Post by demonik on Jun 28, 2006 12:43:56 GMT -5
August Derleth - Not Long For This World (Ballatine, undated, originally Arkham House, 1948)
cover: Richard Powers
The Shadow On The Sky, The White Moth, Wild Grapes, Logoda's Heads, The Second Print, Those Who Seek, The Lilac Bush, After You Mr. Henderson, The God Box, Birkett's Twelfth Corpse, Nellie Foster, Fiegman's Beard, The Return Of Sarah Purcell, Mrs. Bentley's Daughter, Mr. Berbeck Had A Dream, A Matter Of Sight, A Collector Of Stones.
The original Arkham House edition was twice the size again and mostly concentrates on Derleth's earlier work, usually rubbished as 'juvenalia' by critics who prefer his HPL pastiches. Derleth is scandalously derivative, but to me at least, I find his work in the 'twenties and 'thirties a treasure and the cliched likes of Bats Belfry, The Pacer and The Tenant far more entertaining than they've probably any right to be.
Here are some picks from Not Long For This World and beyond:
The Tenant: "He wasn't, if you happen to remember, just exactly a reputable character."
"I do remember that there were ugly rumours current about him. Nothing was ever proved as far as I remember."
"No, nothing was ever proved; that's true. His name was connected with the disappearance of several small children from the countryside."
"It was about the time of the agitation about vampires wasn't it?"
"Yes, I believe it was."
The man under discussion is 'pseudo scientist' Roxy Camburn, a researcher of bacteria. His grandson, Michael Sanbury, has just inherited the estate which is locally regarded as being haunted. The taciturn butler Jenkins certainly thinks so and murmours darkly of his late employer's mysterious pet. And what's the cause of that "kind of wet, sloshy noise, as if someone were throwing a wet sponge on the floor"?
Splendid 'man-eating blob of slime' nonsense.
The Pacer: " ... since these souls were moving merely to and fro in the cellar, it would be a comparatively easy thing to draw them back, if one had a body to put them into."
St. John's Wood, London. Immediately prior to his death, the eccentric scientist Brent found a volunteer for his experiment and successfully bagged a lost soul. Unfortunately, the house at number 21 has proved difficult to let ever since, due to the sudden death of the next tenant and unaccountable noises from the locked room upstairs. Mr. Larkin, an author of romantic novels, moves in and is soon troubled by the phantom footsteps. And what's that buried by the lilac bush ...?
Birkett's Twelfth Corpse: Rivermen Fred Birkett and Hank Room are in bitter competition to dredge the most corpses from Badger Prairie on the Winsconsin. Forty years into the match and they're drawn on eleven each when Bud Enters drowns. This one's the championship decider.
Prince Borgia's Mass: Satanists are stealing the bodies of the dead and using them in their blasphemous ceremonies. Cesare Borgia and his men sneak up on them as they celebrate Walpurgis night and, at his command, all nine participants are crucified upside down. Together with his Magi, Rene, he performs his own variation on the Black Mass. He and Rene are more adept practitioners of the Black Mass than their captives and summon Beelzebub who reduces the sorry sect to ashes.
Bat's Belfry: "I made a new and shocking discovery today. I went down to the place where the tablet lay, and another rock below the cavity wherein the Book of Thoth had been lain gave way below me and I found myself in a vault with about a score of skeletons - all of little children. If the house is inhabited by vampires it is only too obvious that these skeletons are those of their unfortunate victims."
Essentially, August Derleth's Dracula. Sir Harry Barclay moves into Lohrville Manor, a Mansion on the fog-bound moors. The place has a sinister reputation on account of his predecessor, Baron Lohrville who dubbed it 'Bats Belfry' and a spate of disappearances of young women from a neighbouring village. Barclay learns to his cost that the Baron has set up headquarters in the cellar, with four dishy brides at his call. Sir Harry finds the experience suitably draining.
The Metronome: Mrs. Farwell drowns her stepson Jimmy. After the funeral he comes back to see that she doesn't get away with it. The Coroner is mystified by all the wet footprints and the fact that Mrs. Farwell seems to have been suffocated with damp rags.
The Drifting Snow: Aunt Mary insists the curtains remain drawn after sunset. When Henry decides to open them, he sees two beckoning figures outside. It transpires that a servant girl froze to death on the Western slope after being dismissed from the house during a snowstorm.
The Coffin Of Lissa: Gruesome tale of torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator is placed in the titular contraption. Rats gnaw his hands. The lid slowly descends ...
The Panelled Room: Mrs. Lydia Grant moves into the house on Main St. against all advice. Seventeen years previous, Peter Mason killed his wife then hung himself in the panelled room, and successive residents have been troubled by their ghosts. Her sister, Irma, is delighted when Lydia sees the ghastly apparitions - she stands to inherit the property on the elder woman's death - but comes unstuck when Mrs. Grant is strangled by unseen hands. One of Derleth's best - horrible ending!
Carousel: A mob runs riot and lynches a black man at the Amusement Park for no reason other than his color. Three years later, scheming Mrs. Benjin is giving her lonely stepdaughter hell. Little Marcia befriends the dead man's ghost and he promises to watch over her. Mrs. Benjin follows her to the derelict funland intent on bringing about an 'accident', but the towering spectre intervenes. One of Derleth's best, and the ending is EC incarnate (albeit a decade early).
