The Polish Poe

[Steve]

Much(ish) talk of Edogawa Rampo of late puts me in mind of Stefan Grabiñski, "the Polish Poe" - seems these pesky Poes get everywhere. Anybody have any thoughts on Grabiñski they'd like to share while I'm trying to string a few sentences together concerning his Dark Domain collection? Read it recently back to back with Arabella Randolphe's Gothic masterpiece, The Vampire Tapes - from the sublime to the frankly hilarious and compelling evidence, were any needed, of just what a broad church this horror lark really is. Ah, there's no business like it...

[Dr Strange]

It's been a while since I read Grabinski, but I never really got the "Poe" comparison - I think he's much closer in style to Guy de Maupassant. I'm not really a fan of Poe, and his stuff strikes me as being from a much earlier time (which it is), whereas Grabinski (and Maupassant) feel much more "modern". Obviously, all that is rather complicated by the fact that I am reading both of the latter authors in modern translations...

[jamesdoig]

I thinked he's great - completely warped and obsessive. I reckon his best stories aren't the train ones, but the bizarre erotic stories - eg in The Dark Domain,"Fumes" and "Szamota's Mistress," and "Burning Wedding" or however you'd translate it (Plomienne Gody). Fire was another obsession and turns up a lot in his work like "Red Magda" and "Vengeance of the Elementals". Interestingly, a '50s study of Grabinski in Polish lists some unpublished manuscripts in the possession of someone named Ryszard Janiak, including a 30 page story called "Diary of the resident of cell no. 5."

[Steve]

I think it's the obsessive nature of his writing that's earned him the Poe tag rather than anything to do with his writing style as such, which I'd agree comes across as resolutely modern - particularly when compared to Poe's florid, classical stylings.

"I reckon his best stories aren't the train ones, but the bizarre erotic stories - "Burning Wedding" or however you'd translate it (Plomienne Gody)"

Well, I'd translate 'płomienne' as flaming or fiery. 'Gody', I think, could be translated in one sense as wedding - or maybe pairing? - but as far as I know is mostly used these days in relation to wedding anniversaries. I see someone has translated it as "Nuptial Flames", which seems suitably suggestive.
I married a Pole once and that was certainly fiery - and not always in a good way. But that's more than enough about my first flaming marriage...

Ryszard Janiak, asuming it's the same Ryszard Janiak, is a collector of contemporary art and so forth. It's a shame that Grabiñski's published work isn't more widely available, let alone the unpublished stuff.

[marksamuels]

Sept 15, 2010 9:09:59 GMT jamesdoig said:

Interestingly, a '50s study of Grabinski in Polish lists some unpublished manuscripts in the possession of someone named Ryszard Janiak, including a 30 page story called "Diary of the resident of cell no. 5."

Wow. I would so love to know more about this; it conjures up all sorts of macabre prospects in my imagination. I'm a huge Grabinski fan. Over on the Ligotti board there was a quite long Grabinski thread, including a bibliography (on pg4). Here's the link for those interested.

www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1064

Mark S.

[David A. Riley]

Thanks for that link, Mark. I'll go take a look.

I've heard quite a bit about Grabinski recently but I've never read any of his stuff - not to my knowledge anyway.

David

[jamesdoig]

That's the book where the info comes from - section IV lists unpublished manuscripts and Pamietnik mieszkanca celi nr 5 (without having the missus around to correct my crap Polish) is "Dairy of the resident of cell no 5". Would be nice to know where the manuscripts are now and if they were ever published.

"Nuptial Flames" certainly sounds better than "Flaming Wedding"! or perhaps Wedding Flames - from memory the guy gets his rocks off watching fires and on his wedding night makes sure there are a few blazes going...

[Mirek]

"Nuptial Flames" has just been published in the mammoth FUNGI #21.  Anyone interested in Grabinski should check out this Grabinski website.

[helrunar]

This is an informative thread about Grabinski. I'd never heard of him.

H.