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Post by dem on Mar 23, 2014 9:24:27 GMT
"John Flanders" was a pseudonym for Jean Ray. Sadly, I didn't find this one as memorable as some of his other stories. Agreed, he wrote stronger stories (or maybe he was better served by other translators), but Nude With A Dagger strikes me as very Weird Tales and absolutely ideal for this refreshingly warts and all collection. Ray (as 'John Flanders') contributed three more stories to the unique mag., at least two of which (in different translations) return for Ghouls In My Grave |
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Post by mattofthespurs on Apr 14, 2014 16:40:50 GMT
Thanks to this thread I picked up a copy of this book (different cover mind. Hardback with a cats eye reflecting a cat all in blue).
I have three others, which I presume are, from this series;
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, and
100 Ghastly little Ghost stories.
Does anyone know of any other titles in this series?
Cheers!
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Post by dem on Apr 14, 2014 16:54:44 GMT
Thanks to this thread I picked up a copy of this book (different cover mind. Hardback with a cats eye reflecting a cat all in blue). I have three others, which I presume are, from this series; 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, and 100 Ghastly little Ghost stories. Does anyone know of any other titles in this series? Cheers! There are quite a few, Matt - try this Locus listing for more details. |
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Post by mrhappy on Apr 14, 2014 17:23:17 GMT
Thanks to this thread I picked up a copy of this book (different cover mind. Hardback with a cats eye reflecting a cat all in blue). I have three others, which I presume are, from this series; 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, and 100 Ghastly little Ghost stories. Does anyone know of any other titles in this series? Cheers! There are quite a few, Matt - try this Locus listing for more details. I would also throw 100 Menacing Little Murder stories in here even though Locus considers is non-genre. However, with a line up consisting of, among others, H.R. Wakefield, Hugh B. Cave, Ed Gorman, Donald Wandrei, Joe R. Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, David Schow and Norman Partridge...well, it is close enough for me. :-) Mr. Happy |
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Post by dem on Apr 15, 2014 8:32:00 GMT
A little previous to include this as a personal 'best of year' read when I've still half the content to go, but 100 Wild Little Weird Tales is a collection to take at your own pace, there really is no need to go crashing through it. Another big plus; even the, perhaps, "less accomplished" stories, of which there are more than one, are memorably rubbish.  Lee Coye: ( May 1937). Endearing Invisible man capers as the brilliant chemist, Dr. Anton Slezak, finally achieves his life's ambition and vanishes into thin air. Time to spring a surprise on his amorous young trophy wife, Zora, and nephew, Robin. Goodness, but that boy is growing up quick, and such a handsome specimen! Such a shame that he and Zora have never hit it off.... Fritz Leiber - Alice and the Allergy: ( Sept. 1946). Oh good, another nasty one. Our timid heroine narrowly escaped the clutches of a homicidal rapist, but even though her assailant is dead, the mental scars are having a devastating effect on her marriage to Dr. Howard. Can he convince her that the perceived menace exists only in her fragile mind? G. G. Pendarves - The Black Monk : (Oct. 1938). An arrogant journalist sneers at the legend of the Black Monk of Chaard Island said to have diligently stood guard over a pirate's treasure trove for centuries. Against the advice of the Abbot, our man investigates the further reaches of the island after nightfall .... H. Warner Munn - The Chain: (April 1928). The unnamed victim wakes to find himself in the rat-infested oubliette of Rutzau Castle. The man who stands atop the pit is his cousin, Franz. Evidently Franz has found out just who caused the 'accident' that left him a cripple, and the culprit has even been sleeping with his fair wife, Olga! Franz lowers a chain, and beckons his captive to climb. Torture! Torture! It pleasures me! |
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Post by mattofthespurs on Apr 15, 2014 17:31:07 GMT
Thanks for the list Dem and Mr Happy. I look forward to tracking more down of this great series.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 15, 2014 18:10:20 GMT
