Let's try to change the subject a bit around here, I think there's more cheeriness in Baath Party HQ in Baghdad right now than on this list. :=) When Jim Turner edited A RENDEZVOUS IN AVEROIGNE, he originally intended to include both "The Double Shadow" and "A Night in Malneant" among its contents. (Strangely enough, when CAS was first compiling the contents of OUT OF SPACE AND TIME, he wrote August Derleth that once he had selected those two, his choices became harder!) Well, for space reasons he had to eliminate these tales. Personally, these are two of my favorites, and if I were editing the collection I would have left out a couple of Zothique stories, specifically "The Charnel God" and "The Garden of Adompha," and possibly "Necromancy in Naat." I would also have included "The Demon of the Flower." What changes would you make to the Table of Contents of a "Best of CAS," using RENDEZVOUS as a template: drop this, add that, and so forth. I like "The Double Shadow" for its statements about language, "A Night in Malneant" for its style and sense of loss, and "The Demon of the Flower" for its sheer imaginative spectacle and sense of doom. I would drop "The Charnel God" because it is, IMO, a bit too conventional (!) for a Smith story (since the lovers are reunited, it is technically a comedy, as is "Necromancy in Naat"). "Necromancy in Naat" seems to me more than a little repetitious of "The Empire of the Necromancers," although the plot is more developed, it's not that I dislike the story but rather it is that I like others better. As for "Adompha," to me it seems too conventional compared to the other Zothique stories. If it were written by anyone other than CAS I'd probably hail it as a masterpiece, but compared to the cosmic sweep of "The Dark Eidolon" or "The Last Hieroglyph," it doesn't do stand up as well. Anyway, as Dennis Miller says, that's my opinion, I could be wrong.
Best, Scott

I would like to see the short stories (even the related poetry and plays) compiled according to setting. Perhaps I'm too literal in wanting A RENDEZVOUS IN AVEROIGNE to rendezvous in Averoigne, but that's what I'd like for my collection.

Interesting. So you would prefer to have all of the stories that CAS wrote for a particular milieu, be it Mars, Hyperborea, Poseidonis or Xiccarph, together, even though that would mean omitting superior stories. **Pondering**
As I see it, there are basically four ways to organize Smith's stories: by setting, by quality of stories, by chronology of composition, and totally random. Lin Carter (and Ron Hilger) have attempted the first, and Don Fryer the last in his Timescape series. RENDEZVOUS was intended to be "the best fantastic stories of Clark Ashton Smith," encompassing his best work in all settings. Inclusion of all the stories from a particular setting was not among the original parameters (although, interestingly enough, I note that my inclusion of "The Double Shadow" would have assembled all of the Poseidonis stories together, save only "A Vintage from Atlantis," and I regard it as peripheral anyway). The problem that one runs into with the setting organization is that one must of necessity include inferior stories, for example using "The Disinternment of Venus" in place of "The City of the Singing Flame," or "The Satyr" in place of "Genius Loci." Remember that we are dealing with just one volume here. Best, Scott

I know. So my wants aren't really relevant to a "best of" collection. It's probably more of a mini-encyclopedia that I would like to see, with each volume a stand-alone collection. Just wishful thinking.

I have a hard time whittling the "best of" down to a single volume. An answer might take a few days.

This may be a controversial proposition, but my first suggestion would be to change the title of the anthology. This is because I would excise all the Averoigne tales but "The Colossus of Ylourgne". I tend to agree with those who think that this is CAS's weakest and most conventional story cycle. I don't dislike it, mind you, but I don't think that it represents CAS's best work. (By the way, I've heard that a tale in one of Clive Barker's Books of Blood was, ahem, inspired by this story of CAS's).

I would certainly keep "The Charnel God". Given that it has a "happy ending", I would argue that that actually makes it relatively unique within CAS's fictional canon. Also, I'm very partial to the "Zothique" cycle and its bizarre melding of the necrophilia of Beddoes and the cosmicism of Lovecraft. As a friend of mine put it, the Zothique cycle is CAS "with the brakes off".

