The Gothic gossip goes on

I started a new thread because the last one was getting a bit long and taking its time to load.

A few photos taking in Reading today. They're sort of a continuation of the photos of the Abbey ruins two threads back. The information board explains why: it was rebuilt with materials from the Abbey (as was Windsor Castle, I believe).










you can just about see the designs of the stained glass windows here:

The symposium in Marsh's Library to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Melmoth the Wanderer was held on Friday last. I put up two posts on my reading thread, one a general description of the day with photographs, and the second giving the titles and some comments on the papers presented. The links to these posts are below if you would like to see them.

1. Overview of the day with photographs: HERE

2. List of papers presented with brief comments: HERE

>3 pgmcc:

Thanks for taking the trouble to post that. It sounds like it was a fascinating day. And an incredible location too. Your photos are much better than mine (but no-one would ever expect Reading to win in a beauty contest against Dublin...)

>4 housefulofpaper: Your pictures are great at showing the contrasting colours of the stones used. It is interesting that it can be traced back to the dissolution of the monasteries.

The Melmoth the Wanderer day was fascinating. I can never remember who made the comment about not being able to read a work of fiction without becoming conscious of the author's life and time. (That is heavily paraphrased, as well and unacredited.) This is something I was very conscious of when I read Melmoth. It was written at a very sensitive time in Irish history and it is impossible to read it without seeing Maturin's partisan position.

I've just finished reading The Castle of Otranto and Mysterious Mother. I enjoyed both, and the appendices in this edition were very helpful. Found it interesting that when the critics didn't know The Castle of Otranto had been written by Walpole that they'd blame "translations of some errant priest(s)".

Am now going to read Melmoth the Wanderer, Oxford World's Classic then Vathek, The Haunted Library if Horror Classics edition, both for first time.

Thank you for very nice photos above, and am now doubly kicking myself for not going into Westminster Abbey when had the chance in June 2019. The long lines scared of us off....egads.

I've now read the first 100 pages of Melmoth the Wander, Oxford World's Classic, I really like the book. I found the writing style to be fairly easy, a bit like reading Frankenstein, in that when you get accustomed to the manner of writing, it flows rather well.

And despite some online reader complaints that it's difficult to tell when the story jumps back and forth in different time periods, I've not found this to be much trouble.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect for me, as an Agnostic, is that I really don't understand much of the religious subtext or context for the story, or understand those historical aspects that are being portrayed by the author, so this makes me feel a bit lost. I feel like I should be seeing more....it's one of these things where I feel , "I don't know what I don't know...", if that makes any sense.

The story really is quite something, and I'm looking forward to where it's going. And what a protagonist !

>7 benbrainard8:

I have a reading list and Melmoth is the next but one—I think, certainly the next Gothic 'key work'; but I've allowed myself to get completely sidetracked. It's all the fault of that lot over on The Weird Tradition. First they started a thread on one of my favourite short stories story writers, Saki; which prompted me to get a 'complete' for my Kindle (reluctantly, because I really wanted a nice, affordable hardback). And then it's like biscuits—once you've got box of them, you can't resist 'just one more'. So I was well into that one when I'm damned if they didn't do the same thing again with a seriously weird/Weird story by Algernon Blackwood—who is a genius, in my book—so I went looking for a 'complete' by him, too; when I found that I'd already bought a Kindle one, a year or so back, and completely forgotten about it. So I'm into that, too, and seriously craving good hardbacks for both. No self-discipline, me. I make these reading lists, but ...

Anyway, Melmoth is a 'key work', so should have its own thread. I'll go and make one.

>8 alaudacorax: - ... so should have its own thread.

Oops ...

>8 alaudacorax:
You were sidetracked for worthy reasons.

>9 alaudacorax:
Well worth a thread of its own.

Thank you all, and I'd assumed it'd always had it's own thread...but was afraid to read it, since not halfway through. I know most of you all have insight into this book.

Frankly at this point all I have insight in is how monumentally boring it was, with what little uncanny stuff went on smothered in bales of woolly theology. I said it before but being in a minority I figure there's no harm in saying it again. :)

>13 LolaWalser:
I am well used to being in a minority of one regarding some much loved novels.

What particularly intrigued me with Melmoth The Wanderer was the socio-political context of both the book and the life of the author. Having grown up in Ireland I can see the influences of the forces that affected the author’s life choices and the content of the novel. These forces were both local to Ireland and in play across European politics. That gave me added interest in the book and gave me an insight into levels within the story that someone not knowing the detail and nuances of the historical context would not see and could easily lose interest in the text.

One thing I disliked was Maturin’s habit of making a point and then going on to make the same point three or four more times. I have felt he was hoping to sell the story as a syndicated serial and hence the longer the book the more months the publication would last and the more money he would earn. He was very impecunious and earning money was a constant concern for him.

>14 pgmcc: Hmm... Well I like the book quite a bit so far. But that is perhaps because I'm such a novice to most the historical, religious , and social context of the story (?), or even of the author's life.

I just look at it and read it, say...the same way I read and see Dracula.

The protagonist is, ever-present even when not "directly" in any particular scene.

This gives it, at least to me, an impending sense of dread. I know something bad is going to happen. I know something even worse will eventually happen, and there's nothing any of the other characters in the book can do about it, at least not so far...

(bear in mind , I'm only on page 130 of a 590 page book)

>13 LolaWalser: Well, as to repetitiveness, I'll say that it's perhaps part and parcel to much Literature. I especially felt that after beginning my reading of Proust À la recherche du temps perdu , of which I've still not gotten up enough bravery to begin book three.

My theology awareness and knowledge are so poor, I wouldn't even know where to begin...

After reading about author's life before beginning the main text, I actually felt really sorry for Maturin. What a rough life ?!

>14 pgmcc:

As we've discussed before, I think it's just a badly written book and made more tedious than it ought to have been; however, this by no means implies lack of interest.

>16 benbrainard8:

I think repetitiveness is only ever a defect (not counting its deliberate use in some experimental fiction) and I don't find Proust repetitive at all. He revisits scenes which always unfolds something new--that's exactly the point he's making.

>15 benbrainard8: I am glad the book is intriguing you without any need of the historical background. I was worried that I liked it purely because of the socio-political context of its writing and publication.

>17 LolaWalser: Perhaps a better description of his writing is something I found online. "Repetitive" is the wrong word:

"Jul 11, 2016 · "In Search of Lost Time", like many great literary works, is a quest whose structure resembles that of a symphony. The novel’s major themes—love, art, time, and memory—are carefully and brilliantly orchestrated throughout the book."

>18 pgmcc: I've just finished the section that is referred to as "The Tale of the Spaniard".

As mentioned in information I'm finding online, it appears Maturin perhaps wanted to have his writing serialized. Question, when they say "serialized" do they mean in newspapers? Or were there other methods of distribution of Literature at the time?

>20 benbrainard8:
Many of the classics were published as serials in fictional magazines. There was no television or Internet and the fiction magazines sold in great numbers.

Most, if not all, Dickens's books were serialised. The Sherlock Holmes stories came out in monthly instalments.

Re-reading to keep track of who is who is understandable.

>20 benbrainard8:
>21 pgmcc:

If I remember correctly, Dickens' early novels were issued in periodical format a chapter at a time (rather like comic books that are later issued between covers as graphic novels) but once he had the editorship his own magazine his novels appeared within them alongside other content.

I have a couple of bound* editions of The Strand Magazine, which was where the majority of the Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared**. Here is what a chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles looked like, together with a couple of other articles for context.











* This would be arranged by the purchaser not the publisher. The binder would discard the cover of each issue before binding, and I'd hazard a guess that the title page, e.g. "January to June" was provided by or could be obtained from the publisher.
** At some point, I believe, US magazine publication became earlier than the UK publication date.

>22 housefulofpaper: Thank you for those images of The Strand Magazine. Very interesting.

>23 pgmcc:
I'm glad they were of interest.

When I was reading the early chapters of The Cambridge History of the Gothic, there was a stretch, covering several chapters and different contributors, that focuses on William Shakespeare and Horace Walpole, Walpole's debt to/reaction to Shakespeare, and the various reasons for Shakespeare's promotion as England's National Poet during the course of Walpole's lifetime.

Three works by Walpole were flagged up as being important in this context: The Castle of Otranto (of course), The Mysterious Mother, and a work of history: Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard the Third. I didn't think I would find any copies of this last work, let alone an attractive copy.

The stock in my local Oxfam bookshop has been a disappointment for a while now, but I went in today, and found a 1965 Folio Society* edition of Sir Thomas More's History of King Richard III printed alongside Walpole's piece.

I've recently bought the Everyman selection of Walpole's letters, as well.

* This appears, from Touchstones, and from the variant covers offered up when I added the book to my LibrayThing collection, to have been subsequently reissued commercially (The Folio Society having a membership-only business model until a few years ago).

Below (if I've done it correctly!) is a link to Twitter user "Pulp Librarian".

If you scroll back to Monday, there's a fascinating visual essay (as a series of tweets) about the Gothic - particularly the post-Rebecca popular fiction with very distinctive paperback covers aimed at a female readership.

https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian

Hello all,

I've finished Melmoth the Wanderer yesterday.

And just coincidentally, had received Gothic: An Illustrated History, by Roger Luckhurst, as of last night. I was perusing this book which has a grand amount of illustrations, then came across a chapter that made me think long and hard about Melmoth the Wander.

Many of you all know Melmoth the Wanderer, so tell me if I'm way, way off base. The book I received last night has an entire section on----Labyrinths.

One explanation I could come up with more Melmoth the Wanderer, are as we described above, Maturin's desire for serialization.

Perhaps he was also attempting a literary labyrinth as well? The whole "story within a story, within another story, etc.", is probably a well-used device. But boy....my head was spinning towards the end of the book, and it did end, well--- rather abruptly to me.

If it were perhaps shortened by 150-200+ plus pages, I do believe that Melmoth the Wanderer would have just as much literary heft, as say Frankenstein, Dracula, etc., instead of being a book that some people "give a hard time". Some of the sections where the character Melmoth is present, is described---are breathtaking to me, and are just as powerful as descriptions of Dracula, and other Gothic protagonists, characters, models (?).

Sorry, I'm sure my American colloquialisms are showing, and are probably annoying.

I'd be curious to know what you all think of this...the "novel as labyrinth" theory I've got...it could be its own thread, the Labyrinth.

