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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2020 12:26:14 GMT
Peter Haining [ed.] - Tales of Dungeons and Dragons (Century Hutchinson, 1986) Peter Haining - Foreword
Ray Bradbury - Introduction 1. The Sealed Section: Tales of Horror Bram Stoker - The Dualitists
Sax Rohmer - The Mysterious Mummy
Edgar Allan Poe [& Robert Bloch] - The Lighthouse
Katharine Fullerton Gerould - The Eighty-Third
William Faulkner - The Kid Learns
John Collier - The Monster of the Deep
Robert Bloch - The Grip of Death
John D. MacDonald - The Great Stone Death
John Wyndham - Vengeance by Proxy
Stephen King - The Mangler 2. The Ghost Section: Tales of the Supernatural M. R. James - The Malice of Inanimate Objects
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Borrhomeo the Astrologer
F. Anstey - Three Wishes
William Hope Hodgson - The Haunted “Pampero”
Algernon Blackwood - The Magic Mirror
Upton Sinclair - The Overman
L. M. Montgomery - The House Party at Smoky Island
T. H. White - Shining Hat at Tarring Neville
Olaf Stapledon - A Modern Magician
Fritz Leiber - The Glove3. The Wonder Section: Tales of Fantasy William Morris - The Hollow Land
Ambrose Bierce - The Mystery of the Ultimate Hills
Lord Dunsany - The Field Where the Satyrs Danced
Arthur Ransome - The Ageing Faun
W. Heath Robinson - Biddulph
James Hilton - The Bat King
H. P. Lovecraft - The Challenge from Beyond
Robert E. Howard - People of the Black Coast
John Gardner - The Ravages of Spring
Ray Bradbury - Bright Phoenix Blurb: In Tales of Dungeons and Dragons, Peter Haining has assembled a box of fantasy delights to create one bumper collection which houses thirty short stories from past and present masters in the field. Here under one roof are gathered such knights of fantasy as Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Ransome and Ray Bradbury - who is himself the modern master of the genre, as well as the introducer of this volume.
In each and every story, there lies a special attraction. All of them are rare or forgotten gems from the past hundred years up to our own time, which are now returned into print to cast their spell over a new generation of readers. And those readers will find their belief in magic and marvel strengthened by a collection which features all the classic ingredients of other worlds. For here are swords and sorcery, and ancient mysteries, alongside supernatural forces and inanimate objects that have a will of their own. Together with a story from 1912 which is a perfect example of the age-old ‘Three Wishes’ fantasy, and a terrifying contemporary tale from the best-selling pen of Stephen King.
Acknowledged by the fantasy writer Robert Bloch as ‘the undisputed champion anthologist of the world’, Peter Haining has lived up to that claim with Tales of Dungeons and Dragons: a unique assortment of classics from the Victorian past, hand-picked and mixed with contributions from outstanding modern writers in the fantasy field.Omnibus selection of stories which, according to PH, are for the most part omitted from their famous authors' collected works. Title a brazen attempt to cash in on phenomenally popular role-playing game: the bulk of these have little or nothing to do with dungeons or dragons. John Collier - The Monster of the Deep: ( Nash’s Magazine, Apr. 1935). George and Muriel Patterson move to the remote, sparsely populated Bletto in Devon. George, a banker, takes up fishing, which suits Muriel who, to combat the boredom is getting it on with closest neighbour Fred Poulton, the randy estate agent. To further distract George, Poulton constructs a model of a Loch Ness Monster-a-like, sightings of which so obsess the banker that he takes to keeping all night vigil on the river bank. If only Polton hadn't grown complacent .... Marvellously entertaining precursor of both The Inconvenient Monster and What a Whopper!. L. M. Montgomery - The House Party On Smoky Island: ( Weird Tales, Aug. 1935/ Startling Mystery Stories #10, 1968): The reputation of Dr. Anthony Armstrong has been under a cloud since the suspicious death-by-overdose of his unlamented first wife Susette. The truth comes to light at Madeline Stanwick's shindig during a round of piss-poor ghost stories when uninvited guest, Christine Latham, takes her turn. The dead return, Flapper girls reduced to quivering jellies, etc. T. H. White - Shining Hat at Tarring Neville: ( Evening Standard, 28 Sept. 1935). "They would have robbed a blind beggar or soaked a pussy cat in paraffin and lighted it." Psychopathic twins John and Peter Spurrier fall out over a girl with inevitable result that each plots to very thoroughly murder the other during the hunt (they are both champion steeple-chasers). Familiar theme, but story takes an unexpected and much appreciated detour. Surprisingly grisly, too.  Carleton Palmer, People of the Black Coast, Spaceway Science Fiction, Oct. 1969). : (William L. Crawford [ed]. Spaceway Sept-Oct 1969). Despite a short life, the name of Robert E. Howard has become one of the most popular in fantastic fiction. One wonders to what heights he might have risen had he chosen to live a normal lifetime. We are not brash enough to claim this story as one of his best, yet it does show flashes of his descriptive genius. The narrator and girlfriend Gloria touch down on a previously unexplored Pacific island near Guam. It is not as uninhabited as they'd anticipated and Gloria is abducted and vivisected by alien psychic giant spider crabs. With nothing left to live for, narrator declares war on their terrible kind. Sax Rohmer – The Mysterious Mummy: ( Pearson’s Weekly Christmas Extra, 26 Nov. 1903). A reanimated Egyptian mummy is blamed for the theft of priceless vase from British Museum. Popular with anthologists, decidedly "not one of his best!"
