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Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 9, 2010 18:40:18 GMT
WARNING: SPOILERS!!! Well, here is what I think (for what it's worth). The thing chasing after Rooum is the ghost of someone he killed. There's nothing much to support that - except the possible hint where the narrator suggests that the name of the thing running after him is "Conscience". What that thing is trying to do is to physically "blend" with Rooum - i.e. possess him - and then cause him to kill himself. It takes the thing a few attempts to achieve that - it runs up to Rooum, but then passes right through him. Eventually, though, the thing succeeds in its mission. Thanks for that Dr Strange! That contributes greatly to my / our understanding of the story. I'm sure Lady P would agree with me if she were allowed to talk.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Oct 27, 2010 8:59:03 GMT
I'm allowed to talk now, so it's time for me to have a go at some Vault reviews of my own!
Benlian: A painter finds himself irresistibly drawn to his neighbour, a strange sculptor named Benlian. “I loathe and adore you!” the painter cries at one point, startled by his odd feelings. Odder still is Benlian’s ugly misshapen sculpture, which he claims is a god. A god Benlian intends to “pass himself into” when it is finished. With the painter’s help. A strange, compelling little story.
The Ascending Dream: “To dream that you are ascending steps denotes danger.” It certainly does for the three characters spread over three far-flung periods of time. While the first part had a whiff of Valhalla Rising–esque dread about it, it only led into the second part, which had less dread and the third had still less. Pretty insubstantial.
The Honey in the Wall: Deep within a Norman wall is found a quantity of ancient honey, “the stored sweetness of long-vanished flowers”. Gervaise thinks she has the measure of Freddy, a womaniser she keeps attempting to spurn, yet still finds herself drawn to. She is determined that he shall not sip from the open honeybag of her heart! Elsewhere a young lady cries delightedly upon hearing a ghost story, “Do let’s be ghosts tonight!” But what has all this to do with the selling-off of the family’s paintings, in particular the portrait of Lady Jane by “Artist Unknown” that haunts Gervaise?
This is a beautiful, poetic and poignant story. Even more subtle than “The Beckoning Fair One”, with the ghost element left ambiguous. There's something distinctly Shirley Jackson-y about it for me. I’m not sure I fully understand this one but I absolutely love it.
The Rosewood Door: Everyone loves the strange curved door Mr James has just found, especially Agatha, who asks that it replace the plain white door to the guest room where she frequently stays. One night she is visited by a handsome dark stranger, who leaves behind an old sword. It may have been a dream but for the peculiar weapon, which no one can deny exists. The very next day Barty, presumed lost in the Great War, returns home. He and Agatha fall in love and marry almost immediately. But why has the rosewood door whence he came now become a source of fear for Agatha? And why is she so determined that he must never pass through it again? A classic. Onions doing what he does best.
I'm really enjoying this collection and looking forward to more!
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Post by Dr Strange on Oct 27, 2010 9:42:18 GMT
I think am going to just dip in and out of this - I skipped the first few stories coz I'd read them all before (in Widdershins), but I just read "The Ascending Dream" the other night and was so utterly underwhelmed that I put the Onions aside and started something else (nonfiction). It's not a ghost story, it's not even a horror story, just some wispy allegorical stuff about the human spirit or something.
I did wonder when the book arrived in the post - "How come this is so much heftier then the other Wordsworths I've got? Did Onions really write so much good stuff?" It was starting to look like that wasn't the answer but, given the other reviews in this thread, I was maybe a bit quick to jump to the worst conclusions (nothing new there). I hope so, as I really was looking forward to this book so much, and I really do want there to be some real gems in there...
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Post by dem bones on Oct 27, 2010 11:33:04 GMT
after making such a song and dance about this, i still haven't bought a copy - and, perhaps even more unforgivable, i've not got Crowley's The Drug yet, either. So thank you for reminding me i need to get my act together, lady P. I wasn't sure i'd read The Rosewood Door but from your synopsis it sounds awful familiar - am particularly looking forward to a rematch with this and the (from memory) super grim The Rope In The Rafters.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Oct 28, 2010 19:47:30 GMT
The Accident: Romarin has a dinner date with his old friend Marsden, who seems bitter and resentful of Romarin’s successful career. Romarin remembers having a fight once with Marsden in a restaurant and things seem to be heading in a similar direction this time. But wait… Is it a memory? A vision? A warning? Hmm.