Thanks to this thread I picked up a copy of this book (different cover mind. Hardback with a cats eye reflecting a cat all in blue). I have three others, which I presume are, from this series; 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, and 100 Ghastly little Ghost stories. Does anyone know of any other titles in this series? Cheers! Of the ones that you don't already have, I recommend reading 100 Tiny Tales of Terror, 100 Twisted Little Tales of Torment, and 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares first. They're similar to the three you've listed in terms of selection, with a wide variety of styles and years. I didn't like 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories or 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories quite as much. They mostly include original stories rather than reprints, and the narrower themes make for repetitive reading after a while. My favorite in the series is still 100 Wild Little Weird Tales, because I'm a WT fanatic and I enjoy even the rubbish tales. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 15, 2014 18:18:14 GMT
100 Fiendish Little Frightmares What exactly is a "frightmare"? How is it different from a standard nightmare? |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 15, 2014 18:19:55 GMT
What exactly is a "frightmare"? How is it different from a standard nightmare? All I can tell you is that it's 100% more alliterative. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 15, 2014 18:35:43 GMT
What exactly is a "frightmare"? How is it different from a standard nightmare? All I can tell you is that it's 100% more alliterative. Sure, if you are somehow contractually obliged to use the adjective "fiendish." If not, you could use, say, "nasty" and "nightmare" instead. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 15, 2014 18:55:51 GMT
Sure, if you are somehow contractually obliged to use the adjective "fiendish." If not, you could use, say, "nasty" and "nightmare" instead. True. Incidentally, the same editors also published another Barnes & Noble anthology (awkwardly) titled To Sleep, Perchance to Dream ... Nightmare. Unlike 100FLF, it's actually a theme anthology of stories having to do with dreams or nightmares. |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 15, 2014 21:02:50 GMT
Dem, your review of the George Fielding Eliot stories has finally inspired me to track down a copy of this, although I'll admit any volume containing a tale with the title NUDE WITH A DAGGER just has to be in my library irrespective of its quality.
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Post by dem on Apr 16, 2014 14:01:28 GMT
Dem, your review of the George Fielding Eliot stories has finally inspired me to track down a copy of this, although I'll admit any volume containing a tale with the title NUDE WITH A DAGGER just has to be in my library irrespective of its quality. lovely to hear from you, y'lordship! Will stick my neck out and predict that much of 100 Wild Little Weird Tales will delighted you. Florence Crow - The Nightmare Road: (March 1934). Old man Draper's somewhat melodramatic account of how he came by that fetching white streak in his jet black hair, makes him look like he's wearing a skunk on his head. Halloween is not the time for a traveller to go off gallivanting in the vampire-haunted Hartz Mountains after dark .... Leslie Gordon Barnard - The Man in the Taxi: (Nov. 1937). Following a furious bust-up with his business partner, Mr. Enderby storms off into tthe fog. Approaching a stranger, he inexplicably lashes out at the man with his can, striking him stone dead. Unwittingly he has committed the perfect murder, but is guilt is such that he is forever on the verge of confessing to anyone who will listen. And then, taking a taxi across town, he suddenly realises there is a second passenger alongside him .... Manly Wade Wellman - Parthenope: (Sept. 1953). When his fishing boat perishes on the rocks, young George Colby is dragged ashore by a woman so beautiful she might have stepped from the pages of Greek mythology .... J. M. Fry - The Ring: (Jan. 1932). It was stolen from the sarcophagus of Ramises II during Arvid Hedon's archaeological dig on the lower Nile, and has since destroyed all who've worn it. Impressive body count, neat deaths, piss-poor ending. |
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Post by dem on Apr 17, 2014 7:05:44 GMT
Maurice Level - The Cripple: (Feb. 1933). Trache was maimed in an industrial accident and seeks compensation from his negligent employee. Farmer Gulot disputes the extent of Trache's disabilities, claiming that he has exaggerated them out of all proportion to fleece him. When Francious the nurse falls in the river, Trache is the only person on hand to save her. How dreadful that he is such a helpless cripple! M. Level's miserable Night And Silence, also included in the collection, is likewise supremely unpleasant.
