Gothic gossip.

I was guilty of going off-topic a bit on another thread and it occured to me that we should have a thread for any odds and ends that we think might be of interest to the group.

So here it is.

What prompted this was someone mentioning Daphne du Maurier on another thread and me responding with a couple of irrelevant posts. So I've copied them across here:

"Damn! You've just reminded me of something. BBC Radio 3 or 4 (can't remember which) has been doing a series of newly-discovered Daphne du Maurier stories and I meant to listen in on the website. Completely forgot."

"I didn't bother. Turns out the actual book - The Doll: Short Stories - was published in paperback last week (in the UK, anyway), so I may pick it up.

Whether any of them could be described as Gothic I don't know."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8466387/The-Doll-Short-Stories-by-Daphne-du-M....

ETA - I couldn't get the link to work inside the quotes and italics so if you'd just imagine it as being there ...

As it happens, tempted by a different conversation on another thread (in the Hellfire Group), I succumed, and, I'm glad to say, my copy of The Doll Short Stories arrived this morning. :-)

Must get through a work day before I can plunge into the tales from Daphne.

My second apology time now.

Since my RETURN TO INTERNETLAND I've been thinking 'wow that gothic group went a little quiet didn't it, shame that...'.

Turns out you guys didn't go quiet but my LT homepage was defaulting to show me only threads I had already posted in. Oops. From here on I will try to join in better and stop being a huge failure!

No! No! No! Not failure - Another hapless victim of modern technology. Put blame in the right place - those damned gremlins.

I think I'd rather be a reformed failure than a victim. Victim makes me sound rather meek!

I'm bigger and scarier than any damn tech gremlins! Or something...

Anyway I blame work for making me too busy to think in straight lines (or get any reading done *sob*).

As for going off-topic, I'm always a fan. :D

As for Daphne, I reread a story of hers the other day I always fancied needed a reread, 'The Blue Lenses,' and boy, is she as marvelous as I remember. I'm not sure I'm a big enough fan, though, to warrant purchasing a volume of 'lost stories,' but then, I said that about like, twenty books this year.

And as for you, LA, grace us with your presence whenever you get the chance! I'm actually a little surprised--pleasantly, of course--at how vocal this little group is. When I created it out of 'smokeless fire' I never expected such a great turn out of intelligent, like-minded individuals! I spend most of my time in school explaining that Bauhaus, though great, is not the poster-child for Blackwood. Here, I have no need of that mundane crap. Thanks everybody for making this such a great group!

I was unaware of these new short stories by du Maurier. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

I've only been cursorily interested in her, and have always wanted to read Rebecca some day, but so many books on my reading pile.

But last year I came across a book, Neverland: J. M. Barrie, The Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side of Peter Pan, by an author Piers Dundgeon, who worked with du Maurier on her pictorial memoir Enchanted Cornwall. The book is essentially an expose of sorts of family secrets going back to George du Maurier (author of Trilby), through the Peter Pan era, up to the last years of Daphne's life.

Anyhow, the author analyzes several of her short stories, and how they were an outlet for Daphne's dark family secrets. The book is a little sensational, but it was one of the creepiest, disturbing things I've read in a long time. Since then, I've decided to eventually read through Daphne's oeuvre, which seems to have an entire darker, hidden level that I was completely unaware of.

I must have had a deprived childhood as I've never read any J. M. Barrie. I've actually read very little Daphne D. M. except Rebecca and one or two short stories and nothing of George, but they're among these authors I've long 'meant to' get round to at some point. You've now got me wondering what I might be getting into! Especially having just read the LT review of the Dudgeon by Philotera and her comments on Peter Pan.

I just noticed it's Daphne du Maurier's birthday!

I must read her short story, The Doll, this evening.

Let us know what you think, pgmcc, as that's the one I'm most interested in hearing about!

#11 veilofisis

I enjoyed The Doll and my thoughts are related to its context in terms of who wrote it, and when it was written. The comments below are probably better left until one has already read the story, but having issued that warning I shall plunge ahead.

The structure of the story, i.e. notes found by someone and reported to the reader with some annotation, is probably not something that would work well today, and could be considered a bit redundant.

My understanding is that Du Maurier was only twenty when she wrote this story. That is interesting from a number of angles. Firstly, she puts herself into the mind of an obssessed young man who is driven to distraction by his perceived love of Rebecca. While some of the comments and thoughts of our hapless suitor may come across as somewhat over the top, I think the author did a great job of getting into the feelings of a member of the opposite sex; impressive for one so young.

In terms of Rebecca, Du Maurier demonstrated an intimate understanding of the cold, manipulative mind, actions and techniques of a woman who would use others to satisfy her own desire.

I could be wrong, but when this story was written it was probably considered shocking for a twenty year old woman to produce a story that portrays a woman who is aggressive in the pursuit of her physical love, albeit with an artificial device.

In summary, we have a story of two people with strong obssessions. The man, through his infatuation for the other becomes a toy she uses in an attempt to rouse her passion in readiness for her true love, the doll.

A very itneresting story which shows a maturity of the author in matters other than writing.

Has anyone read Oliver Onions? Project Gutenberg has two collections of his stories, Widdershins and The tower of oblivion. I read the first story in Widdershins, The beckoning fair one (long enough to be published alone, I see) and thought, "this is too good not to read in paper". Excellent, super-creepy tale.

Unfortunately, still haven't chanced upon any Onions in vivo (Dover has reprints online...)

>13 what an utterly fantastic name. Surely he has to be read for that alone?

My local highstreet bookshop, a Waterstones, has a 'our staff recommend' section (as most alrger ones do). I think there's someone there with very interestign taste as the same section over the last few weeks has had a leather Poe collection, a leather Lovecraft collection, a fabulously illustrated Alice in Wonderland and Hunting of the Snark, Jorge Luis Borge's Book of Imaginary Beings, The Four Cornr books volumes I mentioned elsewhere and much more that has been relevant to my interests and loves (lots of gothic, lots of Lewis Carroll, hooray). I am thinking of asking one of the staff member's who's section that is and (assuming it belongs to a female) asking to marry her ;)

I've read a few of Onions' stories. There is a Wordsworth collection available, The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions. It is currently my "emergency reading", i.e. it's the book I have in the car incase I end up sitting waiting somewhere.

