Lobolover
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,171
This one was a tough to get and the library wouldnt allow me to take it home with me either, so cherish the results of endless hours of the fastest reading I was ever capable of.
Thre are ten stories in the colection and overall, I only experienced three "letdowns".But lets start at the begining and work chronologicaly.
That dieth not is a sort of melodrama, about a man who marries a woman whose only out for money and he kills her so he can marry a woman he's realy in love with.Seeing, however, that this is a story colection sub titeled "A book of ghost stories" and not "A book of mediocre underwhelming romance", this doesnt go on acording to plan.Needless the say, the wife first phones his husband (a scene which reminded me of a similar scene in both "An exchange oif souls" by Barry Pain and "The thing on the doorstep" by H.P.Lovecraft, though in spirit it was much closer to the second as oposed to the first) and then starts haunting him. In quite a nasty way to, as shown in a scene near the end.No wonder M.R."Wuss" James had some coments about horribelness to make.(As a writer,M.R.James was very briliant, but as a literary critic , he sometimes just misses his mark). Nicely handeled, and actualy made out to work well, even if it didn't apear to be so in the begining. Nice.
Or Persons Unknown is a tale of a nervous alcoholic master, hunted by a poachers dead dog, while the rest of his servants suffer and run away in fear. Tis both a fine tale and a fine title, the singificance of which you will only grasp near the end. Nice.
" "He cometh and He Passeth by" " reminded me greately of Sax Rohmer's under rated master piece "The Brood of the Witch Queen" (a review of which you may find on this site). It details a man trying to avenge his friend, fallen at the hands of a terribly powerfull adept, using the aid of a well known and knowledgable "good" psychic and manages to defeat him with his own methods. Very nice.
Professor Pownal's Oversight is a tale of a rivality between two men, that ends with the death of one, and the haunting of another, and to a series of the most perfect chess games known to man, that end in "possesing" a person who reads them and serve to continue the ghostly game long after death. Nice
The Third Coach is one of the "letdowns" of this colection.The story of a maniac priest who writes the story leading up to an acident, in a way which he could not have seen. Rather dull.
The Red Lodge is one of the best tales of this colection.It deals a haunting of a house by strange "blue monkeys", from a pond where the previous wife murdering owner and his whole harem had run into and drowned. Very nice.
"And he shall sing...." is the story of Kato, a japaneese "poet" who brings a manuscript to a publisher, who recognises the work of genious, however, the work is seemingly not Kato's, and its publication, even if recalled, and the events leading up to it, end in Kato's death.Very nice.
The Seventeenth hole at Duncaster is a golf story of a hole, near which a terrible thing kills people ever since at least 1839. A bit less then the masterworks, but a wonderfull tale nonetheless. Nice.
A peg on which to hang is another golf story, with a ghostly theme, kind of reminescent of James' "Number 13" , but on the whole a far less developed story.Sub par.
An Echo is a tale of a vision of a past murder and resolves the case, long unsolved and .....no longer needed to be solved, seeing as the acused is long dead.Along with the above story, these are the other two of these let downs.
Overall, a marvelous colection, the in-acesibility of which is criminal and the lack of a chief reprint , costing less then 50 dollars, is damn near worth re- instatement of the death penalty.Eevery colection has a down side and this has far to many up-sides to discount.
Thre are ten stories in the colection and overall, I only experienced three "letdowns".But lets start at the begining and work chronologicaly.
That dieth not is a sort of melodrama, about a man who marries a woman whose only out for money and he kills her so he can marry a woman he's realy in love with.Seeing, however, that this is a story colection sub titeled "A book of ghost stories" and not "A book of mediocre underwhelming romance", this doesnt go on acording to plan.Needless the say, the wife first phones his husband (a scene which reminded me of a similar scene in both "An exchange oif souls" by Barry Pain and "The thing on the doorstep" by H.P.Lovecraft, though in spirit it was much closer to the second as oposed to the first) and then starts haunting him. In quite a nasty way to, as shown in a scene near the end.No wonder M.R."Wuss" James had some coments about horribelness to make.(As a writer,M.R.James was very briliant, but as a literary critic , he sometimes just misses his mark). Nicely handeled, and actualy made out to work well, even if it didn't apear to be so in the begining. Nice.
Or Persons Unknown is a tale of a nervous alcoholic master, hunted by a poachers dead dog, while the rest of his servants suffer and run away in fear. Tis both a fine tale and a fine title, the singificance of which you will only grasp near the end. Nice.
" "He cometh and He Passeth by" " reminded me greately of Sax Rohmer's under rated master piece "The Brood of the Witch Queen" (a review of which you may find on this site). It details a man trying to avenge his friend, fallen at the hands of a terribly powerfull adept, using the aid of a well known and knowledgable "good" psychic and manages to defeat him with his own methods. Very nice.
Professor Pownal's Oversight is a tale of a rivality between two men, that ends with the death of one, and the haunting of another, and to a series of the most perfect chess games known to man, that end in "possesing" a person who reads them and serve to continue the ghostly game long after death. Nice
The Third Coach is one of the "letdowns" of this colection.The story of a maniac priest who writes the story leading up to an acident, in a way which he could not have seen. Rather dull.
The Red Lodge is one of the best tales of this colection.It deals a haunting of a house by strange "blue monkeys", from a pond where the previous wife murdering owner and his whole harem had run into and drowned. Very nice.
"And he shall sing...." is the story of Kato, a japaneese "poet" who brings a manuscript to a publisher, who recognises the work of genious, however, the work is seemingly not Kato's, and its publication, even if recalled, and the events leading up to it, end in Kato's death.Very nice.
The Seventeenth hole at Duncaster is a golf story of a hole, near which a terrible thing kills people ever since at least 1839. A bit less then the masterworks, but a wonderfull tale nonetheless. Nice.
A peg on which to hang is another golf story, with a ghostly theme, kind of reminescent of James' "Number 13" , but on the whole a far less developed story.Sub par.
An Echo is a tale of a vision of a past murder and resolves the case, long unsolved and .....no longer needed to be solved, seeing as the acused is long dead.Along with the above story, these are the other two of these let downs.
Overall, a marvelous colection, the in-acesibility of which is criminal and the lack of a chief reprint , costing less then 50 dollars, is damn near worth re- instatement of the death penalty.Eevery colection has a down side and this has far to many up-sides to discount.
