R Murray Gilchrist - A Night On the Moor &c

[Johnlprobert]

R. Murray Gilchrist - A Night On The Moor & Other Tales Of Dread (Wordsworth Editions, 2006)

Well my gothic explorations continue with this Wordsworth collection from the end of the 19th century (any chance of a cover scan Mr D?).

There are 24 stories here in a slim volume of only 190 pages, which would make you think it would be difficult to get bored. Unfortunately many of these tales are very similar, all dealing with tragic and / or unrequited love. Mr Gilchrist may well have been 'best know for his interest in topography' but my God he had his emo head on when he wrote a lot of these, which tend to feature delicate poetic types who kill themselves when they can't have the girl of their dreams rather than dealing with them properly by shutting them in an iron casket with spikes on the inside or tying them beneath a razor-sharp slowly descending massive pendulum and cackling madly...

Sorry, got carried away there.

So I'm not going to review every story but I'm about halfway through now and highlights include:

The Crimson Weaver - A very good horror-fantasy short that opens the volume and is the antithesis of Lord of the Rings type cuddly fantasy. Our hero ends up a victim of the titular gorgeous but evil lady and it's up to his servant to describe just what she does with his head. Lovely.

The Lover's Ordeal - 'To prove my love to you I shall spend the night in your ancestral home yonder than your family has left deserted for many years' says our handsome hero to his love. Of course there's a good reason why no-one goes there and it's up to granny to spill the beans with a 'You daft cow - we don't go there because it's full of vampires of course' speech that makes this feel a bit like a precursor of an EC tale.

The Manuscript of Francis Shackerly - What's the best way to deal with an unfaithful wife if you're an utterly evil bastard with the unfortunate name of Sir Humphreville Campion? Strip her, make her get into an iron bath full of hot water and then apply very sharp objects. 'As the steam from the bath began to rise, so did the smell of blood fill the room'.

Hey perhaps some of these stories aren't do bad after all! I think I'll keep reading.

[dem bones]

My pleasure, your excellency. Ashamed to say that after making such a big drama about how great it was of Wordsworth to publish this, i still haven't bought a copy! Was planning to stock up on some 'Mystery & The Supernatural's yesterday at that deliciously sleazy Charing X Road book emporium then head on to the BFS Xmas bash and meet all my nice friends, but an evilly-timed electric bill scuppered that one.

Anyway: Gilchrist. Hugh Lamb championed him for years, reprinting a number of stories over various anthologies, and i remember being as taken by 'Roxanne Runs Lunatick', Dame Inowslad and The Return as i was baffled by The Basilisk and Witch-In-Grain. i'll have to read 'em again, but i reckon it's probably his "emo head"-edness that appealed to me then. Anyway, please continue!

[Dr Strange]

This is one I really couldn't get into - too much romance, too much repetition of basic plots/settings.

[Johnlprobert]

Glad it wasn't just me! Anyway Mr Gilchrist will have to rest unfinished for now after a leaking ceiling at Probert Towers and a Lord P too tired after watching late night Bela Lugosi in The Return of the Vampire to remember to put a bucket under it means the book was in a pretty much unreadable state this morning!

[dem bones]

Blimey! Not for anything would i be standing in the servants' shoes this morning!

Taking on what Dr. Strange has said - and i think this applies to several of these collections - weren't most of the stories originally written for the day's periodicals? i think they often work better when they turn up in multiple author anthologies where you don't get really notice stuff like sameness of themes, etc. But again, i don't think anyone ever expected to see a budget price edition of Gilchrist's stories. Wordsworth are a Godsend.

[Dr Strange]

Dec 7, 2009 9:07:38 GMT dem bones said:

Taking on what Dr. Strange has said - and i think this applies to several of these collections - weren't most of the stories originally written for the day's periodicals? i think they often work better when they turn up in multiple author anthologies where you don't get really notice stuff like sameness of themes, etc. But again, i don't think anyone ever expected to see a budget price edition of Gilchrist's stories. Wordsworth are a Godsend.

I am sure you are right about these stories holding up better in multi-author anthologies.

And, in case I have given the wrong impression, I want to say that Wordsworth really are doing a superb job with these books. Anyone else here got their Andrew Caldecott collection ("Not Exactly Ghosts")? Much more my sort of thing... a bit later (written in the 1940s I think), and quite Jamesian in places. I'm not promising, but if no one else does it then I might try one of these review thingies myself.

[Johnlprobert]

I would agree that anthologies are probably the best way to enjoy these stories. I've mentioned on another thread that I found a whole book of Elizabeth Gaskell a bit much. Books like Michel Parry's'Reign of Terror' or Wordsworth's own 'Gothic Tales' I find much more manageable and enjoyable.

I've got the Wordsworth Caldecott volume - I might have a look at it once I've got through some Le Fanu and others.

[cw67q]

I'd also agree that Gilchrist is best in small doses of a couple of tales at a time otherwise they tend to blur into each other (at least in the hand of my er, brain ). Taken in small bite sized chunks though Gilchrist is a treat.

I highly recommend the Caldecott, John, a very entertaining collection although the first book is stronger than the second (both reprinted together here).

I particularly like "A Room in a Rectory" although it isn't typical of the rest of the tales. The tales from the fictional island (I've forgotten it's name of course) are mostly very satisfying.

- chris

[dem bones]

currently on Amelia B. Edwards' All Saint's Eve and, as with Gilchrist, so with her. individually, the stories are brilliant, but having read four on the spin, it's probably wise to take a break. The Caldecott is making its way up the dreaded to be read pile. i like the few of his i've encountered in the past - Seated One Day At The Organ, and Christmas Reunion - but i bought Not Exactly Ghosts by mistake. when i got it home, it was, eh? Where's House Of Balfother, then? where's Return At Dusk? took me ages to work out that i'd confused him with William Croft Dickson ...

i've posted the contents on a separate thread just to be useful. if anyone cares to get us started, please do.

[jamesdoig]

Nice blog on The Stone Dragon over on Bookride: www.bookride.com/