Unlock The Secrets Of Late Victorian Gothic Tales Created By Roger Luckhurst Provided As Publication Copy
this was an uneven and quite small collection, I mean, I do love good Gothic short stories, but for the ones I really enjoyed, I can probably just find an audio recording of them, The subjects did run the gambit: meta horror, seances, girl demons/daughters of Greek gods perhaps washed ashore to wreck havoc in a nunnery/small fishing village can you tell this one was my favorite, vengeful phantoms, even a Fae light story tossed in for good measure.
Here are the ones that intrigued me:
"Dionea"Vernon Lee
'Sir Edmund Orme"Henry James
"Magic Lantern" and "The Spectral Hand"Jean Lorrain
"The Great God Pan"Arthur Machen
Yeah, the list is small, but so was the collection.
This will be off to a good home, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in this collection! Highly recommend this for fellow fans of Gothic fiction! Some really fascinating tales within this collection, My particular favourites include The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling and Lot No,by Arthur Conan Doyle. Would recommend this as an introduction to the Victorian Gothic as there is a great range of stories available by multiple different authors, offering a wide grasp of the genre.
Stories from the top tier, . . stars
This is a collection
of twelve stories from some of the greatest writers of Gothic, all first published in thes, Many of them are very well known and I suspect that most or all of them are probably available to read online, But the joy of an anthology like this one is the expert guidance provided by the editor, first in selecting and organising the stories in a way that allows the reader to see how the genre connects and flows, and then in providing an informative introduction and notes.
The editor of this one is Roger Luckhurst, whom I first encountered as the editor of a Lovecraft collection a few years ago, sparking my interest in Lovecraft in particular and weird fiction in general.
I was later happy to encounter him again as the editor of HG Wells The Time Machine, when his introduction put that book into its literary and historical context for me, adding a great deal to my understanding and enjoyment of it.
So I knew Id be in safe hands with this collection,
Luckhurst tells us that there have been three main waves of Gothic writing, in theth century, then again in the late Victorian period, and now, with the likes of Stephen King reviving the genre.
Each wave made it anew, though, influenced by contemporary concerns as well as by other styles and movements in the literary world of their time, He talks about the crossover in the late Victorian era between the styles of Gothic and Decadence, and about the influence on the genre of anxieties over colonialism, the growth of science and pseudosciences, spiritualism and psychic research, and so on.
All of this means that the stories in a sense stop being merely individual entertainments and instead become part of something larger: part of the contemporary literature that casts light on its society and in turn influences it.
As always, I found his introduction both informative and enjoyable, happily free of the academic jargon that can sometimes infest these things and therefore accessible to any interested reader.
But what of the stories, I hear you ask I gave five of them five, another five got four, and the remaining two got½ each, so a very high standard overall.
As it should be, given that most of them are from top tier writers, Theres Henry James and Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Machen and Oscar Wilde, and two from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Then there are several names that were new to me, though I gather from the intro that they would be familiar to real aficionados Vernon Lee, BM Croker, Grant Allen and MP Shiels.
A further two from Jean Lorrain take us over to France and into the heart of the Decadent style,
An excellent collection, especially for a relative newcomer to the genre since it includes some of the very best, but the introduction and notes make it a great choice too for people who may already know some of the stories but would like to know more about their context.
Highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford Worlds Classics,
sitelinkwww. fictionfanblog. wordpress. com A somewhat irregular collection of short stories from the last decade of the nineteenth century, The standouts, all of which possess a bizarre and horrifying Lovecraftian flavor, are “Pallinghurst Barrow” by Grant Allen, “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen, and “Vaila” by M.
P. Shiel. These all feature stunningly eloquent passages and concepts which could only have come from those tormented by endless, nightmarish dreams, On a lesser but still very beautiful level is “Dionea” by Vernon Lee, and “The Case of Lady Sannox” by Arthur Conan Doyle has a decent pulpstyle twist, His other story, “Lot No,”, intimates horror well though it is weak on plot, The others are mainly disappointing in their endings, which settle back down into the dullest conventionality instead of breaking through the barriers they constantly hint at, Overall, it is a good exposure to the better authors, and even the lesser stories, especially when read in sequence, are quite evocative, I originally found this from the library because it includes Machen's The Great God Pan, which is on my to read list, It's great though that I also get to read other gothic tales, too, Perfect Christmas read in my opinion alongside Dickens, of course, There's usually two words anyway that make me want to read the book immediately: Victorian and gothic, Not sure about late Victorian though,
Ok, I somehow got confused with the term late Victorian, Of course I've read stuff related to this area of literary history Dracula, Picture of Dorian Gray etc, and have loved almost every single one of them, I just didn't realise that they can be classified as something so particular, This collection is brilliant, including wellknown authors and authors who at least I have never heard about, Among the weakest stories was Dionea, it was excruciatingly boring and uninteresting, Among the best was Lot No,, The Dâk Bungalow at Dakor and Pallinghurst Barrow,
All those I liked were simple and traditional ghost stories with a creepy atmosphere, By outlining the basic themes of the Gothic revival, the introduction made me understand that the themes in particular are the reason why I love this branch of literature.
Decadence, imperialism, Spiritualism, fascination with ancient Egypt, naturalizing the supernatural Frankenstein, supernatural creatures mummies, ghosts, vampires, monsters, emergence of new sciences anthropology, sociology, psychology, theory of degeneration explaining the animalism of the criminal classes, female hysterics and the insane, and the new art forms like Impressionism, Symbolism and Naturalism, and the overall atmosphere of dark opium and absinthefumed brothels with lace curtains.