The beckoning fair one is one of his best known stories and is a lovely gradual build.

He has a number of novels, one of which as the fascinating title of The Complete Bachelor.

Tartarus Press also thought it would be nice to produce a collection of Onions' stories, hence, Ghost Stories.

Thank you for the pointer to Gutenberg for The Tower of Oblivion.

Yes, I am a bit of an Onion collector. I also like Sarban.

The name Oliver Onions rang a bell but that was as far as it went - when I searched online I didn't recognise any of his titles.

So I've just followed Lola's lead and read 'The Beckoning Fair One' on Project Gutenberg. Tremendous story - it quite grips you and pgmcc is exactly right about the 'lovely gradual build'.

In fact, I think I came near a heart-attack when I'd just got to the part where Oleron was feeling under the bed for his slippers and my damn phone rang - I leapt about a foot in the air.

So that's yet another author that just has to go on the 'must read' list.

#16 rankamateur

You reminded me of a story from my past. It was in the 1960s and my family watched the first showing of "Psycho" on television. After the film ended it was quite late so my mother headed off to bed. She changed into her nightdress and, being a devout Catholic, knelt down beside her bed to say her prayers. As she conversed with the Almighty something brushed across her knees. She screamed and leapt to her feet in fright. My father had hidden under the bed and tickled her knees.

No, she never forgave him.

#17

I'm evil, therefore I laughed. Poor your mum!

#16

Boy, that was fast. How do you feel about reading online? Once I started I had to finish, but I wish it had been a book. How creepy was the ghostly sound of combing hair?!

#15

Apparently Onions is a pseudonym but I didn't bother to find out who what where...

Wikipedia - he was born George Oliver Onions, legally changed it to George Oliver (suppose you can't blame him), but kept Oliver Onions as his pen-name.

ETA - Sorry for pg's mum, but I laughed out loud as well!

>17

AHAHAHAHAHA

>18

Two things: first, I have 'The Beckoning Fair One' stashed in an anthology somewhere and have wanted an excuse to give it a go (I believe in reading a 'short story' in one sitting, and this one is JUST short enough to fall under that concept, but JUST long enough to intimidate me from setting aside an hour and a half and really digging in...), which I now have; second, I realize now that as I'm typing this rankamateur cleared up the story of his name, which I was just about to do...

Oh well. :)

OK, someone has to say it:

There are layers upon layers to this author.

And no, he's not like a parfait!

I had to look up a 'parfait'. I think I'm going to have give up on this trying to lose weight business ...

I'm never going to work out whether 'The Beckoning Fair One' is a story of the supernatural or not, am I?

In the consideration of Gothic gossip, I present this bizarre sh*t:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostnice_Sedlec

How abouuuuut that?!

>23. wow that is very bizarre!

>13, etc. never heard of Oliver Onions, but now you all have me by the neck with interest. I normally don't like to read online, so I know I'll be searching this weekend for an edition.

>23 That place is amazing! Probably not how I'd like my bedroom redecorated though.

The only gothic thing prevalent in my life are the Royal courts of Justice in London, I work literally right next to them

http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photography/Royal+Courts+of+Justice

A very imposing building and must've scared the crap out of anyone hundreds of years ago who was about to go on trial, looks particularly impressive at night with the torches burning outside. Still nothing next to that place you foudn though.

The place you posted reminds me of a holiday I spent in Malta, and while I was there I decided to visit the many Catholic catacombs they have there. I was seriously surprised to find they let you down unattended into the dark and all the centuries old bodies are out for all to see and touch; no glass, no ropes no security guards! Not that anyone in ther right minds would try to fiddle with a 400 year old templar corpse or something.

>24

I'll take this time to, once again, recommend the Modern Library anthology Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. It has the Onions (somehow that 'the (author)' convention seems a little ridiculous with Oliver...) as well as numerous others fabulousness well worth reading. It balances famous, 'canon' works with more obscure pieces. Two in particular I recommend really highly: 'Caterpillars,' by E. F. Benson, and 'Moonlight Sonata,' by Alexander Woollcott. It's pretty thick, too: lots of good reading...

>25

Royal Courts of Justice: WOW. Glorious.

As for your Maltese adventure, and fiddling with 400-year-old Templar corpses: that sounds like an M. R. James story waiting to happen!

Speaking of Gothic settings: my estranged father apparently splits his time between Cairo and Alexandria these days, and I can't help but think Old Cairo could make for a fabulous Gothic setting. If the Aqmar Mosque were just a little bit more sprawling, and a little bit taller, it could be perfect...

Sigh. I envy the world travelers in this group. :D

I always assume ETA means estimated tiem of arrival, bu clearly peopel here use it in a very different context?

This is like how at work we have a ton of acronyms thata re already acronyms for somethign else in real life...

(Just looking it up I assume ou meant 'edited to add'? Apparently there are 77 in use acronyms just for ETA. Confusing world)

ETA - I don't like this new setup, though I guess the buttons are prettier?

I, too, never really knew what ETA was meaning, but I assumed it had something to do with editing...I think 'edited to add' is probably it. Right, rank??

I'm constantly ****ing up acronyms. I once substitued AIDS for SIDS when discussing sudden infant death syndrome in an email...I mean A and S are right next to each other on the keyboard! It's an understandable mistake...but it didn't go over very well.

Yeah, that was a weird day.

I think I've strayed a bit from 'Gothic gossip.' Oh well. :D

Oh and I don't much care for this setup, either. It's a little too hip for me, what with the pressing buttons and things just...floating into existence? I can't describe what I mean. I need more coffee...

>29

I thought this gossip thread was for the straying off and gossiping so we didn't stray off and gossip so much everywhere else?

I must remember to take those photos of the books for you today, apologies I've been super busy!

#29 Veilofisis I once substitued AIDS for SIDS when discussing sudden infant death syndrome in an email...

