Robert Aickman, thoughts?

Connavar said:
Which collection ?

Suprisingly i can find Aickman books in library system and i need only recommendation for good collection. He sounds like the kind of quality horror i like.

I trust the views of you, JD,nomadman.
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For me, Aickman is a bit like Dunsany in the sense that pretty much everything I read by him is outstanding. So, I would say read anything you can get your hands on.

But of the two collections I have read, if I had to choose between them, I would say get "Cold Hand in Mine". But if you can't get that, just get anything you can!
 
"Cold Hand in Mine" isnt available but "The Wine-Dark Sea" was and sounded the best of the other collections.

This synopsis of the collection makes him sounds delicious to my taste in horror.

From Publishers Weekly
Since his death several years ago, British writer Aickman's reputation has continued to grow among connoisseurs of the horror story. Unlike much of the current form, full of blood, monsters and melodrama, Aickman's stories achieve a quieter, more subtle and, in several ways, more lasting sense of disquiet. His lucid, finely tuned prose moves imperceptibly from the small crises and celebrations of ordinary life into another sphere
 
Yes, "The Wine-Dark Sea" is the other collection of his I have read and was also very good. Like I said, I don't think you can go wrong with Aickman.

The only thing I will say is that I hope it isn't the Faber Finds edition as it was so full of typo's and misprints that impinged on my enjoyment of the book.
 
Fried Egg said:
Yes, "The Wine-Dark Sea" is the other collection of his I have read and was also very good. Like I said, I don't think you can go wrong with Aickman.

The only thing I will say is that I hope it isn't the Faber Finds edition as it was so full of typo's and misprints that impinged on my enjoyment of the book.
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Oh i hate that kind of thing and hope they dont give me Faber edition. I remember reading one of my fav noir books which was destroyed so many typos in the new reprinting.
 
I'm working my way through the "Unsettled Dust" collection now, just three stories to go.

I'm dying to find people who are interested in discussing and analysing his stories as many of them are so cryptic and I would love to see other people's thoughts on them. Propbably best doing so in another thread with a spoiler warning if so.

Anyone interested?
 
I don't have that collection per se, but I do have the Tartarus Press 2-volume set of his "strange stories", so I could give it a go. It has been a long time since I last read much of Aickman, so I'll need to refresh my memory on the stories concerned, but I think I'm up to that....
 
j. d. worthington said:
I don't have that collection per se, but I do have the Tartarus Press 2-volume set of his "strange stories", so I could give it a go. It has been a long time since I last read much of Aickman, so I'll need to refresh my memory on the stories concerned, but I think I'm up to that....
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Well, I didn't mean only stories from that collection necessarilly. Generally, I think it's most interesting to talk about his more ambigous stories as they possibly have more potential interpretations...

Anyway, I'll start a new thread.
 
Fried Egg said:
I'm working my way through the "Unsettled Dust" collection now, just three stories to go.

I'm dying to find people who are interested in discussing and analysing his stories as many of them are so cryptic and I would love to see other people's thoughts on them. Propbably best doing so in another thread with a spoiler warning if so.

Anyone interested?
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Sounds great, though I'd need a careful rereading of his work before being able to make any comments of my own.
 
nomadman said:
Sounds great, though I'd need a careful rereading of his work before being able to make any comments of my own.
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I definitately know what you mean, there's a lot of subtle nuances and seemingly throwaway lines that could get lost in the annals of time...
 
New to the forum, thought I'd share my thoughts...

The first Aickman story which really struck me was The Trains. I was working my way through Wine Dark Sea and it was this story which really made me want to explore Aickman. The descriptions of spatial distortion in the bedroom towards the end of the story; where the room begins to change to the shape of a train carriage is quite terrifying in an undefined way. Wasn't he interested in Freud/psychoanalysis? I'm sure I read that dream symbolism informed his stories. Whatever it is, they work on the subconscious better than any fiction I've read. The Swords, also, is amazing. Seems to explore the subconscious nature of misogyny and male violence towards women. The post-industrial landscape of mid-20th Century Britain is the most eerie setting for a horror story I've come across (better than any fantastical, traditional gothic setting).
 
Hi James, welcome to the forums. :)

Always good to have another fan of Aickman around...
 
I started reading "The View" last night but one line really stood out and deserves to be repeated:

"There are no beautiful houses in England now. Only ruins, mental homes, and Government offices."
 
I read this article a while ago but it is only recently I got to thinking why authors like Aickman will never achieve wide spread popularity with the reading public.

Whilst many apparently enjoy books more when they already know what's going to happen, no doubt even among those who are happy to wait until the end before finding out, most are going to be frustrated and confused by the the ambiguity and lack of decisive endings in Aickman's stories. You don't even know quite what happened when you finish the story.

Those of us that enjoy this ambiguous approach are surely bound to remain a small minority, appreciating a style of writing that is diametrically opposed to what most people want from a book.
 
Already, the latest batch of Tartarus Reprints are going out of stock; "Sub Rosa" is now no longer available from their website (although I noticed a copy in my local waterstones).
 
I've just ordered the latest Tartarus imprint: "Night Voices". A reprint of his first posthumous collection but also includes his novella "The Model" as well as "An Essay" (that he wrote after winning the world fantasy award in 1975), the collected introductions he wrote for "The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories series" and "Robert Remembered", written by Ramsey Campbell.
 
I didn't find "The Model" finishable when I tried it a long time ago, so let me know if I should give it another try. He is a variable author for me, some of whose stories I find offputting (what's the one with the cocktail party attended by Mr. Eblis or whoever it is), while some ("The Houses of the Russians," etc.) seem really fine. Not an indispensable author for me, though I remember my excitement on discovering him almost 30 years ago.
 
Extollager said:
He is a variable author for me, some of whose stories I find offputting (what's the one with the cocktail party attended by Mr. Eblis or whoever it is)...
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Is that "My Poor Friend" possibly (in which the protagonist is a lobbyist)? I liked that one.

Although I haven't found a single story of his that didn't have some value in reading, some are definitely better than others.
 
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