Capture The Far Tower: Stories For W.B. Yeats Presented By Mark Valentine In PDF

knowing about the subject of the homage can skew your opinions, Swan River's 'Dorian' volume a homage to Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' felt a very mixed bag indeed, perhaps because 'Dorian' is one of my favourite novels and thus I had some strong feelings about what did and didn't work.
This is not the case with 'The Far Tower' as what I know of Yeats would fit on a possibly commemorative sized postage stamp,

Certainly Mark Valentine's introduction points you in the right direction Nina Antonia's factual piece on Yeats and the Sidhe enhancing it and, perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the authors chose to interpret Yeat's more mystical output.
A number allude to his wife Georgie with who he experimented with the automatic writing that led to 'A Vision', Perhaps it is just coincidence that the three best pieces of the book are by women contributors Nina Antonia, Lynda E, Rucker and Rosanne Rabinowitz the latter tale of a writer haunted by 'communications' from Yeats being the highlight of the book,

However, excluding Antonia, Rabinowitz and Derek Johns 'The Messiah of Blackhall Place' which also deals with the spiritualist experience, the other contributions feel a little flat not 'bad' but equally not so special.
For example, it's virtually impossible for me to dislike a Reggie Oliver story but his piece, with its sly observation and somewhat seedy character study did not really seem to 'sit' in the books remit somehow, and whilst Ron Weighell's 'Under The Frenzy of The Fourteenth Moon' is awash with Yeats references it did not strike me as so very distinct from any of his other works.
D. P. Watt's and Timothy J Jarvis' more visionary protagonists are well drawn characters and I liked their flights of fancy but, like Oliver and Weighell before them, none really set my soul alight.
The same can be said of the other contributors even those I have highlighted as my favourites,

I suppose you could say that each was a 'typical example' from the author concerned, but any of the pieces in this anthology would be perfectly acceptable in their respective single author collections, but 'typical' is not 'brilliant' or 'amazing' and it is a little strange to find so many of the contributions in that camp.
Perhaps I really should have read some more Yeats and thus understand nuances currently lost on me but I didnt leave this volume inspired to do so.


That said, I was inspired to look up some images by Thomas Sturge Moore, the artist John Couthart used and acknowledges as a basis for the wonderful cover of the book.
I'm not usually so enamoured of Swan River's cover art, but this is a stunning example of small press design at its best and makes the book a joy to hold, I just wish I could be more enthused by the contents.
This hardcover is numbered/of the numbered edition from a total print run of, the cover is by Ken Mackenzie More like a,rounded up to. Enjoyed most of the stories in this collection, My favorite was Ron Weighell's "Under the Frenzy of the Fourteenth Moon" followed by Timothy Jarvis' "Cast a Cold Eye" and Derek John's "The Messiah of Blackhall Place.
" I also enjoyed Nina Antonia's essay on Yeats which helped

shed some light and therefore further my appreciation of several of this collection's stories, This is so delightfully disorientating, even confusing from decontroversialised city club to Galway, amid Irish history, a father son relationship that I am tempted to let this storys architecture stand alone, an emblem for you to seek, one in honour of Yeats gyres and interpenetrating cones.
The books eponymous tower itself,

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here,
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review, "All Art that is not mere storytelling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic, . . " W. B. Yeats

Stories of magic and myth, folklore and fairy traditions, the occult and the outré, inspired by the rich mystical world of Irelands greatest poet, W.
B. Yeats. We invited ten contemporary writers to celebrate Yeatss contributions to the history of the fantastic and supernatural in literature, drawing on his work for their own new and original tales.
Each has chosen a phrase from his poems, plays, stories, or essays to herald their own explorations in the esoteric, Alongside their own powerful qualities, the pieces here testify to the continuing resonance of Yeatss vision in our own time, that deep understanding of the meshing of two worlds and the talismans of old magic.


Contents

"Introduction"
Mark Valentine

"Under the Frenzy of the Fourteenth Moon"
Ron Weighell

"Daemon Est Deus Inversus"
D.
P. Watt

"The Shiftings"
Rosanne Rabinowitz

"Hermit for Hire"
Caitriona Lally

"The Property of the Dead"
John Howard

"Cast a Cold Eye"
Timothy J.
Jarvis

"The Messiah of Blackhall Place"
Derek John

"This Crumbling Pageant"
Lynda E, Rucker

"Shadowy Waters"
Reggie Oliver

"The Hosts of the Air"
Nina Antonia

Limited tocopies, The firstwere numbered and came with postcards, Various Editor: Valentine, Mark The Far Tower: Stories For W, B. Yeats

Homage to, inspired by, celebrations of the mystic and poet, Two roles that are missing today,
Early on, a family connection enables a young scholar to examine unfinished manuscripts, With unsettling consequences.
Next, in “Daemon Est Deus Inversus,” the prodigal son, a bitter wastrel, inherits the family home, And he finds messages from the past, which the modern era no longer leaves, Letters.
“The Shiftings” peers through an open door, from this world, if there is such a thing, and into the next,
The staircase beckons in “The Property Of The Dead”, Rising almost imaginably, the treads end under blinding moonlight,
There are other tales, all of high quality, including an engrossing Reggie Oliver, which afterward had me going, “Huh That was fey, ”
Therein is my difficulty, Most of these works slide along the border of faerie or fey, not the Disney sort, either, As an individual, I am observant, but I am not remotely “sensitive”,
Editor Valentine and writer Antonia bookend this collection with two insightful essays on Yeats,
Those more attuned with worlds outside our own will find greater depths throughout this collection,
This is also a beautiful book, gorgeous design, wonderful to hold,

Mark Valentine is an English author, biographer and editor, Valentines short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since thes, and the exploits of his series character, The Connoisseur, an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in.
As a biographer, Valentine has published a life of Arthur Machen inSeren Press, and a study of Sarban, Time, A Falconer Tartarus Press, is published in.
He has also written numerous articles for the Book and Magazine Collector magazine, and introductions for various books, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J.
Meade Falkner and others. Valentine also edits Wormwood Tartarus Press, a Mark Valentine is an English author, biographer and editor, Valentines short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since thes, and the exploits of his series character, "The Connoisseur", an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in.
As a biographer, Valentine has published a life of Arthur Machen inSeren Press, and a study of Sarban, Time, A Falconer Tartarus Press, is published in.
He has also written numerous articles for the Book and Magazine Collector magazine, and introductions for various books, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J.
Meade Falkner and others. Valentine also edits Wormwood Tartarus Press, a journal dedicated to fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature, and has also edited anthologies, including The Werewolf Pack Wordsworth,and The Black Veil Wordsworth,.
sitelink.