I think you've stayed right on the topic with that one.

>31

Oh, it is. But knowing me we should go ahead and create a 'random s*** no one should ever really even be talking about in the first place' thread! :D

And don't worry about it. The longer it takes for me to see if I like the bindings, the longer I keep $200 or so in my checking account. It's a mixed blessing, as always... :)

I wish I were busy. Although I do have to read six plays before tomorrow at 1 PM...we'll see if that even comes close to happening...

>32

HAHAHA

I'm still working my way slowly through Daphne du Maurier's The Doll: Short Stories and am enjoying them no end. While reading each one I am constantly aware of when the stories were written and Daphne's age when she wrote them.

Her understanding of life and her insight into the minds and motivations of men and women was very advanced for the young age when she produced these pieces. If all women have the same level of insight at the age at which Du Maurier wrote some of these stories then us poor males have no chance. Oh! Wait a minute! D**n!

May I 'vent' for a moment - on something that's always been a bit of an irritation but has become even more so since I've joined this group?

Why on earth don't publishers of short story anthologies put indices at the back (like in poetry anthologies)? Would an alphabetical index of titles be too much to ask for? Personally, I'd love an index of first lines, as well (or first sentences or whatever). Perhaps it's not too difficult fingering down the 'contents' page for a title but it irritates me.

Okay. Rant over.

Looking through this thread, I realise I rudely forgot to reply to a few posts so, 'better late than never':-

#18 - How do you feel about reading online?
Like you, I don't really like it. When I read a story I can feel all the books around here glaring at the back of my head - makes me feel a traitor. Though I've embraced the internet quite enthusiastically, I'm the kind of person who didn't know what half the things reviewed actually were last time he bought a copy of What Hi-Fi?, and who deliberately buys and uses ancient split-cane fishing rods and obsolete reels in preference to the modern polycarbonate stuff, and - of course - absolutely drools over books with leather bindings and gold lettering; so reading fiction online goes against my soul! And, apart from that, my eyes don't like it. I've tried adjusting my monitor's settings, I've tried sizing the web-pages up to 200%, taking the reading-glasses off and sitting back a couple of feet, but nothing works - my eyes just get tired and itchy.

#23 - I could have sworn I posted on veil's ossuary. Anyway, I think the word is 'gobsmacked'. I've keep finding myself at odd moments pondering on the character and thoughts of the woodcarver who arranged the stuff. I know I tend to overuse the word 'fascinating' but this genuinely is a fascinating link. And if that place has never been used in Gothic fiction then it's time it was.

And having got that far, I clicked on veil's link and lost the whole damned post and had to type it again from memory ...

Actually, there's one aspect of modern technology that's had me in awe lately, and I suppose it's (sort of) suitable for a Gothic thread. So, how the devil did they do this -

http://youtu.be/GVv0F1mPntQ
http://youtu.be/xUWyoWflqqI

Yeah, that ossuary is a TRIP!

As for the 'wood imps,' all I have to say is: what. the. heeeeeeellllll?!

I've been here:

La cripta dei Cappuccini

...but I'd love to see that chandelier too.

Oooooh Lola take me with you next time!!

Deal! I'm in Rome most years at least for a few days.

Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft: I see complaints of the typos in this. Anybody have a copy? Are the typos a serious problem are is it a case of just the odd one or two that you don't really notice?

> 42

I'm afraid they're quite bad. I'd already got the stories in the S. T. Joshi -edited texts, but I bought the Gollancz collection too.

I found passages that didn't read right or even make sense, and when I compared the texts, it was because several words were missing, for example, page 16 (from "The Doom that came to Sarnath"): ..."strange sculptures upon the grey monoliths of Ib, for those sculptures {were terrible with great antiquity. Why the beings and the sculptures} lingered so late in the world, even until the coming {of} men {,} none can tell;" - the words and punctuation missing from the Gollancz text in {}.

That's one of the worst, but so far hardly any stories have been free from this slapdash typesetting. I've read up to page 358 (of 880pp)

#43 - I've gone ahead and bought it since I wrote that post.

By coincidence I was puzzling over the piece you quoted just a night or two back. I'd wondered if there was something missing and intended hunting up the story online to check.

It's a shame, you'd think Gollancz would be proof against that kind of thing after all the years they've been publishing him.

#43, #44 - Should have gone for the Barnes & Noble, I suppose, but a leather binding and a little bit of gold lettering and I'm anybody's - lose all self-control.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I've started on a project of reading or re-reading all the novels treated in 'Key Works' in Punter & Byron's The Gothic.

Last night I read the first on the list, The Castle of Otranto, and, being interested in having others' reactions to some of the thoughts on the book and the genre that the reading threw up for me (not least 'cos those thoughts are a bit confused), I thought I'd post something here.

But then I thought that the fact that these are 'key' works in the genre probably means that members are perennially going to have something to say or ask or share or discuss about them; so I thought it might be convenient for some of these novels to have their own thread as a sort of long-term, open-ended, 'drop-in-whenever-a-member-happens-to-be-passing-that-way' sort of thing.

The above woffling is my explanation of why I'll shortly be creating a 'Castle of Otranto' thread.

I'll just add that where I write about ... 'key' works ... and ... some of these novels ... I haven't anything rigid in mind (and certainly not sticking rigidly to Punter and Byron's list) - just that whenever I or anyone else thinks a work might be worth it's own thread then it's ... well ... worth it's own thread.

Edited to force the touchstone on the Punter & Byron.

>46

Agree! Great idea!

I'm just getting to another reread of Otranto anyway, so this is good timing...

Re. misprints etc. in the Gollancz edition Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, here are some more that I've spotted:

page 27: "can have {had} such a descent as mine" and
"where I had to wriggle {delete: my} feet first along the rocky floor, holding {my} torch".
page 30: "of {the} black passages I had".
page 52: "he finished severing {delete: his}{the} head, placed {it in} his hellish vat of pulpy reptile-tissue"
page 107: "{delete: to} {t}winkling".
page 136: "a diligent worker; {hence upon this his eyes long rested as he racked his brains for means to reach it. There was nothing like a ladder in the tomb,} and the coffin niches".
page 151: "wormy pair of decorative columns {delete: of} {or} pilasters,"
page 161: "dog-faced howler and silent {delete: stutter} {strutter} in darkness -"
page 164: "for only the other {delete: clay} {day}".

