Hello.

Does anybody know about weird fiction stories that are set in WW1? I have always found The Great War to be terrible and fascinating at the same time but it does not seem to have appealled to authors of horror at all. (unlike the WW2) The few examples I know of are:

The Grave (1923) by Orville E. Emerson
Three Lines Of Old French (1919) by Abraham Merritt
The Angels Of Mons (1915) Arthur Machen

The DeathWatch (a movie from 2002)

- "The Temple" (1925), by H.P. Lovecraft
- "Dagon" (1919), by H.P. Lovecraft.
- "Herbert West - Reanimator" (1922), by H.P. Lovecraft.
- "Out of the Earth" (1915), by Arthur Machen.
- "The Bowmen" (1915), by Arthur Machen (I think this is the same story you call "The Angels of Mons").
- "The Terror" (1916), by Arthur Machen.
- CASPAK TRILOGY: "The Land that Time Forgot" (1918), "The People That Time Forgot" (1918), and "Out of Time's Abyss" (1918), by E.R. Burroughs.
- "The Baumoff Explosive" (1919), by William Hope Hodgson.

Well, I expressed myself badly. I mean stories that take part in the trenches.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 Jul 22 | 06:07AM by Minicthulhu.

Minicthulhu Wrote:
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> Well, I expressed myself badly. I mean stories
> that take part in the trenches.

Sorry. In that case I'm coming up empty.

In "Pickman's Model", by H.P. Lovecraft, it is hinted that the narrator and Eliot were together in France where they saw grim sights. I guess this means they were in the trenches together. Either that, or they attended a really decadent art show.

The Great War episode of "Herbert West" (Chapter 5) does take place in Flanders in March, 1915. But of course it does not take place in the trenches themselves, but in a field hospital "behind the lines".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 Jul 22 | 12:57PM by Platypus.

The Phantom Corporeal (1927) by Nevil Gow.

"And the Dead Spake" (1922), by E.F. Benson, is set in London during the air-raids.

It does not fit your narrower criteria through.

I read "And The Dead Spake" years ago but for the life of me I cannot remember what the story is about. It has stuck in my mind only because of the archaic "spake" instead of more modern "spoke." Benson is not my cup of tea but some of his stories are quite good, for example "The Horror-Horn" or "The Flint Knife."

Yesterday I came across another piece of weird fiction set in the WW1 battlefields. The title is "The Angel of Marne" and it was written by Albert Sewell in 1929.

"And the Dead Spake" has a sort of Herbert West vibe to it, in terms of its themes. The ending is weak, though. I enjoyed "The Flint Knife". I shall have to seek out "The Horror Horn".

The Horror-Horn can be found here:
[www.gutenberg.org]

I also enjoyed "The Closed Window" by E.F.Benson‘s brother, A.C.Benson.