Weird Tales by Women Writers

[helrunar]

James, the cover and the interior drawing are both exquisite.  Masterpieces of atmosphere, color, mood.

Thanks for sharing, again!

cheers, H.

[Swampirella]

Nov 26, 2016 21:42:03 GMT dem said:

Nov 26, 2016 21:01:34 GMT Swampirella said:

About to read "God Grant That She Lye Still" (C. Asquith) online, since I can't bring myself to buy her rare and therefore expensive Mortal Coil". That's a book that seems to cry out for re-issue in some format. Here's the link in case anybody else wants to read it.....

talesofmytery.blogspot.ca/2013/10/cynthia-asquith-god-grant-that-she-lye.html

Cynthia Asquith - What Dreams May Come (NEL Four Square 1965)

The Lovely Voice
The White Moth
The Follower
The Playfellow
The Corner Shop
The First Night
From What Beginnings?
In A Nutshell
God Grant That She Lye Stille

This might be a cheaper alternative. Far as I'm aware, the one difference between this and the Arkham House edition is that From What Beginnings? replaces The Nurse Never Told (for all I know, they may be the same story under different title?)

My copy just arrived; am looking forward to starting it in a few minutes!

[dem]

Frank Kelly Freas

Three from Weird Tales, Summer 1990. Particularly liked #20, not so fond of Snickerdoodles. Rock My Soul turned nasty in a way I wasn't expecting.

Nancy Springer - #20: In a claustrophobic community like Pleasantville, malicious gossip is a deadlier voodoo than any hex, and evil-tongued Mrs Life takes full advantage. When Life's relentless campaign versus the latest perceived enemy, school-teacher Nicholas Quickel, drives the poor man to suicide, young Veronica Hoffman bravely confronts the "witch," effectively nominating herself for next victim.

Nancy Springer - Rock My Soul: Dumped on the eve of the Prom, Michelle calls the local radio station requesting a hate dedication to Robbie Diehl. The host, known only as The Soul (as in "of Rock & Roll"), not only obliges, but volunteers his services as her date for the evening. Michelle thinks he's taking the piss until the immaculate '58 convertible pulls up outside her folks' place and a John Bon Jovi lookalike whisks her off to the ball. The Soul is a composite of every rock star who lived fast, died young, and it feeds off blind adulation. There's a high price to be paid for dancing with this devil, but Michelle is prepared to meet it, and it's poor wronged Robbie who comes off worst.

Nancy Springer - Snickerdoodles: When the Jock's bullying gets too much, Blake Bloodsworth, "fat geek" outsider in a tough steel mill town, takes Mom Enola's Grimoire to school and sets to righting wrongs. Come the end of the day, even the Principal, Mr. Lipschitz, is terrified of him. Mom is so proud, she arranges for Blake to marry his quadruple-breasted fantasy girl.

[cauldronbrewer]

Aug 25, 2012 11:10:49 GMT andydecker said:

Aug 24, 2012 13:22:00 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

I recommend Holt's THE LEGEND OF THE SEVENTH VIRGIN, a truly subversive work.

SEVENTH VIRGIN is a great novel, more layered than you typical gothic. Would have made a terrific movie, now that I think of it.

I'm reading a horror novel by Cherie Priest, The Family Plot, that includes a scene where two characters discover a book in a haunted house:

He picked up something from the nightstand, and answered her with a question. "How long has Victoria Holt been writing books?"

"Um ... I don't know. I think she died back in the nineties."

"You ever read this stuff? Ladies in fluffy dresses ... I bet there's romance in here."

She took the paperback away from him. It was covered in dust so thick, she had to wipe it away to read the title. "The Legend of the Seventh Virgin," she announced. "I've read some of these. I was a teenage girl once, and gothic romances are kind of awesome, so you can shut right up."

Anyway, I finally ordered myself a copy of The Legend of the Seventh Virgin. I have high expectations!



 

[Jojo Lapin X]

Nov 22, 2019 13:51:25 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Anyway, I finally ordered myself a copy of The Legend of the Seventh Virgin. I have high expectations!

I am excited! I cannot wait to hear what you think of it!

[andydecker]

I read this ages ago in a translation and remember it being very well written.
But it was more of a mainstream novel than a classic Gothic. But this didn't matter, at least to me.

[cauldronbrewer]

Nov 22, 2019 14:11:07 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

Nov 22, 2019 13:51:25 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Anyway, I finally ordered myself a copy of The Legend of the Seventh Virgin. I have high expectations!

I am excited! I cannot wait to hear what you think of it!

The Legend of the Seventh Virgin has a solid first chapter, with compelling characters--particularly the ambitious Kerensa and her witchy grandmother--and lots of Cornish atmosphere. The walled-up nun in the old convent and the menhirs that seem to entice our heroine are welcome touches (I'm not counting on any true supernatural happenings, but maybe these standing stones are out to get someone!). There's also more moral complexity than I would've expected.

More to follow...

[Jojo Lapin X]

Nov 28, 2019 16:03:07 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

There's also more moral complexity than I would've expected.

Oh, there will be more of that. This is not your standard "gothic romance."

[andydecker]

Kerensa is a memorable character.

[andydecker]

Here is the German edition from 1969.

