who went too far" and a CERTAIN novela by A.Machen will know diferent.Excelnt idea,made in short form-the opening lines,reminding one of a fairy tale can be slightly off-puting at the start,but after it just exceeds itself. 8.31/11

* The Undying Thing-the true masterpiece of the colection-on is reminded of Shiel's "The Pale Ape"-which it could say to exceed in some points and Walter De La Mare's masterfull tale of the abnormal,"ABO".The flavour is only slightly diluted with the length of the old mans short reminescence and then by the fact we dont even get a hint of apearance of the titular creature-while "the undscribebable" is a comon thing i literature,both De La Mare and others have managed to show us there are very few of the things that we cant at least give a vague outline about.That being said,my rating of this is 9.03/11

Also,I include link to a version of Pain's 1911 "Stories(Studies?) in Grey" story colection story (whose entierety can be found here ia331335.us.archive.org/2/ite...nuoft_djvu.txt
)

As a whole,after having read Pain's "An Exchange of souls"-I have to say that he was a beter weird writer priot to 1911,when An exchange came out-dont get me wrong,its a marvelous tale anybody should read,its only that,when Pains other works of the weird were ignored or called uncharacteristic of his humorous style,he probably tried to make An Exchage more "tolerable" for the cristics by puting in litle sardonic phrases-theese are,even if plentifull,gradualy left behind before the half of the book,mostly.And for good reason.

While Pain was surely a good humorist,the disposability of this market,especialy for the public for which Pain and Jerome wrote,would make a modern reader not exactly tremble with joy-as much as with Poe's humour,though,of course to a lesser decree,seeing as Poe has a particularily anoying style of "funny",which has become extremely dated these days.I will probably do a "review" of Poe's humour at a future time.

A colection of Pain,Jerome and one other writer has apeared ,having supernatural tales from theese humorists,mostly FROM Stories in the dark, some,like Smeath,from Studies in Grey.This has to be honored,because of what Pain left behind otherwise-like with R.W.Chambers,whose "shop girl" romances have been proclaimed unuterabely terrible by a learned person of Chambers' work and reviewer of "The yellow sign and other tales"-is ,frankly,not worth looking into,unless you are either a dated humour fan or a person studying Pain as a whole.

Cheers

[dem]

Hugh Lamb (ed.) - Jerome K. Jerome, Barry Pain, and Robert Barr - Stories In The Dark: Tales Of Terror (Equation, 1989)

Selected and Introduced by Hugh Lamb.

Robert Barr:
Purification
The Vengeance Of The Dead
The Hour And The Man
Not According To The Code
Transformation
An Alpine Divorce.

Jerome K. Jerome:
The Skeleton
The Dancing Partner
The Snake
The Haunted Mill
The Woman Of The Saeter
Silhouettes.

Barry Pain:
The Moon Slave
The Undying Thing
The End Of A Show
The Unfinished Game
The Glass Of Supreme Moments
Smeath
The Green Light
The Case Of Vincent Pyrwhit
Linda
The Tower
The Four Fingered Hand
The Gray Cat.

Bibliography and Acknowledgements.

Hugh's original intention was a collection devoted entirely to the supernatural stories of Jerome K. Jerome, but he couldn't find enough to justify it (the humorous content of the Dickens piss-take Told After Supper would have made it lopsided) hence the welcome revival of tales from Jerome's friends and colleagues Barr and Pain. The Barr stories are culled from Revenge! - a nasty-minded bunch of conte cruel's Mr. Lamb had previously ransacked to good effect for his ace Victorian anthologies. Pain leaned more toward the supernatural side of things for his darker pieces - his monster-birth/ lycanthrope/ family curse melodrama The Undying Thing has recently been resurrected by Mark Valentine for The Werewolf Pack - and Jerome's stories .... can get a little odd, notably Silhouettes which i've yet to make any sense of and Hugh likens to the scrawlings of a manic depressive on a horrendous down.

[dem]

Feb 3, 2014 8:22:20 GMT pulphack said:

A quick bit of googling on Barry Pain reveals that he also had a reputation for ghost and horror stories, one of which was supposed to be influential on Lovecraft. Not heard that before, as had him fixed as a humour writer because of Eliza and old anthologies I've got. Had a look on here but can't find any mentions of his horror work - have I missed a thread? This rather suggests to me that he's an EF Benson figure in some ways - anyone who has read the horror stuff care to discuss?

For Mr. Hack, scrimped from around the board some notes on the Barry Pain content. Disasters permitting, will get stuck into the rest over coming days.

