Fengriffen Other Gothic Tales by David Case

Fengriffen Other Gothic Tales Reviews

• 
  Char

  4.5 stars
  
  This collection of horror stories written in the gothic style really, really worked well for me.
  
  For the modern horror reader, gothic style means that these tales contain very little blood and gore. It also means that the language used is usually rather flowery and descriptive. In this case, the language used was beautiful, but NOT flowery and going on and on about the scenery and whatnot.
  
  The fact that there was very little blood and gore does not make these tales any less horrific. Stories about a young, virgin wife being raped by an unknown entity, a science experiment gone very, very wrong, are truly terrible and actually scary . I'm very rarely disturbed by horror stories, but I was disturbed by these. In fact, I just LOVED them.
  
  This edition has a nice intro by Stephen Graham Jones and the afterword by the ultra knowledgeable Kim Newman, (which resulted in my adding a few more books to my HUGE TBR), made for nice bookends to these gothic tales.
  
  I highly recommend this book to fans of gothic style stories and beautiful writing!
  
  You can buy this book here:
  http://www.amazon.com/Fengriffen-Othe...
• 
  Nancy Oakes

  4.5 rounded up -- another great Valancourt reprint!
  
  [as always, more
  here; read on for the short version. ]
  
  Valancourt's edition of Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales consists of four stories. The two longest stories, "Fengriffen" and "The Dead End" that bookend the shorter ones "Anachrona" and "The Foreign Bride," are the best in the collection, although all of them are spectacular, each in its own way. He really picks up the Gothic tone here, so much so that in the title story at least, there is that lovely sense of ambiguity that characterizes Gothic literature -- is what's happening here truly supernatural, or is there something going on in the main character's mind? Or is it both?
  
  Another thing I noticed in this book is that with the exception of "The Foreign Bride," science of some sort plays a role; when Case mixes science with the supernatural, the strange, or even the sexual, anything can and does happen. In "Fengriffen," for example (without giving anything at all away, since people should really experience these stories themselves), the narrator is a sort of proto-psychoanalyst, a "practitioner of an infant science" probing the "secrets of the mind" long before there was a Freud. "Anachrona," which reminded me immediately of Hoffman, includes scholars who "knew of Huygens and Newton, of pendulums and gravity," and "The Dead End," well, suffice it say that science has a major role to play in that one. "The Foreign Bride," on the other hand, is a dark, slow burner of a tale that delves deeply into the evils that exist in human nature; the story feeds off of superstition.
  
  I'm being purposely vague here; suffice it to say that Case writes very, very well and his work managed to get deeply under my skin, especially in "Fengriffen," "The Foreign Bride" and "The Dead End," all of which produced multiple spine tingles and neck hackles without once getting gross or resorting to splatter. Absolutely fantastic book; very highly recommended to vintage horror/gothic/strange tale fans.
• 
  Dan

  This is a collection of four stories: two novellas bookending two short stories. I could tell with the first page of the first entry that I was going to like the writing. Case's narrative is easy to understand, we don't have the introduction of too many characters to track, and the premises of all four were very imaginative and original.
  
  The leadoff and title story was "Fengriffen." Fengriffen is a character, not the protagonist, who called in a doctor of psychology (the protagonist) to treat his wife's aversion to Fengriffen. It takes some time to discover what's wrong with the Mrs. and why she doesn't care for her husband.
  
  There are no bells or whistles in terms of plot to this story. It's very straightforward Gothic Horror, and could almost have been written in the nineteenth century when it was set, except for the real life horror described that was the catalyst for all the subsequent events. That had an edge to it, making the writing contemporary after all. It was hard for me to read. Case does a good job with his slow pace for getting us caring about his characters.
  
  All of the stories are character driven. Fengriffen's psychologist protagonist was a worthy hero in that he kept an open mind, or seemed to. The suspense led up to an easily foreseeable conclusion, but I didn't mind. The classic man of science motif of being unable to accept the supernatural never fails to create interesting tension. It probably frustrated some readers who are willing to accept the supernatural in their stories far more readibly than they might in real life, but it is a very standard trope of Gothic Horror.
  
  I give the story a sold four stars for being a fun read even if predictable. The only distinguishing differences that set this story apart from other works of its type was the aforementioned edgy violence, but also David Case's frequent odd word choices. Most were uses of obsolete words, but a couple were not actual words at all, but were made up, though they sounded fitting. The style was often reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith's, except less classical perhaps. Also, Case does not sustain an antiquated tone as consistently as Smith. Nevertheless, I appreciate authors being ambitious and their wanting to expand my vocabulary.
  
  The second story,"Anachrona," is my favorite in the collection. It's ahead of its time in that it is Steampunkish before that subgenre was even invented. Five stars for sure. The title is a play on the word "anachronism," since the antagonist is out of or ahead of his time too.
  
  This story was completely unpredictable and had a lot going on under its surface. I loved the characters of the three arrogant wise men heading west for the (birth?) of a Christ figure. They thought they missed it, but really didn't.
  