A site has been set up in the author's memory at www.derleth.org/
cover: Richard Powers
The Shadow On The Sky, The White Moth, Wild Grapes, Logoda's Heads, The Second Print, Those Who Seek, The Lilac Bush, After You Mr. Henderson, The God Box, Birkett's Twelfth Corpse, Nellie Foster, Fiegman's Beard, The Return Of Sarah Purcell, Mrs. Bentley's Daughter, Mr. Berbeck Had A Dream, A Matter Of Sight, A Collector Of Stones.
The original Arkham House edition was twice the size again and mostly concentrates on Derleth's earlier work, usually rubbished as 'juvenalia' by critics who prefer his HPL pastiches. Derleth is scandalously derivative, but to me at least, I find his work in the 'twenties and 'thirties a treasure and the cliched likes of Bats Belfry, The Pacer and The Tenant far more entertaining than they've probably any right to be.
Here are some picks from Not Long For This World and beyond:
The Tenant: "He wasn't, if you happen to remember, just exactly a reputable character."
"I do remember that there were ugly rumours current about him. Nothing was ever proved as far as I remember."
"No, nothing was ever proved; that's true. His name was connected with the disappearance of several small children from the countryside."
"It was about the time of the agitation about vampires wasn't it?"
"Yes, I believe it was."
The man under discussion is 'pseudo scientist' Roxy Camburn, a researcher of bacteria. His grandson, Michael Sanbury, has just inherited the estate which is locally regarded as being haunted. The taciturn butler Jenkins certainly thinks so and murmours darkly of his late employer's mysterious pet. And what's the cause of that "kind of wet, sloshy noise, as if someone were throwing a wet sponge on the floor"?
Splendid 'man-eating blob of slime' nonsense.
The Pacer: " ... since these souls were moving merely to and fro in the cellar, it would be a comparatively easy thing to draw them back, if one had a body to put them into."
St. John's Wood, London. Immediately prior to his death, the eccentric scientist Brent found a volunteer for his experiment and successfully bagged a lost soul. Unfortunately, the house at number 21 has proved difficult to let ever since, due to the sudden death of the next tenant and unaccountable noises from the locked room upstairs. Mr. Larkin, an author of romantic novels, moves in and is soon troubled by the phantom footsteps. And what's that buried by the lilac bush ...?
Birkett's Twelfth Corpse: Rivermen Fred Birkett and Hank Room are in bitter competition to dredge the most corpses from Badger Prairie on the Winsconsin. Forty years into the match and they're drawn on eleven each when Bud Enters drowns. This one's the championship decider.
Prince Borgia's Mass: Satanists are stealing the bodies of the dead and using them in their blasphemous ceremonies. Cesare Borgia and his men sneak up on them as they celebrate Walpurgis night and, at his command, all nine participants are crucified upside down. Together with his Magi, Rene, he performs his own variation on the Black Mass. He and Rene are more adept practitioners of the Black Mass than their captives and summon Beelzebub who reduces the sorry sect to ashes.
Bat's Belfry: "I made a new and shocking discovery today. I went down to the place where the tablet lay, and another rock below the cavity wherein the Book of Thoth had been lain gave way below me and I found myself in a vault with about a score of skeletons - all of little children. If the house is inhabited by vampires it is only too obvious that these skeletons are those of their unfortunate victims."
Essentially, August Derleth's Dracula. Sir Harry Barclay moves into Lohrville Manor, a Mansion on the fog-bound moors. The place has a sinister reputation on account of his predecessor, Baron Lohrville who dubbed it 'Bats Belfry' and a spate of disappearances of young women from a neighbouring village. Barclay learns to his cost that the Baron has set up headquarters in the cellar, with four dishy brides at his call. Sir Harry finds the experience suitably draining.
The Metronome: Mrs. Farwell drowns her stepson Jimmy. After the funeral he comes back to see that she doesn't get away with it. The Coroner is mystified by all the wet footprints and the fact that Mrs. Farwell seems to have been suffocated with damp rags.
The Drifting Snow: Aunt Mary insists the curtains remain drawn after sunset. When Henry decides to open them, he sees two beckoning figures outside. It transpires that a servant girl froze to death on the Western slope after being dismissed from the house during a snowstorm.
The Coffin Of Lissa: Gruesome tale of torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator is placed in the titular contraption. Rats gnaw his hands. The lid slowly descends ...
The Panelled Room: Mrs. Lydia Grant moves into the house on Main St. against all advice. Seventeen years previous, Peter Mason killed his wife then hung himself in the panelled room, and successive residents have been troubled by their ghosts. Her sister, Irma, is delighted when Lydia sees the ghastly apparitions - she stands to inherit the property on the elder woman's death - but comes unstuck when Mrs. Grant is strangled by unseen hands. One of Derleth's best - horrible ending!
Carousel: A mob runs riot and lynches a black man at the Amusement Park for no reason other than his color. Three years later, scheming Mrs. Benjin is giving her lonely stepdaughter hell. Little Marcia befriends the dead man's ghost and he promises to watch over her. Mrs. Benjin follows her to the derelict funland intent on bringing about an 'accident', but the towering spectre intervenes. One of Derleth's best, and the ending is EC incarnate (albeit a decade early).
A site has been set up in the author's memory at www.derleth.org/
