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Post by dem on Oct 6, 2020 19:25:28 GMT
Daisy Butcher (ed.) - Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic (British Library, 2019)  Cover design by Maurico Villamayor Enrique Bernardou
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini’s Daughter
Arthur Conan Doyle - The American’s Tale
Lucy H. Hooper - Carnivorine
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Giant Wistaria
H.G. Wells - The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
Edmond Nolcini - The Guardian of Mystery Island
M.R. James - The Ash Tree
Ambrose Bierce - A Vine on a House
Howard R. Garis - Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant
William Hope Hodgson - The Voice in the Night
Edith Nesbit - The Pavilion
H.C. McNeile - The Green Death
Abraham Merritt - The Woman of the Wood
Emma Vane - The Moaning Lily Blurb: Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) "killer plant" in fiction, film, and video games.
Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s giant wistaria and H. G. Wells’ hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood, and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit’s wandering creepers…
Every strain of vegetable threat (and one deadly fungus) can be found within this new collection, representing the very best tales from the undergrowth of Gothic fiction. Just came across this; 14 stories including among others M.R. James (The Ash-Tree) H. G. Wells (The Flowering of the Strange Orchid) Arthur Conan Doyle (The American's Tale) Nathaniel Hawthorne (Rappaccini's Daughter) Edith Nesbit (The Pavilion) Somehow Carlos Cassaba/Michel Parry's The Roots of Evil just sounds more appealing, although they share the Wells and Hawthorne stories. Many of these stories are available in other anthologies, including the seemingly obligatory "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid." However, four were new to me: Hooper's "Carnivorine," Gilman's "The Giant Wistaria," McNeile's "The Green Death," and Vane's "The Moaning Lily." I enjoyed all of them, but especially the last one--with its transparently Freudian flower and over-the-top dialogue, it's a pulp classic (it originally appeared in Wonder Stories). And for anyone questioning the inclusion of Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night," editor Daisy Butcher is well aware that the story is about fungi rather than plants. The British Library are really putting out some good stuff of late. But I'm biased, having always enjoyed the evil vegetation sub-genre - think early episodes of The Avengers with Steed hacking at tendrils with a brolly or Tom Baker-era Dr Who fighting off The Crinoid or some other green plague. : ( Peterson's Magazine, 1889). Widow Lambert requests narrator Mr. Graham find her son, Julius, a botanist, who has gone missing in Rome while pursuing mad scientific experiments. He is believed to have become romantically involved with a woman known as 'Carnivorine' who, Mrs. Lambert reasons, can only be after him for his vast fortune. Carnivore has indeed impacted on the young bachelor's finances - she is a giant Drosera, "a sort of vegetable Hydra"/octopus the size of a conservatory who feasts on chunks of raw meat. It does not do to stand close to its ever-ravenous monstrosity. Only disappointment is the ease with which Graham subdues the monster plant, but at least Drosera got in some serious man-eating beforehand. Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Giant Wistaria: ( New England Magazine, June 1891. As by Charlotte P. Stetson). "Truth lies hid in a well. And so too a dreadful secret. Samuel Dwining disowns his daughter for falling pregnant out of wedlock. He insists the girl marry a cousin she despises - for some reason, the fool has long been sweet on her - and that her baby go to orphanage. Suppose she refuses? Then she will never again see the light of day. A century later, the long abandoned Dwining house, now overrun by monstrous vegetation, is widely regarded as haunted. Newlyweds George and Jenny take a lease on the property, invite along friends for a ghost hunt. Ambrose Bierce - A Vine on a House: ( Cosmopolitan, Oct. 1905). A 'haunted' house