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Post by dem on May 31, 2019 18:17:36 GMT
Jack Edwards - Haunted!: (Weekly Tale-Teller #83, 3 Dec. 1910). "It touched me yesterday. It was clammy and cold and like a huge slug." Toss up between this and the likewise excellent Amid the Trees for Glimpses ...' glummest story. Artist Ernest Raydon is persecuted by a quivering phantom visible only to himself. A kindly neighbour he confides in, suggests Ernest has been targeted by an elemental. Perhaps if he were to spend a few months away on the coast? This seems to work until Raydon returns to London to marry. Matters reach a head during Christmas week.
Mary Schultze - The River’s Edge: (Weekly Tale-Teller #188, 7 Dec. 1912). "Women are jolly queer cattle." Ghost of Barbara Leslie, who drowned when the river flooded this time last year, saves her infant child from suffering the same fate. Witnessed by Major Mercer who, as a visitor to the village, was unaware of the earlier tragedy. Short, sweet, inoffensive, God is nice, etc.
Lumley Deakin - Ghosts: (The New Magazine, Oct. 1914). Mike Ashley clearly has a fondness for "puzzle stories" - here another would comfortably slip into Doorways to Dilemma. On first reading, I neither understood nor cared for Ghosts, but one rematch later and its a 'best thing ever' contender. London socialite Cyrus Sabinette has discovered that sainted philanthropist Henry Grimshaw as aka Abraham Heischmann, a human trafficker who coerces fugitives and illegal aliens to slave in his East End clothing factories. Those who dare cross him are swifty denounced to the authorities. Sabinette initially wants in on the racket, but when Grimshaw-Heischmann refuses to be blackmailed, instead offers his services to Yoli Kravinski, a beautiful Polish woman whose anarchist brother Heischmann betrayed to the police. Yoli is prepared to do anything to avenge Karl's death, which is just as well as, either I am naturally dirty minded or story implies that, in certain favourable circumstances, Cyrus is happy to negotiate payment in kind. What follows is plain weird, and I'm still none the wiser as to how the smarmy Mr. Sabinette seemingly raised a dead woman to accomplish Heischmann's destruction. Is he hypnotist, conjurer, necromancer, or just plain slippery?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 3, 2020 15:50:49 GMT
I noticed the books in the British Library's 'Tales of the Weird' series while browsing through some Kindle books. The ones I have found are: From The Depths: And Other Strange Tales From The Sea edited by Mike Ashley Spirits of the Seasons: Christmas Hauntings edited by Tanya Kirk Mortal Echoes: Encounters With The End edited by Greg Buzwell Doorway To Dilemma: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy edited by Mike Ashley The Face In The Glass: The Gothic Tales Of Mary Elizabeth Braddon edited by Greg Buzwell The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales Of The Railways edited by Mike Ashley Glimpses Of The Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories edited by Mike Ashley I am not sure if there are any more in the series, but there are some interesting titles there. Note that some of the above are not yet released. I just picked up copies of From the Depths, Doorway to Dilemma, The Platform Edge, Glimpses of the Unknown, and the more recent Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic (edited by Daisy Butcher). I haven't had a chance to read any of them yet, but the British Library folks did a nice job on the covers and frontispieces (there's a word I've never typed before). Based on Vault readers' comments, the books should make for fun reads. I'm also intrigued by two upcoming books in the series: Into the Darkening Fog: Eerie Tales of the London Weird (edited by Elizabeth Dearnley) and Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird (edited by Mike Ashley). |
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Post by Dr Strange on Jul 3, 2020 22:38:52 GMT
And there's more to come -
Weird Woods: Tales From The Haunted Forests Of Britain - ed. John Miller, due out at the end of August.
Chill Tidings: Dark Tales Of The Christmas Season - ed. Tanya Kirk, due October.
Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-bending Tales Of The Mathematical Weird - ed. Henry Bartholomew, due January next year.
Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales Of Stranger Climes - ed. Kevan Manwaring, due February next year.