The Horror Undying: Eve, loyal wife of the thoroughly wicked Sir Edric Vanquerest, died giving birth to an infant so monstrous his father conspired with Dr. Dennison to abandon it in nearby caves and let it fend for itself. Sir Edric knew his actions had damned him as he'd reneged on a vow he'd made before God, but only as his death approached, and rumours spread around the nearby village of Mansteth of a wolf thing roaming the fields, did he discover the long-term consequences. "The thing that I took to Hal's Planting is dead. Yet it will come back again to the Hall and then will the Vanquerests be at an end."

A century later and the present Lord Edric, the last of the Vanderquest line and a popular fellow, nothing like his beastly ancestor, is about to wed the gorgeous Ray - family curse permitting ...

The End Of The Show: A quack doctor, hitched to a travelling show, bemoans the fact that in all his life "I never did anyone a kindness, not even myself." He earns a shot at redemption when he answers the cry of an abused circus freak who wants to end it all.

The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit: Pyrwhit, a JP of Ellerdon House, Bucks, is married to a beautiful woman fifteen years his junior. Mrs. Pyrwhit is an outrageous flirt but he's a tolerant old duffer and the pair get along famously. Consequently, her death strikes hard, but his sorrow is as nothing to that of Williams the Butler who goes completely gaga. Telephone calls from beyond the grave rarely bear good news and this one is no exception.

------------------

Later edit: Credit where credit's due, i just found a post by lobolover which goes into far greater detail, so have merged the threads. Horrormasters is apparently soon to be revived!

[pulphack]

Thank you for that - I do like the sound of Pain's take on 'horror' (I always feel absurd using that word about something that can be as polite as Victorian/Edwardian light fiction), and will commence searching!

[dem]

Actually, Pain wrote several supernatural/ horror shorts besides those revived in this volume, Rose, Rose perhaps the pick of his work in the genre, even made the prestigious Oxford Book Of English Ghost Stories. A century on, they stand up remarkably well.

Introducing this next story Michel Parry writes: "Although he is chiefly remebered as a satirist .... Pain was passionately interested in the occult." (Beware Of The Cat, (Gollancz, 1973)

The Grey Cat: 1881. Archdeacon M ----, in London to see Henry Irving in The Cup at the Lyceum, is invited back to the flat of an acquaintance, Breddon. Breddon is a collector of antique weapons, instruments of torture and bizarre and horrific icons , and recently turned down a fortune from a Negro chief for an Egyptian amulet in the shape of a cat. Since that, he's been adopted by a huge deformed feline which detests him. He can only keep it under control by training a gun on it. As the Archdeacon heads off into the street, he hears the screams from Breddon's room ...

The Moon-Slave: No man is good enough for the Princess Viola on account of we are all such useless dancers, her intended, Prince Hugo, being the worst of all. One night she slips away from the party to explore the castle maze. At it's centre, a huge sanded area - her very own natural ballroom! Viola vows to the Moon that she will be its slave if only it will provide music. The Moon evidently accepts, as in no time Viola is dancing to the tune of a ghostly orchestra. It is almost as if she couldn't stop if she wanted to.

Night after night, Viola is drawn back to the maze against her will, until, on the eve of her wedding, the orchestra treat the occasion like a jam session and play on and on and on and .... Eventually, she's joined by a partner. Oh dear.

The moon-Slave reads like a supernatural companion piece to Jerome K. Jerome's The Dancing Partner, which we'll come to shortly. Next is:

The Four Fingered Hand: For generations, the spectral, disembodied hand has kept the Brackley males from harm by manifesting whenever trouble is afoot. Tonight the last of the line has had too much to drink, and explains all to a rationalist friend, who cleverly deconstructs the alleged benevolent haunting. In defiance of the warning hand, Brackley proposes a game of cards ....

[pulphack]

Definitely an EF Benson in the sense of being adept at both ends of the spectrum, then. The humorous novel might move up the pile, and the search for the supernatural become a little more assiduous, then...

[dem]

Feb 4, 2014 20:50:49 GMT pulphack said:

Definitely an EF Benson in the sense of being adept at both ends of the spectrum, then. The humorous novel might move up the pile, and the search for the supernatural become a little more assiduous, then...

Hey pulps, thanks to those marvels at Project Gutenberg, you can read The Four-Fingered Hand The Unfinished Game, and The Tower Here

Better still .... The search function on Munseys ain't doing it for me, but have managed to snag a pdf of Pain's Stories In The Dark collection, which includes most of the rest. See attached.

Happy reading!