I did wonder if the texts were always corrupt, until S. T. Joshi edited them, but Gollancz didn't use the new texts for (one presumes) copyright reasons. Does anyone here know?

I thought I'd just wish all the Gothically-inclined Very Happy Winter Solstice Celebrations!

Er ... unless you're in the southern hemisphere, in which case : Very Happy Summer Solstice Celebrations!

Um ... now I'm worried that those on the equator are feeling slighted ... this political correctness is so tricky.

Can I just say Merry Christmas! - with 'Christmas', be it clearly understood, as a shorthand, all-encompassing, generic sort of term?

ETA - Just as long as everyone remembers that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the days stopping getting shorter (sorry, southern hemisphere) with lots of feasting, drunkenness and debauchery (that's if it's not too cold for debauchery where you are, of course - and now the southern hemisphere types are laughing up their sleeves, not to mention those on the equator).

With all the PC pre-ambling done by rankamateur, I will simpley say, "HAPPY CHRISTMAS!"

I hope everyone has a relaxing, peaceful, gothically spooky time.

50

It's NEVER too cold for debauchery, Paul.

50, 52 > In fact, if it's too cold, some good debauchery is just the thing to alleviate that.

Finished Hodgson's The Ghost Pirates, his perhaps most "gothic" work, on Christmas Eve. Quite nice.

Merry solstitial holiday everyone!

Reggie Oliver, as a ghost-story writer, is a recent discovery for me, but all the biographical information about him emphasises his career as a stage actor, director and playwright.

Whilst channel-hopping yesterday (I have a heavy cold; I wasn't up to anything more challenging!) I saw a "Reggie Oliver" credited at the end of the BBC's last Miss Marple adaption, The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side.

Zipping along from satellite channel "Alibi" to "Alibi+1", I was fortunate to catch what I think was his only scene, about five minutes later.

E.T.A.

Following a reference in IMDB, and more pertinent to this group, I can confirm that Mr Oliver also appears about 8 minutes into episode one of the 1990 BBC adaption of Kingsley Amis' The Green Man.

About 6 minutes into this BBC Documentary (from 2005, I think) there's a very brief clip of Algernon Blackwood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs_dI4Pb16Y&NR=1

Apologies, Mr. Poe. I see from a post over in The Green Dragon (http://www.librarything.com/topic/131267) that I missed your birthday yesterday.

Oh sh*t, I missed it, too!

Continuation of post 49...

page 177 we common were common
page 184 had com had come
page 193 spells summonded pirates spells summoned pirates
page 199 Pickham had promised Pickman had promised
page 199 Heaven knows he done it Heaven knows he had done it
page 205 and which I have since found highly characteristic of him, said, and which I have since found highly characteristic of him. He said,
page 206 terrible Cyclopean visits terrible Cyclopean vistas
page 210 addressed to supreme elder devil addressed to a supreme elder devil

All fairly minor if not obvious, but:
page 231, line 3, between "and when I had" and "new piston", insert "brought in a mechanic from a neighbouring all-night garage we learned that nothing could be done till morning when a"

page 233 unkept yard unkempt yard
page 233 gable and gable end
page 255 liner details finer details
page 278 such a scream roused such a scream as roused
page 280 of whippoorwills of the whippoorwills
page 304 realise the themselves realise themselves
page 305 I would feel justified I would not feel justified
page 307 naive Akeley naive Akeley -
page 310 There was also There were also
page 335 Pnalcotic Pnakotic
page 339 watched speaker watching speaker

Don't take this the wrong way, but perhaps you should get out more. :-)

I'm just excited about being able to do "strikethrough" in HTML.

Crom! It's Robert E Howard's birthday!

61

F***! Another one missed! Happy day, Mr. Howard! Well read 'The Fires of Asshurbanipal' sometime soon in your honor!

#49, #58, (is there a plural of #, as in 'pp' for 'pages'?) - It's just a shame, but I suppose it's another case of getting what you pay for - it was quite cheap for a book looking so impressive. It's doubly annoying in that I had intended, at some point, getting the second volume. Now I'm having second thoughts.

I wonder, sometimes, if I'm a little obsessive in wanting absolutely complete collections. I have a really crappy-looking collection of Thomas Hardy's poetry because it's the only one that contains every single poem. I've since wished I'd bought a more pleasing 'complete' edition and printed off the missing poem from somewhere and fixed it inside the back cover. I may still do that.

In the case of Lovecraft, I can't remember, offhand, what's in these two books that isn't available in other collections, but, with a bit of willpower, I'm sure I could sacrifice it for the sake of a nicer collection.

Reading over what I've just written, I realise that, with the Hardy, while I'd have been irked at not having a genuinely complete collection, I'm as much or even more irked by that damned book every time I read a poem. I probably need psychiatric help.

> 63

Well, I haven't spotted any typos in the first 126 pages of Eldritch Tales. And I can sympathise with you over the Hardy volume. A "selected" poems is one thing, a "not-quite-complete" is quite another.

Tonights edition of 'Words and Music' on BBC Radio 3 (18:30GMT) is entitled 'The Gothic'. No doubt it will be on the iPlayer in due course (can those of you in the US and elsewhere access the BBC iPlayer?). Here's the blurb:

This week Words and Music takes you into the darkened, turreted recesses of The Gothic. From the surreal, macabre beginnings of the genre in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to the tortured wanderings of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; the gothic literary world is one of dark passions and ominous thrills. Work by Coleridge and Keats shows the romantic impulse which was extended and darkened by later gothic writing, arriving in the late nineteenth century at Oscar Wilde's haunting Picture of Dorian Gray. Musically, we venture back to the 12th century with the work of Pérotin who composed amidst the gothic splendour of Notre Dame cathedral, as well as pieces by Bach, Berlioz, Paganini and Rachmaninov.

