|
Post by Dr Strange on Jul 16, 2020 19:47:13 GMT
I never read a story from de la Mare. Are these classic ghost tales? Some are, some aren't. A:B:O (probably my favourite of his) is quite Jamesian, but others (like the oft-anthologized Seaton's Aunt) remind me of Aickman.
|
|
|
Post by Knygathin on Jul 17, 2020 3:31:10 GMT
I never read a story from de la Mare. Are these classic ghost tales? Some are, some aren't. A:B:O (probably my favourite of his) is quite Jamesian, but others (like the oft-anthologized Seaton's Aunt) remind me of Aickman. You took the words I couldn't put together right out of my mouth! I would also recommend the feverish "A:B:O:", although it is very untypical for de la Mare. His ghostliness is usually a lot more subtle. But then, I also recommended "The Travelling Grave" to andydecker, and it didn't work out too well, did it? Recommendations are precarious. Walter de la Mare, like L. P. Hartley, is upper class, and although I think Hartley is a really fine writer, de la Mare is of greater class.
|
|
|
Post by Knygathin on Jul 17, 2020 3:57:04 GMT
H. P. Lovecraft recommended "The Connoissieur" to lovers of the bizarre. Sadly he read a version that had omitted two chapters. It was only in The Collected Tales of Walter de la Mare (1950) that this fault was corrected, and later in Short Stories 1895 - 1926 (1996). I think "The Connoissieur" is one of his most interesting.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Jul 17, 2020 9:13:31 GMT
I would also recommend the feverish "A:B:O:", although it is very untypical for de la Mare. His ghostliness is usually a lot more subtle. But then, I also recommended "The Travelling Grave" to andydecker, and it didn't work out too well, did it? Recommendations are precarious. Walter de la Mare, like L. P. Hartley, is upper class, and although I think Hartley is a really fine writer, de la Mare is of greater class. Right, "The Traveling Grave" :-) No, that wasn't my cup of tea, even if it had more to do with plot-mechanics then with style. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the classics. As a young lad I deeply loved Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, but I never read it again because I feared it couldn't live up to those memories. With Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea it actually worked, but this is one of a kind. I tried to sample most of those writers, I have read Blackwood, Hope Hodgson and so on, often in translations first. James I discovered very late though, he was a typical example of a writer where you read critical essays and synopsis first or see the adaption. I fear the introductions by Karl Edward Wagner in his Year's Best Horror did educate me more as they should have; why sample the original for yourself when everything is spelled out.
In the case of de la Mare there was one translated collection which I don't have and a few scattered stories. He isn't exactly visible, and I never really understood - which of course is again only due to my myopic view - that he is a contemporary of Lovecraft, Hammett and Christie and not Doyle and Stoker.
|
|
|
Post by PeterC on Jul 17, 2020 10:56:30 GMT
I'm intrigued by 'The Connoisseur' as recommended above by Knygathin but disappointed to find it's not included in my Tartarus de la Mare collection 'Strangers and Pilgrims'.
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 17, 2020 12:45:29 GMT
I remember enjoying Richard E Grant's reading of the marvellous "All Hallows" first time round. Just the idea of a gigantic cathedral by the sea struck me as pretty weird, before anything even happens... "All Hollows" is the de la Mare story that impressed me the most, though I haven't read too many of his tales--"Seaton's Aunt," "Out of the Deep," and "A.B.O." are the only other ones I remember. I'm usually in the mood for something faster-paced and less elliptical. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the classics. As a young lad I deeply loved Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, but I never read it again because I feared it couldn't live up to those memories. With Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea it actually worked, but this is one of a kind. I loved Verne as a kid, too--especially Twenty Thousand Leagues and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I think I'd still enjoy both of those as an adult ( Twenty Thousand Leagues has a classic anti-hero in Nemo, and Journey has a fun premise), though I haven't put it to the test. Based on my memories of Mysterious Island, I doubt it holds up well; even at the time, I thought it dragged. I never could get into Around the World in Eighty Days.
|
|
|
Post by PeterC on Jul 17, 2020 13:38:17 GMT
'I'm usually in the mood for something faster-paced and less elliptical.'
That's a good point. It's a pity so many of his tales are untroubled by car chases or even the odd shoot-out. Some of them could be spiced up, I suppose: All Barrels, Out of the Jeep, Cheatin' Aunt.
Right, I'll get me coat.
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 17, 2020 14:04:28 GMT
Then again, sometimes I am in the mood for a story about a man who lies around in bed wondering whether to pull a bell rope.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Jul 17, 2020 17:45:29 GMT
Then again, sometimes I am in the mood for a story about a man who lies around in bed wondering whether to pull a bell rope. Well, we've all been there.
|
|
|
Post by Knygathin on Jul 19, 2020 8:26:13 GMT
In Walter de la Mare's finest writing, in the most subtle and unconventional tales, I am left with a delicious lingering mood, or atmosphere, of reality being more than materialistic, that it also has a supernatural dimension. The writing works like a tonic.
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Sept 17, 2022 11:12:35 GMT
I thought it would be worth telling any interested parties here that I had a new theory today about THE ALMOND TREE by Walter de la Mare.
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Sept 19, 2022 10:51:11 GMT
”It was now no more than a lozenge-shaped blur which you could, if you wished, turn either into a catafalque with mourning plumes complete, or into some bower of delight out of the ‘Faerie Queene’…” — Walter de la Mare, THE CARTOUCHE
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Oct 2, 2022 11:25:50 GMT
A MOTE by Walter de la Mare A great horror story about madness in an old man. Can relate to that!
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Oct 4, 2022 15:18:48 GMT
AN IDEAL CRAFTSMAN by Walter de la Mare Possibly the most terrifying of all stories! Has anyone else read it?
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Oct 21, 2022 15:52:23 GMT
Another long lost WDLM terror classic: A FROWARD CHILD. Search my site, if interested.
|
|