  The story was set in Vienna, which wasn't accidental. Vienna was the capital of Protestantism in the seventeenth century. Protestant heretics were being burned at the stake just as the Christ figure's teacher (God?) was. Science is the new religion for this Age of Enlightenment period, of which the "man" with the gray eyes was the unrecognized "king of the scientists."
  
  I like how the gray-eyed man got his strength from the sun, how he went his own way, and how he looked up as Jesus did after John the Baptist dunked him. There's lots of fun to be had with thinking about this story.
  
  The third story was hard to appreciate because it was a tragedy, and those are out of fashion currently. Tragedies, which is what bad-guys-win stories are, just aren't much fun. At least "The Foreign Bride" is also the shortest story. It's well told, I must say. Case finds the right words, is crystal clear, and just lets the narrative proceed to its inevitable miserable conclusion. Three and a half stars.
  
  The next story, the fourth and last, is the longest in the book. It is as long as these first three stories combined. It's the star of the collection. An anthropologist is sent on a mission to find the missing link. There is a lot of description in this story that makes the plot move at a snail's pace. Nevertheless, Case maintains the interest by having such incredible characters go through a plot we can't predict the outcome of. The only truly negative feature for me was that Case leaves some things unexplained at the end, expecting the reader to draw some inferences, which I can. Still, I think there needed to be an ending that made the outcome more explicit. 3.5 stars.
  
  Two 3.5 stars, a 4, and a 5 star story averages to four. Warning: readers that like having everything spelled out for them at the end might feel frustrated with some or frankly all of these stories.
• 
  Riju Ganguly

  "The gothic movement in literature started in England in 1764 with the publication of The Castle of Otranto and flourished until 1820. Gothic fiction was the predecessor of modern horror fiction, but was more like a mystery that often involved the supernatural (ghosts, haunted buildings, hereditary curses); disturbing dreams or omens; and characters overcome with anger, sorrow, or terror. They were often set in dark castles or medieval ruins." (Cliffnotes)
  This book contains four stories. Three of them satisfy above-mentioned criteria to a great extent. One (Anachrona) is different by nature, and is more a successor to Sarban's nuanced tales than Walpole's disturbing dreams. But the other three...
  'The Foreign Bride' is a short story that tends to follow its predecessors, trying to hide their misogyny and xenophobia under the garb of superstition, and then changes deliciously to show how modern it is.
  'The Dead End' is another chiller. It seems to follow established pulp patterns of mad scientists and terrible experiments. But underneath all that horror and violence it contains a far deeper and mellowed philosophy than associated with such works.
  'Fengriffen' is a stunner. Using a delicate, almost judicious prose, it succeeds in creating one of the most atmospheric and ambiguous horror stories that I have ever read. At the end, where the author stops, our mind starts roaming if not roving with questions and speculations, just the way such works are supposed to work.
  The Valancourt edition contains an outstanding introduction by Stephen Jones. It also has a well-informed afterword by Kim Newman. All these and the tales, especially 'Fengriffen' should drive you towards various sites so that you can get hold of this book.
  What are you waiting for, then?
• 
  Zina

  Interesting gothic tales. An ancient robot coping with slow degradation alongside some medieval scientists who don't believe in nonsense alchemy. Sex-related curses and terrorized virgins in picturesque historical settings. Evil maniacs of both genders. A man whose life and love are destroyed by a mad scientist in the depth of uncharted Mountains in Tierra Del Fuego. All fun B-movies type horror.
  
  In my current mood (all of a sudden it hit me with force that I can only read a very small number of books in the lifetime that's left for me) I feel like I could have read something better, more important, more interesting in this time. Maybe I am just not that big of a fan of weird fiction as I imagined?
• 
  Jennifer Vest

  Pretty good gothic horror
  
  Pretty cool book of gothic horrors. Looking forward to reading more by this author. Definitely worth the price for any fan of horror
• 
  Drew

  I picked this up on some friends' recommendations. It was a good read that reminded me a lot of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's works, though without the final follow through at the end. Lots of tension in build up in the two longer novella pieces which sandwiched two quick short stories. Fengriffen, the title story, was good and I'd have given it a 4 if it didn't end so quickly. I liked Anachrona, the first short story. I thought it was cute and would make a fun story to tell over a fire with a nice glass of scotch. I didn't like The Foreign Bride that much. The final piece, The Dead End, was a hard one for me to rate. It reminded me a bit of The Island of Dr. Moreau (by H. G. Wells). The sexism and racism really detracted from the story, which was a pretty interesting horror piece, especially at its ending. It reminded me of a Night Gallery episode.
• 
  Arka Chakraborty

  DO NOT LOOK AT THE THREE STAR RATING AND GRUMBLE! THIS IS A SOLID 3.9-4 ...but alas! Goodreads does not have the option. David Case is an author, every horror fan should read at least once in their lifetime. "Fengriffen"..the novella, is a shrewd, highly imaginative Gothic horror. No, perhaps, it's not the best out there, but it's somewhat like a dark horse, even if you can't accept it you won't be able to ignore it's brutality, energy and eeriness. The other stories are okay-ish, but still they would not let you down, especially "The Foreign Bride". I'm gonna start "Pelican Cay" soon...in the mean time grab a copy, and let the legend of Fengriffen unfold and draw you into its diabolical depths!