Wordworth Tales Of Mystery & Supernatural

[GOLLUM]

Curioser and curioser Mr Worthington......

Thanks for the tip on Nightmare Abbbey. May go ahead and purchase it now.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I love Nightmare Abbey. I'm wondering what it is doing in the Wordsworth series ... but it is very, very funny, and it's nice to see it in print.

Reading Peacock is a lot like reading Wodehouse; there's a quality of sly but playful wit that they shared.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

I love Nightmare Abbey. I'm wondering what it is doing in the Wordsworth series ... but it is very, very funny, and it's nice to see it in print.
Reading Peacock is a lot like reading Wodehouse; there's a quality of sly but playful wit that they shared.

Well I'm quite a fan of Wodehouse, so this will probably suit quite nicely.

Cheers.....

[GOLLUM]

Recently picked up Wordworth's latest offering...W.F. Harvey's Beast With Five fingers and other stories.

HMM.. looks like David Stuart Davies is/was General Editor on this...

[j. d. worthington]

That's... interesting. I suppose this means there's going to be more controversy, if this is the case....

[Lobolover]

J.D., it's not nice to judge people without evidence :P

So, are there any updates on the series ?

[j. d. worthington]

Lobo: The evidence is already there -- in heaps. Davies used very unethical practices as editor of the series. Whether or not that is still the case, I don't know; but that does not in the least exculpate the things he has done so far....

[GOLLUM]

Don't have any new updates for you.

I purchased Beast with Five Fingers about a month ago form the local bookshop and they always stock the latest Wordsworth, so I haven't spotted anything more recently in the "horror" Genre.

[GOLLUM]

OK to properly update this here is what to expect in the near future...

Recent releases:
The Monk - Lewis
The Castle of Otranto/Nightmare Abbey/Vathek *3 classic Gothic novels.

Forthcoming...
Varney The Vampire - J Rymer *I note Mr. Worthington was not overly impressed by this particular offering.
The Horror in the Museum - Lovecraft *Unclear if they intend to present a collection of his stories or this single one. One of his ghost writing efforts.

[j. d. worthington]

Varney is an important penny dreadful; it has its place in literary history; and it also has its moments... but they are few and far between. Anyone who has read (or attempted to read) G. W. M. Reynolds' Wagner the Wehr-wolf will know exactly what I mean.

As for the J. Rymer... well, that's debatable. Actually, we don't know who wrote Varney, though it is usually attributed to Rymer or Prest in the main; chances are a lot of writers contributed to that one, which may help explain some of the unevenness not only in suspense and tensity of the story, but in general writing skills displayed as well....

[Lobolover]

Wordsworth is not one of those "rarity" publishers to just publish one short story as a book, so I gather it would be his ghost writing efforts .

[Connavar]

Arent they stories like Varney who are actually good from those days ? I hunger to read some of those works.


The Castle of Otranto/Nightmare Abbey/Vathek - are they really classic Gothic stories ? I mean wondefully gothic like a dark story with great athmosphere by Poe what i think of when i hear about that kind of story ?

I want to get more Wordsworth and i have stopped by the omnibus several times in the bookstore thinking about it. Maybe i should wiki up the authors.

[Lobolover]

Gothic is not synonymous of Poe . The second one is a parody from what I get, and the first one is the fist gothic story.....and sure feels like it . In fact, lots of people hate it , though I don't ind it that bad, just mediocre, but important to understanding the genre .

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Connavar

The Castle of Otranto/Nightmare Abbey/Vathek - are they really classic Gothic stories ? I mean wondefully gothic like a dark story with great athmosphere by Poe what i think of when i hear about that kind of story ?.

Well I'm going to generalize a little but basically Yes the authors of these classic Gothic tales in a sense lay the foundations for Poe and others to take the Gothic to one may argue a new level, certainly a varied interpretation and the Victorian Gothic influence can be readily seen in Poe's work as well as Lovecraft. These "earlier" Gothic Romance stories certainly featured extreme emotions, villians, supernatural beings and above all for me anyway a feeling of dark brooding atmospheres often embodied in the Gothic archtitecture of the time. A case in point is that the Castle Of Otranto is generally regared as being the starting point of Gothic fiction. Vathek too as well as Lewis's The Monk are definitely considered classics of the Genre. Nightmare Abbey from my understanding is more of a satirical take on the Romance Gothics of the time, so perhaps that isn't a classic Gothic in the way the other 2 books are.

I have an Oxford edn. of Four Gothic novels namely The Castle Of Otrantro, The Monk, Varthek and Frankenstein. You would be hard pressed I feel not to class these all as classics of that particular Genre.

I'm sure J.D. and others will elaborate further including Poe's place in Gothic literature but I hope this helps give you a better idea of what I meant by that earlier comment.

Cheers....

[j. d. worthington]

Connavar: Lobo and GOLLUM pretty much covered it (though I'd take issue with the use of "Victorian" here, as Poe died before that era even began -- his influences were more the writers of the Romantic era and the early American Renaissance or their predecessors).

While I have a fondness for Otranto, it really isn't for the majority of readers in the genre. Lovecraft's comments on it in SHiL are pretty much on target. Vathek is heavily influenced by the Arabian Nights; so, while a Gothic in one sense (harking back to the influences which helped create the Gothic in the first place), not in the sense usually meant. Nightmare Abbey is a pure parody of the genre -- a darned good one, but not to be taken seriously.

Varney...? Well, the penny dreadfuls were never really "good". They had their moments, but they were hackwork, stretched out as long as they brought in cash, with absolutely no regard to coherence, structure, or anything else associated with intent to tell a good story. They ramble all over the place (much worse than any of the genuine Gothics!) and they simply are often bad. That said, if you're going to tackle any of them, I'd suggest The String of Pearls (Sweeney Todd) or Wagner the Wehr-wolf, as those, at least, have more entertainment value than any of the others I've encountered.