Attachments:

storiesinthedark.pdf (113.04 KB)

[pulphack]

You little beauty, you. Thanks, Dem, pdf downloaded and ready to read. Now tell Craig about Greenslade, and remember - no swearing!

[dem]

Don't thank me, thank Munseys & Gutenberg who provide such a magnificent public service in making so much valuable material available.

Gr**ns!@d*? The interminable keyboard solo! The three day bass solo! and, just when you think you've survived the worst life can throw at you, its the virtuoso drummer's turn.... To this day, I wake up screaming.

A Robert Barr interlude. Better known for his Detective fiction, Barr, a fixture of Hugh Lamb's Victorian horror anthologies, was also a gifted practitioner of the conte cruel. The bulk of his macabre fiction was collected in Revenge!, (Chatto & Windas, 1896. Title, self-explanatory). And, if you're of a mind, you can read it HERE

Purification: (Revenge!, 1896) A nice 'n twisted variation on the old 'exploding cigarette' routine. Paris. Eugene Caspilier, poet, drinks absinthe in the Café Egalité and carries on with latest bit of fluff Denise while he waits for the world to recognise his genius. Caspilier admits to his friend Lacour that he only married fiery Russian Madame Valdoréme for her money - she's a celebrated pastry cook - but that is no reason for her to refuse to fund his latest infidelity. Lacour, slightly the worse for drink, agrees to confront Valdoréme at her shop on his behalf. Much to everyone's surprise, Valdoréme magnanimously agrees to her husband's wishes and invites he and Denise to breakfast in her room, she even lays on some hugely expensive smokes for the occasion. All would be most jolly were it not for that rather distracting smell .....

The Vengeance Of The Dead: (English Illustrated Magazine, May, 1894). When Bernard Heaton, missing, presumed drowned in India, returns and lays claim to part of his inheritance, David Allen, the grasping son-in-law of the late Squire, unwisely challenges him in court. Heaton's lawyer wipes the floor with him and Allen expires on the courthouse steps, cursing both men.

Heaton is a scientist with an interest in the occult and perfects a technique whereby he can leave his body and venture on the astral at will. When Allen's ghost learns of this, he commandeers the empty body to commit a crime that will settle for the lawyer and see Heaton hung as a murderer. I've enjoyed every story i've read from Barr's aptly named collection Revenge up until now, but this one's as silly as it is obvious, only not in a good way.

The Hour And The Man: (English Illustrated Magazine, Aug, 1894). A joyous variation on The Torture Of Hope. Prince Locarno sentences the brigand chief Toza to death by decapitation for the murder of his brother. It doesn't seem severe enough but the Prince has to watch his step. His namby-pamby King has an aversion to torture and has sent a representative along to make sure things don't get too barbaric. Toza is well pleased with the outcome, especially as his gaoler, Paolo, lets on that he knows of a secret tunnel from the castle and is up for a juicy bribe ....

An Alpine Divorce: (English Illustrated Magazine, May, 1894). John Bodman and his wife are united in mutual loathing. He resolves to murder her, and, with this in mind, books a vacation in the Swiss Alps . Bodman leads her up on Hanging Outlook and "a sheer drop of a mile straight down, and at the distant bottom ... ragged rocks." Mrs. Bodman, who has already guessed his intentions, has a nasty counter-revenge lined up for him.

[Dr Strange]

I've got the Pain collection "The Undying Thing & Others" from Hippocampus Press. I thought it was a bit hit-and-miss, though I can't remember many details of the stories now. Pain always seems to be compared to WW Jacobs, who also wrote a lot of humourous stories (not that I've read any that I can remember) - there was something called the "New Humour" movement going on round the turn of the century that they were both part of (as was Jerome K Jerome).

[dem]

Feb 5, 2014 11:38:26 GMT Dr Strange said:

I've got the Pain collection "The Undying Thing & Others" from Hippocampus Press. I thought it was a bit hit-and-miss, though I can't remember many details of the stories now. Pain always seems to be compared to WW Jacobs, who also wrote a lot of humourous stories (not that I've read any that I can remember) - there was something called the "New Humour" movement going on round the turn of the century that they were both part of (as was Jerome K Jerome).

Actually, much as I like Robert Barr's work, W. W. Jacobs might have been a better bet for this particular collection. Jerome K. Jerome comes out of it really well.

The Skeleton (The Man of Science): (The Idler, Sept. 1892; Novel Notes, 1893). The scientist procures a new human skeleton for his laboratory, blissfully unaware that it belonged to a bitter enemy sworn to kill him. If you think you know where this one's heading you're absolutely right, but it's the crushing inevitability of the outcome that makes it tick.

