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Post by dem on Oct 16, 2017 19:55:05 GMT
A.M. Burrage - Warning Whispers (Equation, 1989) Selected and Introduced by Jack Adrian. The Acquittal
Crookback
For The Local Rag
The Case Of Thissler And Baxter
The Ticking Of The Clock
The Imperturbable Tucker
The Fourth Wall
Warning Whispers
The Little Blue Flames
The Green Bungalow
The Boy With Red Hair
For One Night Only
The Mystery Of The Sealed Garret
The Recurring Tragedy
The Attic
The Garden Of Fancy
Father Of The Man.
Bibliography and Acknowledgements.Blurb: "Always the images — the effects — Burrage works at are disturbing. Some are truly hair-raising ... An obsession with a figure seen in a moonlit garden ... The careless waving of a scarf from the upper window of an old house ... a child's footprints in the snow . . .'
- from the Introduction
Alfred McLelland Burrage is one of the neglected masters of short supernatural fiction in the classic English tradition. Praised by such expert judges as M. R. James and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the author of two of the most anthologized ghost stories of the past half century (`Smee' and 'The Sweeper'), Burrage's considerable output is now largely forgotten and unappreciated, even amongst habitual readers of weird fiction.
This collection aims to put Burrage back where he belongs — at the forefront of the ghost story tradition in English. Jack Adrian presents 17 new tales, none of which appear in Burrage's Some Ghost Stories (1927), Someone in the Room (1931), or the posthumous Between the Minute and the Hour (1967).
These new stories span the period 1912 to 1930 and show both the range of Burrage's invention — from the genuinely horrific to the genuinely comic — and his accomplishments as a storyteller, making this a major publishing event for all ghost fiction enthusiasts.First read this collection shortly after it was published and admit to being disappointed. Think the problem was, I expected every story to be grim as One Who Saw and - they're not. Will Warning Whispers hit the spot the second time around? It gets off to a promising start with the dark and proper creepy The Acquittal: ( The Premier Magazine, June 1926). When Frenchal is found not guilty of poisoning wife Mary due to a lack of evidence, popular opinion has it that he is the undeserving beneficiary of a gross miscarriage of justice. In this instance popular opinion is spot on. Twenty years of marriage to a woman who waited on him hand and foot bored Frenchal to distraction. Once glam widow Edith Longley entered his life, it was only a matter of time before he reunited Mary with her accursed maker. And now - free at last! Sadly for him, his dead wife has other ideas. Better that Frenchal had swung for his crime than to survive for Mary to kill him with kindness. Crookback: ( The Blue Magazine, April 1926). Uncle Wilbur was always insistent that a certain room in his ample country house remain out of bounds to all comers. On Wilbur's death, young Dicky Tremlett inherits and moves in with his sister. Muriel Tremlett insists on hiring a locksmith to force open this "Bluebeard's chamber" and is suitably disappointed that the room should look so perfectly normal. The Tremletts invite mutual friend Arthur Brinkler to stay the weekend. Arthur is a pleasant fellow, but there is a flaw in his kindly make up. He has a loathing for those poor souls cursed with physical deformity. "I could be hellishly cruel. I could be a devil to anything mis-shapen. I lie awake at night imagining my fingers around the throat of a cringing hunchback." Muriel, who has a pash for their guest, consigns him to what she jokingly refers to as "the haunted room" .... For The Local Rag: ( The London Magazine, Jan. 1930). Charles Dorby's annual Christmas morality tales are too sickly even for The Foxbridge Independent's undemanding readership, so this year editor Marvell tasks him with writing a ghost story. Dorby is appalled. It is all too demeaning for a serious writer. Why can't that wet behind the ears nincompoop Monkland do it? If only he'd not fallen out with fellow misunderstood genius Rennick - a man who reads Henry James out of choice - he could pick the man's brains for a suitably stupid so-called 'supernatural' legend to adapt. Surely the season dictates they patch up their differences? Dorby only hopes he's not left it too late. The Case Of Thissler And Baxter: ( 20-Story Magazine, Oct. 1924). Each night Thissler has the most vivid dreams in which he lives the mundane day to day life of Baxter, an aged Alderman and twice mayor of Thirlbury. A railway trip to Warwickshire confirms that such a man exists, though his health is none too robust ...
