Glad you are enjoying the Thomas Owen volume from Tartarus. I liked it too. Their Marcel Schwob book is also excellent, as if their long out-of-print collection of Jean Lorrain - pray for a reprint. Owen likes to keep his mysteries, I agree, and that can make some of his work very troubling. The translator of both the Owen and Schwob volumes, Iain White, also translated Jean Ray's great short weird novel MALPERTUIS for @las some years ago, and that is also worth looking into. I have heard that he may have some other Ray translations on hand as well, which makes me hope that a future expanded edition of that novel may be possible.

Thanks for the tip on Sologub. I gave up finding any of his work years ago, but will happily follow your lead!

jimrockhill2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Glad you are enjoying the Thomas Owen volume from
> Tartarus. I liked it too. Their Marcel Schwob book
> is also excellent, as if their long out-of-print
> collection of Jean Lorrain - pray for a reprint.
> Owen likes to keep his mysteries, I agree, and
> that can make some of his work very troubling. The
> translator of both the Owen and Schwob volumes,
> Iain White, also translated Jean Ray's great short
> weird novel MALPERTUIS for @las some years ago,
> and that is also worth looking into. I have heard
> that he may have some other Ray translations on
> hand as well, which makes me hope that a future
> expanded edition of that novel may be possible.
>
> Thanks for the tip on Sologub. I gave up finding
> any of his work years ago, but will happily follow
> your lead!

Well, the Ardis version of The Petty Demon is recommended for the extras. If you can track down The Kiss of the Unborn for a reasonable price then that's a great collection, but my introduction to him was the Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, which has some tales not found in Unborn and some poetry too. It's actually a great anthology - there are a few other authors in it that I must track down at some point.

I've shied away from buying the other decadent books you mention from Tartarus, because while I enjoyed The Dedalus Book of French Horror, the stories all seemed much the same to me after a while - with none really standing out. (I guess the same could be said for the Russian collection too, but it just appealed a lot more to me) I shall give them another go one day, as there's one of two interesting omnibuses I've seen that contain Lorrain and Schwob's work, before I'd consider the investment needed to buy their respective Tartarus volumes, although Tartarus seem to be exploring paperbacks for some titles these days, so it might be worth waiting... hmmm... either way I don't have the money right now. I've not read Ray tho... yet another author on my 'to do' list!

Draugen Wrote:
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> Jdworth - regarding Linday's Devils Tor, it was
> reprinted recently as a fairly cheap print on
> demand by someone called Resonance books. Not
> usually a fan of POD, but how else are we going to
> get these? And they are fairly well done for PODs.
> I picked up Devils Tor and Sphinx from them, not
> sure if they are still in print or not.. also, I
> havn't read them. Only the outstanding Voyage to
> Arcturus, and also the Haunted Woman which is also
> good, but not on the same level as Arcturus.


Many thanks. I'm currently in such a tight financial positiom that I can't see my way to purchasing much of anything outside of necessities, but I very much appreciate the information and, should I have a windfall.....

I just have to share my favourite couple of sentences in horror fiction, thanks to Thomas Owen: "She held her hands out before her, at chest level, after the fashion of a person who has been pressing redcurrants to make jelly. But there are no redcurrants to be had in May, and she did not seem to be of the jam-making sort."

Sublime!

Just out of curiosity, has anyone started reading S.T. Joshi's new book, "Unutterable Horror"? I only received my copy last week, but from what I've seen so far, I'd have to say that it was a good buy. It deals with any number of "lesser known" authors, and has given me a long list of people to look up. (I fear it will not be good for my meager savings account, however!)

Off the top of my head, here are a few modern authors whom I'd never heard of, that were favorably reviewed by Joshi: David Case (I just purchased "Third Grave" and one other that looked interesting), Michael Mcdowell ("Katie", "The Amulet", "The Blackwater Series", "Elementals"), Norman Partridge ("Slippin' Into Darkness"), David Schow (Probably not quite my type, though I think I'll read a book or two), Evangeline Walton ("Witch House"), William Sloane ("Fengriffin", "Beside Running Water", "To Walk the Night"), Nicholas Royle ("Counterparts") and countless others.