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 28, 2020 12:48:42 GMT
One curious aspect to the Howard tale is that it anticipates and, in all likelihood, accurately explains the real life disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937. Chances are she really did end up a banquet for the giant tree climbing coconut crabs of Nikumaroro island.
Bon Appetit.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 28, 2020 17:07:43 GMT
To imagine Bram Stoker playing D&D is kind of difficult, but it has something.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2020 17:12:42 GMT
Robert Bloch [and Henry Kuttner] - The Grip of Death: ( Strange Stories Dec. 1939). Two Hands - and a Throat: Ten Links in a Necklace of Death. Luke Holland resolves to poison his evil, rooster-slaying Black Magician of an Uncle because the Good book says "thou shalt not suffer a witch ..." Besides, he's grown impatient to claim his inheritance. Anticipating the attempt on his life, Uncle Lionel gets his horrible retaliation in early. Lord Dunsany - The Field Where the Satyrs Danced: ( Atlantic Monthly, June 1928). As title. On impulse, he explores the field where the wild roses grow after sunset. John D. MacDonald - The Great Stone Death: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1949). A monster in stone, alive for one monstrous moment of a dreadful granite eternity. On the advice of his doctor, John Logan exchanges New York for the wilds of the Sangre de Crisco mountains to benefit his weak lungs. A lot of good it does him. According to the Native Americans, the mountains are home to a gargantuan stone lizard ...
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Post by Knygathin on Feb 28, 2020 19:35:12 GMT
Lord Dunsany - The Field Where the Satyrs Danced: ( Atlantic Monthly, June 1928). As title. On impulse, he explores the field where the wild roses grow after sunset. Any Lord Dunsany fans on this board? "The Field Where the Satyrs Danced" sounds appealing to me. I have not read it, but had it in the collection The Ghosts of the Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms, which I got rid of shortly after I had bought it in late 80s or early 90s, simply because I didn't like the cover art, b-e-f-o-r-e I read any in it.  (I liked, and still like, Tim Kirks other two Dunsany covers for Owlswick Press, especially the early one, Tales of Three Hemispheres.) Another collection I never got around to reading (and s-o-l-d) was Fifty-one Tales. Neither have I ever read his Jorkens tales. |
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 28, 2020 20:34:27 GMT
For those interested, it can be read here:
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Post by helrunar on Feb 28, 2020 20:39:49 GMT
I still remember passages from some Dunsany things I read as a teenager-- Gods of Pegana, Charwoman's Shadow, a couple of the plays. Recently, I read a story in the Third Ghost book edited by Lady Cynthia Asquith that was mystical and evocative and one of the few really good things in that anthology. I think it was said to have been the last story he ever published. Dunsany is one of those writers such as Ernest Bramah (specifically the Kai Lung books) that I enjoyed a lot back then, but seldom revisit now. If you like Dunsany, try and look for some of the art by Sidney H. Sime which was done for the original publications--may or may not be your flagon of mead, but I believe both Dunsany himself as well as Lovecraft thought very highly of that work. The works selected here underline that sense of mysticism that must have been a common interest between the two men: museumcrush.org/the-forgotten-gallery-in-surrey-holding-the-dark-and-sinister-paintings-of-sidney-h-sime/cheers, H. |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2020 21:59:42 GMT
Bram Stoker - The Dualitists: ( The Theatre Annual, Christmas, 1887). Unbelievably grisly history of Harry Merford and Tommy Santon, best pals who graduate from vandalism to infanticide via animal cruelty (their enthusiasm for "hacking" decimates the local wildlife population). Having agreed to torture-murder toddlers Zacariah and Zarubbabel Bubb, " ... it would have delighted the heart of any philanthropist to see the kindly manner in which they arranged for the pleasures of the helpless babes. With smiling faces and playful words and gentle wiles they led them within the arbour ..." Truly, this is one sick, twisted, proper HORROR story. Am suitably impressed. Algernon Blackwood - The Magic Mirror: ( The Bystander, 16 March 1938, Weird Tales, Sept. 1938). A stranger from Tibet devises a fantastic and practical way to win at Monte Carlo - by cheating. He has been gifted an enchanted glass which makes it all but impossible to lose money at the roulette table, but; "They call them Devil-mirrors .... because they bring death and riches." Stephen King - The Mangler: ( Cavalier, Dec 1972: Night Shift, 1979). Officer Hunton and Prof. Mark Jackson investigate a series of 'accidental' maimings at the Blue Ribbon Laundry, all of them involving operators of the industrial presser. It says much for Bram Stoker's contribution to the book that it is way more diabolical than even King's.