"Die siebente Jungfrau" - The Legend of the seventh Virgin"

Heyne Romantic Thriller was a long running paperback imprint from 1966 till the end of the 80s. The range of their Gothics was pretty broad quality wise, from Virginia Coffman, who started the imprint with "Castle Barra" or Dan Ross to better writers like to Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden or Barbara Mertz aka Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. They had also some of the wacky Gothics like the Satanic Gothics of Sondra Shulman. All sold as "Romantic-Thriller".




At first all translations, some of the longer novels were abridged, but not much compared to the Gothic Heftroman in their weekly editions. This edition was a lot of fun and is absolutly forgotten today.

The blurbs were often pretty well done. The novels in  sequence:

Castle Barra - The Law had acquited her - a mysterious enemy sentenced her to death

The Bird in the Chimney - Danger lurked behind the walls of the old castle

The Jackal's Head - Caught in the crypt of doom she waited for her killer

[cauldronbrewer]

Nov 29, 2019 11:47:16 GMT andydecker said:

Here is the German edition from 1969.

"Die siebente Jungfrau" - The Legend of the Seventh Virgin"

That's a fine cover, though I'm surprised the artist passed up the chance to depict the standings stones.

I'm at the halfway point, and Kerensa is still a fascinating character--crafty and self-centered (by her own admission), but also sympathetic. The other characters are all types so far (the Nice Girl, the Good Guy, the Aloof Heir, the Troubled Young Woman, the Cad, and so on), but they're vividly drawn. No ghosts yet, though the story does include a cursed bride, talk of the Little People, and ominous dreams of Kerensa being entombed alive.

If The Legend of the Seventh Virgin were a conventional romance, I would have some reasonably confident guesses about the ending, but the commentary in this thread has me second-guessing my hunches.

[cauldronbrewer]

Thanks to Jojo and Andy for recommending The Legend of the Seventh Virgin, which made for an entertaining read despite the absence of a real ghost to haunt the standing stones or real little people to carry children away into the tin mine. Judging from the online reviews I've read, some readers find Kerensa "unlikable," but I rooted for Victoria Holt's conniving, social-climbing anti-heroine to the end.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Dec 9, 2019 21:26:58 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Thanks to Jojo and Andy for recommending The Legend of the Seventh Virgin, which made for an entertaining read despite the absence of a real ghost to haunt the standing stones or real little people to carry children away into the tin mine. Judging from the online reviews I've read, some readers find Kerensa "unlikable," but I rooted for Victoria Holt's conniving, social-climbing anti-heroine to the end.

This is a great relief.

[Dr Strange]

Forthcoming (June 2020) in the British Library "Tales of the Weird" series is Queens Of The Abyss: Lost Stories From The Women Of The Weird, ed. Mike Ashley. No contents list yet, but here is the blurb -

It is too often accepted that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the male writers who developed and pushed the boundaries of the weird tale, with women writers following in their wake - but this is far from the truth. This new anthology follows the instrumental contributions made by women writers to the weird tale, and revives the lost authors of the early pulp magazines along with the often overlooked work of more familiar authors.

See the darker side of The Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett and the sensitively-drawn nightmares of Marie Corelli and Violet Quirk. Hear the captivating voices of Weird Tales magazine contributors Sophie Wenzel Ellis, Greye La Spina and Margaret St Clair, and bow down to the sensational, surreal and challenging writers who broke down the barriers of the day. Featuring material never before republished, from the abyssal depths of the British Library vaults.


Also due August 2020 is Into The Darkening Fog: Eerie Tales Of The London Weird, ed. Elizabeth Dearnley -

As the fog thickens and the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge from all over the city. A jilted lover returns as a demon to fulfil his revenge in Kensington, and a seance becomes a life and death struggle off Regents Canal. In the borough of Lambeth, stay clear of the Old House in Vauxhall Walk and be careful up in Temple - there's something not right about the doleful, droning hum of the telegram wires overhead...

Join Elizabeth Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through the Big Smoke, a city which has long fuelled the imagination of writers of the weird and supernormal. Waiting in the shadowy streets are tales from writers such as Charlotte Riddell, Lettie Galbraith and Violet Hunt, who delight in twisting the urban myths and folk stories of the city into pieces of masterful suspense and intrigue. This collection will feature a map motif and notes before each story, giving readers the real-world context for these hauntings and encounters, and allowing the modern reader to seek out the sites themselves - should they dare...

[cauldronbrewer]

Jan 13, 2020 10:28:02 GMT Dr Strange said:

Forthcoming (June 2020) in the British Library "Tales of the Weird" series is Queens Of The Abyss: Lost Stories From The Women Of The Weird, ed. Mike Ashley. No contents list yet, but here is the blurb -

It is too often accepted that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the male writers who developed and pushed the boundaries of the weird tale, with women writers following in their wake - but this is far from the truth. This new anthology follows the instrumental contributions made by women writers to the weird tale, and revives the lost authors of the early pulp magazines along with the often overlooked work of more familiar authors.

See the darker side of The Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett and the sensitively-drawn nightmares of Marie Corelli and Violet Quirk. Hear the captivating voices of Weird Tales magazine contributors Sophie Wenzel Ellis, Greye La Spina and Margaret St Clair, and bow down to the sensational, surreal and challenging writers who broke down the barriers of the day. Featuring material never before republished, from the abyssal depths of the British Library vaults.

This sounds like my sort of anthology! I'm curious to see what stories by Ellis, La Spina, and St. Clair are included--all three writers feature prominently in this thread.

A few years back I read Marie Corelli's Ziska, but I can't say I remember much about it. From what I gather, she was highly popular in her day but is now almost completely forgotten.