Duane Parsons [ed.] - The Night Season

[peedeel]

Feb 8, 2022 16:17:13 GMT dem bones said:

Feb 8, 2022 8:38:57 GMT peedeel said:

It's my understanding that Mary Shelly took up residence in Harlow [not Harrow] in May 1833.

Thanks, Mr. P. Do you have a source for this? It's just that, those books consulted are agreed on Harrow-Hill, Mary evidently keen that her son be educated at Byron's old school, provided he did not have to endure fagging [apparently, she was assured he would not, which seems unlikely given the school's appalling reputation, and this even before the headmastership of the sainted Dr. Vaughan, forced to resign when J. A. Symond's father threatened to make public his decades of child molestation (he took another financially rewarding post up North and, presumably, carried on where he left off).



Dear Dem, One should never pay too much attention to an old idiot. Yes, I can name two sources for this information, but it’s obviously a misprint that’s been copied from one source to another [The Androom Archives]! The trusty Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology & Resource Site set me right.

What is really embarrassing is the fact I lived in West Harrow for thirty-odd years and was well aware of the links with Mary and her son to Harrow on the Hill. My only excuse is that I left there forty years ago in in the intervening time my brain has softened.

I quote this from Mary’s Journal:

‘I am disturbed by Percy’s big bill & resolve on going to Harrow & having him as a home boarder.’

‘Every morning, Mary could hear the rattle of the oyster-cart being wheeled up the hill, carrying not-so-fresh Billingsgate wares, and the giggles of the housemaids at the water pump…’

This last from Miranda Seymour’s Mary Shelly

(I wonder if that water pump is anything to do with the ‘water fountain’ in the high Street?)

Well, my apologies for spreading despair and despondency. It’s not the first time I’ve changed history. But, alas, I still cannot find an address on the hill for Mary.

It's just possible The Harrow Hill Trust may be able to help. I believe they produce a leaflet on historical sites on the hill.

[dem bones]

Feb 9, 2022 13:36:33 GMT peedeel said:

It's just possible The Harrow Hill Trust may be able to help. I believe they produce a leaflet on historical sites on the hill.

Thanks so much, Mr. P. Will give the Harrow Hill Trust a go. This time last year, I visited St. Mary's church, hoping they still produced a booklet. They do, the rector's wife assured me, but she couldn't get inside the church as it was locked up due to the virus.

A West Harrow man! I grew up a few miles away in Wealdstone and worked on Hill for a few years. The 'water pump' on West Street and fountain of today are surely one and the same.

Later

"The Town Pump was at the junction of High Street and West Street, in front of Goshawks photographic studio, The pump was replaced by the polished granite fountain in 1881"

— Eileen M. Bowlt, Harrow Past, Historical Publications, 2000).

[dem bones]

Louisa Stuart Costello - La Malroche: (Legends of the Monts-Dores; II, Ainsworth's magazine, 1842). Escures, a small French village at the foot of a shunned mountain. When heavily pregnant Ursule, falls ill, husband Cyprien, the craftsman (he specialises in providing tsabrettas for the dance) seeks the help of La Bonne Femme, the locally despised and feared midwife. The old woman, infamous for her inability to forget a slight, safely delivers the child, makes loving noises toward the mother, and departs. It is soon horribly apparent that the baby is possessed by an evil spirit — La Bonne Femme has not forgiven Ursule's mother for once referring to her as "the old witch."

The venerable Cure of St. Suaves eventually rids the child of it's demons, whereupon La Bonne Femme spontaneously combusts. Her bones are buried up top of La Malroche, but still she plagues the district in the guise of a phantom werewolf!

Auguste Vitu - The Three Visits: (International Monthly Magazine of Literature, Science and Art, 1850). General Vergamier is haunted by the benevolent ghost of his best friend, Charles de Mancel, slain on the battlefield in Algiers, who twice returns to deliver him from desperately tricky spots. Both are aware that the third visit will be the last.

