THE DEEP ONES: "The Holiness of Azéderac" by Clark Ashton Smith

"The Holiness of Azéderac" by Clark Ashton Smith

Discussion begins June 4.

First published in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales.



ONLINE VERSIONS

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/91/the-holiness-of-az%C3%A9da...
http://web.archive.org/web/20010210103038/members.nbci.com/eldritchdark/wri/shor...

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?86788

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Return of the Sorcerer
A Rendezvous in Averoigne
A Vintage From Atlantis
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies

MISCELLANY

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/47/from-clark-ashton-smith-t...
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/50/from-clark-ashton-smith-t...
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/49/from-clark-ashton-smith-t...
http://www.eldritchdark.com/articles/criticism/18/klarkash-ton-and-the-cthulhu-m...
https://tinyurl.com/pvvz9fh

A Vintage From Atlantis for me.

Reread this a couple weeks ago in The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies; I'll be rereading it again (re-rereading it?) in the same volume, along with S.T. Joshi's explanatory notes.

That's a distinctly cuddly WT cover.

If I find time to re-read it it'll be from A Vintage from Atlantis.

>4 AndreasJ:

That's a distinctly cuddly WT cover.

It's an odd one, isn't it? My first thought upon seeing it was Betty Boop as Hamlet. :D

A Vintage from Atlantis for me.

A Vintage from Atlantis for me as well.

As a matter of fact I also have the two-volume 1974 Panther Books paperback reprint of Lost Worlds. The books were in a charity shop for a couple of pounds each. They don't have the newly edited texts of the Night Shade Books editions of CAS, of course, and the spine of at least one is so fragile I suspect the pages will fall out if I actually try to read it. On the plus side they've got very nice covers (by Bruce Pennington, I believe).

Of minor interest - or maybe not even that - the copyright page makes no mention of the Arkham House edition, but instead refers to the book's first English publication, by Neville Spearman Ltd in 1971.

This "English" publication is slightly curious, as the company Neville Spearman Ltd was apparently based, legally at any rate, in the island of Jersey. The thing is, Jersey is not part of the UK but, like the other Channel Islands, is a remnant of the Mediaeval Duchy of Normandy. It "belongs" to the UK Monarch as a "Crown Dependency" (because, ever since the Norman Conquest, the Monarch is also Duke of Normandy). Since the 1960's the island's been what's politely called an offshore financial centre.

>7 housefulofpaper: Was unaware of the sovereign status of the Channel Islands, very interesting.

>7 housefulofpaper:

I really enjoy those kind of incidental details - thanks!

Despite the first appearance of the Book of Eibon and the bit of Yog-Sothery featuring Azéderac at the beginning, this story strikes me as being very CAS-lite, enjoyable though it is. Kind of like his version of a fairy tale, complete with rather silly magic potions and a good-witch love interest. The fine ending is as amusing as it is frustrating with Azéderac not only escaping the clutches of our would-be hero, but also becoming sainted in the process!

If you substituted Poictesme for Averoigne, you could have fooled me into thinking that this story was by James Branch Cabell. It reminded me especially of The High Place and The White Robe. A fantasy historical France, drollery throughout, and pokes at religion via magic, eventuating in a happy-but-unjust ending engineered by a woman's wiles.

Do we have any indication that CAS was a Cabell reader?

>11 paradoxosalpha:

Joshi's note in The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies quotes CAS as saying in a letter to HPL, "I suppose that the fact that I was dealing with a realm no less mythical than Cabell's Poictesme made me doubly careless about correlating its chronology with that of historic Europe."

>11 paradoxosalpha: >12 gwendetenebre:

Now I want to read it! Or perhaps I should just pick up one of my unread Cabell volumes.

So any evidence of anagrams in the story? Can't come up with anything for Azéderac, except the doubtful "A Crazed é."

Regarding this tale being somewhat lighter-toned than usual, Joshi's notes also report that CAS wrote to Derleth, " I agree with you about Azéderac, which is more piquant than weird. But I like to do something in a lighter vein occasionally."

Having scanned it, I agree wholeheartedly with >11 paradoxosalpha: in that the tale is very similar to the Cabell I've read, including the tales collected in The Silver Stallion, as well as CAS's own characterization of "more piquant than weird".

