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Post by cromagnonman on Dec 24, 2016 0:03:05 GMT
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[/quote] The face of a man capable of summoning up more "malefic anger", so Wheatley claimed, than he had seen "come into the eyes of any man". But only if you refused to buy overpriced books from him apparantly. Yeah, encountered a few book hawkers like that myself in my time. Imagine what a nightmare he would have been to deal with through Abe.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 24, 2016 2:39:50 GMT
There's a certain resemblance to Ena Sharples without her trademark hair-net. Crikey! I thought it was Madame Blavatsky.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 24, 2016 3:25:44 GMT
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[/quote] There is, but I'm seeing Jonathan Winters, myself....
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Post by mcannon on Dec 24, 2016 11:19:36 GMT
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?): There's a certain resemblance to Ena Sharples without her trademark hair-net. Mark[/quote] There is, but I'm seeing Jonathan Winters, myself.... Hmm - who is this mysterious person? I sense a conspiracy......... It's less than a couple of hours until Christmas here in Oz - all the best to all, and particular thanks to Dem for curating another wonderful Advent Calendar! Mark [/quote]
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Post by dem bones on Dec 24, 2016 12:10:07 GMT
It's less than a couple of hours until Christmas here in Oz - all the best to all, and particular thanks to Dem for curating another wonderful Advent Calendar! Mark Hope you have a good one, Mark, and happy book-hunting in 2017. Thank you for your support over the years. As for The Supernatural Omnibus, I like it just the way it is, wouldn't have dropped or replaced a single story.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 29, 2016 12:26:52 GMT
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?): There's a certain resemblance to Ena Sharples without her trademark hair-net. Mark There is, but I'm seeing Jonathan Winters, myself.... Hmm - who is this mysterious person? I sense a conspiracy......... It's less than a couple of hours until Christmas here in Oz - all the best to all, and particular thanks to Dem for curating another wonderful Advent Calendar! Mark [/quote] I'm sure Montague is still spinning in his grave. Let's leave him alone. We owe him a lot.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Jun 3, 2017 12:31:21 GMT
This one won't go away. According to "Ghost Stories of Another Antiquary: Montague Summers and the Supernatural Tale" by Reggie Oliver in All Hallows #39 (June 2005), Montague Summers was not wearing a wig. It was his real hair! Did he not go out in public?
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 3, 2017 22:29:51 GMT
Did he not go out in public? Dennis Wheatley famously gives him a couple of curious paragraphs in Gunman, Gallants and Ghosts:
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Post by helrunar on Jun 4, 2017 1:43:54 GMT
I may be repeating myself here, but there is an interesting memoir of Montague Summers by Brocard Sewell, who I guess might be called in some measure a dissenting Catholic cleric of the mid 20th century. Sewell's form of dissent was largely cultural, I think. Summers' own autobiography, The Galanty Show, is fun for those with an interest in esoteric exotica of an era now long past. If you have access to a larger, more scholarly lending library, you can usually find such books there.
Long before hippies, flower power, punks, etc. there was a character known as "the English eccentric" who figured in the British cultural scene. It was performance art avant la lettre. "Doctor" Edith Sitwell actually wrote a book on the subject and she made herself an example of the type--known as much for her odd hats, rings, and personal appearance as any of her poems or books.
H.
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Post by ropardoe on Jun 4, 2017 17:19:11 GMT
This one won't go away. According to "Ghost Stories of Another Antiquary: Montague Summers and the Supernatural Tale" by Reggie Oliver in All Hallows #39 (June 2005), Montague Summers was not wearing a wig. It was his real hair! Did he not go out in public? Be fair - we all have bad hair days!
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 17, 2017 11:46:53 GMT
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Post by humgoo on Jun 28, 2019 17:43:13 GMT
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. You're lucky to have a copy, Steve! It's one of those very expensive books which I don't think I'll ever get to lay my hands on. Summers' prose seems to hark back to an earlier age, and is something to relish. Who else would have introduced a ghostly anthology by quoting the bon mot of Dr. Johnson?
