General Weird discusion thread

[j. d. worthington]

Thanks for the link. I'd seen the letter before, though it was quite some time ago, and I don't recall having seen the aftercomments (though I did the original notes, as I recall).

I'll take a stab at answering your query: James was very much a Victorian in many ways, and certain M. G. Lewis' The Monk exceeded all bounds of good taste in that period (it's still a bit of a hot potato even today in various quarters), so I'm not at all surprised at his response to that one. As for the Chambers... James preferred an indirect way of approaching the central horror; something that played more on the imagination rather than blunt description, such as one finds in "The Yellow Sign" and parts of "The Repairer of Reputations", for instance. To reiterate two of my favorite quotes on the matter: "They must be men of very cold imaginations ... with whom certainty is more terrible than surmise" (Ann Radcliffe); or the distinction between terror and horror as the "awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse" (Devendra P. Varma). James was much more a proponent of the former than the latter....

As for "Thurnley Abbey" -- it's one of my personal favorites and it is, in its own way, almost the perfect example of the Edwardian ghost tale, especially in its having a second (and much more powerful) climax....

[Lobolover]

Going through the stuff you mentioned earlier,I have a link to an e-text of "A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future"

A journey in other worlds : A romance of the future, Astor, John Jacob, 1864-1912 - MobileBooks, 20000+ e-books for mobile / cell phones - Free Previews For Download

ALSO!Found an e-book of "A story without a name" by D'Aurevilly-a bit flimsy at parts,but stil good

http://ia360627.us.archive.org/2/ite...0barb_djvu.txt

[Lobolover]

also-it wont let me edit that post.Weird.

Anyway,here's "A Strange Manuscript Found in a CopperCylinder" by De Mille

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder

Noughts and Crosses: Stories, Studies, and Sketches

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15865/15865.txt

You said there are others-If given some names,I could try to find them-I also got a few amazon hits,if youd be intrested.

Anyway,Wright's "The World Below" sure has a one of a kind cover

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lobolover

Noughts and Crosses: Stories, Studies, and Sketches

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15865/15865.txt

You said there are others-If given some names,I could try to find them-I also got a few amazon hits,if youd be intrested.

Thanks for the various links! As for "Q"... I've got (I believe) all those that have any of his weird or supernatural fiction in them, but the best of his stories of this type were all collected together (by S. T. Joshi) in The Horror on the Stair some time back:

THE HORROR ON THE STAIR Arthur Quiller-Couch 1st HC LIMITED OOP

At any rate, the other collections of "Q"'s stories that contain stories that are either weird or approach the weird are:

The White Wolf & Other Fireside Tales
News from the Duchy
Two Sides of the Face
Merry-Garden and Other Stories
Noughts and Crosses
Wandering Heath
Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts
I Saw Three Ships and Mortallone
The Laird's Luck & Other Fireside Tales
Corporal Sam and Other Stories

There is, as I recall, some slight repetition between the last and some of the others, but it's still worth getting hold of.

As for the links themselves: as you seem to be aiming them specifically at me (correct me if I'm wrong here), even where I do have the books themselves, by all means continue to post the links, as others -- even if they don't speak up -- may be following the thread and therefore get some use out of the links as well... and this may, in turn, prompt some feedback from others, as well....

On the Wright cover... yes, there were quite a few covers like that at that period.... I rather like them, myself.....

[Lobolover]

YOU MEAN
LIKE THIS
HUH?
Book name

Anyway,what I meant with "others" were the other books referenced in the library book.I cant find an e-text if I dunt know the name .

[Connavar]

Speaking about wierd having read Washington Irving's The Adventure of The German Student, i got taste of him. He reminded me of E.A. Poe for some reason. The story was much more modern than the time it is from. Liked creepy feeling he built up in a story that was ony 10 pages. Has one read this story ?

Reading Henry James after he felt much more of a struggle with his more older writing style.


I want to read more of Irving ASP ! Hope Wordsworth with their cheap collections has some of his works.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Speaking about wierd having read Washington Irving's The Adventure of The German Student, i got taste of him. He reminded me of E.A. Poe for some reason. The story was much more modern than the time it is from. Liked creepy feeling he built up in a story that was ony 10 pages. Has one read this story ?

Yes, that's one of his best efforts IMO.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lobolover

YOU MEAN
LIKE THIS
HUH?
Book name

Anyway,what I meant with "others" were the other books referenced in the library book.I cant find an e-text if I dunt know the name .

On the cover... um, no, not quite what I meant.... I was referring to the cover art, the fact that it relies on information of that type, rather than a selection of a tableau from the text, etc. As for the "others"... I'll try to get you a few titles over the weekend. In the meantime, see what you can find on the Lock and Key Library. I posted a thread on these some time ago, with links to the volumes I could find online; you might find a fair amount of the things there of interest....