I'll enjoy reading the Gothic: An Illustrated History, by Roger Luckhurst, though I've gotta admit, I'll be tabbing the pages that have pictures from zombie films, so that I can avoid them. It has some wonderful sections/chapters on Architecture, and many illustrations and photos of examples from England, etc.

And when I next re-read Melmoth the Wanderer, I'll have read up more on this "novel as labyrinth", too, and will see if my viewpoint is sustained or squashed.

Onto Vathek !

>26 benbrainard8:
The symposium on Melmoth The Wanderer included a paper on labyrinths. The researcher discussed all the overt labyrinth elements (the tunnels under the convent; the tunnel to the hiding place of the man that saved him from The Inquisition) and then went on to discuss the literary labyrinths like you described, and then the inferred labyrinths, be they supernatural or real, that enabled Melmoth to travel all over the world at ease.

I was surprised to find references to Melmoth in Charles Baudelaire's essays. I'm currently reading The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, a collection originally published in 1964, bought by me when it was reprinted in 1995, and it's taken almost as long again to get around to reading it. Which would be fine if I had any reasonable expectations of immortality...

Anyway, in an essay about Richard Wagner, which is a chiefly a defence of the composer, following the critical mauling of the Paris premiere of Tannhauser, but here discussing The Flying Dutchman, Baudelaire compares the first meeting of Dutchman and Senta to Melmoth and Immalee: "When, like the terrible Melmoth moved by the fate of his victim, Immalee, the Dutchman tries hard to turn her from a devotion too perilous, when, in an access of pity, the poor damned soul pushes away from him the instrument of his salvation"..{this is a very long run-on sentence that goes on to summarise the essentials of the whole opera; I won't transcribe the rest :)}.

Maybe I shouldn't joke about immortality whilst writing about Melmoth AND the Flying Dutchman...

There's a more substantial use of Melmoth in the next essay, "On the Essence of Laughter".



{...}

>26 benbrainard8:

I saw Mark Wallinger's labyrinth design for King's Cross Underground station last week. I must have seen some of his designs at other stations, but I didn't know what they were until I read the "labyrinth" chapter in Roger Luckhurst's book.

>28 housefulofpaper:
Apparently Melmoth The Wanderer was very popular on The Continent with several authors alluding to it in their works. I am away from my notes and computer so I will use that as the excuse for not remembering which autor wrote either a sequel or a prequel to Melmoth.

Melmoth was, apparently, more popular in France than it was in Britain and Ireland.

Thank you, now I feel a bit more justified in throwing "novel as labyrinth" or "labyrinth as a literary device" theory out there.

I'm jealous that you can go out and view and experience the actual places referenced in Gothic: An Illustrated History, though perhaps I can take small amount of solace as having had the terrifying experience of being completely lost in Tokyo subways & train stations, more than a few times, when I lived in Japan.

Americans may not have great examples of labyrinths--nothing that England or the Continent have. That's a shame. I can only think of a few cinematic references, e.g., in the cinematic version of The Shining, but that doesn't count as Kubrick lived and filmed primarily in England.

Interesting that Melmoth the Wanderer was more popular in France and the Continent, more than in England. Were there any particular reason(s) why?

>30 pgmcc:

It was Honoré de Balzac who wrote the sequel to Melmoth the Wanderer. This was a novella entitled "Melmoth Réconcilié", in which "Melmoth succeeds in discharging his debt among the soulless society of bankers and moneylenders in Paris".

(Information courtesy of Albert Power, who has an article on Maturin in issue 12 of The Green Book.)

>32 housefulofpaper:
Yes, Balzac. Thank you for filling the lacuna in my memory logs.

I must read Albert’s article.

>31 benbrainard8:

I couldn't think of any mazes near where I live. However, apparently there are 240 mazes and labyrinths in south-east England. I couldn't have named any, apart from the hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace (which is, admittedly relatively close: Google Maps says I could walk there in under 12 hours!).

The website that provided the number of 240 includes a map, and there are a fair number a lot closer - but they are all small-scale labyrinths in public parks and children's playgrounds, and most of them are under 25 years old.

I visited Cambridge for a few days in 2013, and the experience of walking around trying to get my bearings was quite maze-like for the first couple of days (helped by my lack of navigational skills) but I haven't had any similar experiences since (getting lost in the Vosges wasn't quite the same: after I was out of the woods I confidentially set off in the wrong direction, and climbed half-way up a mountain. Stupid, but very different experience!).

Maybe someone with a better grasp of 19th century European politics can answer the question why Maturin was more popular in France than in Britain (including, at that time, Ireland). It's an intriguing question.

>34 housefulofpaper:

Not the whole answer, I'm sure, but anticlericalism would play a significant role. French intellectuals and progressives in general were waging a war against the church for the whole of the 19th century (and earlier--think of Voltaire praising the English as a "nation of philosophers" free of the yoke to the absolute power of the monarchy and the pope). Anglo/Protestant anti-Catholicism was therefore attractive, even tinged with nationalism.

SIGH, double post. Well ok, chitchat time, I'm looking forward to watching Schalcken the Painter in the BFI "Flipside" series. Looks like a very interesting collection.

>35 LolaWalser:

That angle hadn't occurred to me, I have to confess.

I was thinking about the emotional aspect of reading the book - the cruelties the characters endure and the empathy the reader has for them, and going through it with them. Whether the experiences of a French readership in the 1810s-20s would incline them to be more sympathetic than a British one?. I remember reading something about Dickens, suggesting the terrible behaviour of some of his French characters - Mademoiselle Hortense in Bleak House comes to mind - could be the result of trauma experienced during the Terror or the Napoleonic Wars. Although with Dickens, it's possible none of that was a conscious decision, but rather his xenophobia created the character, and his intuition gave her depth. Like the main character in that book, Esther Summerson. I remember thinking she is probably intended as a perfect example of meek self-sacrificing Victorian womanhood, but I read her as a convincing portrait of someone who had undergone a horrible undermining and cruel childhood.

>36 LolaWalser:

It's very good, if you allow for its stately pace (as you probably know, it was commissioned for an arts documentary strand). The extras are interesting too.

I've got the second volume of Short Sharp Shocks (also in the Flipside series) and I'm half-way through it. There's less of relevance to this group than is in volume 1 but I'll find some things to say about it.

>37 housefulofpaper:

Eh, I think the French are much less sentimental than the English. And Dickens is probably the most un-French type of writer ever.

Re Flipside I've wishlisted "Sleepwalker" and a few other that seemed horrorish but I'm tempted to get the (most expensive) whole set of Ghost Stories first... decisions, decisions... thing is I saw almost all of the Ghost Stories (merci YT) and yet feel this gluttonous desire to POSSESS them--especially as there seem to be extras included.

>38 LolaWalser:

Oh, did I garble what the point I wanted to get across (again)? I meant there was, perhaps, more trauma in the French population than the British, at the time. And maybe they would be more empathetic because of it. I would have thought it would be either that or actively avoiding anything upsetting, but not indifferent to it. Trying to articulate that led me off on the Dickens false trail - sorry.

>39 housefulofpaper:

I think I understood you but to me that seems a hard argument to address, rather convoluted. Also it's not clear to me that when speaking about its popularity in France we are talking about a coherent period, given that you mention Baudelaire (and someone else, maybe Peter, once brought up surrealists and Breton). Baudelaire, as hardly needs saying, was very much into the "fantastique noire" as originated by the Anglos (not just Maturin but Poe, Walpole etc.), and surrealists loved the genre too, but I don't see how that would tie back directly to the revolution.

Actually, can anyone give a source for this idea that it was "more popular on the Continent"? I'm just wondering whether we're talking about things like massive sales (real popularity), or being loved by a few specific individuals--Balzac, Baudelaire... which ofc could still translate into greater reception, but not necessarily with the same reasons for popularity.

I don't have time for a thorough investigation but first stop Wiki has it that

1. The 1821 French translation of Melmoth omitted about a quarter of the material, including a lot of the anti-churchy stuff. Which makes my suggestion about this being a large part of its appeal more dubious, at least to that audience (but who knows, enough might have remained to pique interest...)

2. Baudelaire, who as we know had access to English, for this reason wanted to undertake a new translation himself.

3. That never happened and the full translation into French was done only in 1965!

>40 LolaWalser:

I had assumed that "more popular on the Continent" meant during Maturin's lifetime (or just after, given that he died in 1824).

Albert Power's essay in Issue 12 of The Green Book (The Swan River Press' literary journal) said as much, I had thought, but looking at it again, I may have been reading too much into the enumeration of Balzac's continuation of Melmoth, all of Maturin's works being published in French translation, Bertram being translated and staged in Paris, and Bellini basing an opera (Il Pirata) on it.

For once, I hadn't turned to Wikipedia as a first resort, but looking at it, that whole section on "International Reputation", although it has more detail than Powers' essay, talks mainly of Maturin's influence on other writers, up to Baudelaire. As you say, it might not indicate big sales or mainstream success (an aside - a passing thought - would big sales mean money for Maturin, I wonder, or was the copyright system on the Continent as skewed away from authors as it was in the US?)

The online exhibition on the Marsh's library website doesn't cover this aspect of Maturin's career.

The old Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural has a surprisingly large entry on Maturin. Again though, although it talks about "European popularity" and "remarkable success" (in France) the examples are of appreciation by fellow writers and influence through subsequent generations, from the early Romantic school down to the Surrealists.

A footnote in The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays on Melmoth the Wanderer refers the reader to The Romantic Agony. Maybe the idea orginates there, or Praz provides a primary source? I don't own a copy of the book.

>42 housefulofpaper: - ... and Bellini basing an opera (Il Pirata) on it.

Well I'll be damned! Finally, an opera of the classic Gothic period definitely inspired by the Gothic (I'm choosing to see the line Bertram; or, The Castle of St. Aldobrand - Bertram, ou le Pirate - Il Pirata as a direct link). I knew some such had to exist. The irony is, Bellini is one of my favourite opera composers, but I'm quite ignorant of Il Pirata. I give you fair warning, I'm very excited and I shall be writing at no doubt boring length on this ...

>43 alaudacorax:

And I've ordered a CD with Callas, reputed to be very good quality sound, and saved some videos (one of which actually give Maturin a credit) on YouTube—it's almost too much excitement ...

>43 alaudacorax:
…and I shall be writing at no doubt boring length on this ...

This would be a first as I have never found any of your writing boring.

Maturin: Authorship, Authenticity and the Nation by Jim Kelly is a book I was hoping to buy, but I could only find copies at £60…until yesterday. I have ordered a secondhand copy at £16. Due to BREXIT the P &P charged by the seller is another £15 but I am, all being well, getting a cooy for £31 instead of £60 plus P&P.