in Missouri, last occupied by the Harding family. According to her husband, Matilda Harding was never again seen or heard from since leaving on a visit to her mother in Ohio. Two years on from Matilda's disappearance, Harding, his alleged lover, and the children likewise vanished. The house is now notable for an enormous upright vine, which vibrates constantly as though determined to attract attention. Eventually it's decided to dig up the ever swaying creeper at the roots ..... Emma Vane - The Moaning Lily: ( Wonder Stories, 1935). Carl Brense, MAD BOTANIST, returns to New York from Brazil pale, cadaverous but triumphant, having kept good his word to find the super-blossom to take the world by storm. "Imagine a white lily with a red top and red center. It is dazzling! And that is not all. Step up closer and observe that the opening of the lily is remarkably like a human mouth! There are distinctly two red lips with a long tongue emerging between!" And it moans. Brense is renowned for audacious plant-grafting. What devilry has he been up to this time? Following story notes tarted up (or not) from elsewhere on board. Howard R. Garis - Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant: ( Argosy, Aug. 1905). MAD BOTANIST takes to feeding his pet Brazilian pitcher plant raw beefsteak to see what happens. What happens is, the fly-trap grows, and grows, and grows, and .... . One day at feeding time, Jonkins falls from a ladder straight into its gaping maw. Can his smarmy pal, Bradley Adams, cut Jonkins free before he's fully digested? Generic man-eating plant story (to be fair, they all are), its fatal flaw is complete lack of death-of-loveable-household-pet sequence. The basics, Mr. Garis. The basics. Arthur Conan Doyle - The American's Tale: ( London Society, Dec. 1880). Humiliated by quiet English bloke Tom Scott in Simpsons Bar, roughneck Alabama Joe Hawkins sets out to ambush him at midnight in Flytrap Gulch. Come the following morning, Scott is still hale and hearty but there's no sign of Hawkins. The American contingent decide that Scott must have murdered him, and lead him out to the Gulch for lynching. Tom's countrymen lie in wait by an enormous flytrap. It's looking like somebody could get hurt - until monster plant grosses everyone out, parting it's leaves to show off the remnants of its last meal ... H. G. Wells - The Flowering of the Strange Orchid: ( Pall Mall Budget, Aug 2 1894). His housekeeper takes an instant dislike to the orchid - "it looks like a spider shamming dead" - but Mr. Winter-Wedderburn, believing he may have an entirely new species on his hands, and cultivates the flower with loving care. Shame about poor old Batten, who died horribly in a mangrove swamp before he could get home to proclaim his discovery.
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Post by dem on Oct 7, 2020 17:56:12 GMT
 James Durden: ( The Strand, Nov. 1915). All the boys lust after Miss Ernestine Meutys, while finding nothing the least desirable about Amelia Davenant, nineteen, her timid, supposedly 'plain' best friend. That night at the Doricourt party, two of Ernestine's would-be lovers challenge one another to take turns at sleeping inside the host's vine-infested, haunted pavilion where, family legend has it, a dozen people have met mysterious ends. The wager appeals to Miss Meutys vanity - two boys fighting over little her, etc - but Amelia is noticeably more upset about their antics than she should be. Its been a long time, and I'd forgotten just how magnificently miserable this story really is.  James Durden: ( The Black Cat, Sept. 1896). Lenartson defies fool fisherman yarns of phantom hounds and curses to seek out "Captain Kidd's treasure" on the Mysterious Island. No sooner has he set foot on the island than a friendly dog leads him to a decrepit stone mansion and, lying therein a dying old lady. From her incoherent rambles he gathers that, during the Revolution, the woman, a Monarchist,fled France with her mistress's gold. But how came she here and what's all this mumbo jumbo about "the devil weed"? |
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Post by PeterC on Oct 7, 2020 18:06:12 GMT
Is the editor’s name a sly joke?