IO: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Ed visits Bessie at her sickbed. But while Ed doesn’t especially excite her passion, John Keats certainly does. She’s finding a lot of comfort in his Endymion after an exhausting visit to the Greek Room at the Museum. Now Ed’s touch seems to fill her with loathing while the Bacchanalian poetry seems the very Dream of Reality. Alas, Ed just doesn’t get it.
The Painted Face: Shy otherworldly Xena is not what she seems. She finds out what and who she really is on holiday with a group of admiring girl-friends in Tunisia. The others ooh and ah over Xena, demanding that artistic Amalia paint her as a goddess. Rather astute of them, since Xena’s pedigree goes right the way back to ancient Greece. Poseidon, in fact. Remarkably insubstantial for its length (and really more a romance than a ghost story), I confess I found myself skimming towards the end.
None of these stories are anything special. But hey - past the halfway mark with three stunners in “The Beckoning Fair One”, “The Honey in the Wall” and “The Rosewood Door”, so not too shabby!
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Oct 29, 2010 6:57:23 GMT
The Out Sister: Pretty Jennie Fairfax visits the convent of Santa Maria di Gesu, where she sketches a marvellous door and chats with Sister Maddalena, who admires Jennie’s lovely blond hair. Afterwards she can’t find her sketch anywhere and no one else seems to have heard of the convent.
“John Gladwin Says…”: Quite a lot of things, really. The car drove headlong into his at speed and he made his way to the village of Old Harkness Bottom, where there was a lovely little church, and then a wedding for John, and seven sons, and then another car crash, exactly as before.
Hic Jacet: Hack writer Brutus is asked by the family of Michael Andriaovsky, a not-so-famous Polish painter of his acquaintance, to write the story of Andriaovsky’s life. Amidst much squabbling with the family and another friend of the painter, something is written. But what? And is he really being haunted by the painter? Or is he mad? Onions does seem more than a little preoccupied with the “Is it a ghost or are they just mad?” theme.
The Rocker: While the children play at funerals with their dolls, old Aunt Rachel watches on in her rocking chair, asking why they don’t play something more cheerful. Annabel, the gipsy lady, asks after Aunt Rachel’s baby, whom her arms seem to embrace as she rocks. Aunt Rachel insists that her husband-to-be died on the eve of their wedding, she wore black and the baby never was. Ah, but the gipsy sees with different eyes. I liked this one – a poignant little “haunted baby” story.
Dear Dryad: The life of an oak, spanning many generations. This is basically the same three-parter as “The Ascending Dream”. Onions seems to like the idea of the little lives that play out in the shadow of some greater force.
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Post by cw67q on Oct 29, 2010 10:41:06 GMT
The Accident IO: The Painted Face:
None of these stories are anything special. But hey - past the halfway mark with three stunners in “The Beckoning Fair One”, “The Honey in the Wall” and “The Rosewood Door”, so not too shabby!