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Post by Knygathin on Feb 28, 2020 22:18:49 GMT
I still remember passages from some Dunsany things I read as a teenager-- Gods of Pegana, Charwoman's Shadow, a couple of the plays. ... Dunsany is one of those writers such as Ernest Bramah (specifically the Kai Lung books) that I enjoyed a lot back then, but seldom revisit now. If you like Dunsany, try and look for some of the art by Sidney H. Sime which was done for the original publications--. and The King of Elfland's Daughter are my two favorite books by Dunsany. They are soo beautiful. Elfland's Daughter was the perfect romantic book to read in my early 20s, but I am not sure I would have the patience to reread it some 30 years later with the cynicism built up inside me. The Gods of Pegana I found too primitive and mythological in structure. I liked Time and the Gods much better, and the following Pegana books. The Sword of Welleran!! My favorites are A Dreamer's Tales and Tales of Three Hemispheres. Yes, I like the art of Sidney H. Sime in the books quite a lot. It is decorative, but somewhat uneven ... and Victorian. Often evocative and mystic. In some cases tremendously powerful, like the illustration for The King of Elfland's Daughter in the way he portrayed the night sky. If that is not ecstasy, I don't know what is!  I enjoy Ernest Bramah, his humour is similar to Jack Vance's. I have a love/hate relationship to that enervating frustrating humour; it feels like worms crawling inside my body, or tingling my skin like a rash. |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 29, 2020 11:57:58 GMT
I never tried Dunsany. He became one of those writers you read about, but never the work himself.
I have to say that my interest kind of was kindled again when reading some stuff about Lovecraft and the influence Dunsany had on the man. But those classics are often not easy in my experience. I don't know how often I started E.R. Eddison and never came far. Kny's remark about the lost patience is on the spot. When I started reading Fantasy for real I even made it through William Morris The Well at the World's End. Don't think I could repeat that today.
Still I know I must have one or two Dunsany stories somewhere in my collection. At least The Gods of Pegana.
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Post by ropardoe on Feb 29, 2020 16:11:06 GMT
I never tried Dunsany. He became one of those writers you read about, but never the work himself.
I have to say that my interest kind of was kindled again when reading some stuff about Lovecraft and the influence Dunsany had on the man. But those classics are often not easy in my experience. I don't know how often I started E.R. Eddison and never came far. Kny's remark about the lost patience is on the spot. When I started reading Fantasy for real I even made it through William Morris The Well at the World's End. Don't think I could repeat that today.
Still I know I must have one or two Dunsany stories somewhere in my collection. At least The Gods of Pegana.
My favourite Dunsany story (it's one of Mark Valentine's favourites too) is "Idle Days on the Yann" (https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/swld/swld09.htm). Utterly wonderful - relaxed, beautiful, but also quite sinister in part. |
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Post by humgoo on Feb 29, 2020 17:12:07 GMT
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 29, 2020 17:20:06 GMT
I enjoyed "Two Bottles of Relish".... |
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Post by humgoo on Feb 29, 2020 17:36:54 GMT
I enjoyed "Two Bottles of Relish".... As might be expected from a good Vault girl.  |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 29, 2020 22:44:52 GMT
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(I liked, and still like, Tim Kirks other two Dunsany covers for Owlswick Press, especially the early one, Tales of Three Hemispheres.)
