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Post by jonathan122 on Mar 24, 2009 15:19:40 GMT
The Supernatural Omnibus - ed. Montague Summers (Gollancz 1931) Steve Crisp (Penguin, 1986) Introduction 1: Hauntings and Horror1 Malefic Hauntings : Mixed TypesNarrative of the Ghost of a Hand - J. Sheridan Le Fanu An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street - J. Sheridan Le Fanu Man-Size in Marble - E. Nesbit The Judge's House - Bram Stoker Thurnley Abbey - Perceval Landon 2 Haunting and DiseaseThe Story of the Spaniards, Hammersmith - E. and H. Heron 3 Malevolent MysteryThe Phantom Coach - Amelia B. Edwards Brickett Bottom - Amyas Northcote 4 From Beyond the GraveThe Cold Embrace - M. E. Braddon How the Third Floor Knew the Potteries - Amelia B. Edwards Not to be Taken at Bed-Time - Rosa Mulholland To be Taken with a Grain of Salt - Charles Dickens The Signalman - Charles Dickens The Compensation House - Charles Collins The Engineer - Amelia B. Edwards 5 The Undead DeadWhen I Was Dead - Vincent O'Sullivan The Story of Yand Manor House - E. and H. Heron 6 The Dead Return a In RetributionThe Business of Madame Jahn - Vincent O'Sullivan b In Love or PassionAmour Dure - Vernon Lee Oke of Okehurst - Vernon Lee Eveline's Visitant - M. E. Braddon c A Vow FulfilledJohn Charrington's Wedding - E. Nesbit 7 A Soul from PurgatoryDe Profundis - Roger Pater 8 Shadowed DestinyThe Dream Woman - Wilkie Collins 2: Diabolism, Witchcraft, and Evil Lore1 Black MagicSingular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, Doctor in Divinity - Richard Barham The Spirit of Stonehenge - Jasper John The Seeker of Souls - Jasper John 2 SatanismThe Astrologer's Legacy - Roger Pater 3 WitchcraftMy Brother's Ghost Story - Amelia B. Edwards 4 Contracts with the DemonSir Dominick's Bargain - J. Sheridan Le Fanu The Bargain of Rupert Orange - Vincent O'Sullivan 5 The VampireCarmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu 6 The WerewolfThe White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains - Frederick Marryat 7 PossessionA Porta Inferi - Roger Pater 8 ObsessionJerry Jarvis's Wig - Richard Barham The Watcher o' the Dead - John Guinan 9 VoodooThe Story of Konnor Old House - E. and H. Heron Toussel's Pale Bride - W. B. Seabrook
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Post by dem bones on Mar 24, 2009 16:05:19 GMT
Wonder if this one's on Wordsworth's radar? In my humble, a strong contender for the best anthology of it's kind with the finest introductory essay we hapless aficionado's of ghost and horror stories are ever likely to see. Summers may have been pretty gaga when it came to his 'real' vampires and werewolves, but he certainly knew how to put an enduring collection together. Lump this in with Michel Parry's 4 Volume Reign Of Terror series, Hugh Lamb Victorian-Edwardian anthologies for W. H. Allen & Coronet, and Peter Haining's celebration of street pulp The Penny Dreadful and you've a fab Victorian-macabre starter pack to work from.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 3, 2009 15:03:36 GMT
I have to echo that. I'd love a nice shiny copy of this anthology. I've got quite a few of the stories (even the 'Roger Pater' one in his Ash-Tree collection!) but after reading Reign of Terror I'm in the mood for more of the same. And as I think I said in my comments on Reign of Terror 1 Victorian anthologies seem to be actually easier on my brain that single author collections (I had enough of the Mrs Gaskell one after a couple of stories because the style was too samey). So yes Wordsworth et al - I;d love to see this as a big shiny paperback!