Hmm, I'm with you on the Accident, but not on the other two. Admittedly the first time I read Io it passed me bye without effcet, but on a second reading I found it much better. But I can't resist stories featuring the return, or influence, of old gods Which brings me to Painted Face: I think this might well be Onions Masterpiece, above and beyond even tBFO (well ok somedays I'd put tBFO first). One of my favourite genre novels, and nice and short when considered as such, though it does make a very long "story". The young girl on the cusp of adulthood and sexual awakening is wonderfully handled (get your mind out of the gutter, yes that's you I'm talking to, Dem), and did I mention how taken I was with the Olde Godse Themee. A wonderful piece (IMHO) - Chris
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Post by dem bones on Oct 29, 2010 12:11:45 GMT
(get your mind out of the gutter, yes that's you I'm talking to, Dem) - Chris *sigh* How many more times? i only read that stuff to warn you about it and besides, Valentina Cilescu's Kiss Of Death is not a dirty book! It's .... it's good, wholesome healthy erotica, that's what it is. ( "Rosy cheeked Madelon, the French whore, who looked more like an angel but had all the works of Satan in her luscious arse". How comes you don't get mobile libraries like that in my neck of the woods?). Tsk! you selflessly put yourself through it for these guys and they brand you some kind of perve! i'm doubly grateful to you for tackling these, Thana. Thanks to your commentary, some of these long-forgotten stories are coming back to me and with them the memory of my abject failure to make any kind of sense of Io, or string together a coherent appraisal of "John Gladwin Says ..." (which i actually 'liked'). I share your appreciation of The Rocker ( The Cigarette Case, another relatively unfussy, trad ghost story is also very sweet). when i eventually drag my bones along to Lovejoys and snag a copy, it's a foregone conclusion that i'll be adopting the Dr. Strange dip in, dip out approach to The Dead Of Night, but i've made a mental note to begin with The Honey in the Wall.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 2, 2010 8:54:23 GMT
The Real People: Writer Aubrey Kneller can't get a certain female character in his latest novel to behave. She's not content with her role in the story, her social position, nor even her name. Kneller loses the battle, renaming her and the novel, only to find that the sweet young thing who runs the hat shop has suddenly taken similar ideas into her head. Is life imitating art? Or have his characters removed themselves from the page and taken over the boring lives of Kneller's acquaintances? Who are the "real" people? Oh, I enjoyed this one - a playful and highly entertaining little treat! A bit like the lighter side of "The Beckoning Fair One". Tsk! you selflessly put yourself through it for these guys and they brand you some kind of perve! Poor Dem. I know how you feel. I only read the pulpy stuff in the hope that someone will see through my chaste and prim facade to the shameless within.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 2, 2010 15:25:03 GMT
I only read the pulpy stuff in the hope that someone will see through my chaste and prim facade to the shameless within. And some would say I've only written a theme tune for Oliver Onions because I have to devote a part of my brain to creating meaningless rubbish, whereas in fact... At least none of you will ever have to hear it, as opposed to Lady P who probably can't get it out of her head
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 3, 2010 8:03:09 GMT
The Cigarette Case: Loder and Carroll lose their way wandering in Provence one night and happen upon two English ladies who invite them to their house. A charming hour passes like a dream and when they return to their friend Rangon, Loder finds he's lost his cigarette case. Rangon scoffs at their account of the evening and the three set off in search of this mysterious house. They find it, although it's not quite as they remember it. As Dem says, a "relatively unfussy trad ghost story". Very sweet and charming.
The Rope in the Rafters: "One can but die once." So says Marsac, the caretaker of the chateau where wounded soldier James Hopley has come to recover from a terrible facial disfigurement. At night he hears the laboured breathing of someone in the bed opposite him, although he is clearly alone in the room. Marsac tells him the story of Jean the Smuggler who hanged himself in the loft and at first Hopley scoffs at the romantic notion of a ghost. Then he begins to wonder whether a man might be partially dead. "He is as much a man as I, I as much a ghost as he." Might he become the next haunter of the chateau? If so, by whose will?
This one was so unexpectedly gruesome I wondered at its placement just after the charming "Cigarette Case". I particularly love the description of Hopley's dream. He is back in the war, looking for his gas mask, only to look in the mirror and discover that he has it on: "Christ, what a picture of all-hell it was with its goggles and its swines snout, its offal-like windpipe re-entering his own entrails, its integument tucked like putrid wrinkled flesh into his collar. And all at once he gulped as if a hand had closed hard on his heart. That that he was looking at was not the mask. It was his face."
Apparently based on a supernatural encounter had by Onions's son, who heard someone pacing in his hotel room one night and smelled damp earth, it's a great piece of insidious suggestiveness and for me the only properly scary story since BFO. Also a fascinating game of "Who is truly the haunter, and who the haunted?" Full marks for this one!