H. Sivia - The Last of Mrs. Debrugh: (Oct. 1937). Letty the maid has given the Debrugh family fifteen years loyal service, although often it has been an awful struggle. Hector Debrugh is a kindly old duffer, but his wife is a sharp-tongued tartar who nags him to a fatal heart attack. Mere hours before his demise, Mr. Debrugh promised Letty that she would be well provided for once he and his wife are no more. True to form, with Hector safely tucked away in his grave, his widow gleefully dispenses with Letty's services, leaving her destitute. The dead man takes a very dim view of this development.
G. Appleby Terrill - The Church Stove at Raebrudafisk: (Feb. 1927). Czergova, 1913. Sixteen year old Djira, the village belle, is waylaid by oily dastard, Orl Surl. When Djira rejects his passionate advances he slits her throat and leaves her for the wolves to dispose of. Unbeknown to him, a small boy witnessed the crime. The men-folk eventually capture Surl, tying him to a stout pipe in the church while they inform the police. Enter Djira's father, a blind man, whose job it is to fire the stove ...
Lester del Rey - Cross of Fire: (May 1939). Karl Harhoffer falls for the woman known to the villagers as 'the night lady.' Evil things are whispered and even his Priest turns against him when Karl insists on seeing her. Only his friends, Flamchen and Fritz, stick by him, and eventually pay for their misguided loyalty, joining him in undeath. It is left to Karl to terminate a vampire reign of terror!
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Post by dem on Apr 23, 2014 1:37:12 GMT
 Hugh Rankin: (Dec. 1930). The suger factory at Como burned down in suspicious circumstances, killing half the town's population. Those who did not perish in the flames have since abandoned the town on account of the strangest goings on after dark. The one exception is a crazy old-timer, John Barry, the former nightwatchman, dismissed from his post shortly before the inferno. The charred, dismembered dead have a score to settle ... Elwood F. Pierce - The Dream of Death: (July 1925). Professor Anderson Brenton, the controversial psychotherapist, conducts an extracurricular experiment in thought control using retarded Gus Acre as raw material. His success is such that their minds merge until it is difficult to work out who is manipulating who. Brenton is uneasy. He suffers a vivid nightmare in which Acre butchers him in his bed. Gormless Gus creeps upstairs .... Andrew Daw - A Dream of Death: (Feb. 1936). Raymond's parents were murdered in cold blood when he was just three years old. The killer wasn't all bad - at least he saved the child from the flames. Now, after all these years, Raymond knows who to thank for it all. Paul Ernst - Escape: (July 1938). When Gannet the mad maths master is committed to a mental institution, his first thought is too escape. As he confides in Freer, a visiting journalist, "I can't take life is it is lived today," which must be among the most common complaints down the centuries. To this effect, Gannet designs an elaborate apparatus visible only to himself. Edgar Daniel Kramer - Murder Mask : (June 1937). It is the night of the masqued ball. Nita is looking beautiful as ever in a shepherdess costume, Colleti has arrived as the Grim Reaper, while Antonio conceals his identity behind the crimson mask gifted him by his once love-rival as a token of their friendship. Of course, Colletti failed to mention that the wearer is doomed to slay the one he loves best! Edmond Hamilton -The Seeds from Outside: (March 1937). A meteor lands in the garden of Standifer, a reclusive artist. Embedded in the rock, a metallic capsule containing two brown seeds which he duly nurtures. Plant-man and plant-woman thrive, fast growing to human size. The plant-woman is the most beautiful creature Standifer has ever seen, and he loves her with all his heart and soul! How tragic that her male counterpart is of a murderously possessive disposition ... |
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