Alexandre Chatrian & Émile Erckmann - Lieutenant Castenac (Le talion: (1862). Account provided by the surgeon-major stationed at the Constantine military hospital. Castenac, despised by all as a bully and a coward, murders Raymond Duterte, a love rival and strings up his corpse for the birds of prey to destroy. Duterte takes it badly.

Lafcadio Hearn - The Black Cupid: (New Orleans Item, 29 July 1880). The ghost of a murdered beauty haunts the a portrait painted by the madman who killed her. Lafcadio is helpless but to plant kiss after kiss on her lovely painted lips.

[dem bones]

Paul Hardy (A Torture by Hope, The Strand June 1891)

Villiers de l'Isle-Adam - Torture by Hope: (1883) Dominican prior Pedro Arbuez d' Espila visits the prisoner in his cell to break the good news — his year of agonizing torture nears it's end. Tomorrow he will be slowly burnt alive at the auto de fe. The doomed Rabbi Aser Abarbane hardly dare believe it but, so excited is the Grand Inquisitor at the prospect of roasting heretic flesh, he neglected to lock the door behind him ....

Paul Hardy (The Bundle of Letters, The Strand, July 1891)

Mor Jokai - The Bundle of Letters: (The Strand, July 1891). Same story as appears in Mary Danby's 15th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories as The Drop of Blood. A new patient at Dr. K.—'s surgery is cruelly tormented by a phantom pain. Drawing a circle on the back of his hand, he demands that the Doctor cut it away. Dr. K.— flatly refuses. It is only when the stranger insists that he will himself perform the incision that the physician reluctantly relents. The pain is relieved, but a week later; "You have not cut deep enough. It burns me more cruelly than before." What can be the cause of his terrible malady?

Albert Delpit - Nissa: (Les Amours Cruelles, 1884). "My husband has gone to Tehran. We can have a little fun." A young French soldier, stationed in Persia, falls for Nissa, a veiled teenage femme fatale, married to a rich merchant. Her husband, Astoulla, is infamous for his violence. You may not be surprised to learn that this Astoulla arrives home at an inopportune moment. A late personal-favourite-of-book entrant. Outrageous!

A consistently rewarding selection ends on a quiet, slightly incongruous note.

John Galt - The Dream: (Leitch Ritchie [ed.], Library of Romance Vol. IV: The Stolen Child, 1833). Driades the shepherd boy is given to romantic fancies on account of his village schoolmaster father's enthused recitals of courtly pageants and fantastic adventures. Asleep in the field, Driades travels to a distant, wonderful city; "methought the New Jerusalem could present no superior splendour and happiness."

Really, if you are a lover of Gothic - Victorian macabre short fiction, you can't go wrong with The Night Season. A gem.

Paul Hardy (The Bundle of Letters, The Strand, July 1891)

[duane]

I am the person who researched and compiled the selection and I do not lie. My version of this book as submitted consisted of 25 stories not to my knowledge published since the original publication. The publisher decided the book needed a few "name" authors so they added five, which entirely defeated my purpose, which was to create a volume of high quality macabre tales from the golden age of macabre, unknown to modern readers and that I did; it was a labor of love. All were from the 1840s more or less. The five stories added by Wildside were all from the late 19th century, which was entirely outside of my period for this volume, and of course as one might expect of stories by "name" - famous - authors all were famous stories and had been widely reprinted. There was deceit but not on my part. Nor did I authorize the name of the e-book, which was idiotic. THE MACABRE MEGALOAD? Not my title which was fairly elegant, I thought.

[dem bones]

Sorry to hear you had a lousy experience. Zero consolation I know, but The Night season made my most enjoyed reads of 2022 listing. Anyway, I hope you get to do another anthology. Don't let it put you off!

Re Mary Shelley's Harrow address. Headstone Manor Museum kindly got back to me, though seems there's no record of where exactly she stayed on (or possibly at the foot of) the Hill.

[jamesdoig]

Mar 4, 2024 19:15:42 GMT dem bones said:

Sorry to hear you had a lousy experience.

Yes, it is a shame. I didn't realise the book existed - I missed the entire thread - but it looks like a great read and I'll certainly pick it up (and not read the five added stories).