Additions: "The Double Shadow", to be sure. Also, "The Weaver in the Vault", one of my very favorites. I'd substitute "The Plutonian Drug" for "The Planet of the Dead". "The Return of the Sorceror" is one of CAS's finest "pure" horror tales, and it deserves inclusion, as well. I'd substitute "The White Sybil" for either "Avoosl Wuthoqquan" or "Satampra Zeiros"; I don't think that we need both of these quasi-picaresque Hyperborean tales. To conclude, I'd add a couple of early short stories that are perhaps more poems in prose than straightforward fiction: "The Ninth Skeleton" and the magisterial "Abominations of Yondo". I suspect, however, that I may have inadvertently over-extended the length of the anthology by now. Although I prefer CAS the poet to CAS the fictioneer, I do think that a representative selection of his best fiction would likely fill two volumes. (I'd like to squeeze "The Devotee of Evil" into here, too, somehow!)

Just for fun: What does everyone here think is CAS's worststory? I haven't read all of the SF hackwork for Gernsback and others that might otherwise qualify, but my vote for now goes to "The Phantoms of the Fire".

Also, as an afterthought, I would excise all the silly illustrations by Jeffrey K. Potter (perhaps the second edition has done so already). A friend of mine felt so strongly about the way they detract from the tales that he tore them all out of his copy of the book!

Cheers, and de gustibus....

Interesting selection, Kevin. Turner omitted both "The Return of the Sorceror" and "Ubbo-Sathla" from RENDEZVOUS because they were in print, and would remain in print, in TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS. There is also a certain "over the top" element in "Sorceror" that showed up well in the NIGHT GALLERY episode. For pure horror it is hard to beat "The Seed from the Sepulcher." I have to admit that I could easily omit the title story myself, but CAS was himself quite fond of it. I would also have included the original version of "The BEast of Averoigne;" perhaps ditching the two vampire stories, both of which are overanthologized anyway, would have created the room.
I agree totally with you about Zothique being CAS' best cycle, "CAS with the brakes off indeed!", but it is also his longest one, and once one has mounted the dizzying heights of "The Dark Eidolon" or "Xeethra," one can still plunge to the depths of "The Weaver in the Vault": again, not a [/b]bad[b] story, just not one of what I'd call his best.
Your selection of Hyperborean tales is harder to assail. "The Weird of Avoosl Wothoqquan" is perhaps my favorite CAS story, and "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" not only introduces Tsathoggua but also introduces CAS' only serial character not an omnipotent archmage! Still, I agree that "The White Sybil" has some of his best writing.
I would have liked to have squeezed in "The Plutonian Drug," also "The Demon of the Flower," but "The Planet of the Dead" so beautifully expresses one of CAS' chief themes that there is no way in Malebolge that I could omit it.
"The Phantoms of the Fire" is a weak story, but it contains some fine descriptions of his real-life environment, and it is also one of his few attempts at a realistic style. There is a bleakness and despair worthy of Bierce in the climax. I would personally rank some of his "stf" as his weakest work, possibly "The Immortals of Mercury," and I have always been astounded at the frequency with which "The Root of Ampoi" has been selected to appear in paperback collections of CAS' work!
Best,
Scott

Scott,

Thanks for the information regarding the reasons for the omission of "The Return of the Sorceror" and "Ubbo-Sathla"; I wasn't aware of them. How in the name of Tsathoggua I forgot to mention "Ubbo-Sathla", I cannot fathom. My fondness for this tale is so immoderate that I used it as the title of the longest track of my debut EP CD-R (I have a computer/electroacoustic/dark ambient music project called Bestia Centauri). I'm also glad that you mentioned "The Seed from the Sepulcher"; I almost did so, myself. That is one of CAS's finest forays into "pure" horror, and, space permitting, I'd like to see it in a "best of CAS" anthology.

I agree that the length of the "Zothique" cycle demands difficult choices, but I must take up the cudgels on behalf of the "Weaver". I consider it to be one of CAS's finest and most underrated weird tales. There, the morbidity of Beddoes and Poe (the premature burial theme) most poignantly meets the cosmic outsideness and strangeness of Lovecraft, represented here by the hovering inhabitants of the vault--a very potent and haunting mix, I think. Of course, its plot is slender, almost threadbare, but that is true of the majority of CAS's tales, I think. Not that that is a criticism--at least, not from me. I prefer to read CAS's tales as extended poems in prose. Of course, as always, tastes will differ. For instance, I'm not that keen on "Avoosl Wuthoqquan", myself, but, in addition to yourself and others, Boris Karloff seems to have liked it, as he included it in his interesting and worthwhile 1946 horror anthology And the Darkness Falls. (The tale is credited to "Clark A. Smith"!)