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Post by Swampirella on Jul 3, 2020 23:49:29 GMT
And there's more to come - Weird Woods: Tales From The Haunted Forests Of Britain - ed. John Miller, due out at the end of August. Chill Tidings: Dark Tales Of The Christmas Season - ed. Tanya Kirk, due October. Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-bending Tales Of The Mathematical Weird - ed. Henry Bartholomew, due January next year. Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales Of Stranger Climes - ed. Kevan Manwaring, due February next year. "Weird Woods" sounds great to me; too bad it's not coming out in N. America at the same time. Hopefully it will, later. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jul 4, 2020 7:37:09 GMT
And there's more to come - Weird Woods: Tales From The Haunted Forests Of Britain - ed. John Miller, due out at the end of August. Chill Tidings: Dark Tales Of The Christmas Season - ed. Tanya Kirk, due October. Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-bending Tales Of The Mathematical Weird - ed. Henry Bartholomew, due January next year. Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales Of Stranger Climes - ed. Kevan Manwaring, due February next year. "Weird Woods" sounds great to me; too bad it's not coming out in N. America at the same time. Hopefully it will, later. These look pretty hopeful. Given what this series from the British Library has produced so far, all four of them are probably worth checking out. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 20, 2020 19:50:14 GMT
Thanks Dr. S. Incidentally, you sold me on Doorway To Dilemma. It's an odd one in that so many of the stories are much-anthologised but there are enough obscurities among the remainder to make it worthwhile. The Peter Haining approach. The lineup for Doorways to Dilemma drew me in, too. I enjoyed reading “The Woman in Red” and revisiting “The Mysterious Card,” and “The Lady, or the Tiger?” The sequels for these puzzle stories are letdowns, however. Stockton pulls the same trick again, to diminished returns, while Moffett and Dyar serve up unsatisfying explanations. Lucy Clifford’s “The New Mother” is a gem—it takes the cruel morality of a traditional fairy tale into strange and unsettling territory. “Fear” is another winner. Catherine Wells follows her dark premise to an even darker ending. The H. G. Wells story left me cold, though. I’m surprised Mike Ashley didn’t pair Mary Elizabeth Counselman”s “The Three Marked Pennies” with the similarly themed “The Devil’s Lottery.” |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 20, 2020 23:25:43 GMT
Another 'puzzle story' from beyond the Doorway to Dilemma: Madeline Yale Wynne - The Little Room: ( Harper's New Monthly, Aug. 1895). Vermont, New England. A room on the Miss Keys' farm seemingly alternates between furnished chamber and china-closet as the mood takes it. Their newly-wed niece is determined to solve the mind-boggling mystery once and for all ..... I enjoyed revisiting this one, too. The dark edges of "The Little Room" are subtle (only one brief slip gives away the aunts), but its sharp psychology and domestic-themed horror remind me of "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Wind in the Rose-Bush." I don't feel that a sequel was necessary, but I'll see if Wynne handles her follow-up better than Stockton, Moffett, and Dyar did. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 11, 2020 13:13:21 GMT
I've made a start on From The Depths & Other Strange Tales of the Sea: The Ship of Silence by Albert R. Wetjen ( The Blue Book Magazine, July 1932) - an abandoned ship, reminiscent of the Mary Celeste, except for the presence of a talking (actually, screaming) parrot that must have witnessed whatever happened to the crew. Vaguely feel I may have read this one before. From The Darkness And The Depths by Morgan Robertson ( New Story Magazine, Jan 1913) - a boat is capsized by a tsunami when Krakatoa explodes, and the survivors then have to deal with an invisible monster. Didn't really like this one - it's far too long (at 25 pages), has some excruciatingly bad dialogue (including a comedy German accent - "Oh, mine foot, how it hurts!"), and one of the dumbest "scientific" explanations I've ever come across (apparently the monster is invisible because it evolved in an environment where there is no light). I'm in a nautical mood, having just finished the first book of Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series, so I started this one last night. "Ship of Silence" felt familiar to me, too, but I don't know where I could've read it before. Maybe it's just the story concept that's familiar, not the story itself. Either way, I enjoyed it: Wetjen takes a while to get to the point, but the screaming parrot is a nice touch. Reading the opening discussion of derelicts such as the Mary Celeste and missing ships such as the Waratah also reminded me of a book I read and reread when I was a kid: Fifty True Mysteries of the Sea, edited by John Canning. I still have my childhood copy--it's one of the few books I've saved from back then. I'd already read "From the Darkness and the Depths" in Spooky Sea Stories (edited by Frank D. McSherry, Jr. and Charles G. Waugh), and Dr. S's description did not inspire me to revisit the story. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 12, 2020 12:18:39 GMT