Yes, you have just witnessed my being manipulated by the process known as Price Anchoring.

While my main interest in this book is Maturin’s socio-political-economic setting, I hope it will reveal some insight into the popularity of his work in Continental Europe.

Maturin was impecunious all his life, so his popularity did not mean any great wealth for the author. His only financial success was Bertram and the money he got from that disappeared quickly through his supporting his family while his father was in prison and his guaranteeing a friend’s loan which his friend failed to repay resulting in Maturin losing the last of his Bertram fee.

>45 pgmcc:

Wow ... thanks ... but, don't say I didn't warn you!

>42 housefulofpaper:

I had assumed that "more popular on the Continent" meant during Maturin's lifetime (or just after, given that he died in 1824).

Yes, that's what gives me pause. I suppose something like comparative sales figures might give an answer; otherwise not sure that later champions like Baudelaire would imply popularity retroactively.

Good morning, all.

So, I've finally rounded out my "small and precise" collection of Gothic Literature, purchasing eleven books online this early a.m. (and before morning coffee, goodness~).

I figured having total of about 35-40 books of any given genre is probably enough for the next 5-7 year period, esp. when (1) I've not read many of them (2) I tend to re-read them.

The eleven purchased this a.m. and in time for Dec. 2021/Jan. 2022 holidays:

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, Matthew Sweet, 1860

Zofloya; or The Moor: A Romance of the Fifteenth Century, often shortened to Zofloya, is an 1806 English Gothic novel by Charlotte Dacre under the nom de plume Rosa Matilda.

Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories, by Algernon Blackwood, editor S. T. Joshi, turn of 20th century

Caleb Williams (Oxford World's Classics), William Godwin, 1794

Green Tea and Other Weird Stories (Oxford World's Classics edition), a collection of the tales of J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies (Penguin Classics, by Clark Ashton Smith, S.T. Joshi (Editor), first published January 1935

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics), Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886

The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories (Oxford World's Classics), Henry James, Susie Boyt, Philip Horne

Rebecca, by English author, Daphne du Maurier, 1938

The Haunting of Hill House ,1959, by American author Shirley Jackson

The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories: 75th-Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), by Angela Carter, Kelly Link, which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves

Please tell me other books, to add--- I've got a running list of "to buy Literature"---but I'd better pace myself or I'll become a reading hermit ----which sounds kind of nice right now.

As to space, well the Blu Ray shelf will just have to move.

From a 3-4 month dark, rainy, wet, 'n snowy Seattle/Pacific NW.

>49 benbrainard8:
It sounds like your local environment is going to be genuinely Gothic for a while (I had a look on Google maps and Google street view - you have mountains! and forests!).

I have still to read some of these books, myself. I don't have copies of Caleb Williams or Zofloya.

I don't know what to add to a small and precise collection...I'd quickly turn any such collection into overflowing stacks...

You didn't link back to a previous list, but I assume you did one (I think I remember one). So presumably you have some Poe stories. Maybe some anthologies/multi-author collections? There are a few writers who have produced one or two classics of the genre, but perhaps don't merit a whole book in a small collection. The story "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs immediately comes to mind.

Edited- for typos.

>49 benbrainard8:, like >50 housefulofpaper:, your post sent me looking to see which of your books I had and had read.

By chance, I acquired a copy of Caleb Williams in January of this year. That was prompted by someone posting a list of "Gothic Key Works".

Regarding your list, I do not have a copy of Zofloya, and, being honest, this one had not come onto my radar screen before. Neither do I have copies of The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies, or The Bloody Chamber: and other stories.

Having looked at the contents of Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories I rummaged through my study to find the Balckwood books I have. Between them I already had four of the stories. The power of your list drove me to look on-line, and for the princely sum of £0.99 I now have The Algernon Blackwood Collection* on my Kindle which contains the other stories. I feel like I have cheated as I feel dirty reading classics on a Kindle. This is a shame I will bear the rest of my life, but it is a burden I am willing to carry.

Of the books I have, I have not yet read Caleb Williams or the Blackwood stories. I have enjoyed reading the books and stories I have read and I hope you have half as much pleasure reading them as I have had.

Given the nature of your post I am printing the list of "Gothic Key Works" below. I cannot take credit for this list as I took it from someone else's post in this group. I cannot remember the source they referenced when it was posted.

I have indicated my progress in obtaining and reading the books on that list.

The Castle of Otranto - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback.
Vathek - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback.
The Mysteries of Udolpho - To read, Wordsworth Classic paperback.
Caleb Williams – To read.
The Monk - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback.
Frankenstein - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback.
Melmoth the Wanderer – Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner – To read. E-text
Wuthering Heights – To read. Unowned.
The Woman in White - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback
Uncle Silas – To read. Folio Society edition.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback.
Dracula - Read. Penguin Classic.
The Turn of the Screw - Read. Wordsworth Classic paperback
Psycho – To read. Unowned.
Interview with the Vampire - To read. Unowned.
The Shining - To read. Unowned.
American Psycho - To read. Paperback.

I enjoyed all the above works that I have read. I am not sure if I will pursue Psycho, Interview with the Vampire or The Shining.

Good luck and much pleasure with your reading.

*For your information it has 3,829 pages.

>51 pgmcc:
This was frahealee's list, I believe.

My progress through these texts:
The Castle of Otranto - Read. Own the Folio Society edition. Recently bought the Broadview edition.
Vathek - Read. Own the Folio Society edition. Recently bought the Broadview edition.
The Mysteries of Udolpho - To read. Own the Folio Society edition
Caleb Williams – To read. Unowned.
The Monk - Read. Oxford World Classics paperback in the 1990s. Now also own Folio Society & Centipede Press editions.
Frankenstein - Read. 1818 text in Oxford World Classics paperback in the 1990s, read the 1831 text in the Folio Society edition very recently. Reading the 1816/17 manuscript version now (which I think is identical to the 1818 version, but the text as published shows Percy's editorial changes).
Melmoth the Wanderer – Read the Folio Society edition in 1993, when it was published.
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner – Read. Folio Society edition.
Wuthering Heights – To read. Started, gave up when I realised I had switched between different texts in paperback and hardback editions. Will begin from the start again, soon (Folio Society edition).
The Woman in White - To read. Penguin Classics hardback.
Uncle Silas – Read. Folio Society edition.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Read. Folio Society edition.
Dracula - Read. Penguin Classic in the 1990s. Folio Society hardback more recently.
The Turn of the Screw - To read. Limited Editions Club hardback. Also have the Tartarus Press collection of James' ghost stories.
Psycho – To read. Unowned.
Interview with the Vampire - To read. Unowned.
The Shining - Read. Folio Society edition.
American Psycho - To read. Unowned.

Supplemented with books in >49 benbrainard8::
Zofloya; or The Moor- To read. Unowned.
Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories - Read. The S. T. Joshi-edited Penguin edition.
Green Tea and Other Weird Stories - Read, in The Oxford World's Classics edition. Since also obtained the Folio Society edition (and the three-volume Ash Tree Press complete short fiction, and the Swan River Press edition of "Green Tea" alone).
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies - Read.
Rebecca - To read. Folio Society edition.
The Haunting of Hill House - Read. Penguin Classics paperback.
The Bloody Chamber - Read. Folio Society edition. Also the collected Fiction Burning Your Boats in paperback.

From my experience, trying to buy Algernon Blackwood's work in paper editions is frustrating, because the contents of the posthumous short story collections have an awful amount of overlap. In the UK, a paperback publisher did reprint some works, but in what looked like POD editions (even though they were on sale in Waterstones) that genuinely looked like photocopies - I know digital printing is becoming the norm, but the print on the editions stood proud of the page, just like it was photocopied. I should have said frustrating and/or expensive, because I bought the Centipede Press Masters of the Weird Tale edition just before it disappeared from the website, as out of print.

>52 housefulofpaper:
You have me drooling at the thought of all those Folio editions. I have one Centipede Press book: The Agonising Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein by Thomas Ligotti.

I have limited my special edition collecting to Robert Aickman, Ligotti (though I missed a couple) and all the Swan River Press publications. John Buchan and George A. Birmingham are special collections for me, but they are not Gothic or horror save for a few of Buchan’s stories.

Thank you both for some very informative posts.

Well, I've looked at the Folio website here U.S., and though I'm sure I'd love them, they're a bit out of my price range. So, I'm very happy to get Penguin or Oxford editions of many of these works. But I'm sure that part of the joy is finding these works, too and adding them to your collections.

I'll be adding many of these you've listed (additionally) above to my LT and Goodreads "to buy lists", so much appreciated.

Oh, as to short stories, I've got some books that I feel cover the overlap:

The Vampire Archives by Otto Penzler
The Big Book of Ghost Stories, by Otto Penzler (Editor), M. Rickert, which includes the story The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs
Blood Thirst: 100 Years of Vampire Fiction, by Leonard Wolf (editor)

And our two rather prolific writers of short stories/poems:

Complete Tales and Poems, Edgar Allan Poe
The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft (Knickerbocker Classics), H.P. Lovecraft

I recommend The Shining, Stephen King and the first two books of the "Vampire Chronicles". Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat (1985), by Anne Rice, are both strong books.

The cinematic version of Interview with the Vampire (1994), Directed by Irishman Neil Jordan, was very close to the book.

Our NW area has everything needed to set me in a "gothic frame of mind": our rainy/damp weather, northern latitudes (Canada is only an hour's drive from Seattle), early sunsets--during late Fall and Winter, it'll get pitch dark by 4:30 p.m. (for 3–4-month duration), forests, and mountains.

Mix that with our coffee culture. Makes for near perfect conditions for your average bookworm---that's me.

Heh, I've seen your collections (photos and descriptions), so my collection is amateurish perhaps for size, in comparison, but that's fine--- I get to ask you all bothersome questions about these works :)

Have a great evening and mellow week.

Is this supposed to be English-only? If not, then I'd recommend (clicking on touchstones will reveal English titles)

Cazotte, Le diable amoureux (1772)

Kahlert, The necromancer (1794)

Tieck, Der blonde Eckbert (1797)

E. T. A. Hoffmann (died 1822)

Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831)

Charles Nodier (died 1844)

etc.

as at least representative of the period, but if you're including the likes of Stephen King and Anne Rice, there's tons.

>51 pgmcc:

This list is from The Gothic by David Punter and Glennis Byron. This was published in 2004. I can't remember if I posted here somewhere, though I intended too, asking if this book might have, by now, been supplanted by a more up-to-date survey ('up-to-date' in terms of more recent studies on the genre, I mean).