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 16, 2017 22:17:08 GMT
Just re-read this last week; the title story was my favorite by a long shot. "The Acquittal" was also good. My digital version includes a bonus story, " I'm Sure It Was 31", which is more wistful than scary, as I found most stories in this collection.
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Post by dem on Oct 17, 2017 15:53:08 GMT
Just re-read this last week; the title story was my favorite by a long shot. "The Acquittal" was also good. My digital version includes a bonus story, " I'm Sure It Was 31", which is more wistful than scary, as I found most stories in this collection. Wasn't much impressed with I'm Sure It Was 31 either ( Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories). Most taken with the title story (a melodrama in the tradition of The Murder In The Red Barn: "Marry you! You, a village slut with a kiss for every Tom, Dick, and Harry! Marry you!" mwah-ha-ha!), The Acquittal and Crookback, even if the latter lets us off the hook with a cheery ending. The Recurring Tragedy is bleak enough, though I prefer E. F. Benson's treatment of The Wandering Jew theme in The Outcast. The Recurring Tragedy: ( Lloyds Magazine, Oct. 1920). General Sir Thomas Shiel is a despicable glory seeker whose lust for public acclaim ultimately costs the lives of an entire regiment at the Somme. "National hero" he may be, but even Parliament can't turn a blind eye to this latest catastrophe and the Iron General is quieted invalided from service with "shell shock." A broken man, Shiel eventually confides in nerve specialist Dr. Standring that he is living a nightmare. He firmly believes himself the latest reincarnation of Judas Iscariot. Warning Whispers: ( Grand Magazine, Nov. 1922). Wanderers Beach and Dolby, arrested for the murder of a village girl, are sentenced to death on the evidence of eight-year-old John Hoskins. So impressed is Squire Pollard with the boy's coolness in court that he pays for the Hoskins boy to receive the best education. With his wife dead and no children of his own, Pollard regards John as his son and heir. On his return from Cambridge, Hoskins moves in at the manor house. For lack of anything better to do, he secretly takes up with childhood friend, Anne Peters, now all grown up and locally famous as the village trollop. Tumbledown Cottage, scene of the infamous murder, is an ideal passion pit as the yokels avoid it for fear of ghosts. Word of their "romance" reaches the ailing Squire, who curtly informs John that, should he continue along this path, he will disinherit him. John vows to be rid of Anne, but she has other ideas, as do the ghosts of the wretched Beach and Dolby. The Imperturbable Tucker: ( Passing Show Xmas Number, Nov. 1924). Carol singers sheepishly call at a haunted house. Having bayed himself hoarse to no avail, Tucker, determined to secure a donation toward the Church warming fund, pushes open the door and walks in on the ghost of Devloe the miser .... |
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Post by ripper on Oct 31, 2017 13:35:14 GMT
The first time I read 'I'm sure it was No. 31' I was disappointed as I was hoping for another 'Smee' or 'The Waxwork' but I have to say that it has grown on me down the years. Scary it ain't, but I do like the feeling of loss that the tale builds up.I shall be interested to see what Dem makes of the stories in Warning Whispers. I have been meaning to get a digital copy but not gotten round to it as yet.
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Post by ripper on Jun 13, 2018 11:18:38 GMT
I've still not gotten round to obtaining a copy of Warning Whispers, but thought I would give Someone in the Room another go. There is a lot of wistfulness in what I have read so far, with scares being rather few as yet. It's been so long since I first read the book that I can hardly remember anything about it, so each tale is now almost new to me.