More from From The Depths & Other Strange Tales of the Sea - Sargasso by Ward Muir ( Pearson's Magazine, Oct 1908) - a ship carrying out scientific research comes across the derelict tramp steamer Wellington, missing for 4 years. On board they find a diary written by one of the passengers, detailing what happened after the Wellington got trapped in the Sargasso weeds. Can't help but think this might have been a much better story if it had just been told in a more straight-forward manner, rather than using the "found document" approach. Held by the Sargasso Sea by Frank Shaw ( The Story-teller, Oct 1908) - how an old sea captain lost the love of his life (his ship), and how she came back to him. I'm a sucker for Sargasso Sea tales, but neither of these floated my boat. Muir's story has a workable premise, but--as Dr. S points out--the execution of the "found document" style doesn't do much to create mystery or horror. The Shaw story is a sentimental one about an crusty old captain who should've known better than to hire scabs as sailors. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 12, 2020 23:43:13 GMT
The Floating Forest by Herman Scheffauer ( Pall Mall Magazine, Aug 1909) - a derelict ship is transformed into a "floating forest" after its captain sets fire to it for the insurance. Tracked: A Mystery of the Sea by C.N. Barham ( Cassell's Family Magazine, May 1891) - a clergyman hypnotises his clairvoyant maid-servant to find out what happened to a missing ship. According to the author notes, Barham actually was a clergyman and "amateur hypnotist" who reported clairvoyant powers in his hypnotised subjects (including his maid-servant). The Mystery of the Water-Logged Ship by William Hope Hodgson ( The Grand Magazine, May 1911) - fairly standard Hodgson tale involving another mysterious derelict... {Spoiler}{Spoiler}this time with disappointing "Scooby-Do" ending. Can't say any of these did it for me - but I have high hopes for the title story by F. Britten Austin, which is up next. Again, I find myself agreeing with Dr. Strange. The floating forest is a vivid concept, but Scheffauer doesn't do much with it. The Barham tale is a bit of garden variety spiritualism (as an aside, I wonder who the fraud was: Barham, his maid-servant, or both?). And "The Mystery of the Water-logged Ship" is one of Hodgson's lesser stories. From the Depths by F. Britten Austin ( The Strand Magazine, Feb 1920) - set just after the end of WW1, on board a Swedish ship that has been chartered by a salvage company to locate the wrecks of ships sunk by German U-boats off the British coast. The two salvage engineers on board discover that the ship's captain knows more about the locations of these wrecks than he should - and then a poltergeist starts communicating with them in Morse code. This is more like it: a cruel former U-boat skipper, a vengeful young Norwegian engineer, and an angry ghost who table-taps in Morse code make for a lively tale. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 14, 2020 20:17:52 GMT
Wrapping up From The Depths & Other Strange Tales of the Sea... The Murdered Ships by James Francis Dwyer ( The Premier Magazine, June 1918) - the story of a ghost ship that hunted down it's "murderers". The Ship That Died by John Gilbert ( The Argosy, May 1917) - weird tale about a ship that (for unknown reasons) rapidly disintegrates, and eventually becomes a ghost. Devereaux's Last Smoke by Izola Forrester ( The Ocean, March 1907) - story featuring a ghostly cigar tip glowing in the fog on the deck of a ship. According to the author notes, Izola Forrester may have been the granddaughter of John Wilkes Booth and wrote a novel ( This One Mad Act, 1937) in which Booth survives after assassinating Abraham Lincoln. I'd say I liked all of these a bit more than the previous stories, though maybe I have lowered my expectations a little. Of the two ghost ship stories, I prefer Dwyer's: it's entertaining, and the Australian is a great character, even if the supernatural element is nothing new. Forrester's ghost cigar story is also fun. The Black Bell Buoy by Rupert Chesterton ( The Novel Magazine, Feb 1907) - two men are left to fix the Black Bell Buoy, but when their ship returns 12 hours later to pick them up only one remains; he claims the other man was taken by a giant octopus, though it is known that the two men were rivals in love. Some months later, the Black Bell Buoy somehow comes adrift... An OK story, this one, but it feels quite familiar. The High Seas by Elinor Mordaunt ( The Century Magazine, Oct 1918) - I