The Short Story Thread

"The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Great story for Halloween as I thought it would be. Well told with the universally known chase seen as exciting as it was eerie. Was the supernatural involved or not? He doesn't come out and say but there are enough hints to point in a direction the laws of physics are afraid to go. Just as intriguing if not more so, however, is the glimpse the author gives us into a time where the cupboard rises to the level of importance now held by the computer. Recommended without hesitation.
 
Just (re)read "The Door to Saturn" by Clark Ashton Smith in the "Lost Worlds" collection.

Thought I'd comment because it struck me this time as I was reading it how much it reminded me of in some ways of Jack Vance's writing. That kind of wry humour exhibited in his stories was very much in evidence here. Presumably Smith was one of Vance's influences but that is only conjecture.
 
Haunted Castles the complete Gothic Stories by Ray Russell One of the un-rmemebered greats. If he's remembered at all it for story Sardonicus which was the basis for the 1961 William Castle film Mr Sardonicus. This is a writer that deserves to be remembered.:)

The Dead of Night The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions This anthology has great stuff including the classic story The Beckoning of the Fair One
 
Thanks. :) And, yeah, I hope/expect to see those two (and some others) on award nominee lists. (Though the awards and I often don't see eye-to-eye, so who knows?)

I started a thread on favorite stories of the year - if you'd like to drop by I'd love to hear about your other favorites all in one place (though I'll be able to check out the Tangent list, soon :)).
 
I just found How High The Moon, which I thought was fantastic. It's from 2009, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few people here had ready it already.
 
Just read "The Assignation" by Poe. Anyone familiar with it? So what happened at the end? Did the guy who lived in the apartment of "unparalleled splendor" poison the Marchese and then drink poison himself so they could be together in death, or did she poison herself? "The entire and terrible truth" may have "flashed suddenly over" Poe's soul but mine is feeling a lack.
 
dask said:
Just read "The Assignation" by Poe. Anyone familiar with it?
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Yes, but no. Sorry. It's odd - I assume it must be in my "complete" Poe and that means I've read it a few times but I don't recall it. If I ever get caught up with other stuff, I'll give it a re-read.

Here's the final monthly list from 2017 of nifty stories. I found a few more to like though only one would have been in serious contention for the "Web's Best" especially since, at something like 750 words, I probably could have squeezed it in. :)

Summation of Online Fiction: December 2017
 
J-Sun said:
Yes, but no. Sorry. It's odd - I assume it must be in my "complete" Poe and that means I've read it a few times but I don't recall it. If I ever get caught up with other stuff, I'll give it a re-read.
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Sounds good. Looking forward to it.
 
dask said:
Sounds good. Looking forward to it.
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May be awhile - I'm four zines behind one day into the year. ;)

For folks looking for recommended short fiction reading lists I have a couple. One is included in the Annual Summation: 2017 I made at my Featured Futures blog (which includes stories I "honorably mentioned"). Another is the unsurprisingly even larger Tangent Online 2017 Recommended Reading List which I think merits its own thread but also belongs here. The Tangent list includes recommendations from me and @Victoria Silverwolf and twenty other reviewers.
 
Finished Melomaniacs, a largely forgotten masterpiece by James Huneker (1857 - 1921), the highly regarded, though largely forgotten American critic of music, literature, art, theartre. He wrote a couple of novels and some short stories. Having read his excellent biographies Chopin, The Man and the Musician and Franz Liszt, this is the first short story collection I've read and found it like treasure. It's a set of variations of dark, light, quirky, witty, half true, half fictional tales with a fantasy atmosphere and some eccentric characters. The prose is often poetic and musical. I can't wait to read his others - all from Gutenberg.
 
dask said:
Are the books Poe mentions in The Fall Of The House Of Usher real or imagined? Anyone by chance know?
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Campanella's City of the Sun; Holberg's Subterranean Voyage of Klimm; Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell -- those at least are genuine. I'd have to look up the others. My late friend Benedikt Benedikz wrote an article on Holberg, which I would be happy to share with anyone interested. Just email me at extollager AT gmail DOT com. The article was published posthumously in the New York Review of Science Fiction.

[later]

I found a source that said of Ververt et Chartreuse: "Two poems by Jean Baptiste Gresset (1709-1777), best known for "Ververt" or "Vert-Vert". The poem is about a parrot, owned by a convent of nuns, that mistakenly learns swear words"

and

Belphegor of Machiavelli: "Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote Belphegor, a satire on marriage in which a demon comes to earth to prove that women damn men to hell."
 
Many many thanks for the information. When I read the through the list of books the narrator read with Roderick I sat dazed. If these were made up, what an extraordinary imagination Poe had. If they were real, how in the world did he find out about them without an internet? Or maybe back then they weren't as esoteric as they sound to the 21st century ear. Thanks again.
 
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