Didn't spot any anagrams, CAS doesn't appear to be playing that game but I'm pretty awful at spotting them, even when I know they're present (as with specific Cabell works).

A useful article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averoigne

I didn't catch the Averoigne reference when I read A Case of Conscience, and I was surprised to see it at the foot of the "Other writers" section.

>12 gwendetenebre:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/50/to-h.-p.-lovecraft

>11 paradoxosalpha:

And that penultimate line -- "Ambrose proceeded to prove, in a somewhat unmonastic manner, that her hope was fully justified." -- has an unmistakably Jurgenian thrust...

So to speak.

I've read very little James Branch Cabell (possibly only one short story, 'Concerning Corinna', which I understand is atypical for him), but I have read enough about him in recent years to wonder if Smith's story was influenced by him, even to the extent of being an hommage. You've all very fully answered the question I didn't even need to write down!

As far as the story goes, there are perhaps moments where the gears of the plot can be heard grinding. I listened to The Double Shadow podcast for this one too, and they were unconvinced by Jehan's beard disguise, Ambrose's passiveness in drinking the spiked wine..I can believe those character traits, but it makes it harder for me to believe that Moriamis would consider Ambrose a suitable match (it's not just physical, is it? There is a strong suggestion that the end is "happily ever after").

My feeling is that underneath it all, this is just too much of an adolescent fantasy to support the sophisticated and ironic tone. Not that I could have written anything one hundredth as good, of course.

I think those are valid criticisms, and in my readings could be applied to the Cabell stories I've read. And yet, for my part, I'm always persuaded there's more to Cabell than the story: that is, these criticisms are part of what Cabell deliberately offers for the reader's consideration, as much as they are failings. I think that goes for CAS here, too.

A specific example is the bemusement the reader gets when considering that Moriamis would seem to do better elsewhere, and is fully capable of going elsewhere ... but doesn't. The reader is drawn up short: "What, she's not doing what I'd expect, what seems most rewarding for her? Why ever not?" Part of the inscrutability of women, which for Cabell at least seems to be a reminder of the inscrutability of life itself, closely allied to its innate truth & beauty.

>4 AndreasJ: >5 artturnerjr:
HPL also remarked this cover, with a distinct lack of enthusiasm!

Speaking of covers, the current W.T. design, though pleasing enough in color, is curiously suggestive of a Christmas card! I don't wish to be ungallant: but Mrs. Brundage (between you and me and the asymmetric eikon from Crater Ridge) has about as much genuine feeling for the weird as a Jersey cow is likely to possess. . . .

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/correspondence/50/from-clark-ashton-smith-t...

>21 elenchus:

It could be. I'm all too aware that the writer spends far longer thinking about and writing his (or her) story than I do reading it.

Late to the party again - just finished my reread. An enjoyable enough tale, though probably not the first of CAS' that I'd recommend to a neophyte. The "happily ever after" ending probably works better in the context of other CAS tales, which usually.... don't end that way.

More from Joshi's footnotes in The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies:

This story was completed on May 19, 1931... HPL took issue with one element of the historicity of the tale: "Did I make a certain historical criticism when I read the manuscript a year or so ago? I meant to, but may have become sidetracked. The thing is, that I'm in doubt about the picture of Roman Gaul in A.D. 475... especially the idea conjured up by the phrase 'an obsolete variant of French of Averoigne'. I assume you realize that in 475 no such language as French existed, the vulgar Latin of Gallic not being sufficiently differentiated from the parent stock to be any sort of separate speech... By no stretch of the imagination could the popular Latin of 475 be called 'old French'".... CAS replied: "You have certainly pointed out my vagueness and ignorance in regard to Gallic history! Of course, if I had stopped to reflect, I ought to have known that the Romans were still strong in Gaul about the time of Moriamis, and that French, as a language was not yet born from the Latin womb. I suppose the fact that I was dealing with a realm no less mythical than Cabell's Poictesme made me doubly careless about correlating its chronology with that of historic Europe. If ever there is any prospect of issuing Azedarac and the other Averoigne tales in book form, I shall certainly correct the anachronistic reference to the 'obsolete variant' of French spoken by Moriamis". CAS did not in fact alter the passage when he prepared Lost Worlds for publication.