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Post by dem bones on Apr 5, 2009 11:43:06 GMT
Gollancz published a big shiny hardcover edition in 1982 utilizing Edvard Munch's The Scream for the cover artwork Summers compiled two further anthologies though I've not seen copies of either. The selections were probably more interesting at the time as they've since been repeatedly pilfered from. No bad thing as I bet they're a bastard to find. Do you think we should suggest 'em to Wordsworth along with the Omnibus? The Grimoire and Other Supernatural Stories (Fortune Press, 1936) Montague Summers - Introduction
J.W. Polidori - The Vampyre Charles Maturin - Leixup Castle Alexander Pushkin - The Queen of Spades Erckmann-Chatrian - The Polish Jew J. S. Le Fanu - Schalken, the Painter J. S. Le Fanu - Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling J. S. Le Fanu - Dickon the Devil Charles Ollier - The Haunted House of Paddington Mrs. Hartley - Chantry Manor-House Anonymous - The Story of Salome Anonymous - The Spectre Hand Anonymous "The Tregethans' Curse: or, the Weird Woman Montague Summers - The Grimoire Anonymous (Montague Summers ?) -The Man on the StairsVictorian Ghost Stories (Fortune, 1933) Sutherland Menzies - Hugues, the Werewolf J.S. Le Fanu - The Dream J.S. Le Fanu - A Chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family J.S. Le Fanu - The Dead Sexton Catherine Crowe - The Italian's Story Catherine Crowe - Round the Fire Anon - The Mysterious Stranger Mark Lemon - The Ghost Detective Thomas Hood - The Shadow of a Shade Anon - The Dead Man of Varley Grange Anon - The Ghost of the Bank of England Katherine Tynan - The Picture on the Wall E. & H. Heron - The Story of Medhams Lea F.G. Loring - The Tomb of Sarah
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Apr 5, 2009 16:58:02 GMT
The Covers for the earlier peguin paperbacks, published as two volumes (both 1976 from the copyright page info): Artist: Justin Todd
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Post by dem bones on Apr 5, 2009 20:44:46 GMT
These are gorgeous. You can just see that Wordsworth logo running across the top, can't you? John recently interviewed Mr. Todd for All Things Horror
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 2, 2013 0:14:39 GMT
The Supernatural Omnibus - ed. Montague Summers (Gollancz 1931) Cover of Penguin 1986 edition This is the edition that I just finished. I bought it for three main reasons: the introductory essay, the two Vernon Lee stories, and the three Flaxman Low stories. In my humble, a strong contender for the best anthology of it's kind with the finest introductory essay we hapless aficionado's of ghost and horror stories are ever likely to see. Summers may have been pretty gaga when it came to his 'real' vampires and werewolves, but he certainly knew how to put an enduring collection together. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found the essay a disappointment. I'm not in sympathy with his argument that authors who "regard the supernatural as just a fantasy and a flam ... topple, however, on either the one side into nightmare indigestion or on the other into vague aridities that are in fine meaningless" (to be fair, I'm equally annoyed by S. T. Joshi's seeming insistence that the best weird fiction must share his own skeptical materialism). Summers also takes an M. R. James-style swipe at Not at Night and its "rather nauseous sensationalism of fiendish serums, foul experiments of lunatic surgeons, half-human plants, monstrous insects and the like." Some would take that as high praise, but that's not how he means it. The Vernon Lee stories, on the other hand, made it all worthwhile--especially "Oke of Okehurst," which would fit well in a collection of top horror novellas. I also enjoyed the Flaxman Low tales--"The Story of the Spaniards" and "The Story of Yand Manor House" more so than "The Story of Konnor Old House." I think that E. and H. Heron are seriously underrated; as supernatural sleuths go, I'd call Flaxman Low before Aylmer Vance, Thomas Carnacki, or John Silence The rest of the selection is impressive as well, with the notable exception of "Jerry Jarvis's Wig," a painfully unfunny tall tale.
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Post by timothymayer on Apr 7, 2013 14:39:07 GMT
I had an older copy of this for years. Then the dog got to it and chewed it up. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a new copy several years ago.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 2, 2016 2:31:36 GMT
I was also disappointed in the Supernatural Omnibus, which I got over this past Winter in an e-book edition as it seemed to be the only version available. There were some great selections and others I found labored and pointless. I did enjoy the introduction as an artifact of the Summers way with prose.
