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Post by marillionboy on Jan 16, 2011 1:10:10 GMT
Just dipping into this anthology again and as well as the brilliant Soft Voices at Passenham, I adore The Clock by William F Harvey. It really is a stunningly tight tale and full of great detail. I can't recommend this highly enough. So simple, so understated, so effective. Anyone else know it?
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 16, 2011 1:32:02 GMT
Yes, I recently reread that in Gahan Wilson's Favorite Tales of Horror, and I agree completely. Wilson says, "I think that for sheer menace this is the most powerful story I have ever read." August Heat is brilliant too.
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Post by cw67q on Jan 16, 2011 10:28:44 GMT
Just dipping into this anthology again and as well as the brilliant Soft Voices at Passenham, I adore The Clock by William F Harvey. It really is a stunningly tight tale and full of great detail. I can't recommend this highly enough. So simple, so understated, so effective. Anyone else know it? I like the clock, but there are other tales by WF Harvey that I prefer, I didn't think this was the most obvious choice for the oxford book. Have you seen the recent Wordsworth (or Tartarus) collections of WF Harvey's stories? The Oxford BoEGS is a superb volume of ghost stories, my only disapointemtn is with the choices for Onions and Blackwood (especially the former) which I think don't show those authors at anywhere near their best. Ok most of the best work by these two is at longer length than might have fitted into the collection, but there for Blackwood there must be dozens of alternatives available. - Chris
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Post by monker on Jan 17, 2011 5:09:04 GMT
Just dipping into this anthology again and as well as the brilliant Soft Voices at Passenham, I adore The Clock by William F Harvey. It really is a stunningly tight tale and full of great detail. I can't recommend this highly enough. So simple, so understated, so effective. Anyone else know it? I like the clock, but there are other tales by WF Harvey that I prefer, I didn't think this was the most obvious choice for the oxford book. Have you seen the recent Wordsworth (or Tartarus) collections of WF Harvey's stories? The Oxford BoEGS is a superb volume of ghost stories, my only disapointemtn is with the choices for Onions and Blackwood (especially the former) which I think don't show those authors at anywhere near their best. Ok most of the best work by these two is at longer length than might have fitted into the collection, but there for Blackwood there must be dozens of alternatives available. - Chris It has Wakefields 'Old Man's Beard' in it, which is one I haven't read. Is it any good? I quite like 'The Clock' for it's strangeness but I don't know if Harvey's brief and relaxed style completely suits it, if it had a fraction more weight and dramatic emphasis it could have been a classic. I just shrug my shoulders at 'August Heat', though, which is more evidence that I'm not a fan of the 'short short' style of story.
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Post by marillionboy on Jan 17, 2011 5:22:59 GMT
[/quote]
I like the clock, but there are other tales by WF Harvey that I prefer, I didn't think this was the most obvious choice for the oxford book. Have you seen the recent Wordsworth (or Tartarus) collections of WF Harvey's stories?
[/quote]
No but will investigate, many thanks!
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Post by dem bones on Jan 17, 2011 11:45:51 GMT
Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert (eds.) – The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (Oxford University Press, 1986) Introduction – Michael Cox & R. A. Gilbert
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Squire Toby’s Will Mary Elizabeth Braddon – The Shadow in the Corner F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth Vernon Lee – A Wicked Voice Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House E. Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble Sir Arthur T. Quiller-Couch – The Roll-Call of the Reef Henry James – The Friends of the Friends H. G. Wells – The Red Room W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – The Lost Ghost M. R. James – “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” Algernon Blackwood – The Empty House Oliver Onions – The Cigarette Case Barry Pain – Rose Rose E. F. Benson – The Confession of Charles Linkworth Richard Middleton – On the Brighton Road E. G. Swain – Bone to His Bone Ingulphus (Arthur Gray ) – The True History of Anthony Ffryar W. Somerset Maugham – The Taipan May Sinclair – The Victim L. P. Hartley – A Visitor from Down Under John Buchan – Fullcircle William F. Harvey – The Clock H. Russell Wakefield – Old Man’s Beard Edith Wharton – Mr. Jones Ex-Private X (A. M. Burrage) – Smee Hugh Walpole – The Little Ghost A. E. Coppard – Ahoy, Sailor Boy! Thomas Burke – The Hollow Man Charles Williams – Et in Sempiternum Pereant L. T. C. Rolt – Bosworth Summit Pound A. N. L. Munby – An Encounter in the Mist Elizabeth Bowen – Hand in Glove V. S. Pritchett – A Story of Don Juan Christopher Woodforde – Cushi Walter de la Mare – Bad Company Simon Raven – The Bottle of 1912 Robert Aickman – The Cicerones T. H. White – Soft Voices at Passenham
Notes Select Bibliographyits a beauty, ain't it? monker, i recommend Old Man's Beard to you: it catches Wakefield on top form and you know how good that is.