think this one can be called a conte cruel, as misery after misery is piled on in a story about sea-faring twin brothers, one a cruel bully, and the other his main victim of choice. Gets a bit bogged down in "dialect", sea shanties and nautical terminology, but has a horribly cruel ending. "OK" about sums up Chesterton's tale. I'm not much of a conte cruel fan, so "The High Seas" didn't do much for me. Here's the last two stories From The Depths - The Soul-Saver by Morgan Burke ( The Blue Book Magazine, Feb 1926) - a violent captain mysteriously acquires a white mouse after beating a sailor to death; the captain claims the mouse is the dead man's soul. No Ships Pass by Lady Eleanor Smith ( The Story-teller, May 1932) - a man who escapes from a sinking yacht finds himself marooned on a strange island with four castaways who claim there is no possibility of escape, and also no death on the island. I've read this one before, and it still doesn't really make much sense to me. Mike Ashley suggests it might have been the inspiration for the TV series Lost, which I gave up on after a couple of seasons. Can't say there is much in this collection I'd really recommend - apart from the title story and The Black Bell Buoy, the others are mostly forgettable, or else just bizarre (which is how I think I'd describe both of these last two). "The Soul-Saver" may be bizarre, and inexplicable too, but it's one of my favorites in the anthology. Things get especially interesting when the captain winds up with a second "soul mouse," and the ending is satisfyingly ghoulish. I reread "No Ships Pass" to see whether I liked it as much the second time around. I did: for me, it's the highlight of the book. Unlike the writers of Lost, Eleanor Smith knew how to end a story. She also sounds like she would've been interesting to know. Although From the Depths has a so-so hit to miss ratio, I'm still glad I read it. Ashely's a master at resurrecting lost stories. |
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 1, 2020 8:19:50 GMT
 Not sure if we have a dedicated trees/forests thread, but here are the contents for Weird Woods - Anon. – The Whisperer in the Woods (1880) Edith Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble (1887) Getrude Atherton – The Striding Place (1896) EF Benson – The Man Who Went Too Far (1912) WH Hudson – An Old Thorn (1920) Elliot O’Donnell – The White Lady (1912) Algernon Blackwood – Ancient Lights (1912) Mary Webb – The Name-Tree (1923) Walter de la Mare – The Tree (1922) Marjorie Bowen – “He Made a Woman” (1923) MR James – A Neighbour’s Landmark (1924) Arthur Machen - N (1934) I know for a fact that I've already got the Nesbit, Benson, Blackwood, James, and Machen elsewhere - but I've ordered it anyway. It was probably the de la Mare that swung it for me, as I don't think I've come across that one before - I've checked and it is not the same story as The Almond Tree (1909). |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 5, 2020 18:18:44 GMT
More Glimpses of the UnknownGuy Thorne (Cyril Ranger Gull) - A Regent of Love Rhymes: ( Lady's Realm, Dec. 1905). "Death ... is simply a cessation of correspondence with environment ... We live again in nature, but that is all ... We inform ourselves into all sensual life. When we die our personality ceases." So argues the Doctor. His author friend, Cyril Glendinning, passionately believes in the survival of the soul - and proves it. Fatally gored by a bull on a trip to town, Cyril completes his final composition from beyond Death's door. Now seems a good time to caution any fellow gloom merchants that many of the Glimpses ... selections end on a note of optimism. James Barr - The Soul of Maddalina Tonelli: ( The Red Magazine, Dec. 1909). Herman Yorke of the Amateur Orchestra Society lands an original 'Stradivari' for a pittance from a pawn shop on Radcliff Highway. He debuts the instrument at the Society's next performance. Avidly watching from the audience, a dark-eyed woman only he can see, frantically indicating the 'E'-string peg as though her very soul depended on it. What can it all mean? "A Regent of Love Rhymes" was a bit too sappy for me. "The Soul of Maddalina Tonelli" is also sentimental, but I liked it anyway. Percy James Brebner - Our Strange Traveller: ( Weekly Story Teller #105, 6 May 1911 ). Hotel du Nord, St. Chade. A remote hotel in the French countryside where proprietor and wife murder guests for their valuables. The English tourists who expose the killers do so with considerable assistance from the little fat ghost of most recent victim. Francis Xavier - Amid the Trees: ( Weekly Story Teller #110, 10 June 1911). Essart, a young English tourist, falls for a woman he takes for a Dryad summoned by his love from a glade in the Portuguese countryside. To date this, along with On The Embankment, Spirits That Steal, House of the Black Evil and the slightly belated Victorian melodrama The Soul of Maddalina Tonelli have been personal pick of the bunch. The oddball phantom in "Our Strange Traveller" worked for me. "Amid the Trees" wasn't one of my favorites, but it is a gloomy, irony-drenched change of pace from some of the sappier entries. I have high hopes for "The House of the Black Evil" based on the story's name and your comments. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 5, 2020 18:28:46 GMT