I recurringly find myself slightly surprised that Punter & Byron's list doesn't contain A Picture of Dorian Gray. They sound to me just a little dubious in their description of it, '... what many critics have regarded as a Gothic masterpiece ...' Perhaps they didn't consider it a key work; but I've added a copy to my TBR pile.

Just to be a bit daunting, as well as a list of key works the Punter & Byron has a list of authors ... there are seventy-seven of them ...

Thank you, Lola, I'll be adding the titles you've listed in "to buy" list(s), too. Hopefully I can find English translations of them all.

I guess if I spread these out too thin, there could be more titles. But suffice to say, I usually think of 17th--19th century, and few early 20th century titles that would make most of any "Gothic classics" list, or "must reads".

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" should be in any collection, I figure we can agree on that.

The last few posts have reminded me that I've come to a dead stop with my Gothic fiction reading. The reason sort of supports >51 pgmcc:'s dark thoughts on the Kindle. I had been reading, on my Kindle, The October Country for a couple of years. I appreciated Ray Bradbury was a very good writer every time I read a story; but I think there's a sort of 'out of sight, out of mind' thing with the Kindle, especially as regards short stories, and I simply kept forgetting about it. In the end, prompted by a THE DEEP ONES thread, I gave up on it and bought a nice hardback The Stories of Ray Bradbury, and I've been quite astonished by the way it's changed my attitude. Bradbury has now taken on the characteristics of a box of biscuits—I simply can't leave the book alone and find myself almost gorging on it.

Unfortunately, I'm about a third through and have yet to find anything I could honestly fit into the Gothic genre (not without a lot of shoving, anyway) and any further comments I could make probably belong over in The Weird Tradition. However, I really must pick up something else this evening ... the 'something else' being A Sicilian Romance which I've left off so long I shall probably have to start it again ...

>58 alaudacorax:
...I think there's a sort of 'out of sight, out of mind' thing with the Kindle,...

I agree. There are several times I have come across a book on the Kindle I had forgotten about. It gives me ambiguous feelings; I am happy to discover I have the book, but somewhat worried that I forgot it in the first place.

I also found myself not cataloguing Kindle books. It is so easy to order a book and move on. There is no receipt of a book in the post, or the bringing home of a treasured artifact from a bookshop to prompt the act of cataloguing. I just order the Kindle book and go off looking at other shiny things on the World Wide Web. I am getting better at forcing cataloguing when I buy a Kindle book, but I freely admit there are probably books lurking in the Kindle forest that are waiting to pounce on me without warning.

>57 benbrainard8:

It can be frustrating trying to get hold of English translations. I have some of these - of course there may be equivalent or better sources in the US.

Cazotte, Le diable amoureux (1772) - I have the Dedalus edition (title: The Devil in Love). In fact today's discussion prompted me to fish it out and start reading (it's only 109 pages long, including an introduction).

Kahlert, The necromancer (1794) - ah, yes, I have this, because it's one of the six "Horrid Novels" name checked in Northanger Abbey. All the horrid novels are available from Valancourt books (be aware, their website notes that "Karl Friedrich Kahlert" was a pseudonym and they have the author's name as Lawrence Flammenberg).

Tieck, Der blonde Eckbert (1797) - this is apparently included in a book that I own, but haven't read yet: Six German Romantic Tales, Angel Classics. Only second-hand copies appear on Amazon UK, but the company still has an operational website so I presume new copies are still available.

E. T. A. Hoffmann (died 1822) - Ill-served in English, this author. The Penguin Classics is abridged (in the introduction, the translator explains that he thinks Hoffmann is too prolix for a modern audience). The Oxford Worlds Classics is skewed towards Hoffmann's weird fairytales - "The Magic Flute on acid" was my initial reaction to them - but the commentators say they are full of occult symbolism and proto-psycholgical insights. I have a big Tartarus Press collection of the Gothic/Horror short stories but it uses mainly older translations (and, it's long out of date). The best available one-volume option might be the edition from M. Grant Kellermeyer's Oldstyle Tales Press (although - caveat - the "look inside" feature shows you the introduction but not any of the texts).

Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) - also known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame of course, and available in multiple translations/editions.

Charles Nodier (died 1844)- There's a book from Dedalus that includes two short novels: Smarra and Trilby. Individual short stories have been anthologised (there's one in The Dedalus Book of French Horror. More material seems to be available from Black Coat Press, but at least one of the books listed on their website is only available as an e-book.

>54 benbrainard8:
Referring back to short story collections, I have sen at least one of those big Otto Penzler anthologies. They are not widely available here, but the main branch of Forbidden Planet in London had some. I've got most of the stories in other collections.

If you were thinking about specifically Gothic collections, there's American Gothic Tales (full contents listed here on LibraryThing, it appears); The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales; and Late Victorian Gothic Tales (you can "Look Inside" on Amazon to see the contents pages of these books).

Putting "21st Century Gothic" into Amazon's search bar finds mainly academic titles, and no recent short-story anthologies.

A question:

First of all: the late Sir Terry Pratchett is an old favourite author of mine; and rapidly becoming a new favourite is Ray Bradbury.

Currently reading The Stories of Ray Bradbury, some of the stories have featured The Family. The Family are 'different', possibly vampires; but the 'gifts' of some of them seem to vary. One of the members is Cecy, a 'seventeen-year-old' girl. I use the inverted commas because I'm not clear if she is immortal or not—don't know how many years she's been seventeen. Cecy's thing is lying in bed for most of the time, sending her mind out and about to ride inside, and potentially control, all manner of living things from flowers to insects to people*. She's 'The April Witch' in the story of that name. My reaction to this was, "She's Granny Weatherwax as a girl!" Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax has exactly the same skill and I immediately wondered if Sir Terry was a Ray Bradbury reader.

So here's the question. This ability to 'hitchhike' in others' minds, is it a long time meme in depiction of fictional or folklore witches, or is it confined to Bradbury and Pratchett? Anyone know of any other, earlier examples? I've been thinking of Dracula and Mina, of course; but that doesn't seem exactly the same thing** (though might, of course, have been an inspiration for Bradbury). I'm wondering if there have been characters more closely analogous allied?

Edited to add:
* And look out through their eyes—shouldn't have left that out, it's important.
** Neither does Dracula's ability to control wolves.

>62 alaudacorax:

It's ringing bells, and it may be either witchcraft or shamanism that I'm reminded of. I'll try to track it down.

If I find it in a modern book, or even a 1970s "Age of Aquarius"-type tome, the next question must be "where did Ray Bradbury find out about it in the 1940s?".

I'll have to check on the Dracula connection as well.

This post will stray into the Ghost Story as opposed to the Gothic Tale genre, but I think it is apropos to the above mention of using the Kindle and it relates to Tartarus Press.

I noticed today that Tartarus Press has recently published a very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case, entitled, The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions. My interest was piqued immediately.

As I already have the Tartarus Press edition of "Oliver Onions, Ghost Stories", published in 2000, I wondered what might be new in the very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case. My wondering mind led me to the Tartarus Press website were I saw three things: beautiful pictures of the new volumes from different angles, the contents of the new volumes, and the price of £80.

I went to my reading room and took down my 2000 edition of the Onions ghost stories and compared the contents page to the contents of the very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case, and discovered there was a story in the new edition, Gambier, which is not in the 2000 edition.

You can imagine the emotional turmoil that I experienced. The completist in me was going into shock. Was I going to spend £80 to obtain one story in the very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case; did I already have this story in another volume of Onions's works; or was I going to let myself exist in this world knowing there was an Oliver Onions story that I would not have access to?

I went to the bookshelf again to check the other Onions books I have. Apart from Widdershins my other Onions books are novels, and as Widdershins does not contain Gambier I was thinking I was never going to have access to that story or I was going to part with a significant amount of money for one story and a very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case.

I appear to be suffering from a case of creeping sensibility; I was thinking that I could not even consider spending that amount of money on one story and a very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case; a thought I might not have tolerated twenty years ago.

This is where my creeping sensibility persuaded me to compromise on my standards. The content of the new very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case, is also available in Kindle format, without the very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case, for £4.99. I now have access to Gambier without the guilt of spending £80.

Of course, I will have to book in for some sessions with my therapist to help me get over not having the very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case.

>64 pgmcc:

Evidently I haven't been hit with Creeping Sensibility yet. I did buy the new two-volume edition.

There's something strange though. A story added to the second printing of the first Tartarus edition in 2003, "Tragic Casements", has been omitted from this new edition.

>65 housefulofpaper:
Oh no! There was a second printing?

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

>66 pgmcc:

Oh Sh*t! I didn't realise what that meant for you.

The copyright page says the story was first printed in The Sketch, Christmas 1952.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224388753197?hash=item343e9ca72d:g:XBMAAOSwOuBbl9zf

>67 housefulofpaper: Thank you for the link.

>67 housefulofpaper: I did a bit of searching and found a copy of The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions (Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural) which contains Tragic Casements. It is a Wordsworth Edition. The paperback was £6.01 and the Kindle £1.99.

I was going to go for the paperback as it looked like it would be a nice reading copy. When I went to put it in my trolly I was asked to pick my buying option as it was not directly from Amazon. There were several secondhand copies and only one new copy. The new copy was £6.54 plus £14.60 postage. I buried my better side and got the Kindle edition.

Since Brexit took effect and the Customs have started looking at all packets & parcels coming into Ireland from Britain a lot of sellers based in Britain are not equipped to provide the necessary paper and electronic documents required by the Irish customs. As a result many of them have stopped taking orders from Ireland or they charge enormous postage charges for sending things to Ireland. The average postage charge I have seen on ABEBooks for dealers attempting to avoid the administration is around £50. The book sellers who have looked into it in detail and managed to get their systems and processes in place have reverted back to more reasonable rates, but there are still many who deter Irish orders with very high postage rates.

Sorry about that little rant.

>69 pgmcc:

Rant entirely justified, in my opinion. I've seen the extra hoops Brian has to jump through to post Swan River Press books to the UK (well, seen the extra signed declaration stuck on every parcel, and read some of his accounts of what's clearly been a tough year on social media). But there, the pain's all on him and not on me.

>64 pgmcc: - You can imagine the emotional turmoil that I experienced.

Hah-hah! Yep, been there. Glad it's not just me.

>64 pgmcc:

Oh dear! That pair is rather tempting ...

>60 housefulofpaper: Thank you to both you and Lola. I've managed to find the English translations of all and added them to my "to buy" list.

