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Contains: The revelations of 'Becka Paulson / Stephen King -- Sea lovers / Valerie Martin -- Psychopomp / Haydn Middleton -- A glowing future / Ruth Rendell -- The tiger returns to the mountain / T.L. Parkinson -- Consanguinity / Ronald Duncan -- Keeping house / Michael Blumlein -- The villa Désirée / May Sinclair -- Cleave the vampire, or, a gothic pastorale / Patrick McGrath -- The swords / Robert Aickman -- Salon satin / Carolyn Banks -- How love came to Professor Guildea / Robert Hitchens -- Wings / Harriet Zinnes -- The basilisk / R. Murray Gilchrist -- A quarter past you / Jonathan Carroll -- The master builder / Christopher Fowler -- Festival / Eric McCormack -- Ladies in waiting / Hugh B. Cave -- Death and the single girl / Thomas M. Disch -- Master / Angela Carter -- The conqueror worm / Stephen R. Donaldson -- Jacqueline Ess: her will and testament / Clive Barker.
Three stars, this book was pretty much what you would expect. Most of the stories in the collection fit the theme accurately. I thought that some were better than others. 'A Quarter Past You' and 'The Master Builder' were psychological creepers. 'Ladies In Waiting' and 'Master' were both excellent with more elements of the paranormal. 'The Basilisk' was my favorite, a retelling of the Russian legend of Marina written in a style that is the literary equivalent of Pre-Raphaelite art; romantic, lush, descriptive and beautifully detailed. Unlike many reviewers of this collection, I do not have praise for the stories of the two "big name" authors, Barker and King; to be honest I was not impressed with the contributions of either.
I picked this up primarily to read "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson", which was a very good, creepy, short story! What 'Becka did with her eyebrow pencil nearly made me squirm right outta my skin! Ewww.... And it was cool to read this "original" version of the story, before it's appearance in "The Tommyknockers"! Oh, by the way, I work at the post office, and never in my 15 years has a gal like Nancy Voss transferred to my office. I wish! Just sayin'...
...or to be more exact, maybe 2.75. I don't usually read horror OR sex books, so I don't know if I'm the best person to judge this, but I will say I found there to be, overall, not much of either. The book was hit-or-miss, as anthologies are wont to be, and more than a few times I found myself wondering if I'd ever get this G-d'd book finished! There were a few stories that saved it for me, however, especially : Eric McCormick's "Festival", which was haunting and poetic, Angela Carter's "Master" beautifully written, and, surprisingly for me, Clive Barker's "Jacqueline Ess...", which did fully combine sex and horror while allegorically touching on some deep, powerful truths about love, desire, & women. I picked it up for $1.50 @ the thrift store because the cover art is gorgeous & I thought the title was sexily poetic...so I got my $'s worth! ( )
Subtitled 22 Tales of Sex and Horror. While some of the stories in this collection did not quite meet my expectations, others were so good that I just have to give the anthology a rating of 4 stars. The pieces that particularly grabbed my attention are the ones by Clive Barker, Jonathan Carroll, Stephen King and Christopher Fowler. Worth checking out! ( )
In nothing is individual fancy so varied and capricious as in its perception of the horrible. To one person a story is terrible beyond all imagination: to another it is merel grotesque. --Dorothy L. Sayers, The Omnibus of Crime
They had not sailed a league, a league, A league but barely three, Until she spied his cloven feet, And she wept right bitterlie. --The Daemon Lover, traditional ballad
It was for the instant confounding and bottomless, for if he were innocent, what then on earth was I? --Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of three dear friends -- David E. Pickford, Herbert H. Denton Jr., Maurice Braddell -- original spirits, all.
First words
Preface: As I invite you to be seduce by this collection of extremely varied frissons, I feel obliged once again to cite the friend whose dry comment, when I informed him of my desire to put together such a book, was "What horror story isn't about sex?"
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The revelations of 'Becka Paulson / Stephen King --
Sea lovers / Valerie Martin --
Psychopomp / Haydn Middleton --
A glowing future / Ruth Rendell --
The tiger returns to the mountain / T.L. Parkinson --
Consanguinity / Ronald Duncan --
Keeping house / Michael Blumlein --
The villa Désirée / May Sinclair --
Cleave the vampire, or, a gothic pastorale / Patrick McGrath --
The swords / Robert Aickman --
Salon satin / Carolyn Banks --
How love came to Professor Guildea / Robert Hitchens --
Wings / Harriet Zinnes --
The basilisk / R. Murray Gilchrist --
A quarter past you / Jonathan Carroll --
The master builder / Christopher Fowler --
Festival / Eric McCormack --
Ladies in waiting / Hugh B. Cave --
Death and the single girl / Thomas M. Disch --
Master / Angela Carter --
The conqueror worm / Stephen R. Donaldson --
Jacqueline Ess: her will and testament / Clive Barker.