*****
'In the full flush of success during its first London run, Tom Sheridan, who was playing the hero of "wax-work" Brooke's The Earl of Essex, was wont to be loud up and down the Town in his praises of the poetry and exalted sentiments of this truly mediocre tragedy. In his fine stage voice ore rotundo he would declaim some half a dozen wilting lines and demand applause. On one occasion, in some crowded drawing-room, Sheridan spouts the conclusion of the first Act, ending up with a tremendous—
Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free!
O happy sentiment! Enraptured silence; and then enthusiastic applause. The company vastly commend and admire. After a moment or two, all eyes are turned towards where Dr. Johnson sits. They await a polished panegyric, a swelling eulogy. The great man opens his mouth and looks sternly enough at Sheridan from beneath his frowning brow. "Nay, sir," quoth he, "I cannot agree with you. It might as well be said:
"Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."
Should the writer of the ghost story himself believe in ghosts? Dr. M. R. James, who is among the greatest—perhaps, indeed, if we except Vernon Lee, the greatest—of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction, tells us that it is all a question of evidence. "Do I believe in ghosts?" he writes. "To which I answer that I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me." This leaves us, I venture to think, very much in the same position as we were before the question was asked and the reply returned. Can an author "call spirits from the vasty deep" if he is very well satisfied that there are, in fact, no spirits to obey his conjurations? I grant that by some literary tour de force he may succeed in duping his readers, but not for long. Presently his wand will snap short, his charms will lose their potency and mystic worth; he will soon have turned the last page of his grimoire; he steps all involuntarily out of the circle, the glamour dissipates, and the spell is broken! This has been the fate of more than one writer who began zestfully and fair, but whose muttered abracadabras have puled and thinned, who has clean forgot the word of power if, indeed, he ever knew it and not merely guessed at those occult syllables.' *****
Hear! Hear! Not everyone would agree with his position, though.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 28, 2019 18:19:28 GMT
Humgoo, I alas do not own a copy of The Galanty Show. The absurdly, gloriously vast university library that employs me holds a copy. I've checked it out at least three times over the years.
I'm afraid I dropped my own monocle at "Dr" Summers placing the redoubtable Vernon Lee over and above our revered Master, Dr James. Although a couple of Miss Lee's tales linger memorably in my recollections--I only was able to catch up with them a few years ago, thanks to the electronic edition of The Supernatural Omnibus. My favorite of Miss Lee's yarns involved a mysterious young woman who appeared to be an incarnation of the Goddess Aphrodite. It was brilliantly told with some splendidly weird atmospheric touches. I may have written about it earlier on in this thread.
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 7, 2019 9:53:30 GMT
Jasper John [Rosalie Muspratt] - The Spirit of Stonehenge: (Sinister Stories, 1930). Gavin Thomson's dangerous obsession with Druid worship and elementals was never going to end well. Compelled by evil forces to sacrifice a dog during a full moon, Thomson next takes his own life rather than murder his friends, the Dalton brothers.
Jasper John [Rosalie Muspratt] - The Seeker of Souls: (Sinister Stories, 1930). Philip buys a fine, rambling Irish castle and invites his English pals over to "rough it with daily help" - reading the day's ghost stories you could be excused for thinking the years 1918-1939 were one extended fishing weekend. Philip and friend Peter soon learn that castle is deserving of its bad reputation. Exploring the bedrooms, they are transfixed by an unseen entity which almost succeeds in draining their souls. When the corpse of an apparent suicide is found by the gardener, Philip calls on a priest who agrees to an exorcism.
Meanwhile Guy Dennis, an unflappable young fellow, insists on spending a night in the haunted room. The host refuses, but Guy is not to be denied. A brief but nasty dream of torture gives some hint as to what's gone on in the past. The 'Seeker' as described by Dennis, is tremendous!
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Post by humgoo on Nov 7, 2019 12:06:16 GMT
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