> 65

Listening to it "live" now - a reading from The Castle of Otranto.

65

I'm not sure if I can access it in the US...I'm going to try, though!

As for Eldritch Tales, I'm about as far in as houseful and haven't spotted any major typos. That's good, too, because this one collects a lot of stuff I've found it nigh impossible to find anywhere else...I mean it has freakin' Fungi from Yuggoth in its entirety! Paul, if you're looking for a 'nice' edition of Lovecraft's work, the Library of America collection is not 'complete' but contains most of the major pieces. Supplemented with the Penguin volumes, which are worth buying for Joshi's notes alone, I think one can cover nearly everything he put out (if you take a chance on Eldritch Tales, at least...). I picked up one of the rarer slipcased LoA Lovecraft volumes on abebooks for a song, and it was worth the extra cash: it's lovely!

Totally off-topic, but I've been meaning to get to it for a while:

I'm something of an interior design person and like to see pictures of the way writers have kept their houses. That said, a few years ago I stumbled upon one of the weirder things I've ever read: Poe's 'Philosophy of Furniture' which is a somewhat humorous take on what I suppose you'd consider his design aesthetic. Anyone else ever read this? I'm fairly obsessed...if I ever make it into a huge, sprawling Moorish castle, I'll have to set aside a 'Poe room' in the style he dictates in his little treatise....

> 67

Eldritch Tales doesn't collect all of the collaborations/rewrites in the Arkham House volume The Horror in the Museum. I don't know how difficult it would be to get hold of this book (or the other Lovecraft volumes). Forbidden Planet in Shaftesbury Avenue obtained a small stock of Arkham House books a few years ago, but I think the supply may well have dried up now.

The Horror in the Museum may, possibly, be available in paperback from a US publisher. Alternatively, Wordsworth Editions may be including these stories in their Lovecraft paperbacks (they did publish a volume - and then swiftly withdrew it - titled "The Loved Dead" after a - apparently notorious, in its day - story Lovecraft wrote with C. M. Eddy).

> 68

"Philosophy of Furniture" is included in the Everyman "Complete Stories". I've just reread it. Despite the waspish tone, I think he was serious. I don't suppose he was ever, in his adult life, able to live in anything like the manner he describes.

69

I don't suppose he was ever, in his adult life, able to live in anything like the manner he describes.


Yeah, me either!

(Oh, and 'waspish' is the word for it, certainly...)

#67 - I'm not sure if I can access it in the US...I'm going to try, though! - Do have a try and let me know if you can - every time I post something like that I wonder if iPlayer is available in other countries. This particular prog is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x35f/episodes/player - six days left at the time of posting.

#67 ... the Library of America collection ... - The trouble is, my Amazon 'books' wishlist is a full three pages long and there are probably at least as many again in my 'not quit sure about' wishlist.

And for those who actually heard that programme - Shirley Henderson: I'm a big fan; she scares the cr*p out of me. Am I the only one with these confused feelings? Probably says something unwantedly Freudian about me.

> 73 Her Lady Macbeth voice scared me.

'Night Waves' on BBC Radio 3 tonight, 10:00GMT: the whole programme is devoted to Bram Stoker's Dracula. No doubt the programme will be on the iPlayer shortly.

I still don't know if non-Brits can access the iPlayer.

#75 - It's now on the iPlayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01cvq20.

They have the last 416 programmes available so I imagine this will be available for some time.

ETA - It was quite thought-provoking in places and I shall certainly listen to it again

#75

Non-Brits can listen to the radio programmes on iPlayer. The TV programmes are blocked for anyone with a non-UK IP address. I've listened to many iPlayer radio shows from here in Ireland.

Interesting news in the world of Gothic Gossip!

My theatre has commisioned me to do a new adaptation of Dracula for the stage! I'll be sure to keep any progress updated here! What splendid fun this will be! :) :D

#78 - Hey - great stuff! All the best with it. When you're famous I'm going to boast about how I knew you on LibraryThing.

That's fantastic, J, many congrats and darn what fun! Any chance of photos of the production down the road?

79

Makin' me blush, Paul... ;)

80

Of course! I'll try to get a video of it, even, if we film the production. Target date is sometime in 2013, I'm assuming around October as a replacement for The Rocky Horror Show (which, after six or seven years, has gotten a little stale...). I'm using German Expressionism for visual inspiration in my productions of Prometheus Bound and Salome (though we're also doing a sort of weird, glam rock kind of thing with Salome, heaven help us); it would be rather interesting, if a little cliche, to try and imagine Dracula through the same lens... We'll see where it goes. Very excited!

Yes, brilliant news! Congratulations!

>78. Congrats! That's way exciting. I'm gonna have to get out there sometime and see one of your legendary productions!

I received an email today, from Robert Lloyd Parry, of the Nunkie Theatre Company. I haven't seen Mr Lloyd Parry's solo stage show, dramatic readings of M. R. James's ghost stories, but I have bought the DVD "A Pleasing Terror" (Canon Alberic's Scrapbook and The Mezzotint). Hence the email.

Anyway, it begins with the following information about a literary anniversary:

"Two hundred years ago tonight Mr Abney, the villain of M R James's early chiller Lost Hearts was found dead in his study"...

#84 housefulofpaper

Interesting anniversary.

BTW I have attended two of Robert's performances and they are fantastic value and great fun. He manages to convey the terror of the tales but also brings out elements of James's sense of humour, his obvious detestation of golf, and his mocking of serveral of his colleagues, especially the golf playing ones.

If you get the opportunity you should go. A great evening.

#78
I am way behind in many things LT-ish and Weird Tale-isn in particular.

Belated congratulations on the Dracula adaptation.

We're (as in the Irish Post Office) are bringing out stamps in honour of Bram Stoker's 100th anniversary, April 20th this year.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your production. It must be great to have the opportunity to work on such an iconic piece. Break a leg!

Maybe my next order from the Swan River Press will bear a Bram Stoker stamp? I can hope...

Speaking of stamps, Royal Mail brought out a set Britons of Distinction in February, including "Montague Rhodes James 1862-1936 Scholar and author of ghost stories".