Heh, keeping a collection within space limits...you all must have have closet space or something. And I've seen in photos some of your designated rooms, I'm so envious.

I'm one of these folks that won't spring for a Kindle/e-reader, I just like having them in book form. That's ok, I'll be patient and will spring for them (sooner than later).

The batch of eleven books is supposed to come this week, yay!

>72 alaudacorax: & 71

It is so reassuring to be amongst people who understand me.

While I am sharing my innermost bibliophile emotions I should share the end of my Oliver Onions story search.

As reported in >69 pgmcc:, I bought the Kindle version of the Wordsworth The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions (Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural) to ensure I had access to a copy of the story, "Tragic Casements". Having the discussion about forgetting books on the Kindle fresh in my mind I immediately went to the "Add books" page and entered the pertinent ASIN number and hit "Search".

LT was very quick to come back with the appropriate book and also with a message in green lettering that stated, "There is another version of this work in Your books".

A quick check of my catalogue indicated that I had acquired a physical copy of this book and entered it in my catalogue on 12th October, 2010.

Having been the recipient of management development programmes that emphasise focusing on the positive, I interpreted this as proof that I am consistent since in 2010 I obviously felt this book would make a good reading copy and that in 2021 I still think the same. My management development programmes on developing a growth mindset meant I did not for one moment think it indicated I was going senile or that I was totally slovenly by not having the book with my other Oliver Onions volumes. (It was with my Wordsworth Edition horror stories.)

Continuing with my growth mindset I concluded that I now have format options for reading this book, and I only spent £1.99 rather than £80.

Of course, I still do not have a very attractive two volume edition, with slip-case.

>74 pgmcc:

I'm feeling old again ... I think I retired so long ago that 'management development programmes' were not yet a thing ... I vaguely feel I've been lucky—though no doubt I'm wrong about that.

>75 alaudacorax:
I vaguely feel I've been lucky—though no doubt I'm wrong about that.

I think this depends on the attitude you take to the programmes and the quality of the programmes. They have been an endless source of amusement to me as I point out the internal inconsistencies in the materials and approaches presented, and cynical me tends to tell the instructors/leaders/tutors how the purpose of the programme is really mind-control, manipulation, and to encourage people to be more productive while thinking they are happy with their lot. :-) The greatest fun is when we can get the instructor to inadvertently contradict themselves, or have them work through a scenario that takes their earlier lesson and turns it totally on its head.

Very immature of me, I know. But great fun.

In a slightly M.R. Jamesian manner, I'm currently being menaced by one of those unseasonable fat flies that appear in a brief interval of winter sunshine, and then spend the rest of the day buzzing around light fittings and any warm bodies that happen to be around (i.e., me).

I hope it has a completely naturalistic explanation, anyway.

>74 pgmcc:
Nobody has bothered trying to develop my management potential, although I remember being sent on wildly inappropriate/overly optimistic Time Management courses in the '90s. "Ignore emails" and "delegate your work downwards to your staff" being two gems that still shine bright in the memory.

>76 pgmcc:, >77 housefulofpaper:

The books on Amazon fascinate me. This is obviously quite a lucrative genre and, if the reviews and ratings system is to believed, they are obviously very well thought of—often hundreds, sometimes thousands, of positive reviews. And—again, if the reviews and blurbs are to be believed—these authors get employed by at least US companies to do their thing ... very lucrative, I imagine. BUT, I've noticed that as often or not you'll find one or two one-star reviews, hidden away right down at the bottom, that quite logically and literately chop them to pieces. The big problem, I think, is that to have these books turn your life/working methods around, you really need books that show you how to develop the good habits and so on than enable you to stick to the exercises of the first lot of books ... and then you need books to show you how to develop the good habits to carry out the instructions in the second set of books ... and so on ...

>78 alaudacorax:

They're like diet books, really. If people lost weight by dieting the market would collapse ...

ETA - 'Permanently' ... I should have put 'lost weight permanently' in there ... before someone shouts at me ...

I'd say in this group particularly there is a general understanding that we all (eventually) will lose weight permanently

It's just turned midnight where I am, so ... MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
We had a midnight turkey sandwich.
Have a lovely day.

Happy 2022, everybody.

Hope that you all are having a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Best to you all.

Happy new year, Gothic gang!

Happy 2022. Have a great year.

At this point, a great year could have ME for half a price. :)

Happy New Year, everyone.

I've been on a little trip.
Detail of the wrought ironwork (that's a guess) in the 'Victorian Gothic' style Hereford railway station.


Hay Castle, Hay-on-Wye.

It's rather annoying that I left Hay-on Wye (in Wales, and Britain's first 'book town') on a day that it both World Book Day AND the anniversay of Arthur Machen's birth.

Two Centenary celebrations of Nigel Kneale in London.

A season at the National Film Theatre, suitably called 'Nightmares and daydreams', 28 March - 27 April:

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::p...

A one day event at Picturehouse Cinema, Crouch End, 23 April:

https://www.nigelknealecentenary.com/2022/01/event-schedule.html

>91 housefulofpaper:

Fire the PA who plans so poorly! :) That's a very nightmare-inspiring castle.

>92 Rembetis:

I just posted about seeing Kneale's Murrain.

I know Robert Lloyd Parry's one-man M. R. James performances have been mentioned on here before.

Well, he finally came to Reading this evening (it nearly didn't happen. This was a rescheduled date due to the two storms that hit in quick succession last month, and I saw from his Facebook page that Robert has had Covid in the interim).

We were treated to two stories - "The Ash Tree" and "Oh, Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad" in (to quote Robert's own comment onhis Facebook page "a quondam Temperance Hall". Not as atmospheric as the Leper Chapel in Cambridge in December, where I last saw Robert perform, but not as cold either! And the audience were able to bring in drinks from the bar here, which I suppose is in keeping with how the stories were originally told, although those Cambrige undergraduates would have had snifters of brandy, not cans of Red Stripe!

>94 housefulofpaper:
I really enjoy Robert’s performances. Unfortunately he does not get to Ireland too often.

Happy May Day! I've been sitting here sure there was some folk-horror-ish comment to be made about May Day, something horrific about maypoles or morris dancers, but I can't think of anything. Wikipedia even mentions dancing, singing and ... cakes. So, Happy May Day.

>96 alaudacorax:

Happy May Day to you too! I think you'd probably have better, spookier, luck with Walpurgis Night and Beltane. I've been caught out this year and haven't done anything special or even thought about it. In fact I was trying to reduce my "books-on-the-go" pile and finished off The Friendly Examiner and a biography of Anita Berber yesterday...although now I'm tempted to put The Medieval Garden back on the shelf, and read the latest issue of Hellebore ("No.7 - The RITUAL Issue") instead!

Belated Happy May Day everyone. I kept my appointment with 'The Wicker Man' and then watched Robin Hardy's follow up 'The Wicker Tree'.

It's May 3, so DraculaDaily has begun! I'm quite looking forward to the experience. Reading a novel like this in chunks, as it happens per the timeline, is a really clever idea, and a great way to really emphasize and immerse yourself in the epistolary format. Also, I haven't read Dracula in over a decade, and this is a nice way to fit it in without pushing anything else out.

Is anyone else signed up for the emails? (I don't work for them. I'm not affiliated in any way. I'm just really excited, and this seems like a group that would appreciate a project like this.)

>99 Rembetis:

Sadly, you've just reminded me of something I'd forgotten. It had crossed my mind to watch The Wicker Man on May 1st, but, as I said, I then forgot all about it. Really must dig it out—I'm not sure I've actually watched my particular copy, which is the 'most complete' or whatever (I'm pretty sure we've written about that edition somewhere here).

>100 Julie_in_the_Library:

So they'd be emailing you bits of the novel until next November? Interesting idea, but not for me, I think. Hope you enjoy the experience!

>102 alaudacorax: That is the idea, yeah. You get the novel sent to your inbox bit by bit as it happens in the story.

I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone. What makes it interesting to me, besides being a convenient way to squeeze in a reread, is the way that it emphasizes the epistolary format. I'm interested to see how that affects the reading experience.

>100 Julie_in_the_Library:

I wasn't able to comment yesterday. Thanks for bringing this to my notice although I won't be reading along either. I'm actually reading something day-by-day already this year: The English Year. I had a vague notion it would tie in with the Folk Horror theme, but in fact modern scholarship seems to be largely debunking the notions of timeless customs and Pagan survivals: lots of "not attested before the eighteenth century" type comments. Oh well. Actually I haven't even been able to keep up the reading pace with this one and am still stuck in Easter Monday.

But I can't pass up the opportunity a mention of Dracula affords to post a couple of images from a flyer for a new Romanian restaurant/takeaway that came through my door* last week.

(Americans, to clarify - there's a letterbox in the front door of my house; I don't have a mailbox at the perimeter of my property. I'm saying this was posted through the letterbox. No vampiric mist was involved!)

>105 housefulofpaper:

Are they doing the dishes Jonathan ate on his journey?

>105 housefulofpaper: We actually do have those in America, it just depends on where you live. My grandmother lived in Needham, and she had a door mail flap.

>106 alaudacorax: Not based on that menu, they're not! So far, Jonathan's eaten a lot of chicken paprika, and absolutely zero double cheeseburgers. :)

>107 Julie_in_the_Library:
I should probably apply a little more critical analysis to YouTube videos of the "10 differences between the US and the UK" kind (Americans are shocked at: no electrical sockets in bathrooms, the washing machine in the kitchen; Americans do not use and cannot recognise eggcups; etc.)

>106 alaudacorax: There are, to be fair, a number of Romanian dishes listed on the inside pages but sadly not accompanied by further images of the Count. Dacian Speciality Sirloin Steak, Barbarian Speciality pork neck, Moldavian pork stew, a "Giant" chicken or pork snitzel. No Paprika hendl, however.

Shame ...

>108 housefulofpaper: I find to be very interesting, that menu, it's rather quirky. I'd like to find a YouTube video of differences between UK and American folks, I think I'll do some hunting around Web today.

Well, I did experience the washing machine in the kitchen when I lived in Japan. And the City Hall folk had to come by and show me how to use a gas range that had all instructions written in Japanese, so that I wouldn't blow up the building. More shocking to me, it was only myself, when apartment next to mine was family of five. My co-workers explained that perhaps the husband slept on kitchen floor (were they jibing me?).

Post boxes, mailboxes. It's sort of all over the place. I also remember living in houses back East (esp. New York) where there were front door mail slots. But I've never seen one out here in the U.S. NW.

