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demonik
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Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Thread started on: Sep 17th, 2005, 6:46pm » |
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Hugh Lamb (ed.) - A Wave Of Fear (W.H. Allen, 1973)
L. A . Lewis - The Child
Eleanor Scott - Celui-La
Ambrose Bierce - A Resumed Identity
M. P. Shiel - Huguenin's Wife
H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Buff
Charles Birkin - Marjorie's On Starlight
L. T. C. Rolt - Hawley Bank Foundry
Marjorie Bowen - Twilight
A. C. Benson - Basil Netherby
E. F. Benson - Wishing well
R. H. Benson - The Traveller
Joy Burnett - Phantom silhouette
Frederick Cowles - Terrible Mrs. Green
D. K. Broster - Clairvoyance
J. D. Beresford - The Late Occupier
Robert W. Chambers - The Messenger
Vivian Meik - A Honeymoon In Hate
For people who always wanted to know what happens when a steamroller runs over somebody's head - you're in luck!
A bit different for Hugh, this one, as he's allowed some contemporary writers in to mix it with the Victorian and Edwardian types."The Wishing Well" wins it for E. F. in the battle of the Benson brothers - this is up there with "The Face" as one of his grimmest offerings with a suitably haunting ending. Birkin shows that he still has the knack from his "Creeps" days (I'm building up to giving him his own thread). The great Frederick Cowles' "Terrible Mrs. Green" is just that, and Lamb concludes his book in traditional manner with a great slab of voodoo Grand Guignol.
Incidently, in my copy of the book, there's a silver sticker bearing the name Charles Birkin. I've always wondered wether or not it's his complimentary copy, sold on down the Charing Cross Road after his death.
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| « Last Edit: Nov 20th, 2006, 04:28am by demonik » |
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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demonik
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Re: Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Reply #1 on: Nov 20th, 2006, 04:46am » |
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Cover of the Coronet edition (uncredited)
L. A . Lewis - The Child: The narrator, a city boy and motorcyclist - though not, as he hastens to point out, the type "that carries a leggy flapper on the pinion and sports a cigarette holder a yard long": What's the matter with him? - investigates an alleged haunting at a gamekeepers cottage in the woods near 'Wailing Dip'. Some years before, a woman who'd murdered her children had escaped from the local asylum and was last seen near the site. She was heavily pregnant at the time. The woman is presumed dead down a pot hole, but who or what has been stealing poultry from the village these past years and what did a poacher see that scared him to death?
Frederick Cowles - Terrible Mrs. Greene:"I hate him. I detest his nice manners and I loathe his silly verses. But I shall never let Reginald go. In life and death he is mine to do with as I like, for my mind has his in subjection."
St. Endeth, Cornwall. Friends of the affable poet Reginald Greene are stunned and ultimately appalled by his choice of bride. Mrs. Greene is a piggy-eyed, bloated slob of a woman with a working interest in black magic and witchcraft. When a young lady, one of her disciples, went insane and committed suicide in the stone circle nearby, it was widely held among the villagers that she drove the girl to take her life.
One bitterly cold winter, Mrs. Greene catches pneumonia and dies, much to the relief of Reginald. His joy is premature - soon the familiar flabby, ring-festooned fingers are materialising in the house and the bell by her bedside is summoning him again. Finally, she tires of toying with him, and Cowles sets about delivering a fittingly creepy ending.
Marjorie Bowen - Twilight: The passing of Lucrezia Borgia. Even as she lies on her deathbed her spirit is busy, alternately attempting to seduce the young Roman Orsini and horrify him with "All my beautiful sins that I cannot tell the priest ... Will you hear how the Pope feasted with the Hebes and Ganymedes? Will you hear how we lived in the Vatican?"
As Orsini flees her in fear and disgust he is met by a woman, one of several rushing to and fro from the palace bearing the dreadful news ....