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 7, 2020 18:21:30 GMT
James Durden E. Nesbit - The Pavilion: ( The Strand, Nov. 1915). All the boys lust after Miss Ernestine Meutys, while finding nothing the least desirable about Amelia Davenant, nineteen, her timid, supposedly 'plain' best friend. That night at the Doricourt party, two of Ernestine's would-be lovers challenge one another to take turns at sleeping inside the host's vine-infested, haunted pavilion where, family legend has it, a dozen people have met mysterious ends. The wager appeals to Miss Meutys vanity - two boys fighting over little her, etc - but Amelia is noticeably more upset about their antics than she should be. Its been a long time, and I'd forgotten just how magnificently miserable this story really is. For anyone who wants a taster of "Evil Roots", "The Pavillion" is available at archive.org. & is a mere (but I gather deliciously horrible) 11 pages. EDIT: Never mind, it's badly digitized so not really readable. |
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Post by dem on Oct 8, 2020 13:31:03 GMT
 Chas Crombie: ( The Strand, August, September 1920). It's all looking beastly for young Bill Brabazon, accused of the murder of that horsey-laughed "swine-emperor" Denton st Sir Robert's house party. Bill readily admits to landing a punch on Denton's nose, but swears the bounder was alive when he left him. The police are called. By the time Inspector Grayson arrives, the corpse has travelled across the windowsill and outside onto a flowerbed - where it's been strangled! How very unEnglish! What the deuce can it all mean? Maudlin party guest Major Seymour - who despises himself a "hopeless cripple" on account of his war injuries - believes Brabazon is innocent. With the boy's life in the balance, the much-travelled major sets to solving the mystery, regaining his mojo and landing a wife in the process. Huzzah! What a jolly good show everything is!  Chas Crombie
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Post by dem on Oct 10, 2020 16:00:09 GMT
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini's Daughter: (U. S. Magazine & Democratic Review, Dec. 1844). Ignoring the advice of Professor Baglioni, Giovanni Guasconti, newly arrived at the University of Sadau, initiates a romance with the reclusive daughter of the mad botanist, Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini. Beatrice Rappaccini has never been known to wander beyond the confines her father's garden - with good reason. Turns out the Doctor's insane zeal for science comes at the expense of his own humanity. Giovanni realises too late that the most poisonous of the Franken-flowers in Rappacini's synthetic Eden is his own daughter. Personal pick of Hawthorne's supernatural/ horror shorts, almost a Romeo and Juliet for triffids. I'm no good at sub-texts so most likely I'm reading/ hallucinating a warning against drug addiction where there isn't one?
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Post by Dr Strange on Oct 10, 2020 19:37:15 GMT
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini's Daughter: ( U. S. Magazine & Democratic Review, Dec. 1844)... most likely I'm reading/ hallucinating a warning against drug addiction where there isn't one? I vaguely remembered having read somewhere that Hawthorne had some connection with the early days of homeopathy in America. Turns out he was very much a believer in homeopathy (and his wife Sophia Peabody came from a prominent family of homeopaths), and so he took the general view that the drugs being used in mainstream medicine were much more likely to kill you than to cure you - which was probably more or less the case at the time he was writing. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Oct 11, 2020 8:36:34 GMT
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini's Daughter: ( U. S. Magazine & Democratic Review, Dec. 1844)... most likely I'm reading/ hallucinating a warning against drug addiction where there isn't one? I vaguely remembered having read somewhere that Hawthorne had some connection with the early days of homeopathy in America. Turns out he was very much a believer in homeopathy (and his wife Sophia Peabody came from a prominent family of homeopaths), and so he took the general view that the drugs being used in mainstream medicine were much more likely to kill you than to cure you - which was probably more or less the case at the time he was writing. At that time the doctor's choices were easy, if limited - Opium, Aspirin or Epsom Salts. Or combinations thereof... |
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Post by dem on Oct 11, 2020 9:33:53 GMT
I vaguely remembered having read somewhere that Hawthorne had some connection with the early days of homeopathy in America. Turns out he was very much a believer in homeopathy (and his wife Sophia Peabody came from a prominent family of homeopaths), and so he took the general view that the drugs being used in mainstream medicine were much more likely to kill you than to cure you - which was probably more or less the case at the time he was writing. At that time the doctor's choices were easy, if limited - Opium, Aspirin or Epsom Salts. Or combinations thereof... It was an opiate came to mind as I was reading it. That's me about done with Evil Roots. The Merritt, Hodgson and MR James stories are all brilliant in their ways: they are also relatively fresh in my mind, and have no wish to revisit them just now. While some of the editor's selections are a little over-familiar - to we decrepit old timers, at least - for this reader it is certainly among the most consistently rewarding of the Tales of the Weird series sampled to date. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 22, 2021 22:34:12 GMT
While some of the editor's selections are a little over-familiar - to we decrepit old timers, at least - for this reader it is certainly among the most consistently rewarding of the Tales of the Weird series sampled to date.
Evil Roots editor Daisy Butcher and Janette Leaf are co-editing a new entry in the Tales of the Weird series: Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect World. Sounds grand! |
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