HAPPY FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, EVERYBODY!!! [Insane cackling fades into the distance ...]

I've missed World Goth Day and World Dracula Day!

I hope you enjoyed them, if you knew about them!

>112 housefulofpaper: I was made aware of it being World Dracula Day (by Brian Showers, as it happens) but was not aware it was World Goth Day despite seeing several Goth posts on-line.

>112 housefulofpaper:, >113 pgmcc:

I've forgotten about it, but I've been meaning to post this link since I read the news this morning (well, yesterday morning, now, 2:30am, here).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-61597097

What's this? The church of a Lovecraftian sect sprung up in the Home Counties? No, but appropriately it's where, all being well, Robert LLoyd Parry will be performing his new H. P. Lovecraft show next Sunday.

>115 housefulofpaper:
That will be great. Robert’s performances are always excellent.

I've just posted in the E.T.A. Hoffman thread and linked to an edition of BBC Radio 3's programme Free Thinking ("Leading artists, writers, thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives & links between past & present and new academic research").

There's another recent edition about Varney the Vampire, before opening out and discussing "Penny Dreadfuls" more broadly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018h4y

I am not certain, but I think you can download the podcast version and listen outside the UK, even if you can't access the BBC Sounds app.

>116 pgmcc:

It was very good, although I was recovering from a nasty migraine or tension headache and was distinctly green around the gills, I managed to leave the house and get the the venue just in time, and enjoy the performance.

It was the first time I'd seen Robert perform as somebody other than his M. R. James persona, and for a section of the first story, come face-to-face with literally ghoulish artist Richard Upton Pickman!

I gather from Robert's Facebook posts that he might not tour this show again. That would be a shame.

I have fallen behind with all my reading and currently halfway through the Autumn 2021 issue of "The Book Collector", and in it there's a tiny footnote to the history of Gothic literature.

One of the articles, by Sandro Jung, concerns "Longworth's Belles Lettres Repository and the Early American Illustrated Diary-cum-Almanac". As the title indicates, this looks at the emerging market in the States for this ancestor of the Filofax, a diary augmented with engravings or other material.

The equivalent British publications, on which the US volumes were patterned, supplemented their diary and almanac pages with illustrations only. So did the first US productions, but Longworth innovated by including verse (which in fact "aligned the publication with French and German pocket books of the time").

Although the overall the selections can be characterised as Romantic, the first number included such unquestionably Gothic authors and works as Matthew "Monk "Lewis and Gottfried August Bürger's "Lenore" (apparently Englished as "Lenora").

As I said, just a tiny footnote.

>117 housefulofpaper:
I just tried the website and had to register with a UK postcode. In the past I have found I could listen to radio programmes without any difficulty but needed a UK TV Licence to watch any TV programmes.

I look forward to listening to this. Varney is on book I have not read yet, but hope to venture into it at some time soon. A mutual friend of ours put me off it slightly by saying he thought it was too long and repetitive, but then I loved Melmoth the Wanderer and I am sure some people would level the same accusation at Maturin's book.

>118 housefulofpaper:

I am glad you enjoyed the performance. I note that Robert has listed a Dublin appearance in his latest tour schedule, but he has not provided details yet. That is something I will make every effort to attend.

I gather from Robert's Facebook posts that he might not tour this show again. That would be a shame.

Perhaps drop him a line telling him how much you enjoyed it and that you know there are others who would like to see it.

I hope you migraine cleared up. A Nunkie performance could be just the remedy.

I finished the Alan Bennett at the BBC box and thanks again for mentioning it, Paul. Wonderful stuff, only wish it had been ten times more. I didn't know he came from working class or identified as a socialist.

you might find this YouTube video about Arkham House interesting. It's the small press set up initially to keep H P Lovecraft's work in print beyond the lifespan of the pulp magazines that his stories first appeared in, and went on to have a significant influence on the publishing of modern horror, science fiction and fantasy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k_iug7rWmE&t=524s

I was in Harrogate last weekend, for Thought Bubble 2022. Before the comics convention (or "Comic Art Festival" as the website has it) I had a day to wander around.

This rather dinky example of Victorian Gothic is the Magnesia Pump Room (1858). The well was closed in 1973 (the Royal Pump Room still operates as a museum/tourist attraction).


I think most towns have a statue of Queen Victoria. The one in Reading is facing away from the town, supposedly because she hated Reading so much (ha ha). This one's much more elaborate and Gothic.


There was what seemed to be an abandoned church. I suppose it can't be of any particular interest or artistic merit otherwise it wouldn't be just left to rot, but it seemed quite impressive just coming across it on my wanderings.




A winged lion decorating a building in Harrogate. There's a lot of dark grey stone in Harrogate. The town as a whole can have an almost Gormenghast feel about it from some viewpoints (although saying that, I've only ever visited in November. Apparently it's very proud of its municipal plants and flowers, so I presume it presents a less forbidding aspect at other times of the year).


Another church evidently no longer used. There's an estate agent's (realtor's) board just out of shot (and the clock isn't showing the correct time!)


I'll be honest. I thought this shot of the tower of St Peter's, from the 5th floor of the hotel, would be more interesting


And because I am back in the office for half the week, here are some recent pictures of Reading Abbey ruins. These are the rubble walls - the dressed stone was all taken and reused (some of it in Windsor Castle).

>124 housefulofpaper:

To sound on the slightly double note of 'Gothic', either of the top two images could be a crypt if they were found in a graveyard (is 'crypt' still the right word when they're above ground?)

>125 alaudacorax:

I don't know. It looks, from the relevant Wikipedia entry, that the word "crypt" ought to apply to the part of the structure below ground (and, incidentally, interchangeable with "vault"). But would it be pedantic to refer to the above-ground structure as a mausoleum? (If it's a chapel, I guess it's fine to call it a chapel!)

>126 housefulofpaper:

Now I come to think on it again, I can imagine (well, with the top one, at least) opening the door to find a flight of stone steps going down into the bowels of the earth, shades of that Randolph Carter story ...

ETA ... 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' ...

News about Christmas programming on the BBC:

Mark Gatiss has adapted the M. R. James story "Count Magnus", apparently a long-held ambition of his.

Back in the mid 1970s, the producer of the original "Ghost Story for Christmas", Lawrence Gordon Clark, had wanted to adapt "Count Magnus", and had even got as far as having a script from (if I'm remembring correctly) horror writer Basil Copper. However in the event it proved to be too expensive on the budget available. All these adaptations have been made on a shoestring.

There's also going to be a Christmas episode of Inside No. 9, "a disturbingly spooky Christmas story set in a mysterious church".

Oscar Wilde, of course.

This is the gate to the "Chestnut Walk" along the side of Reading Goal, which I photographed last week.

There's a strong "'70's science fiction paperback cover" to this photo, I think.

Merry Christmas!

Here's a Twitter thread by Pulp Librarian (@PulpLibrarian) on the Gothic Romance novel

https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/1606763065856368642

Yes, MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

>130 housefulofpaper:

A good, thoughtful thread. Gorgeous edition of Udolpho. Couldn't find a copy online but I bet it would knock a big hole in a lottery jackpot.

Merry Christmas!

>130 housefulofpaper:
Thank you for the article link.

I'm trying to remember what I listened to last night. Or in the early hours of this morning, rather. I let the radio run on while I was potching around here when I should have been in bed and then I got absorbed. Can't even remember the station—one of the BBCs, either 3 or 4 or 4 Extra. There was a version of The Nutcracker which definitely verged more towards the Gothic than normal. Ah, they were all on Radio 4 Extra.

That programme, I suppose you'd call it a play, was The Nutcracker Christmas. It was definitely darker than one is used to. Natalia, the young heroine, was almost a Cinderella-ish character (I did not like her mother). There was a ghost, too ... and I won't say more than that.

There was Charles Dickens' The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton. That was a reading so it very much depends on what you think of Charlie's story (he's 'Charlie' ever since I saw that Dr Who episode).

There was a dramatisation (from 1963) of John Dickson Carr's Blind Man's Hood. This was rather good—a proper, old-fashioned, ghost story. Not familiar with Carr, but Wikipedia has him as almost exclusively a mystery/detective author.

I was listening to a programme by Jeremy Dyson, one of the chaps behind The League of Gentlemen, and there were supposed to be 'some ghost stories and strange tales' involved but, to be honest, I can't remember. Probably fell asleep because next thing I remember Bertie Wooster was woffling on ... so I finally went to bed.

Anyway, they're all availabe for some time on BBC Sounds.

It's been a weird old Christmas. Actually, this post probably belongs in the The Weird Tradition. Anyway ...

I had a visit from The Men in Black yesterday. Way too much black: shoes, overcoats, suits, waistcoats, hats, ties ... all black. Crept me out a little. I noticed they didn't mention Christmas. "Thank you for opening your door", I remember. Then I think they said something like, "We've come to share some tidings." Phone or front door, anyone who doesn't introduce themselves straight off gets right up my nose—sure sign of duplicitous intentions—so I just said, "No thank you, Merry Christmas", and closed the door. Just think, if I wasn't so short-tempered I could have been abducted by an alien spaceship by now (sorry, been watching too much William Shatner on Blaze—it's like chocolate biscuits, you know you should resist the temptation, but ...)

Merry Christmas to you all.

I finished The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, James Hogg, Ian Duncan (Editor). Published anonymously in 1824.

Reading the The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, James Hogg, was more difficult when I attempted reading the 1st section: "The Editors Narrative, a found document from the previous century offered to the public with a long introduction by its unnamed editor". I kept going back and forth reading the footnotes.

For the 2nd section, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself, I decided to simply read all the foot/explanatory notes 1st, then read the work straight through. It was bit easier to read this section, and I great enjoyed the story.

Getting through some of the Scottish vernacular was rather challenging, and I found it easier when reading and rereading to say it aloud to myself.

I believe the next read should be Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886 Gothic novella, by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Well, no visitors in black, but a very quiet holiday. Just me and Mr. Milo, the dog, as immediate family is overseas right now. And in most non-holiday mood, I've been streaming each day about 30-45 minutes of Apocalypse Now Redux and Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, 4K Ultra HD that I've purchased electronically, daily. I don't know why, except both are interesting films, and bit melancholic in some sort of manner...

But it's ok, I listen to Charlie Brown Christmas special soundtrack to lighten the mood prior to bedtime.

Just had fireworks going off all around me, so it must be 2023...Happy New Year!