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 3, 2010 10:47:53 GMT
In case anyone is interested, I wrote briefly about the Collected Stories of Oliver Onions in 1994 in a USA magazine DEATHREALM, as part of my regular column TENTACLES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC:
Extract:
TENTACLES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC No. 4
from DEATHREALM #21 (1994)
"...Like wild honey found in the heart of a wall." --Oliver Onions HONEY IN THE WALL
WELL, I'M NOT too old a dog to learn new tricks. Exploring, as I do from time to time, some of the older books in my personal collection, I recently stumbled across THE COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF OLiVER ONIONS (Ivor Nicholson & Watson, London, 1935) and, with some excitement, discovered some really special things. Many of you will have heard of O. Onions (1873-1961), a writer born in Bradford, Yorkshire, whose two stories, The Rosewood Door and The Beckoning Fair One, are often anthologised: two masterpieces of the macabre. Yet, the trove is deeper, the treasure richer, as one delves into his lesser known works. They touch on preoccupations of mine regarding ambivalent existences and dimmer-switch identities. The style, too, is a deliciously woven tapestry of clause and sub-clause, beating Henry James at his own game. And the aftertaste...is, well, sweeter than honey yet black-peppered with other concerns that will stay with you within daylight as well as night--and during those dimnesses between. I genuinely believe I have found for myself a writer to rank alongside the great Robert Aickman. Why hasn't anyone told me before?
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 3, 2010 11:15:58 GMT
I like that - "dimmer-switch identities". Well put!
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 4, 2010 8:11:57 GMT
Resurrection in Bronze: "The clay is the birth, the wax is the death, but the bronze is the resurrection." Sculptor John Brydon is working on a statue that he is sure will make his fortune. He becomes obsessed with it, working day and night, neglecting his wife Winifred and daughter Mara, but most of all himself. He develops oedema and can barely stand any longer but he insists to everyone that he Must Finish The Statue. Winifred tries to be understanding, but it's clear her husband only has eyes for his obsession. She lashes out at her rival, with disastrous consequences. At least Brydon assumes they're disastrous. He's not really too sure of anything since nicking that bottle of Barbituric acid from the doctor who came to look at his grotesquely swollen feet. Another grim portrait of obsession from Mr Onions, this time both suspenseful and sad. We know it can't end well, but the twist is nastier than expected.
The Woman in the Way: In 1665 a young boy claims to have seen the ghost of a young woman in a nearby field and Parson Ruddle is called in to investigate. The tale unfolds through a future narrator's comments on the parson's historical account of events. Nothing especially compelling about this one and I think I'd have enjoyed it more had it been set wholly in 1665. I didn't really see the need for the "retrospective" framework.
The Smile of Karen: Walther Blum is a strange man. He has painstakingly carved an exquisite and perfect statuette of his wife Karen. All except for the details of her face. Her smile, he says, drives him mad. Karen insists that he has killed her, that he cares more for her representation in wood than for her real and living self. Meanwhile, she takes her pleasure from Nicolo, with whom she is having an affair. Walther is determined to catch them. This is a peculiar little story with a brutal ending, but I'm not really sure what Onions was aiming at here.
Two Trifles - (I) The Ether-Hogs: The spirits of the Special Committee of Ethereal Traffic and Right of Way send a grouchy old Scottish ghost on an errand to haunt a young wireless operator who is desperately trying to hail a ship. (II) The Mortal: Ghost Sir Egbert the Dauntless vows to his beloved White Lady that he shall brave the terrors of the mortal realm and spend the night in a Human Chamber, though it may cost him his Nonexistence. Two fluffy but entertaining little pieces of flash fiction.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 4, 2010 14:52:28 GMT
The Master of the House: The Peckovers, a group of four siblings, hire a country house for the summer, with one caveat: Old Mr Laban and his Alsatian dog Jacomb must be left undisturbed in a secluded wing of the house. Mr Laban has a servant, a man called Binian, whom one of the brothers remembers meeting at the Kali temple of Dakta Lal in India where he "seemed to be talking to the Hindu gods on his way to the Hindu devils." None of the Peckovers has ever seen all three - Mr Laban, Binian and Jacomb - together. "I have an idea that somebody's trying to get past us with a little lycanthropy." I love werewolves, so I actually saved this one for last. It's fairly lighthearted and puppyish as such tales go, but still a lot of fun and an interesting take on the curse too. Tragic Casements: Eustace Corydon's garden is a lovely thing to behold. The greenhouse is especially beautiful, but one sees such strange things - and people - in the antique window glass. A fairly slight ghost story and not an ideal one to end the volume with, but the last handful are sort of the literary equivalent of DVD extras, so who can complain? Overall a very satisfying collection with some real treasures. I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
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