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Post by dem bones on Jan 31, 2020 11:03:31 GMT
The Great Villains: An Omnibus of Evil. Presented by Christopher Lee (W. H. Allen, 1978) Bob Haberfield Blurb: Baron Frankenstein, Professor Moriarty, Count Dracula, Dr Fu Manchu . . .for the first time these and other great villains of literature - together with a number of their real-life flesh-and-blood counterparts: Gilles de Rais, Sawney Bean, the Marquis de Sade and Jack the Ripper - have been brought together in one book which is a unique and definitive omnibus of evil, The Great Villains.
It seems only fitting that the task of assembling this imposing rogues‘ gallery should have fallen to Christopher Lee, an actor known internationally for his film portrayals of the macabre and villainous. During the course of his acting career Mr Lee has personified several of the great villains on the screen, among them Dracula, Fu Manchu, Mister Hyde (Dr. Jekyll‘s evil after-ego) and the Frankenstein creature.
Mr Lee (who was aided and abetted in the compilation of this book by author-anthologist Michel Parry) has prefaced each story with a brief but lively introduction, drawing upon his career as a professional villain for a wealth of fascinating facts and background anecdotes, Here, then, is a book with enormous appeal to everyone who has ever been thrilled and chilled by the exploits of the immortal villains of literature and the big screen!Contents listed as follows. Acknowledgements Introduction - Christopher Lee
Professor Moriarty - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Jack the Ripper - Theodora Benson Mister Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson Sagittarius - Ray Russell Doctor Fu Manchu - Sax Rohmer Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu Count Dracula - Bram Stoker At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein - Harry Harrison Sawney Bean - Traditional The Skull of the Marquis de Sade - Robert Bloch The Demon King - J. B. PriestleyThey are the same as the paperback (see Christopher Lee's Omnibus of Evil, over) where I merely provided the titles they were originally published under for easy identification.
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Post by Swampirella on Jan 31, 2020 11:47:56 GMT
Superb art work! Although anything is better than the day-glo pink and green.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 31, 2020 12:51:33 GMT
I actually was at that Waterstones signing referenced earlier in the thread where Chris (I am not Spock) Lee was flogging his life story. Short of being staked through the heart or struck by lightning I can't imagine he could have been any glummer or more unfriendly if he tried. Wouldn't sign anything other than his boring book ("because my publishers wont allow me to": oh yeah, right). It was a long queue and people were resigned to a long wait anyhow so it wouldn't have killed anyone to scrawl a quick sig on a To the Devil a Daughter still. But no, that was too much to expect of the great man. Even if these same people he was disdaining were coughing up their hard earned for his sodding luvvie gushing.
Don't like to speak ill of the dead (or even the undead) but he was a miserable bastard.
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Post by ropardoe on Jan 31, 2020 14:27:29 GMT
I actually was at that Waterstones signing referenced earlier in the thread where Chris (I am not Spock) Lee was flogging his life story. Short of being staked through the heart or struck by lightning I can't imagine he could have been any glummer or more unfriendly if he tried. Wouldn't sign anything other than his boring book ("because my publishers wont allow me to": oh yeah, right). It was a long queue and people were resigned to a long wait anyhow so it wouldn't have killed anyone to scrawl a quick sig on a To the Devil a Daughter still. But no, that was too much to expect of the great man. Even if these same people he was disdaining were coughing up their hard earned for his sodding luvvie gushing. Don't like to speak ill of the dead (or even the undead) but he was a miserable bastard. Doesn't surprise me in the least. The one time our paths crossed (at a distance), at a book festival in London in the 1970s, he struck me as extremely standoffish. Also he was a huge self-aggrandiser. What he said about his encounter with M.R. James (when he went for an interview at Eton) is, at best, a huge exaggeration of what may have been a very brief meeting, and at worst an outright lie. Lee's description of MRJ in his autobiography is so inaccurate (even allowing for memory being suspect after so long) that I'm tending towards the latter.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 31, 2020 15:14:27 GMT
I actually was at that Waterstones signing referenced earlier in the thread where Chris (I am not Spock) Lee was flogging his life story. Short of being staked through the heart or struck by lightning I can't imagine he could have been any glummer or more unfriendly if he tried. Wouldn't sign anything other than his boring book ("because my publishers wont allow me to": oh yeah, right). It was a long queue and people were resigned to a long wait anyhow so it wouldn't have killed anyone to scrawl a quick sig on a To the Devil a Daughter still. But no, that was too much to expect of the great man. Even if these same people he was disdaining were coughing up their hard earned for his sodding luvvie gushing. Don't like to speak ill of the dead (or even the undead) but he was a miserable bastard. Doesn't surprise me in the least. The one time our paths crossed (at a distance), at a book festival in London in the 1970s, he struck me as extremely standoffish. Also he was a huge self-aggrandiser. What he said about his encounter with M.R. James (when he went for an interview at Eton) is, at best, a huge exaggeration of what may have been a very brief meeting, and at worst an outright lie. Lee's description of MRJ in his autobiography is so inaccurate (even allowing for memory being suspect after so long) that I'm tending towards the latter. I can never fail to contrast his aloof attitude with the kindly generosity of Patrick Moore whom I also saw at a signing around that time. By that stage Moore's hands were so contorted with arthritis that the poor old chap could no longer even hold a pen and was using a specially made stamp to impress his name onto the books. But he still made considerable effort to engage with everyone that had come to see him - despite being visibly ailing - and was happy to stamp anything. That - to my way of thinking - is the mark of a man worth esteeming. Not a self-important poseur and repository of unreliable anecdotes. The last public guillotining in France and you were there Chris. Really? Why?
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Post by dem bones on Jan 31, 2020 15:42:55 GMT
I'm not sure what, if anything, had gone on behind the scenes at that Hammer fest, but C. Lee's fellow star guest, Ingid Pitt, was hardly full of the joys, either (I should point out that Anna Karen, bless her, was charm itself). We'd won tickets to the "Hammer at the Barbican Gala reception, attended by Christopher Lee and many of the stars associated with the Hammer studios." How lovely! Except evidently neither C. Lee or I. Pitt fancied said reception because they gave it a miss. The briefest, most ungracious signing session prior to a screening of Dracula, and that was our superstars done for the night.
OK, so you never know what's going on in someone's personal life, but considering their profession, you'd think they might have been capable of acting not-too-put-out about meeting a handful of well-wishers. I attended quite a few Nick Cave signings during his "I hate my fans" decade(s), and he was a whole lot more patient and good natured than they were that night.
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