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Post by monker on Jan 17, 2011 12:18:10 GMT
Thanks Dem, I have a strange way of choosing my reading material. I deliberately hunt down an anthology just for one, occasionally two, stories and usually find it is not even my favourite. I actually had this anthology at one stage, lent it to my father and never saw it again. His favourite saying these days when he sees one of my anthologies is "made up ones!" - said in a mix of disgust and disappointment.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 17, 2011 20:23:25 GMT
its a beauty, ain't it? monker, i recommend Old Man's Beard to you: it catches Wakefield on top form and you know how good that is. I wonder if a definition of a "classic" horror story is anything that's in OBoEGS, Great Tales of terror and the Supernatural, and The Dark Descent. Isn't that the beauty of the anthology - the ability to create a canon, as the highbrows say, of horror stories?
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Post by monker on Jan 17, 2011 23:40:04 GMT
its a beauty, ain't it? monker, i recommend Old Man's Beard to you: it catches Wakefield on top form and you know how good that is. I wonder if a definition of a "classic" horror story is anything that's in OBoEGS, Great Tales of terror and the Supernatural, and The Dark Descent. Isn't that the beauty of the anthology - the ability to create a canon, as the highbrows say, of horror stories? ...As you alluded to in the introduction to one of your anthologies... That's the way I look at it but everybody has a favourite so it may end up being effectively redundant to anyone but the individual. I suppose there are different motivations for different books, if I was an editor I'd wince every time I had to include something I considered less than perfect. In that way, I think it must be a thankless job.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 18, 2011 1:00:55 GMT
I suppose there are different motivations for different books, if I was an editor I'd wince every time I had to include something I considered less than perfect. In that way, I think it must be a thankless job. That's true - the purpose of some reprint anthologies is to make stories available that are otherwise locked up in hard-to-find and sometimes unobtainable magazines and books. These are the ones I like and try to emulate, eg Lamb, Dalby, Parry, Haining etc. The stories are not necessarily perfect - in fact they're often far from it - but they're interesting for various reasons. Other reprint anthologies are of the Greatest or Best-of type, which are a dime a dozen but only a few stand out, like OBoEGS, Fraser & Wise and Hartwell. Themed reprint anthologies can be fun, but for some reason don't interest me as much as the Lamb/Dalby sort - I guess it's the research and discovery aspect that appeals to me, including digging up info about forgotten authors - and Lamb and Dalby are masters at that.
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Post by monker on Jan 18, 2011 2:09:13 GMT
The series of books of rarities by Hugh Lamb ( Thrill of Horror, A Wave of Fear, etc) are my favourites. He manages to find obscurities without resorting to novelty like others do and unearths some (perhaps minor) 'classics' in the process. Finding gems amongst junk has always appealed to me. Anyway, maybe I just find Lamb's taste (no pun intended) in horror more to my liking or it's just the fact that he seems to have a distinct agenda. Some anthologists seem to spread themselves too thin, perhaps in an effort for sales. Speaking of gems amongst junk; I believe a project compiling a definitive 'best of' from the Not at Night, Creeps, etc series would be a landmark collection, unless there is less there than I anticipate.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 18, 2011 4:33:54 GMT
Speaking of gems amongst junk; I believe a project compiling a definitive 'best of' from the Not at Night, Creeps, etc series would be a landmark collection, unless there is less there than I anticipate. You probably know that there were omnibus volumes of both series, though now they're pretty hard to find and quite expensive, though the Creeps omnibus is more common - there's one going locally for $7.50 but I already have it.
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Post by monker on Jan 18, 2011 5:29:06 GMT
Yeah, I have the Creeps omnibus, but I must admit, I'm not aware of just how many they made of each series. It just seems that the highlights are competently written and imaginative and it seems a pity that the individual stories are overshadowed by this 'arch' reputation the brand had. Some on here probably enjoy that fact and take the scarcity of much of the material in their stride but I'm a precious little sod. I must admit I know b-all about it but the stories original to the series often seemed to have a unique 'flavour' all to their own.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 18, 2011 5:53:52 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Jan 18, 2011 6:21:59 GMT
Speaking of gems amongst junk; I believe a project compiling a definitive 'best of' from the Not at Night, Creeps, etc series would be a landmark collection, unless there is less there than I anticipate. Yeah, I have the Creeps omnibus, but I must admit, I'm not aware of just how many they made of each series. It just seems that the highlights are competently written and imaginative and it seems a pity that the individual stories are overshadowed by this 'arch' reputation the brand had. Some on here probably enjoy that fact and take the scarcity of much of the material in their stride but I'm a precious little sod. I must admit I know b-all about it but the stories original to the series often seemed to have a unique 'flavour' all to their own. Here's an index to the Creeps series, 162 stories over 12 volumes (thirteen if you include the Omnibus which is really the first three books - Creeps, Shivers and Shudders- lumped together). we've sections devoted entirely to both the Creeps and the Not At Nights although its fair to say few of the threads have seen much action. i've still not given up on persuading Derek at Wordsworth that what the world needs now is a best of Not At Night/ Creeps Omnibus to celebrate two pioneering British Horror anthologists. The main snag is the usual - a copywriters minefield as so few of the later Creeps contributors seem to have had any kind of track record outside of the series. The fact that so many of them appear to have been uh, "gifted amateurs" brings something special to the books.
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