>134 alaudacorax:

I didn't see your Christmas Day posts (I only had my phone and was away with family. The only seasonally spooky radio programme I caught was Mark Gatiss and Rev Richard Coles discussing real and fictional ghosts. I'll have to look on BBC Sounds before those other programmes disappear. That dramatisation of "The Nutcracker" could be pretty faithful to Hoffman's original story.

>138 housefulofpaper:

No, it was set a generation or two after the revolution and featured the heroine being (unfairly) made to stay at home with grandad while the parents and spoilt son went to see The Nutcracker at the Bolshoi. Actually, I'm not sure it really worked, but it's the one of the things I listened to that's really stuck in my memory; so it might be worth a listen.

It's Christmas Eve in Moscow and Natalia is in trouble for cutting characters out of her picture books. Her family go to the Bolshoi Ballet and she must stay behind.
But left alone with Grandpa Igor, Natalia finds that the story of the Nutcracker can be brought to life at home, with a little help from some abandoned characters and her own imagination.
Starring With Bernard Hepton and Stella Gonet.
Festive drama written by Nicholas McInerny.

Edited to add: At this distance, I can't remember a thing about Blind Man's Hood and little about 'the goblins', though I know I've read the story, but I remember this quite clearly ...

>139 alaudacorax:

Perhaps I just remember it because I took such a dislike to the mother. I remember pondering at the time on the surfeit of unsatisfactory parents in Gothic tales.

>140 alaudacorax:

A central character with the full set of parents and both functioning satisfactorily must be a pretty rare beast ...

This is off-topic, but I thought it might be of interest.

Found inserted in this book, bought from the Oxfam charity bookshop yesterday.

Happy New Year all!

In addition to the Radio shows already mentioned, the following on the BBC Sounds iplayer may be of interest:

- A new version of Charles Dickens' ghost story 'The Signalman' first broadcast on Boxing day - runs 1 hour (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ghw9)

- A new episode of 'Uncanny', which I found quite creepy (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001g9n2)

- 'Uncanny Live' with guest Mark Gatiss (released 30 Dec 22 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gjsg)

- A new serialisation of Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvp7)

>142 housefulofpaper:

Now you're making me feel nostalgic. It's so rarely (just once, I think) I've been into a second-hand bookshop since Covid hit. Bits of paper found inside or messages on the fly leaves are often such intriguing glimpses into unknown lives. It's almost all up to one's imagination, of course, but still ...

>143 Rembetis:

Don't know how I came to miss that 'The Signalman'—one of my all-time favourite short stories. Must catch up on that.

'The Dark is Rising' is one of those titles I've become vaguely aware of over the years without knowing how or why*. I've equally vaguely been meaning to look into it and then not bothered on discovering it is one of a series. Is anyone else as put off by the phrase 'young adult' as I am? It always sounds rather condescending, somehow. I'm sure 'young adult' is something I'd have taken offence at when I was a 'young adult'—always sounds to me like something created by the middle-aged and slightly self-righteous. The very existence of the phrase carries vague hints of censorship. Which is all, no doubt, being very unfair to Susan Cooper and her book, of course.

ETA - * Perhaps it's just an unusually catchy title ...

>145 alaudacorax: I first read the Susan Cooper series in my youth. The design on the old paperback cover of 'The Dark is Rising' (depicting Herne the Hunter) is one of the most striking covers I encountered in my youth.



Cooper is an excellent writer, with a deep knowledge of her subject matter. In that respect, describing them as books for 'young adults' is offensive! I think they are books for anyone from 12 to 120. They were my introduction to English folklore, Arthurian legends and Ancient mythology.

I re-read the whole series in 2020, and enjoyed them so much (maybe, partly, as a comfort blanket, during that dark year). They are very creative, exciting and imaginative page turners, particularly 'The Grey King' and 'The Dark is Rising'. I think 'The Dark is Rising' is the strongest book, and can be read as a standalone book (without reading the first book 'Over Sea Under Stone').

Happy new year, keepers of the Gothic flames!

I thought of y'all as I watched (for the first time, and yes I'm late as usual) the four seasons of Whitechapel. Grisly and scary and then Angela Pleasence... I had to leap onto the bed to avoid getting ankles too close to the under-the-bed.

>146 Rembetis:

Such a great cover. So that's a new tip, to check out YA shelves for Puffins.

>146 Rembetis:

I haven't read the Susan Cooper books but I certainly remember that cover. Low fantasy (magical events intruding on an otherwise-normal world) was so common in children's literature (including what would now be categorised as YA), and on television, I tended to undervalue it and missed out on a lot of it. I read the Narnia books of course. It slowly dawned on me, I seem to recall, that they were a Christian parable, and it put me off them.

(I then assumed, when I read The Wind in the Willows a couple of years later, that the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" chapter was another such, and that the Pan figure was supposed to be Jesus. Commentators don't seem to think so these days, pointing to Kenneth Grahame's fin-de-siecle connections and to Pan's (almost) ubiquity at the time. I don't know. I suspect people are forgetting that strong (suffocating, as it seems to me) Sunday-School strain of Christianity in Victorian culture).

I did go to ancient mythology (I had Roger Lancelyn Green's retellings of Greek and Norse myths, and I found Rosemary Sutcliff's Dragonslayer in the school library; and to High Fantasy (not Tolkien, yet - but The Earthsea trilogy (as it then was) by Ursula K. Le Guin. But it was mostly comics and Science Fiction.

>147 LolaWalser:

On the subject of older children's/YA literature that's worth investigating, Valancourt books have republished some (M. R.) Jamesian fiction originally marketed to older children - ghost stories by Robert Westall and The House on the Brink by John Gordon.

There's also the books hghlighted in the "musty books" section of Bob Fischer's blog:
https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/mustybooks/

Whitechapel...typically, it was cancelled just as I was getting into it. Angela Pleasence was wonderfully creepy and malevolent.

>147 LolaWalser: Happy New Year!

'Whitechapel' is a great show which shouldn't have been cancelled. Angela Pleasence was as effective as ever in the final season. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end! I don't blame you for leaping onto the bed :-)!

In most cases, the cover design of 1970s Puffin books were much better than later versions of most of their titles. I found that 'Dark is Rising' cover very scary when I was young!

>148 housefulofpaper: I agree with you about fantasy being common in children's literature and television of the 70s. Weren't we lucky! But much of it was lighthearted and superficial. I also read and enjoyed the Narnia books when young, but the Christian allegory is so heavy handed, that they were also unsatisfactory to me by my teenage years.

The fantasy books by Susan Cooper and Alan Garner stand out from other books intended for young readers at that time, as they produced (in 'The Dark is Rising' series, and books like 'The Owl Service') quite complex material, dealing with light and dark magic in a sophisticated way, with obscure meanings, and with a depth of characterisation. A few tv series of the time also stand out - 'Children of the Stones' being one.

I was surprised when re-reading 'The Dark is Rising' after so many years, that at my age and after everything I have read and seen, I found quite a few sections very menacing and scary.

I also read Rosemary Sutcliff, but mainly her series of Romans in Britain novels. She was another great writer who still reads well to me in my old age! Around 14 years old, I graduated to books like the Pan and Fontana horror anthologies, Victoria Holt (haha!), Agatha Christie, Tolkien and then Stephen King, but I also went backwards to Dickens, Stoker, Shelley and M.R .James etc. I didn't get to Ursula K. Le Guin until a few years ago, and that was a sheer delight.

>146 Rembetis:

Now, that's an encouraging review. Must give them a go.

>147 LolaWalser:

Well I'll be damned, forgot to wish you all a happy new year. I remember trying to figure out when it was New Year for which of you, and I must have got distracted. Belated Happy New Year, everyone.

>148 housefulofpaper:

That never occurred to me about The Wind in the Willows' Pan. I never read it as a child, though one of my favourite childhood books was a handed-down copy of A. A. Milne's play Toad of Toad Hall, which omits the Pan sequence, as I remember. Coming to it as an adult, the Pan bit came rather as a delightful surprise but as strikingly differing from the whole of the rest of the book; and I've never thought of it as anything but pagan. I shall have to pay special attention next time I read it, especially as regards its relationship—or lack of such—to the Christmas episode.

>149 Rembetis:

And you've reminded me I've never yet watched that copy of The Owl Service I bought. Another New Year's resolution ...

HAPPY FRIDAY 13TH, EVERYONE!

>151 alaudacorax: & group - A tiny bit late, but hope everyone had a Happy Friday 13th!

I'm late to the party too...I hope everyone had a happy (and lucky!) Friday 13th.

I found this article to be very interesting. And now I've got to find these and watch some of them:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230112-enys-men-the-films-that-frighten-us...

I cannot think of an American equivalent, unless perhaps American Southern Gothic milieu, in literature and in film. It might have some similarities.

Or if someone wants to draw parallels to our Northeast New England: with its tales of headless horseman & "witch" burning(s), though I find it less eerie and more (rather) dreadful behavior by citizenry.

>154 benbrainard8:
Thanks for the link. I've enjoyed Adam Scovell's writing about folk horror. Quite a few of those films are available on DVD and Blu-ray, but you may have to get hold of a multi-region player to watch them (I'm pretty sure, though, that Arcadia and Requiem for a Village had US releases).

We've discussed folk horror in a US context, and how it differs from the British version. That was mainly in the context of film, and before Kier-La Janisse's big Blu-ray box set from Severin films expanded the subject's scope hugely and took in films from across the globe. (I hadn't really teased out the folk horror elements from the late '60s cinematography and acid folk soundtracks, so even sonething as grounded in the everyday as Kes started to have a folk horror feel to it!). I haven't managed to work through all the films in the set but there are a set of themes in play - the specificity of place, nature, estrangement from nature, the colonised and the colonisers, power relations more generally, religion and its use/misuse as a source of power (cultic or within a "legitimate" society).

Sad news - I read this evening that TV and film director Piers Haggard has died. He apparently didn't coin the phrase "folk horror' but it's down to him (when he was interviewed for one of Mark Gatiss' TV documentaries) that it's become so popular. And of course he directed one of the "Big Three", the "Unholy Trinity", Blood on Satan's Claw.

I don't know if this has a folk horror feel to it, but things I've seen while temporarily living in Wallingford:
- a small recreation ground with a curious raised embankment on two sides is, apparently, the site of one of the most important burhs in Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and the embankment the remains of a defensive earthwork.
- The bus journey back into Reading goes through Gallowstree Common. I looked it up and, yes, it's really named after an oak that people were hanged from. The last such execution was as late as the 1820s.
- And this weekend, when I tried to explore the town and its surroundings, skeletal trees and churchyards suddenly appearing out of the fog. Given my poor sense of direction, I took the hint and headed back into the town centre.

