Andrew Smith (4) (1964–)

The British Library have been publishing 'lost' works of popular fiction from the past under their own label, possibly most successfully in the crime genre, This is one of a number of selections from genre short stories - the Egyptian mummy tale from the 1860s to 1900s.

Unfortunately, while historically interesting, if only as an insight into British colonialist attitudes and prejudices over time, nearly all these stories are second-rate. The series closes with a truly dreadful story, 'The show more Necklace of Dreams', written in 1910 by the scarcely known W. G Peasgood.

Many of the authors are little known and are writing in fairly transient magazines. The oft-anthologised Arthur Conan Doyle story 'Lot No. 249' stands as possibly the only item worth reading for its literary quality, perhaps alongside the stories of Guy Boothby and Hester White.

The introductions to each story are short and to the point and do not over-play the colonialist or even erotic undercurrents of this genre, allowing the reader to discover these for themselves but, truth be told, this collection is really only one for literary genre completists.

Perhaps the only literary lesson is that we should not see Conan Doyle's efforts or Bram Stoker's 'Jewel of the Seven Stars' as somehow creative bolts from the blue. The genre was well established by the time they were writing. These masters were simply doing a better job than most.

The genre, of course, is best known to us through film - thanks to both Universal and Hammer and is still 'alive' today. It also continued as a theme in Lovecraftian literature and recurs through Tim Powers in the byways of contemporary fantasy and steampunk. It is now part of our culture.

As we say, a book for 'completists' which gives us some background to the genre and links it more clearly to imperial adventurism in Egypt and to the erotic tensions in the English upper middle classes but it is not a collection to spark the modern imagination. show less