Of course, "Unutterable Horror" has a fair amount of plot summaries and "spoilers", though that's not a criticism of the book per se. But if you like to be surprised when you read a suspense or mystery novel, I would suggest skimming "Unutterable Horror" first for authors and book titles, and then come back to the former once you've already read the suggested works.

Needless to say, "Unutterable Horror" is full of Joshi's usual scathing critiques of people he doesn't like, so if that rubs you the wrong way, then you probably won't like the book. I rather enjoy it, but I do find his contempt for anyone who isn't a thorough-going materialist, to be a little off-putting. That qualm aside, however, I'd say it's a first-rate work, highly recommended, and well worth the 130 bucks.

Any thoughts on the names I've listed above? I was hesitating over Mcdowell's "Blackwater" series - a little too campy, perhaps? - but the two by him that I've already purchased("Fengriffen" and "Beside Running Water") look so promising that I think I'll give it a chance. Joshi doesn't mention "Blackwater" in particular, only Sloane's "Beside Running Water" and one or two others. But from Joshi's positive reviews of Sloane the author, and from the encouraging Amazon reviews of "Blackwater", it sounds like it might be fun. Kind of like "Dark Shadows" the novel!

Oh, and as far as I can tell, Joshi doesn't even mention Stefan Grabinski. Which is an unfortunate oversight - especially considering that Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight Series" got a page and a half!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 26 Jan 13 | 03:11AM by Dexterward.

Where to start? FENGRIFFEN is a novel by David Case. William Sloane's novel is entitled THE EDGE OF RUNNING WATER.

Oops, my apologies for the mix-up. Like I said, I'm new to all the above-mentioned books/authors, and I was being lazy and reciting from memory!

That aside, any thoughts on their literary merit?

I remember liking McDowell's THE ELEMENTALS, and several other works of his, but it was a very long time ago.

Yes, The Elementals looked pretty interesting. I wish my copy wasn't so damned tattered and ugly though! But other than paying exorbitant prices, that's the only way to get one's hands on the good out-of-print books!

Also, perhaps Joshi omitted Grabinski in "Unutterable Horror" because he is just dealing with English-speaking weird writers? I will have to double check on that. Now that I think of it, that might be the case. I can't recall, and I can't reference the book at the moment because I'm at work - but I don't want to tax him with anything unfairly!

Dexterward Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, The Elementals looked pretty interesting. I
> wish my copy wasn't so damned tattered and ugly
> though! But other than paying exorbitant prices,
> that's the only way to get one's hands on the good
> out-of-print books!
>
> Also, perhaps Joshi omitted Grabinski in
> "Unutterable Horror" because he is just dealing
> with English-speaking weird writers? I will have
> to double check on that. Now that I think of it,
> that might be the case. I can't recall, and I
> can't reference the book at the moment because I'm
> at work - but I don't want to tax him with
> anything unfairly!

He is dedaling with French- and German-speaking writers as well.

That's true, Martinus, I guess Joshi does mention people like Gautier, Hoffmann and Ewers. So I would argue that Grabinski should be in there as well. However, that's a small quibble, and as I said before, my first impression is that "Unutterable Horror" is quite well done.

I was not too impressed with THE THIRD GRAVE by David Case and recently gave my copy of it to S. T. I think Centipede Press is planning on a huge omnibus of the author's work. FENGRIFFEN (which was filmed as AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS by Amicus) is one of my all-time favorite novels, a classic of authentic Gothic horror--but some of the other horror writers to whom I sent copies in the 1970's were less impress'd with it.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

I remember absolutely nothing about THE THIRD GRAVE, although I know I have read it. Arkham House found it difficult to get rid of---you can still buy brand new hardcover copies of it.

Case, unless I am confusing him with somebody else, also wrote several interesting werewolf stories, one of which frightened me very badly as a child.

Yes, that would be "Wolf Tracks." I know because I have an old beat up copy sitting right in front of me! I'm glad to hear that it's actually scary.

Oh, and that reminds me of another one that I picked up from Joshi's book: "The Were Wolf", by Clemence Housman (The sister of AE Housman) I purchased one of those classic reprint editions the other day, and I'm looking forward to reading it. At any rate, people familiar with it seem to hold it in high esteem.

"The Edge of Running Water" was filmed in 1941 as "The Devil Commands" with Boris Karloff as the lead. Amazon reviewers generally like it.