Regarding the lesser works: I confess that I think more poorly of "The Phantoms of the Fire" than you do; the attempt at dialect really sinks it, I think. You're perceptive in pointing out the Bierce influence, though. I believe there is a letter to HPL in which CAS mentions that he "prefers nearly all his other stories" to this one. As I mentioned, I need to read more of the "stf" hackwork, as I imagine most CAS scholars would agree that, just as "Zothique" contains his finest fiction, the "stf" contains his worst.

To conclude, here are a few other favorites that would help to fill, for me, at least, a second volume of the best of CAS:

"A Tale of Sir John Maundeville"

(also very underrated, I think)

"The Devotee of Evil"

(as mentioned previously. I'm going to use physical modeling sound synthesis techniques one day to attempt to create a software emulation of the gongs that form Jean Averaud's strange instrument. If my posts someday should suddenly cease, then you'll know what happened. ;-) )

"The Immeasurable Horror"

(wonderful extra-human atmospheres here; this is about the only kind of SF that I enjoy)

"The Testament of Athammaus"

(talk about "over the top"!)

"The Voyage of King Euvoran"

(surprisingly poignant for a Hyperborean tale)

"The Seed from the Sepulcher" (as mentioned above).

By the way, did Jim Turner correct the errors from the original Derleth-era Arkham House printings for the re-printing of the tales in Rendezvous?

Erratum:

I just remembered that "The Voyage of King Euvoran" is, in fact, a tale of Zothique, not of Hyperborea.

Ah, but it was originally [/i]planned[i]to be a tale of Hyperborea, and certainly in its tone it is much more akin to such "picarisque" (sp?) Hyperborean grotesques as "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" than to another tale of a doomed protagonist, "The Last Hieroglyph." (Come to think of it, I think that one of the Hyperborean stories might have been originally planned as a Zothique story as well; it's late and I'm too lazy to look it up. :-) ) Best, Scott

Quote:

Ah, but it was originally plannedto be a tale of Hyperborea, and certainly in its tone it is much more akin to such "picarisque" (sp?) Hyperborean grotesques as "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" than to another tale of a doomed protagonist, "The Last Hieroglyph."

Yes, my tardy recollection of that fact is what led to my "erratum" post. The fact that this tale shares stylistic aspects of both the Hyperborean and Zothiquean cycles contributed to my momentary confusion. Although the elements of the grotesque predominate, the tale has a wistful and poignant tone absent from most of the other Hyperborean stories ("The White Sybil" excepted), which is one reason why I list it among my second tier of favorites.

Dear Friends: note from the memory vault --

Clark considered "Double-Shadow" one of two of his very best.
I stand with those who like "Weaver", and I have always read
and re-read "Charnel God" for pleasure - I have not seen the
list for a "best of..." collection, but I had a pleasant evening
discussing "The Black Abbott...", which remains one of my
favorites. Certainly "La Mere des Crapauds" for sheer capacity
to bring one to vomitous horror is hard to match - -
"Voyage" is also a great tale. I will support Scott on the
"Avoosl.." tale. It is a little masterpiece of satire against
a local merchant whose wiles had a comeuppance at some time in
Auburn - I wish I could remember the name. Clark used many
names of local "old-town Auburn's" denizens.
Dr. F

Dr. Farmer, let me see if I understand this correctly: you are suggesting that Clark had a particular merchant from Auburn in mind when he wrote "Avoosl Wuthoqquan?" Now [/i]that[i] is indeed an intriguing revelation, since Smith is not generally thought of as a writer of personal satires, unlike Lovecraft whose pen was deadlier than most firearms when it came to writing invective verse (viz. "Medusa: A Portrait"). If the story dated from the 1940s, one could imagine that CAS had in mind the undertaker whose dunning forced him to sell most of his acreage to Greeley Harrington, which of course opened a whole 'nother can of worms down the road.
Incidently, Arkham House now has copies of the reprint of RENDEZVOUS for sale, which of course would allow you to renew many old acquaintances. Incidently, the idea of this thread is to see what changes each of us would make in RENDEZVOUS, which of course was originally simply THE BEST FANTASTIC STORIES OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH. When we consider a story, therefore, we must not only evaluate it against our own fondness for it, but also in comparison to the rest of CAS's work. In other words, if we had to rate each of CAS's stories individually against one another, even if we loved each and every one dearly--even "An Adventure in Futurity" or "A Captivity in Serpens"--what would be the top thirty stories so rated? Taking this, how would your top 30 differ from Turner's?
Well, I have finally finished the galley proofs on SL, now to mail them back. :-) Now back to some work for St. Joshi... . Best, Scott

