Re: Classics and Contemporaries: Some Notes on Horror Fiction - S.T. Joshi
Posted by:
jimrockhill2001 (IP Logged)
Date: 26 July, 2009 03:06PM
Has this Aickman/Campbell conspiracy theory ever gone beyond the bitter conjectures of a single man? And has anyone ever produced a shred of evidence to support it? A person can express any opinion on the internet
I echo Wilum's assessment of Campbell's work. The novels do not all work for me, but about half of them do so remarkably well. Of his short stories, I think DEMONS BY DAYLIGHT, DARK COMPANIONS, and ALONE WITH THE HORRORS are superb collections; if the other collections are not as consistently excellent as these three, each of them contains at least a handful of fine, haunting work. His attention to language, evocation of atmosphere, grasp of character and ability to blur the line between neurosis and the numinous are masterful.
The 2006 edition to the Oxford Companion to English Literature did not single out Campbell's work for praise based on a whim.
Ligotti is also excellent, but of more limited range; Klein's work never seems to have captured the level of the novellas he wrote up to the publication of DARK GODS; which leaves only a few other authors currently writing supernatural fiction whose work I believe rivals that of Campbell in concept, execution, and range - of those, I would rank the still too-little-known Reggie Oliver the best.
Jim