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Post by dem on May 10, 2021 8:23:20 GMT
More Burrage; this an original contribution to the third volume of Dorothy L. Sayers' Detection, Mystery & Horror (1934). Please note, it is not included in Warning Whispers. The Bargain: Walton purchases a job lot at auction. Foremost among the many treasures, a roll of carpet, several books ( Half Hours Among the Cannibals, by 'A Missionary,' Mother Gruesome's Cook Book, & Co.), and a philatelist's scrap-book containing a particularly striking Ceylonese stamp. it is haunted by the ghost of a vile old man in monk attire. Not entirely sure why, as it's not the least violent, but story put me very much in mind of Robert Bloch's The Skull of the Marquis de Sade. Do we know of any other evil/ haunted stamp stories? |
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Post by Dr Strange on May 10, 2021 13:35:16 GMT
Do we know of any other evil/ haunted stamp stories? None that I can think of but, if we opened it up to sinister stationery more generally, I've got 3 stories involving postcards - L.P. Hartley - W.S. (The White Wand & Other Stories, 1954; First Pan Book of Horror Stories, ed. Herbert van Thal, 1959). Basil Copper - Wish You Were Here ( Horror For Christmas, ed. Richard Dalby, 1992). Nick Warburton - His Last Card ( The Man In Black, BBC Books, 1990). |
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Post by johnnymains on May 10, 2021 20:46:21 GMT
Don't know if this fits, but I once wrote a story called George V about a ghost that uses a load of George V halfpenny stamps to get back in touch with his son.
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Post by humgoo on Oct 24, 2022 6:28:58 GMT
The British Library has been publishing so much stuff these days it's difficult to keep up with! And now, no kidding, Burrage: The Little Blue Flames and Other Uncanny Tales by A. M. Burrage (Hardcover, 22 Sept. 2022) ( Am*z*n link) Edit: Dem, we probably need a new section for this flood of BL stuff! |
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Post by dem on Oct 24, 2022 10:28:31 GMT
The British Library has been publishing so much stuff these days it's difficult to keep up with! And now, no kidding, Burrage: The Little Blue Flames and Other Uncanny Tales by A. M. Burrage (Hardcover, 22 Sept. 2022) ( Am*z*n link) Edit: Dem, we probably need a new section for this flood of BL stuff! Problem is, we've too many sections as it is. If you can settle for a subboard (see Years Best Horror and Marty Greenberg sections in American Gothic section), I'll set one up later today. The one drawback I've noticed is they take longer for search engines to pick up, though they get there eventually. But where should a BL sub-board go? They're contemporary, but much of the material is derived from Victorian/ Edwardian era. A. M. Burrage - The Little Blue Flames & Other Uncanny Tales (British Library, Sept. 2022) Introduction
A Note From The Publisher
The Waxwork
Nobody's House
Someone in the Room
For the Local Rag
The Wrong Station
The Acquittal
The Running Tide
The Litte Blue Flames
Playmates
One Who Saw
The Recurring Tragedy
Browdean Farm
The Green Scarf
Smee
The Sweeper |
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Post by humgoo on Oct 25, 2022 4:17:10 GMT
Problem is, we've too many sections as it is. No problem! I'm certainly happy as it is! I think I've got most of the stories, but I still soooo need this one ... Need to be strong! |
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 24, 2022 18:11:58 GMT
ONE WHO SAW
“‘The night’s young. Come into my place and have a drink, if you will.’ I thanked him and said that I would. He turned towards me and let a hand fall on my knee.”
At the time I first read the above passage at the start of the introductory ‘frame story’, I laughed, even though I only laughed because I had childishly taken it out of context. I paid the price for that when I reached the story’s ending. Those who have already read it will know why! Just read the story’s final sentence.
A ghost story that has managed to avoid me until today, or vice versa! It is genuinely scary, and that may be because, like Crutchley, I am ‘susceptible’, the one who sees and has now seen. I scry stories, and I knew one day, a certain story would be my come-uppance. But I needed to know from this ‘frame story’, how, at a relatively young age, Crutchley’s hair had abruptly turned from the most attractive black to a complete whiteness…
He stays in Rouen, a place that “goes to bed early, and you don’t have sex flaunted before you wherever you look” — and it suits his temperament. But, as a pervasive sense of depression, the square garden at the claustrophobic centre of the Rouen hotel, in a room of which hotel (overlooking the garden) Crutchley was working on his article about Jeanne d’Arc, or had he already finished it? I forget. Yes, the garden is both a come-uppance and a downer, too. The description makes this clear.
And one of the most haunting scenes in ghost story literature transpires when, smoking, he first sees, from his window, the woman sitting in that garden. There followed his growing obsession to see her face, despite the hotel staff trying to save him from so doing, but whether I believe what one of the waiters told Crutchley about that woman is something I still tussle with.
“…but he will not see her when he is with one who does not see.”
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