The Snake: (Novel Notes, 1893). The tyrannical young manager of a South Indian tea plantation grows resentful of his wife's timidity. She had never wanted to leave England, and is clearly unsuited to the strange terrors of the jungle. Most vexing of all, her fear of snakes, harmless creatures if you have the pluck to stare them down. Time for his shrinking violet to buck up her ideas! He arranges a dead python on the windowsill of his smoking room and asks wifey to go fetch him a novel ....

The Dancing Partner: (The Idler, March. 1893). Furtwangen, Black Forest. On hearing his daughter Olga and her friends complaining about the clumsiness of the local young men, Herr Geibel, a toymaker of genius is inspired to create his masterpiece: Lieutenant Fritz, the mechanical dancing partner. Annette, “a bright, saucy little girl fond of frolic” is the first to put Fritz through his paces and, were she still capable of submitting a report when their waltz is eventually terminated, it’s certain she’d have mentioned his one, fatal flaw. He doesn’t know when to stop …

The Haunted Mill or, The Ruined Home: (Told After Supper, 1891). An old miser reputedly concealed a vast quantity of gold about his Surrey Mill but no-one has been able to find it. New owner Joe Parkins is of a mind that the story is nonsense - until the spectre of a wrinkled old man appears at the foot of his bed and shows him which walls and ceilings to demolish if he wants to locate it. For all that it matters, this is more humorous fable than tale of terror, and less to my taste than the preceding trio.

None of which can prepare you for the astonishing Silhouettes: (The Idler, Feb, 1892). Jerome K. Jerome invents Dark Fantasy? It begins as a meditation on why our narrator (presumably JKJ) favours the bleak over the cheerful, be it in landscapes, seasons, surroundings, etc. He reflects on several weird incidents in his youth, when only his father saved him from being dragged away by the black creatures to the black world with the black sea and the black sky and the black air ... All atmosphere, but little story as far as the small dem brain can discern, and the celebrated humour has crawled off and died. It's not a case of 'liking' or 'disliking' Silhouettes. It's just - there.

[dem]

Back with Barry Pain, and, for this reader, the first is among his finest tales of terror.

Smeath: ( The London Magazine, April 1911). Percy Bellowes, aka 'Dr. Saunders-Bell', is a 35 year old stage hypnotist of little discernible originality, playing to small provincial crowds until he meets Smeath, a hunchbacked dwarf who, unknown to himself, possesses remarkable powers of clairvoyance. Bellowes, £££ signs flashing before his eyes, recruits him on a minimum wage contract and the pair travel down to London. In less than no time, Smeath's private consultations are the talk of the town, and the cash comes flooding in, but, for the true talent of the enterprise, there's no job satisfaction. Smeath doesn't care for his bullying boss at all. As soon as he's saved enough money, he plans to quit this racket and return to his first love, bird-breeding. Smeath has the most remarkable way with our feathered friends and treats himself to a huge white owl which he teaches to perform the most extraordinary tricks. But ...

Bellowes has him in the palm of his hand. While under hypnosis, Smeath has scrawled a confession to the brutal slaying of Miss Esther Samuel, the tramp hater of Teston. Bellowes slashes his employee's pittance yet further and warns him that, should he think of quitting the business, he will betray him to the police. Smeath suffers this with ill grace if little protest, but then, a slight dip in profits. Bellowes insists that a new gimmick is called for, and demands that the hunchback introduce his beloved owl to the act ....

The Green Light: (Phil May's Annual, Winter 1897). A man on the run after the premeditated murder of his "beautiful, faithless, drunken" mistress. He mapped out an escape route in advance, but fate has a habit of foiling the best laid plans, especially if you get pissed, fall asleep in Regents Park and miss your getaway train. But he still has time - except, he fled the scene of his crime in such a panic, he left a gold purse behind! Dare he return to face the horrors of the room with the green blind?

[dem]

Robert Barr - Transformation: (The Strand, June 1896).

Alfred Pearce

Humble Parisian clock makers Adolph and Alphonse Delore refuse to do business with a shady looking character who visits their premises after dark. His measured response is to bomb the shop. Adolph is blown to pieces in the explosion. The police are aware that the customer was one Picard, but he has a water-tight alibi for his movements. Picard and accomplice Laudine have since fled to London.

Alphonse recovers from his injuries. The French government pay him generous compensation for his loss, but Alphonse can't move on with his life until he has avenged his brother's murder. Unshaven and dressed in rags, he looks a tramp, which is what Picard takes him for when next their paths cross in Leicester Square. which is where we delegate spoiler duties to the original artist ....