Here's the final contents list for my "ideal" third edition of A Rendezvous in Averoigne. My sole selection criteria are my opinion of the quality of the individual tales and, with this fact in mind, a desire to include a representative selection of CAS's work. Italicized titles represent my additions to the anthology; a list of tales deleted from the current edition follows the main contents listing.


New Anthology Title: The Dark Eidolon or The Last Hieroglyph

Also: Get rid of the Potter illustrations.


AVEROIGNE

The Beast of Averoigne (original version)

The Colossus of Ylourgne


ATLANTIS

The Last Incantation

The Death of Malygris

A Voyage to Sfanamoe


POSEIDONIS

The Double Shadow


HYPERBOREA

The Seven Geases

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros

The Coming of the White Worm

The White Sybil

Ubbo-Sathla



LOST WORLDS [I'm using this for now as a "catch-all" category.]

The City of the Singing Flame

The Dweller in the Gulf

The Chain of Aforgomon

Genius Loci

The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis

The Demon of the Flower

Master of the Asteroid

The Plutonian Drug

The Devotee of Evil

The Abominations of Yondo

The Ninth Skeleton


ZOTHIQUE

The Empire of the Necromancers

The Charnel God

Xeethra

The Dark Eidolon

The Weaver in the Vault

The Death of Ilalotha

The Isle of the Torturers

The Last Hieroglyph


Deletions:

The Holiness of Azederac

The End of the Story

A Rendezvous in Averoigne

The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan

The Maze of Maal Dweb

The Uncharted Isle

The Planet of the Dead

Necromancy in Naat

The Garden of Adompha

Morthylla

I've just received some copies of "Rendezvous II" and I'm sorry to say the Potter illustrations (or whatever they are) are still present. The book appears exactly the same except for using a different font on the story titles, etc., and of course the cover art is different. (I'm afraid I prefer the original)
I agree with those who find it difficult to select only 25 or 30 tales to include in a "Best Of" collection. This means omitting too many excellent stories. I feel that Smith was very consistent in the quality of his tales and that approximately half of his total output falls into the "outstanding" category. Of course there are some real duds (The Phantoms of the Fire is no favorite of mine) and when Smith was writing to suit the editors who "vanted more ekshun", and "outer space stories" the result was the Volmar tales which amounted to little more than hackwork.
I agree that "Rendezvous" is a poor choice as a title story for the collection, but disagree that the Averoigne series as a whole is weak. More conventional than Zothique or Hyperborea certainly, but I wouldn't call it weak. Of course CAS himself felt he was at his best when he created EVERYTHING about a tale, and the setting of medieaval France meant that he was restricted by the existing framework of that historic realm and region. I think the basic difference is that Averoigne is super-romantic in the same way Zothique is super-decadant, and of course different themes appeal to different readers. I would substitute "The Beast of Averoigne" for "Rendezvous" and leave the others intact.
I would include "The Double Shadow" and "The White Sybil" and omit "The Uncharted Isle" and "The Charnel God". But again, I hate to omit any tales. In my opinion ALL of Smith's stories should be divided into eight collections according to setting where possible and by theme for the rest. Sure, there are many tales which fall short of the basic standard of excellence, but this has never stopped other writers (Lovecraft, Poe, Bierce, etc) from being collected in their entirety.
-Ron:-D

Ron writes, "In my opinion ALL of Smith's stories should be divided into eight collections according to setting where possible and by theme for the rest." (Pause for me to do my Dwight Frye as Renfield imitation: "Hehhehheh.")
"Be careful what you wish for... ."
Cryptically, Scott (who shall say no more, know what I mean, nudge nudge)