I've been looking through the Radio Times for evidence of the BBC's upcoming Shakespeare season actually including some of his plays. I've drawn a blank there, but there were some items that might be of interest (I presume everything on BBC Radio is available overseas via the iPlayer, but I'm not sure that we've ever settled this point).

BBC Radio4 Extra
- a 5-part reading of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth begins 6:30 p.m. (BST) tomorrow (15th April) and, presumably, on subsequent Sundays.
- Readings of Bram Stoker short stories at 6:00 p.m. Mon-Fri.

BBC Radio 3
- "The Essay" slot 10:45-11:00 p.m. Mon-Fri: essays about Bram Stoker.
- first performance of The Yellow Wallpaper by Simon Holt. The write-up says this is a setting of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story. A soprano, chorus, and orchestra are listed.

#87 - I was just logging on to mention the BBC Dracula thing. They seem to be putting on a number of programmes to celebrate the centenary of Stoker's death, but, annoyingly, they don't seem to have a webpage for you to read up on them all together.

To houseful's mentions I can add 'Bram Stoker - Midnight Tales' on BBC Radio 4; readings of some of his short stories. There are five of them, one a day starting from 6:00pm (BST) tomorrow (Monday), each repeated at midnight. Details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g7xl0/episodes/upcoming and no doubt they'll be available on the BBC iPlayer in due course.

Also, as I write, Rob Cowan's 'Sunday Morning' on BBC Radio 3, '... commemorates the centenary of Bram Stoker's death with supernatural-inspired pieces including Liszt's Mephisto Waltz no 1 and Dvorak's Water Goblin ...' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g4sw8

#87 - On the Shakespeare thing, they're making or have made film versions of Richard II, Henry IV Part I And Part II and Henry V - http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/olympiad/shakespeare/history-plays.h... - and a filming of the Gregory Doran stage version of Julius Caesar but I can't find a webpage for that at the moment.

I can't find any info on when they're actually going to be televised and I think I saw somewhere that one or two might not actually show till 2013, which seems to be rather spreading the 'Cultural Olympiad' thing out a bit.

#87 housefulofpaper

I can tell you from personal experience that the BBC Radio programmes are available in Ireland on iPlayer. It is the TV programmes that are blocked.

Thanks for the tips on the programmes.

In relation to Swan River Press and Bram Stoker stamps I will have a word with Brian Showers and see if he is inclined to arrange the use of those stamps.

>90

Only if it's no trouble!

#91 Oh, it's no trouble for me to mention it to Brian. In fact, I have already done so.

further to # 87, the Yellow Wallpaper wasn't performed:

www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/bbcnow/about/news/2012-04-05_simonholt.shtml

I'll keep an eye out for a rescheduled performance.

A bluegrass version of Poe's "Annabelle Lee" by Sarah Jarosz, about whom i knew nothing until yesterday, when she played this on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Loose Ends". This clip is from an appearance on BBc television last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIEC9DSc3aw

Here's a piece on the Side Real Press Blog about a couple of Gothic poems (or dramatic monologues) - one by "Monk" Lewis and a later one "borrowing" from the earlier. More details in the blog:

http://siderealpressblog.blogspot.co.uk/

In my little piece about Canon Alberic's Scrapbook I mentioned, in passing, British Girls' comics.

Here's an article about them from The Guardian newspaper. The supernatural "Misty" gets a mention.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/18/jinty-misty-girls-comics-dandy?INTCM...

#96 - Wow! That 'Misty' seems to have been real hard-core stuff. I think I vaguely remember seeing it lying around when my nieces were girls - I never dreamed what was inside.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/113841#3585059

If you click the link in the post, navigate down to the Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht (near the bottom, last but one bookstore) - now that's what I call a 'Gothic bookshop'. Pity they don't have a picture of the outside, though.

ETA - Can't get it to link right to the post, for some reason - it's #12.

#98 The is a veritable temple to books. Excellent.

98

Whoa!

This is just to note that the recent Folio Society publication, The Vampyre and Other Macabre Tales isn't a reprint of the Oxford World's Classics The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre. The contents are:
The Vampyre - John Polidori
The Cremona Violin - E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Lady with the Velvet Collar - Washington Irving
Leixlip Castle - Charles Maturin
The Tapestried Chamber - Walter Scott
Monos and Daimonos - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Dream - Mary Shelley
The Red Man - Catherine Gore
The Bride of Lindorf - Letitia E Landon
Dr Heidegger's Experiment - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Passages in the Secret History of an Irish Countess - J Sheridan Le Fanu
Ligeia - Edgar Allan Poe

I'm listening to an interesting BBC Radio 4 programme as I write - Was Dracula Irish?. It argues for a lot more roots to the story in Irish history than we generally acknowledge.

According to the web page, there is 'over a year left to listen' at the time of posting.

ETA - Ignore the bit where it says '962 mins'; it doesn't last that long - honest.

ETA, again - actually, we really should have a permanent Dracula thread here, shouldn't we? I'll go and start one.

Speaking of Dracula and his being Irish, we appear to be having a Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin later this month.

http://www.bramstokerfestival.com/

Gothic gastronomy:

ww.youtube.com/watch?v=7NtGqv44DzA

There are some more clips on YouTube (and the whole programme on 4oD, but that's probably not available outside the UK).

#104 - Depending on how you interpret his comments on that clip, I think there must a strong suspicion that Nicholas Parsons is one of us. Or perhaps I'm reading too much into 'rats'.

Unfortunately, I'm old enough to remember the Arthur Haynes Show, and saw it at a very impressionable age, too; so I'm afraid Mr Parsons is forever 'Nickel-Arse' for me.

Hey! Been away from home for two or three days and come back to find this place up to my ears with new reading threads - hundreds of 'em! I shall catch up as soon as I can - might re-read 'Schalken', tonight. Actually, I've read all the short stories quite recently - never read Hogg, though. I'm on Caleb Williams at the moment, but I think I'll give 'Confessons' a go next.