Not the most inspired of the Revenge! stories which are best experienced in a multiple author anthology. An Alpine Divorce would be my pick, after which they're a bit Jules De Grandin, if you get my meaning; One every now and then, and Barr's get mad, get even tales are great fun, but read too many in one hit, and a sameness sets in.

Alfred Pearce

[dem]

More Pain ...

I found this next, from his 1912 collection Stories in Grey, just so beautiful and sad on first reading, I was in two minds whether to revisit it. What if it 's not all that great after all? Eventually, morbid curiosity won out and, yes, I am in love with Rose, Rose all over again.

Barry Pain - Rose, Rose: (The London Magazine, May 1910). The beautiful Rose Rose may not be the most cultivated young woman, but she is an excellent model, and Sefton grudgingly concedes that he is very lucky to have her. But Rose has a reputation for unreliability. Sefton is worried that, should he settle with her tonight, she'll not return in the morning, and where will that leave his Aphrodite? Rose assures him that, even were she to die tonight, she will arrive at his studio tomorrow at nine ....

Robert Barr - Not According To The Code: (Black and White, 31 June 1895). This final offering from Barr, at least as far Stories In The Dark is concerned, has a touch of Ambrose Bierce about it.

Once they were friends, joint partners at the helm of Darby & Strong enterprises whose celebrated 'Strong Piccadilly' revolutionised the paper collar industry. But now the bitter feud between them is such that both men would rather see their hugely successful company run to ruin rather than compromise on a single trivial issue. Darby & Strong duly flat-lines, files for bankruptcy.

After the crash, Strong leaves London for Texas to become a cowboy, as he's heard the Wild West is a civilised place where disputes are settled by gunning down ones foes in cold blood and no interference from money-grabbing lawyers. Time being a great healer, etc., he forgets all about paper collars and Danby until he learns that, not only has his old foe a new backer, he's revived the company, and Danby & Strong have branched out into the export market. The bastard is drumming up business but a few miles from him even now! A furious Strong grabs his rifle and saddles up. Things don't go quite to plan.

Something to ponder.

"We are all rather prone to be misled by appearances. As one walks down Piccadilly, or the Strand, or Fleet Street and meets numerous irreproachably dressed men with glossy tall hats and polished boots, with affable manners and a courteous way of deporting themselves toward their fellows, we are apt to fall into the fallacy of believing that these gentlemen are civilised. We fail to realise that if you probe in the right direction you will come upon possibilities of savagery that would draw forth the warmest commendation from a Pawnee Indian. There are reputable business men in London who would, if they dared, tie an enemy to a stake and roast him over a slow fire, and these men have succeeded so well, not only in deceiving their neighbours, but also themselves, that they would actually be offended if you told them so. If law were suspended in London for one day, during which time none of us would be held answerable for any deed then done, how many of us would be alive next morning? Most of us would go out to pot some favourite enemy, and would doubtless be potted ourselves before we got safely home again."

- Robert Barr, Not According To The Code, Revenge!, Chatto & Windus, 1896.

"The Late Shift stems from my long experience of the 'scientific management' culture that swept the corporate world in the 1990s. Managers are supposed to identify with their firm - which means they take on its sickest aspects as personal values. We should not assume that psychopaths are always social outsiders; in business, a psychopath might be considered a prize corporate asset, and end up on the New Year's honours list."

- Joel Lane, in Stephen Jones (ed.)'s Psycho-Mania!, Robinson, 2013.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, etc.

[pulphack]

Indeed they do - having just finished WA Darlington's 'Wishes Limited' from 1922, there was much in there about the nature of the press, celebrity, and those who goggle at it to remind me that when we bemoan reality TV culture we would do well to remember it was just the same a hundred years ago, only then it was the narcissists in the landed gentry who were the celebs, not narcissistic chavs and wannabes. Plus ca change, indeed.

Anyway, Barry Pain - The One Before has been fast tracked to read after Darlington, so will hopefully report back in a week or so. I believe I said that it was from 1919 - this is not so. The edition I have (the Philip Allan from 1934/5) carries no original publication date. I bought Edgar Wallace's The Green Rust at the same time, and that IS from 1919 - the lesson here being never to post at half six in the morning before the first coffee has kicked in.

In fact, a quick google reveals this is from 1902, just two years after the Eliza volume of collected stories that sealed his reputation for future generations. This puts it slap bang in the middle of the new humour movement's peak, as mentioned by the good Doctor Strange. In light of this, I'm looking forward to it even more than previously.