Now the only thing left for me to do, is to write down the select bibliography and all the authors that I'm interested in reading more from.
That should grow my to read list relatively well, Maybe too well I loved some of the short stories and some just seemed really really long but at the end of the day it was fun even if it almost put me back in my slump but i didnt have a choice but to read it as its for an exam lmao The introduction has some of the best, most concise descriptions and explanations of Gothic writing that I've ever read.
Some examples:
", genre is less a set of fixed narratives and images and more a, way of thinking"
"Gothic was everything that offended the neoclassical taste, . . disordered, dark and labyrinthine"
" the gothic ' was an attempt to blend the ancient and the modern" Horace Walpole,
" the undamming of dark forces that rush into and insidiously undermine the order of everyday life"
", . . as the enlightenment project became the Machine Age, . . the world regulated and disenchanted by the routines of industrial life, the Gothic could take on a positive valance of everything that was being lost: passion, belief, spirit, individual eccentricity, craft"
"The Gothic repeatedly stages moments of transgression" alive/dead, animal/man, individual ego/the other
This collection being about late Victorian Gothic stories it emphasizes not only the ongoing disenchantment through technological advance but also the Spiritualism movement and the rise of decadent culture as in Baudelaire and Wilde.
Every story is strong and some of the best ones are toward the end, The story Magic Lantern was a real revelation, it could almost be a contemporary story in its approach,
Highly recommendedI am slightly miffed that a collection of late Gothic stories included only two female authors, considering women's prolixity in this genre, That being said, this is a perfect October read and a pretty informative book on the Gothic as a whole, especially the secondwave which found its summit in the latter half of theth century.
It's a good mix of Irish, Canadian and AngloIndian writers that tackle the terrors of modern society, As always, what I love about the Gothic is that it's such a liminal kind of writing that touches upon issues or race, colonialism, queerness, morality, mythology, sexuality etc.
It combines tradition and modernism, tropes and ambiguity, fear and pleasure, It just rocks.
Ratings for each story:
Vernon Lee Violet Paget, Dionea/, Starting off with one of the gals, The narrator of this story is particularly interesting since he is obsessed with the female form and the old Greek gods and he's a doctor, to boot, Gothic narrators are so perverse and cool, Dionea is pretty badass too, The ending made me shiver, but the story as a whole was a bit underwhelming, Points for capitalizing on racial fear Dionea is a woman of color, of course,
Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime/, Not a shocking or gruesome tale, but Wilde's style is effortlessly enjoyable and brilliant, The dark humor makes the whole story, because if this had been written in a tragic key, I doubt it would still be memorable, I also dig that pun in Savile's name savile civil, eh, eh
Henry James, Sir Edmund Orme/, A creepy and subversive ghost story, especially if you consider what is left out of the text, As a whole, it's perfectly serviceable, nothing impressive, but that subtext oh, man, that subtext, I did not so much enjoy it as I kept wondering about it for days again, watch out for perverse narrator,
Rudyard Kipling, The Mark of the Beast/, The real horror in this story is, of course, the racial Other, Not to spoil much, but two white men have to torture an Indian leper, Yeah.
B. M. Croker, The Dak Bungalow at Dakor/, Damn it, this is our only other female author and her story is a dud, Honestly, it might be the weakest of the bunch, solely because it does not go beyond "Indians murder white men, bungalow is haunted", I mean, I suppose you could infer that the murder at the center of the tale is an indirect sin of colonialism, but the writing and framing of the story do not encourage deeper readings.
Not very thrilling either. Sorry, Bithia.
Arthur Conan Doyle, Lot No,/. I would have given it more points, but this mummy story is quite anticlimactic, The setup is ingenious. A brilliant but mad student of Oriental languages finds a mummy and manages somehow to revive it and use it to harm his enemies, However, the ending is too cleancut and dry and our main protagonist saves the day without any lasting moral or emotional repercussions, Still, a fun read.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case of Lady Sannox/, Now this is how you do it, This is a climactic ending I really did not expect, Doyle plays with expectations perfectly, It's short and sweet, but absolutely chilling,
Grant Allen, Pallinghurst Barrow/, A pretty inventive take on the ghost story, Actually, I think it's a ghostfairy story, which is quite something, And it's legitimately scary. Except, once again, the protagonist has a bit of an easy escape at the end,
Jean Lorrain, Magic Lantern/, A very short story written by a French dandy, Nothing much happens, in fact it's a kind of metatext on the genre and a detailed description of society's modern monsters, But the language and the humor are delicious, And it is quite creepy,
Jean Lorrain, The Spectral Hand/, A pretty routine ghost story, where the specter is more benevolent than anything else, Nothing much happens except, y'know, the signs of death are everywhere we just don't pay attention,
Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan/, Holy Shit. Everything I heard about this story, the praise and the rich commentary all warranted, This is a hell of a journey, intensely creepy, downright bloodcurdling, but at the same time, enchanting and even melancholy, This is what Dionea was striving to be, in terms of mythological horror, I will say I wanted more out of that ending, but given the format of the story, I suppose it fits perfectly and leaves you wanting more,
M. P. Shiel, Vaila/, Probably the most frustrating tale of the bunch, It's a story of natural and supernatural horror, Shakespearean revenge, . . and the dangers of building your home by the sea, The language is to die for, I mean this man has somehow swallowed and refined several English and French dictionaries, That being said, this is Gothic at its most unrelenting and unpleasant, It's not a story you'll enjoy, but it is haunting and upsetting all the same, I just need more fun in my Gothic, so I can't give it more points, Tedious, but remarkable, if that makes sense, .