My all-time favorite Summers confection is his autobiography, The Galanty Show. It's written very much in the manner of The Gothic Quest and a great deal of fun for those with a taste for a certain strand of vintage camp exuberance.
H.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 22, 2016 13:39:38 GMT
After many years (if not decades), I've just re-read two ghost stories by Amelia B. Edwards anthologized in The Supernatural Omnibus: "How the Third Floor Knew the "Potteries" (1863) and "The Phantom Coach" (1864). I've rarely read stories of that age that stand up so well. The Supernatural Omnibus contains two other stories by her. This is a bit strange because, while Montague Summers singles out M.R. James for great praise in his "Introduction", he includes none of MRJ's stories (or any by E.F. Benson who he also rates highly). If less authors had been over-represented (there are three Flaxman Low stories by E. and H. Heron), it would have been a much stronger anthology. Anyway, here are the covers of Penguin's 1976 two-volume edition of The Supernatural Omnibus.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 22, 2016 18:12:16 GMT
This seems like a good opportunity to mention that the next issue of Fortean Times (349, out on January 5th) is scheduled to include an article on Summers: "Priest or Occultist? The Secret Life of Montague Summers". Sounds interesting, depending on who the article's author is. I should warn that the scheduled articles in FT sometimes get delayed to make way for more immediately relevant pieces. (Incidentally, the current issue 348 has a great article on Krampus.)
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Post by cromagnonman on Dec 23, 2016 10:30:00 GMT
Here's my copy: a tenth impression from 1974. Hardly the most elaborate or artistically committed of cover designs perhaps but just dig that funky 70s day-glo calligraphy. Speaking from a personal perspective I don't consider the Flaxman Low stories to be over represented in it. I'd have happily stood for more but one mustn't be greedy. They are one of the chief pleasures of the book for me. Considering how hideously expensive Flaxman Low collections can be its reassuring to think that if you add the three collected here to those conscripted by Haining in his SUPERNATURAL SLEUTHS, Lamb in his VICTORIAN NIGHTMARES and Valentine in THE BLACK VEIL then you have half the set amassed relatively inexpensively. If there was something I could have done without then it is probably "Carmilla". The space saved from reprinting that could easily have benefitted half a dozen other authors. But, to be fair, back in 1931 I presume it had yet to become the ubiquitous fixture of such collections that it later would.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 23, 2016 13:15:55 GMT
Here's my copy: a tenth impression from 1974. Hardly the most elaborate or artistically committed of cover designs perhaps but just dig that funky 70s day-glo calligraphy. Speaking from a personal perspective I don't consider the Flaxman Low stories to be over represented in it. I'd have happily stood for more but one mustn't be greedy. They are one of the chief pleasures of the book for me. Considering how hideously expensive Flaxman Low collections can be its reassuring to think that if you add the three collected here to those conscripted by Haining in his SUPERNATURAL SLEUTHS, Lamb in his VICTORIAN NIGHTMARES and Valentine in THE BLACK VEIL then you have half the set amassed relatively inexpensively. If there was something I could have done without then it is probably "Carmilla". The space saved from reprinting that could easily have benefitted half a dozen other authors. But, to be fair, back in 1931 I presume it had yet to become the ubiquitous fixture of such collections that it later would. I like the Flaxman Low stories. While Montague Summers did avoid including very old gothic stories (which were dated when they were written), he could have made a more balanced selection. Here he is (or is it Roy Kinnear?):
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 23, 2016 14:37:29 GMT
Here is the "horror" from E. and H. Heron's "The Story of the Moor Road". Well, it would scare me.
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Post by mcannon on Dec 23, 2016 21:28:50 GMT
[/quote] While Montague Summers did avoid including very old gothic stories (which were dated when they were written), he could have made a more balanced selection.
Here he is (or is it Roy Kinnear?):
[/quote]
There's a certain resemblance to Ena Sharples without her trademark hair-net.
Mark
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