Antiquarian bookseller Maggs Bros' catalogues can be viewed and downloaded. A recent catalogue was entitled "The Gothic Imagination":

https://www.maggs.com/catalogues/catalogue_downloads/

>157 housefulofpaper: Thanks for the link. What a beautifully produced catalogue. Oh to be a millionaire...!

Having Baring-Gould's The Book of Were-Wolves in the Dover paperback edition just isn't the same!

Found this interesting article, this evening.:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/20/goths-undead-the-dark-return-of-br...

>160 benbrainard8:

Thanks for the link, I'd missed the article when I looked at the Guadian site earlier. There's also a rich mixture of social history and snark in the comments!

>156 housefulofpaper: out of my morbid curiosity---when you come across such landmark in England/UK, does it usually have a marker/plaque? something that explains the background, or do you have, to have looked it up yourself prior to going to it?

i've never had the guts to ask my spouse "hey, let's go see some morbid stuff", while in Japan. have a trip coming up.... but she'd think I was odd perhaps if I got up the nerve to ask her. sigh. they say Japanese are not religious per se, but they are VERY superstitious. she'll even tell me "this place doesn't feel right, time to leave". and i'm standing there like a dolt, thinking everything's a-ok.

>162 benbrainard8:

That's an interesting question, and I'm not the best person to ask. There are much more intrepid hikers and more diligent local history buffs out there. For what it's worth, my feeling is that you usually don't see a plaque or similar. The reasons being:
- a great many such sites would be on private land. The lack of a "right to roam" in the English and, I imagine, Welsh countryside is a contentious issue (the situation in Scotland is somewhat different).
- There's been a lot of redevelopment - the '60s ans '70s seems to have been the decades where it was decried and argued against, but it's just kept going. I'm almost surprised that Gallowstree Common escaped a corporate rebranding.
- There's no appetite to commemorate morbid recent history in the way the Victorians (for example) did.

That being said, there will be Centotaphs in most towns and villages commemorating the dead of the two World Wars. Local churches, if they pre-date the 19th century, may have lots of antiquarian and local interest in them.

Here are some photos I took around Wallingford, which is rich with history. Overstuffed with it, as if it was a theme park.




A small bit of Wallingford Castle, which was put up by William the Conqueror and knocked down by Oliver Cromwell.


Agatha Christie's grave

Thank you very much, this is informative to me. I can see where locales might not be so interested to advertise their local haunts/places of ill repute. I completely understand it.

It reminds me of a more recent historical event, where the singer/band Trent Reznor was convinced by the family of Sharon Tate to have the Los Angeles house where the Manson family committed horrific murders, in 1969--- torn down, versus keeping it as a home/recording studio.

But when it comes to much older, historically interesting places, then there must be quite a bit of overlap. It would be fascinating to see older castles, gravestones, etc.

And I'd forgotten that the "right to roam", that'd I'd read about in Scotland certainly doesn't pertain to other parts of the UK.

In the U.S., you could do "roaming", but considering how many rural landowners' own rifles, etc., it might not be such a good idea to traverse their land uninvited.

These are very nice photos, thank you for sharing. Sigh, I should have spent much, much more time in England in my 2019 visit. Ten days doesn't do it justice, though we were happy to make it over to Oxford-Shire, where a friend gave us a walking tour, and took us to the "must-sees", etc. We greatly enjoyed it.

Enjoyed the photos, thanks.

This was a YouTube recommendation at the weekend, and I think it might be of interest here (the algorithim did well!).

It's a walk around parts of London connected to Emmanuel Swedenborg, with contributions from Iain Sinclair. It's the area of London I know best (although that doesn't mean that I can't still get lost there!). I worked there, briefly, after leaving school. 15-20 years later, before it was closed, I used to collect my Folio Society books from the Folio Society's "Members' Room" near Red Lion Square.

Interesting to learn that that Holborn (which lies between the West End and the City, and is so quiet at the weekend that it tried to rebrand as "Midtown" about 10 years ago to drum up some trade), is considered a sort of nexus of Mystical London.

There's a brief mention of Arthur Machen about 20 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThXhj2oclQU

Edited, about two weeks later, for spelling and punctuation, and to actually write down the end of the last paragraph!

I will watch this YouTube link this weekend thank you.

In Japan, last week, I bought this book Japanese Ghost Stories, by Lafcadio Hearn. Even the cover is scary.

I've read some Lafcadio Hearn, but I saw the 1960's film adaptation of some of his stories, Kwaidan, first. Then his story "Kusa-Hibara" turned up in, of all things, a book about improving memory and learning (Use Your Head by Tony Buzan).

I now have some books by Hearn but, like your Penguin, they are modern collections assembled by various editors. I'm not sure how much overlap there is between the books' contents, or between them and the Penguin. Getting around to actually reading them all would help!

I couldn't find a credit for that cover image online. I can see that it's modern (the lamp is a big giveaway!) but specially commissioned or (as usual with Penguin Classics) a pre-existing artwork, I wonder. I could, I suppose, be displaying my ignorance to the world here if it's by (for example) a famous Manga artist.

Not to bludgeon everone with posts this afternoon, but as I had gone off on a tangent about collected editions over in the Frankentein thread, i thought I'd mention the following:

Nightshade books' out of print multi-volume collected William Hope Hodgson and Clark Ashton Smith are available as trade paperbacks and as ebooks.

Hippocampus press have editions of the collected fiction of Ambrose Bierce and of Arthur Machen.

S. T. Joshi posted online last year that he's working on an edition of Algernon Blackwood's short fiction, also for Hippocampus.

>170 housefulofpaper:

That's exciting. A collected edition of Algernon Blackwood's short stories (or his fiction in general) would sorely tempt me. I'm not sure how comprehensive it would be: from what I've read it would be a herculean task to put together a 'complete'. But I'd be tempted by anything near. Especially a nice hardback edition.

I do have a fairly hefty ebook, Algernon Blackwood: The Complete Supernatural Stories (120 tales of ghosts and mystery: The Willows, The Wendigo, The Listener, The Centaur, The Empty House...) (Halloween Stories—I can't get the touchstone to work properly—but it's not the same thing. To my mind, AB is a pretty good candidate for the best writer out there on the supernatural, and I'd really like nice volumes (given his output, I definitely think it would be 'volumes' rather than 'a volume').

Trouble is, one forgets about ebooks: I entered that one in June 2022 and I'm still only 48% through it. Damn Kindle.

>171 alaudacorax:

Having damned Kindle, I have to come clean and admit I have physical 'collecteds' of Lovecraft, Poe and Ray Bradbury within a few feet of me and I've been plodding through those for years, too!

Tardily following the discussion of collected editions, I thought it might be of interest to see some examples of the books. Colours are unnaturally yellow because it's nighttime and I haven't changed my big orange fez-shaped lampshade, yet.

First off, the collected Jules de Grandin from Night Shade Books. Still available in hardback, I think. Pictured here with format A and format B paperbacks, for scale.



And alone



And open, showing the text. The book opens flat (I promise I haven't cracked the spine).



de Grandin is a very formulaic "Occult Detective" from Weird Tales, very popular at the time of publication and often getting the cover (there's invariably a scene where an imperilled young woman loses her clothes: perfect cover material. Strangely - a rights issue? - some stories are slightly rewritten versions from later reprintings and the time period suddenly shoots forward two decades.

Here's a volume from Night Shade Books' Clark Ashton Smith Collected Fiction. I was ucky enough to have been able to buy them new at cover price. They are now available as oversized hardbacks.

Presented in the same format as the de Grandins.





These books are more tightly bound and this needed some help to stay open.



I have to confess to finding the margins of these books a bit ungenerous, but I don't I have any other complaints.

I started buying the Night Shade Books' softcover edition of their collected William Hope Hodgson. This is five years old now, and came from Amazon, so there's a little bit of bumping and chipping on the covers, sadly but not fatally.



The covers are different from the hardbacks. You can see examples of those uploaded to YouTube - an old-style nautical map in metallic ink. Surprisingly, I once saw one "in the flesh" in the Oxfam bookshop.



This series has some internal illustrations, and wider margins that Nightshade's later series.

Hippocampus Press have published Arthur Machen's fiction in three oversized paperbacks. I don't have them (I have all the material in other editions), but I do have this collection of autobiographical writing, which is in series with the collected fiction.

I would assume that the collected Algernon Blackwood series, when it's published, will be in the same format.

>173 housefulofpaper:

Is it just me, or is there something subtly unsettling about that Henry James cover? The more so the more I look at it. Not sure if they're mother and daughter or sisters, but there's obviously a very close link and I pity the husband or father in the situation—he's always going to be an outsider. In fact, I think they are secretly witches ... in fact, I'm beginning to doubt that the painter got safely out of there ...

>173 housefulofpaper:

Loved the 'Jules de Grandin' cover, especially the house. It's a proper, pulp magazine, 'grab your attention and drag you in' cover. There are at least seven or eight points that have you wondering about the stories inside.

>173 housefulofpaper:

If 'The Pastel City' is Viroconium, why has it got a Californian condor quartering over it, I asked myself. And that was another half-hour or more slipped through my fingers. Oh well ...

>177 alaudacorax:
The sitters both, very definitely, have knowing and unsettling stares. They are actually brother and sister. It all makes for an excellent choice for The Turn of the Screw.

The painting's reproduced here, in the Wikipedia entry for their father:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Édouard_Pailleron

(I'm always grateful for the full cover picture credits on Penguin Classics. I wouldn't have the detective skills to find out anything about the painting unaided!)

>179 alaudacorax:

Viriconium is one of those series that's set in a far future that feels more like a Sword and Sorcery milieu than an SF one (at least, it does in the beginning. As you might construe from the volume with the Iain Banks introduction, something strange, probably Post Modern and Literary, has happened by the end of the series.

I can't say if a condor actually appears in the book (for various reasons I could only access paperbacks I haven't yet read).

>180 housefulofpaper:

Oh lord! It was a young BOY in the black! Totally didn't spot that.

Let's read and discuss!

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230707-the-eight-best-gothic-books-of-all-...

I think article got it wrong, saying that Byron wrote "The Vampyre", but wasn't it Dr. John Polidori that did that?

I'm not familiar with the modern tales/books that this article mentions, but Frankenstein holds the #2 spot and Fanu's Carmilla is #6 among the list.

It has Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) listed as # 7, but I've not read it yet, so cannot make any judgements/statements about it--is it worthy of the list?