Vivian Meik - Honeymoon in Hate: Mikalongwa, Angoniland. English refugees Blair Taylor and Martin Kemp are bitter rivals for the love of the beautiful Estelle. When she decides to marry Taylor, Kemp turns to black magic and drives him to madness and suicide. Estelle avenges her beloved by marrying his murderer, having first infected herself with the blood of a leper. On their wedding night she performs a macabre striptease ...
Charles Birkin - 'Marjorie's On Starlight': Ten year old Cynthia torments and humiliates her adopted sister with sadistic glee. When they're out riding, she callously reminds Marjory that her mother is dead, and causes her horse to bolt. There's a vehicle slowly approaching on the other side of the road, but it should be alright, unless either rider is thrown ...
H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Buff: Aylesbury, Herts. Mr. Cort learns why none of the locals will approach Lorn Manor after nightfall. In pitch darkness, He loses himself within a few feet of the front door and is pursued about the old house by unseen entities.
Ambrose Bierce - A Resumed Identity: A Union soldier's encounter with a spectral army and a physician who believes him to be suffering from memory loss. Reads like a Civil War variation on his influential An Inhabitant Of Carcosa.
J. D. Beresford - The Late Occupier: The narrator is being shown around the vacant property when he flashes on what became of the previous owner, or "the late occupier" as the estate agent keeps repeating, mantra fashion. The man had been threatened with eviction but refused to budge even when his wife died and the gas and water supplies were terminated. The narrator realises that the dead man has concealed himself on the premises, and he knows where.
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| « Last Edit: Nov 20th, 2006, 09:32am by demonik » |
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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Re: Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Reply #2 on: May 6th, 2007, 11:07am » |
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Been taking a dip into this one today. The L.A Lewis story The Child has been a big winner so far, with Charles Birkin's story close on it's heels - that Cynthia is a real piece of work!
E.F. Benson rarely disappoints, and The Wishing Well is no exception. Poor sad Judith...
I struggled with the J.D Beresford story The Late Occupier - though short I found it practically unreadable... could be me being a bit dim though 
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demonik
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Re: Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Reply #3 on: May 6th, 2007, 1:10pm » |
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I love this collection, maybe the best of Hugh Lamb's non-Victorian anthologies, and the outrageous Birkin story is arguably his last great one. I've mentioned this before, but my hardback has a printed silver sticker on the inside back cover bearing the legend 'Charles Birkin' - I always kind of hope it was his copy. So much good stuff in here I didn't get around to put notes together for but I agree, The Child is unforgettable and I'm sure you'll enjoy Honeymoon In Hate, Terrible Mrs. Green and Hawley Bank Foundry from L. T. C. Rolt's brilliant Sleep No More.
In the rush to praise the the Haining and Parry's anthologies of the same decade, Hugh tends to get overlooked which is scandalous. I gather some of the books have been reissued by Dover so lets hope there's more on the way.
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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Re: Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Reply #4 on: May 7th, 2007, 3:15pm » |
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Think I'm getting why you're so fond of this Dem. The Terrible Mrs. Greene is terrible indeed, a big nasty piece of work. I don't think I've ever thought a story too short before, often quite the opposite, but this seemed to end far too abruptly - I could happily have read another couple of pages. She's a beast!
Also liked Marjorie Bowen's Twilight - colourful, beautiful writing. Lucrezia Borgia, "the heroine of a thousand orgies, the inspiration of a hundred crimes", in her own twilight "her stale beauty reeked of dead abomination"...
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demonik
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Re: Hugh Lamb - A Wave Of Fear
« Reply #5 on: May 8th, 2007, 03:25am » |
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Thats another thing to be thankful to HL for: the Frederick Cowles revival. Haining missed him altogether and although Michel Parry included The House On The Marsh in one of his Mayflower Black Magic books), it was Lamb who contacted Cowles' widow and began using the stories from the (then) unpublished Fear Walks The Night.
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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