Originally Posted by Connavar

Speaking about wierd having read Washington Irving's The Adventure of The German Student, i got taste of him. He reminded me of E.A. Poe for some reason. The story was much more modern than the time it is from. Liked creepy feeling he built up in a story that was ony 10 pages. Has one read this story ?

Many times. In fact, after "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", it was probably the earliest Irving I read, in that book I've mentioned several times now that I got as a kid: Tales to Tremble By (which, if anyone's interested in a really, really nifty "children's" collection of superb horror tales, that and its companion volume More Tales to Tremble By, are things I'd put extremely high on the list...).

And, as I've read it to many times, obviously I was impressed. If you'd like to see the earliest known example of this motif, you can go to the link above for the Greek and Roman Ghost Stories (another quite wonderful book, alternating between synopses and translations of weird, eerie, and supernatural tales from classical sources, some of which are rather difficult to find in English translations otherwise). There's also Thomas Moore's ballad of The Ring, which I've posted elsewhere....

Reading Henry James after he felt much more of a struggle with his more older writing style.

I don't think James has so much an "older" writing style, as one more given to an at times almost pedantic precision and perhaps overly given to ambiguities of phrasing and syntax. At times that makes his work rather pompous in tone, which puts a fair number of people off. However, if you can adjust to the style, eventually you begin to see it's a very carefully chosen tool, and nothing else would quite work for what he's attempting... but that still doesn't mean he's one of my favorite writers; merely someone I admire and respect, even though I find him a bit irritating at times....

I want to read more of Irving ASP ! Hope Wordsworth with their cheap collections has some of his works.

I don't know if Wordsworth is going to have a collection of his weird works, as it was such a small portion of his output that I'm not sure there's quite enough to do so. However, if you can land a copy of The Complete Tales of Washington Irving for a decent price, you'll have quite a nice deal....

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Yes, that's one of his best efforts IMO.

Have you ever read this one in context of its appearance in Tales of a Traveller? It rather alters the reading quite a bit, coming as it does in the "Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman"....

[Connavar]

I meant James seemed the typical,dated of his time more than Irving. It seemed he was from early 1800's and not Irving. Some writers from those days sounds soo much like their time.

Irving has atleast some collections with wierd,horror like stuff i saw in fantasticfiction. I am most interested of that at first.

Henry James i thought wrote horror more than he has when you see his name in many anthologies and so many people mentioning him as ghost stories writer etc

When i saw his bibliography in fantasticfiction it was many time period pieces that hollywood has made romantic stories of him like The Portrait of a Lady.

[Lobolover]

Thanks,J.D.

Started "The seven who were hanged"
and will start "A strange story found in a copper cylinder" today as well and will tell you how good it is.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Henry James i thought wrote horror more than he has when you see his name in many anthologies and so many people mentioning him as ghost stories writer etc

When i saw his bibliography in fantasticfiction it was many time period pieces that hollywood has made romantic stories of him like The Portrait of a Lady.

That's largely because one of those pieces, "The Turn of the Screw", is one of the most notable ghost stories ever written; certainly the figures of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are difficult to forget... even if they are ghosts in a somewhat different sense than usual....

All of James' ghostly tales were collected into a single, moderately-sized volume back in 1949: The Ghostly Tales of Henry James....

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

That's largely because one of those pieces, "The Turn of the Screw", is one of the most notable ghost stories ever written; certainly the figures of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are difficult to forget... even if they are ghosts in a somewhat different sense than usual....

All of James' ghostly tales were collected into a single, moderately-sized volume back in 1949: The Ghostly Tales of Henry James....

Thats good to know. I was wondering what ghost stories he is famous for.


The name of Robert Louis Stevenson story you wondered about in the reading thread is The Body Snatcher.
A title that gives me hope about the macabre in the story

[Lobolover]

Hmm-"The Altar of the dead"
-I looked on it and the description is a bit off-turning-is it any good?

[j. d. worthington]

I've not read that one, I must admit, though I know a little about it by reputation. What is it you find off-putting about the description; and where did you find said description....?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Thats good to know. I was wondering what ghost stories he is famous for.


The name of Robert Louis Stevenson story you wondered about in the reading thread is The Body Snatcher.
A title that gives me hope about the macabre in the story

Certainly, "The Body Snatcher" is high on the list; "Markheim" (though not a personal favorite) is also considered one of his better tales of the weird; as is, of course, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Thrawn Janet" and "Olalla", I would say, are also quite good. "The Isle of Voices", though a good story, always leaves me a bit unsatisfied....