> More gothic credentials for 'Nickel-Arse': he played a vicar beset by vampires from the future in a 1989 Doctor Who story (too old for the role as written, but very good); and he's appeared in The Rocky Horror Show.

Here's an interesting new profile - does it belong to one of us? It's the monster's reading matter.

#105 - On the subject of 'one of us' - just on the remote possibility that Mr. Parsons actually is - apologies for dredging up that ancient 'Nickel-Arse' thing, sir.

I've just moved the following over from the 'Reading Group #36 (Poe: 'The Cask of Amontillado,' 'Ligeia,' 'The Pit and the Pendulum')' thread, as I felt I'd put it in the wrong place.

A bit off-topic, but ... a short while ago I was hunting for Poe biographies and I came upon a quite enjoyable and informative blog, and I felt I really wanted to share it.

In particular, check out her three posts on Poe biographies. My favourite of her reviews is that on Edgar Allan Poe, the Man by Mary E. Phillips - "I long for the day when someone translates this book into English." That's it!

> 108

That's for finding and sharing that; I've bookmarked it.

Looking for a light (in weight) book to read on the train today, I picked out The Clouded Mirror by L. T. C. Rolt from my immense pile of unread paperbacks. This was part of Penguin's "English Journeys" series from 2009 and consists of three essays drawn from three separate books published between 1955b and 1977. So far, so apparently nothing to do with this group.

Well, I knew that Rolt had written some ghost stories - one is collected in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories and was involved with Robert Aickman in setting up the Inland Waterways Association (which campaigned for and promoted Britain's canal network. Aickman is probably the most critically-acclaimed Post-War English writer of ghost stories (or what he called "strange stories". They tend towards the surreal and indeterminate. Anyone who watches "the Ice House" in the BBC Ghost Stories DVD set - I think that's an attempt at an Aickman-style story).

The first essay starts off by looking back to Rolt's childhood in Gwent in the early years of the last century. He comments on the peculiarly spiritual effect of the landscape, drawing parallels between his early years and the reminiscences of Arthur Machen in his autobiography, Far Off Things: "the older I grow the more firmly am I convinced that anything which I may have accomplished in literature is due to the fact that when my eyes were first opened in earliest childhood they had before them the vision of an enchanted land". Rolt goes on to discuss two 17th century mystical visionaries from the same area, Henry Vaughan and Thomas Traherne. The essay ends by affirming their vision - seeing God in the world - against both a transcendental religious view fixed firmly on the "next" world and a wholly materialistic secular/atheistic view.

He sees Vaughan and Thomas as intellectually if not formally linked to the Oxford Platonists - one of whom the notes in the Penguin Classics The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings reminded me (oh, all right, told me) was the Joseph Glanvill who furnished the epigram for Poe's Ligeia (which of course I've just been reading).

The second essay covers the same sort of ground, but with more emphasis on reminiscing about his early childhood.

The third, longest essay, about a journey up neglected canals in the late forties, connected with the launch of the Inland Waterways Association, has nothing of relevance, apart from a digression about signal boxes, which makes it clear that they changed hardly at all in the near-century since Dickens wrote The Signalman.

#110 - Fascinating post. I have to confess that I'd never heard of Rolt or Aickman. Yet more writers to look out for!

Having written that, I looked them up on Wikipedia and I just might have read some of Aickman's stories in the dim and distant past. I was also vaguely aware of his doings with canals. But I'm pretty sure I never connected the two things as involving the same man.

#110/111

I only learnt of Rolt about two years ago, and that was through a thread on LT. I went on to buy his collection, Sleep No More, which contains stories take place in and around railways and canals (and other places). I hadn't realised he knew Aickman (not having done any background research).

The first time I heard of Robert Aickman was in 2006 when an on-line (LiveJournal) friend from the Phillippines introduced me to Aickman and Thomas Ligotti. These introductions have cost me a considerable amount of money since then as the works of both Aickman and Ligotti can be quite expensive.

If anyone is interested in other ghost/strange stories with a railway linkage, then one could do worse than check out the stories of the Polish author, Stefan Grabinski. He has been described as the Polish Poe, but I think his work is distinctive enough in its own right.

As the old saying goes - 'it's a funny old world'.

As #108 might imply, I've been hunting for good biographies and critical studies of Poe; but I'll put that to one side for a moment ...

I have an alter ego as a somewhat obsessive collector of fishing books. For some time, it's been a bit of an itch for me that I don't own a copy of one of the classics of British angling literature, Rod and Line by Arthur Ransome.

So, I was researching on Ransome to see if there was any overlap with another fishing book of his that I do own, when I quite unexpectedly came upon this: Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Study by Arthur Ransome.

Seems I can't get away from the Gothic. Did I say 'funny old world'? Small world! It's the kind of thing to give a tidy-minded chap a nervous breakdown - I like to keep things neatly compartmentalised. At least it's freely downloadable on line, so I don't have to buy a copy - and I would have done out of sheer curiosity!

So, anyway - can anyone recommend a good fishing book by Edgar Allan Poe?

#108/113 Just in case you're still looking for a good Poe biography, don't waste any of your life on A Dream Within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. It shouldn't be possible to make anyone look that boring, especially anyone with such a reputation for 'oddness' as Poe had, and yet . . .

Stefan Grabinski
A new UK small-press publisher, Hieroglyphic Press (run by author Mark Samuels and Daniel Corrick) brought out a hardback edition of On the Hill of Roses this year. The dust jacket copy says "...we are very proud to announce what we hope to be the first in a series of translations".

"The Stone Tape" DVD
Sadly, this doesn't seem to be heralding an extension of the BBC/BFI "Ghost Stories for Christmas", despite the (frankly misleading) pre-publicity on Amazon. It's being released by the new company that re-released "Ghostwatch" earlier in the year. What's more, according to MovieMail the release date has been put back to February next year.