Jack Edwards - Haunted!: ( Weekly Tale-Teller #83, 3 Dec. 1910). "It touched me yesterday. It was clammy and cold and like a huge slug." Toss up between this and the likewise excellent Amid the Trees for Glimpses ...' glummest story. Artist Ernest Raydon is persecuted by a quivering phantom visible only to himself. A kindly neighbour he confides in, suggests Ernest has been targeted by an elemental. Perhaps if he were to spend a few months away on the coast? This seems to work until Raydon returns to London to marry. Matters reach a head during Christmas week. Mary Schultze - The River’s Edge: ( Weekly Tale-Teller #188, 7 Dec. 1912). "Women are jolly queer cattle." Ghost of Barbara Leslie, who drowned when the river flooded this time last year, saves her infant child from suffering the same fate. Witnessed by Major Mercer who, as a visitor to the village, was unaware of the earlier tragedy. Short, sweet, inoffensive, God is nice, etc. "Haunted!" doesn't provide much rhyme or reason for its happenings, but at least it has a downer ending and that exclamation point in its title. "The River's Edge" is the book's low point so far for me--it's so pious and hokey. Lumley Deakin - Ghosts: ( The New Magazine, Oct. 1914). Mike Ashley clearly has a fondness for "puzzle stories" - here another would comfortably slip into Doorways to Dilemma. On first reading, I neither understood nor cared for Ghosts, but one rematch later and its a 'best thing ever' contender. London socialite Cyrus Sabinette has discovered that sainted philanthropist Henry Grimshaw as aka Abraham Heischmann, a human trafficker who coerces fugitives and illegal aliens to slave in his East End clothing factories. Those who dare cross him are swifty denounced to the authorities. Sabinette initially wants in on the racket, but when Grimshaw-Heischmann refuses to be blackmailed, instead offers his services to Yoli Kravinski, a beautiful Polish woman whose anarchist brother Heischmann betrayed to the police. Yoli is prepared to do anything to avenge Karl's death, which is just as well as, either I am naturally dirty minded or story implies that, in certain favourable circumstances, Cyrus is happy to negotiate payment in kind. What follows is plain weird, and I'm still none the wiser as to how the smarmy Mr. Sabinette seemingly raised a dead woman to accomplish Heischmann's destruction. Is he hypnotist, conjurer, necromancer, or just plain slippery? But here's a revelation! I'm relieved that I wasn't the only one perplexed by "Ghosts." It's so wild and off-kilter that I want to read more of Deakin's stories about Cyrus Sabinette. And according to editor Mike Ashley, it's "one of the more straightforward" tales in the series! |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 7, 2020 11:36:51 GMT
Two from Glimpses Of The Unknown: they'd have been equally at home in Doorways to Dilemma. Eric Purves - The House of Black Evil: ( Pearson's, May 1929). Grainer the Detective, Holt the plucky postman and various locals investigate the house of the late spiritualist, Madame Seulon, whose front door now opens upon pitch black, blank empty space! Philippa Forest (Marion Holmes) - When Spirits Steal: ( Pearson's, May 1920). Chigley Highfield, Somerset. When a locally despised invalid is found smothered in his bed, suspicion falls upon Mary Amherst, a waitress at The Green Dragon Inn. The victim, Hogson, is popularly believed to have killed his wife, but it is surely inconceivable that Mary, "a frightened gormy, terrified of her own shadder," has it in her to play avenging angel. Featuring Peter Carwell, psychic investigator, and his personal Dr. Watson, Mr. Wilton. Mentioning that I liked the ending probably qualifies as a spoiler, so I won't. These were two highlights of the book for me. "The House of the Black Evil" sets up an intriguing scenario with its tenebrous (or maybe Stygian?) interior and its hints of a séance gone horribly wrong. "When Spirits Steal" is a solid occult detective tale that reminds me a bit of the Aylmer Vance stories (our hero, Peter Carwell, seems about as helpful as Vance). If Mike Ashley ever decides to gather the Cyrus Sabinette stories and the Peter Carwell stories in a double collection, I'll buy it. E.F. Benson's entry, "The Woman in the Veil," isn't one of his more memorable tales, though the description of the specter includes some vivid touches. Elizabeth Jordan's "Kearney" was OK but forgettable. I've saved "The Treasure of the Tombs" for last. Ashley has promised Indiana Jones-style adventure, so I hope the story delivers on that. |
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