Poe Kitsch

A 1960 LP by Big-Band Leader Buddy Morrow entitled "Poe for Moderns" has been rereleased on CD and MP3 by a UK company called Fingertips Records. The 12 tracks consist of the sort of jazz that might be used as the theme to an early '60s US TV show (sort of "Pop Noir"?). A couple of tracks have the band backing a "hip" English teacher reciting Poe's poems ("Annabel Lee" and an abridged "Ulalume"). Two more feature a vocal harmony group. There are some uploaded tracks from the original vinyl LP on YouTube.

Bonus tracks 13-30 are horror-themed novelty Rock and Roll singles from 1958.

A word of warning - if you buy the CD you may, as I did, find it impossible to get the disc out of the cardboard cover. I think it had got glued in (edited to add, on reflection I think the inner sleeve is just too big. It will go in the outer sleeve, but it won't come out again without a fight!).

#115

After a recommendation from someone on LT I have become a big fan of Stefan Grabinski. I have read his collections, The Motion Demon and The Dark Domain, and find his take on the world of the weird very interesting and thought provoking.

He is often referred to as "The Polish Poe" but I believe he has a style all of his own.

The Hieroglyphic Press edition of On the Hill of Roses is a very fine book. I have it on my shelf patiently waiting for its turn to warp my brain.

#115, #116 - I note that all three books have the same translator, which is a good thing in my book (see my comment on this matter on 'The Bride of Corinth').

So I don't know if your praise is due to Grabinski, Lipinski (the translator) or a combination of the two, but more books to go in my wish list.

Unfortunately, I really have to stop acquiring new books. Apart from the fact that I've been spending rather more than I should on books lately, I went thoroughly through my catalogue a day or two ago and found that, between buying (and there's an excellent new second-hand bookshop in town - oh dear!) and free downloads on the Kindle and sheer absentmindedness about past acquisitions, I had to up my 'To read' collection to sixty-five books!

So I'm trying early New Year's Resolutions for regular and steady reading but no more new books for a couple of months.

And constantly having eight or nine books on the go doesn't help - some get forgotten for weeks part way through - and having about half-a-dozen unfinished reviews niggling at me doesn't help, either. I really make life difficult for myself sometimes.

A little more self-discipline and a little less web-surfing and posting in online threads, that's what I need!

So, a rather mixed pair of quotations:-

I'm just going outside [the library] and may be some time

... but ...

I'll be back.

#117 I note that all three books have the same translator

I too appreciate the skills of the translator. The translator is often the unsung hero, but can also be the unnoticed villain.

I read Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 trilogy. The first two novels were translated by the same person and the third by someone else. Apparently both translators work with Murakami regularly, but I did notice the third novel was quite different in emphasis fromt the first two. This left me wondering how much of the difference was from Murakami and how much from the use of different translators.

I have found Lipinski's translations of Grabinski very acceptable. Not having any Polish I do not know if he has taken liberties but I do know his output contains suspense, mind twisting viewpoints, and the seeds of fear. If you are to buy a few last books I would suggest you would not be disappointed if they were the Grabinski collections. (I have not financial connection with Lipinski but I would like him to carry on translating Grabinski writings.)

In relation to your perceived crisis concerning the number of books you are buying you must train yourself not to notice this. That's what I have done. My problem now is not trying to placate my conscience but rather, hidding my new books from my wife.
;)

Happy reading.

We'll see you when you get back.

> 117

Gosh, only 65 unread books?

I've decided not to worry about my unread books, but I do need to attack my "currently reading" pile. Although many of them are short story collections and anthologies, I do feel it's got out of hand.

Happy reading from me, too.

#117/119 Some of us dream about having only 65 books yet to read.

#117/119/120

The rest of us have nightmares about only having 65 books yet to read.

A Victorian setting of Poe's "Annabelle Lee" by composer Henry Leslie. This version was recorded in 1973 by Robert Tear and André Previn.

It's included, I've discovered, on a 2009 "Classics for Pleasure" CD entitled (this is splendid) The Dicky Bird and the Owl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3R_3rPuEqQ

pgmcc, #12, #35 -

I finished the last of The Doll: Short Stories a few weeks ago - enjoyed them - very impressed.

Some of them, especially the first two, 'East Wind' and 'The Doll', gave me the strong impression of a very talented adolescent - I got a strong whiff of all that emotional turmoil one remembers from adolescence, heaving away under the surface of the stories. Considering them altogether, though, I was a little appalled by the pessimism (even cynicism) about human relationships that I saw underlying every one of them, even the most humorous.

It's piqued my curiosity and I'm determined to read up on Daphne and the du Mauriers (possibly 'vulgar curiosity' or 'prurient curiosity'?) and, of course, to read more of her works.

In the interest of full disclosure, I suppose I should mention that I occasionally got a quite distinct impression of an adolescent male writing. I've read the bits on Wikipedia about Du Maurier's supposed bisexuality and her belief in her 'male energy' powering her writing; but, at the moment, I'm inclined to put it down to my point of reference being my own, male adolescence.

#117 - I never did manage to shrink that 'To Read' pile. Life, circumstances and an undisciplined mind have been rather conspiring against me, over recent months.

I've decided I'm not going to stress about it any more - there are much better things to stress over.

I wish I could write fiction.

Last night I slept in a tiny cottage in a secluded walled garden and under big, old trees. At midnight I was leaning out of the bedroom window in almost total darkness listening to the owls hooting and shreaking in the boughs above my head.

Over recent days, I've pondered over the graves of people who've been dead perhaps 5,000 years and seen a cave they might have used in some ritual.

Ther trouble is, I keep getting a nagging feeling I should be building stories on this stuff ...

Just relax and write. Your description of your night in the cottage and pondering on the graves of people dead was very evocative.
JFDI.

125

I agree with pgmcc! I've so much enjoyed your notes over the last couple of years, and I think you're a natural for fiction! I'd love to see you take a stab at it. A writer, with only a few exceptions, must generally be a reader; and with your understanding of the mechanics of fiction, I'm sure you'd turn out some lovely and remarkable stuff. :)

118

The translator is often the unsung hero, but can also be the unnoticed villain.

May I quote that sometime? What a wonderfully laconic way of summarizing such a complicated point...

#118
I'm glad you liked it. Feel free to quote it. I am flattered.

Royalties may be sent to ...