Wordworth Tales Of Mystery & Supernatural

Very interesting. What you say (or refer to Sullivan saying) about Justice Harbottle and Augier Street does ring a bell - I remember finding something very much more creepy than the traditional ghost story of that era in those stories; a re-read is in order.
 
I've bought and will continue to buy books from this imprint where they contain material not otherwise easily available to me, or not high-priority enough for me to seek out a better and possibly more expensive source. However I just thought I'd post this picture, taken at a local bookshop, regarding Wordsworth's approach to textual integrity:
 

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I was wondering if any news /aditions in the series have surfaced in the last two months ?
 
I was wondering if any news /additions in the series have surfaced in the last two months ?
Well, 6 months ago I reported on the following future items, which have now recently come into print.

The Monk - Lewis
The Castle of Otranto/Nightmare Abbey/Vathek *3 classic Gothic novels.
Varney The Vampire - J Rymer.
The Horror in the Museum - Lovecraft *Vol 2 in their Lovecraft series.

Interestingly enough they've just put out...

Australian Ghost Stories.
Murderous ghosts, horrific curses and monstrous beings haunt an unforgiving landscape into which travellers stray at their peril. Journey through the dark byways of Australia's Gothic past in the rare stories gathered in this memorable new collection.

I'll be picking this one up for sure!!

Some other tiles are forthcoming but not in Horror, more Mystery.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux *Author of Phantom Of The Opera.

Cheers.
 
The Horror in the Museum - Lovecraft *Vol 2 in their Lovecraft series.

Sorry to nitpick, but I think that'd actually be Volume 3, after The Whisperer in Darkness and The Loved Dead.
 
I hope they will get to the Wakefield in the foreseeable future .
 
Sorry to nitpick, but I think that'd actually be Volume 3, after The Whisperer in Darkness and The Loved Dead.
Yes I understand that but to clarify....

Essentially what's happened is that their publication of Horror In The Museum contains the bulk of what was previously found in The Loved Dead. Therefore Wordsworth have specifically promoted (refer to book cover) this as Vol 2 of HPL's collected stories.

The Whisperer in Darkness is promoted as Vol 1 on the website and front cover.

It's just the way they've chosen to do it.

Anyway, splitting hairs and nitpicking aside, I'm pleased to see they are at least producing some of the stories of the Old Gent at reasonable prices. It may even translate into a wider reading audience....

Cheers.
 
Indeed I believe they will. Aside from that it's also good to have all these in print again at reasonable prices. It would be so much more encouraging for people wanting to start reading in the genre to not first have to rob a bank to do so.

Am going to be looking our for some of these in the UK because none of the stores here have seen fit to bring these in at all, which to my mind, is a shame really.


As for green tea .... I can understand it being a thing of horror.
 
Am going to be looking our for some of these in the UK because none of the stores here have seen fit to bring these in at all, which to my mind, is a shame really.
Seriously?

Here they've stocked pretty much the entire lot incl. Mystery & Supernatural titles.

My sympathies Dear Cat....:p;)
 
Essentially what's happened is that their publication of Horror In The Museum contains the bulk of what was previously found in The Loved Dead. Therefore Wordsworth have specifically promoted (refer to book cover) this as Vol 2 of HPL's collected stories.

The Whisperer in Darkness is promoted as Vol 1 on the website and front cover.

It's just the way they've chosen to do it.

Wasn't this because of legal complications concerning the title story of the original volume? As I recall, Eddy's estate still owns the right to that piece (as well as the other collaborations/revisions he did with HPL), and they did not get permission to use it in the former edition....

Glad to hear about the Australian Ghost Stories book, though... I'll be darned if I can understand why this stuff is so seldom mentioned, and I've love to have a fairly good, representative selection of it....
 
I've already sampled a good cross-section of Australian ghost stories, thanks to the redoubtable GOLLUM. A very interesting collection and I look forward to the Wordsworth volume as well.

I just noticed that this thread's title contains a typo. A bit of poetic justice?
 
Wasn't this because of legal complications concerning the title story of the original volume? As I recall, Eddy's estate still owns the right to that piece (as well as the other collaborations/revisions he did with HPL), and they did not get permission to use it in the former edition....

Glad to hear about the Australian Ghost Stories book, though... I'll be darned if I can understand why this stuff is so seldom mentioned, and I've love to have a fairly good, representative selection of it....
Well I don't really know the exact reasoning behind it all, so you're probably right J.D.

As far as Australian Ghost Stories goes, you may consider it as part of your consignment, so fingers off until then; otherwise I'll have to get Cthuhlu to have a not so quite word with you....:)

As far as the typo in the Title goes, perhaps I should leave it? It will help remind me of my many apparent failings....:p;)
 
Some interesting recent and upcoming additions to this series:


"The Casefiles of Mr. J.G. Reeder" by Edgar Wallace
"In Ghostly Company" by Amyas Northcote
"The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions" by Oliver Onions
"The Drug and Other Stories" by Aleister Crowle

Any thoughts on these anyone?
 
It has been a long time since I read anything by Wallace, but as I recall, he was generally quite good. He is primarily known, of course, as a very popular crime writer and the co-creator of King Kong. A rather prolific writer who dabbled in different fields; almost always entertaining, not infrequently several notches above the average of his time.

Amyas Northcote was a contemporary and friend of M. R. James, and his stories have usually been considered "in the James tradition"... which I'm not entirely sure I agree with. He only wrote a small handful of tales, the most famous of which is "Brickett Bottom", about a phantom house. Quieter than most people are used to these days, his stories may seem to lack a "punch", but are thoughtful, well-knit, and (paradoxically) understatedly but powerfully atmospheric... something like some of Le Fanu's ghostly tales in that regard....

I'd have to know what the contents are of the Onions, as he wrote a fair number of ghostly tales, including what is probably the single best example of the form in the English language: "The Beckoning Fair One", one of the most finely crafted novellas out there, and an almost textbook example of the "psychological ghost story". Others also tend toward this end of the spectrum, and vary from brilliant gems to pieces which just manage to misfire....

Crowley... I've only read Moonchild among his fictions (and that was nearly thirty years ago), so I'm not qualified to comment on that one, save to say that, if his shorter works follow his patterns there, you're in for a very strange ride; alternately poetic and powerful or terribly awkward and numbing. At his best, though, quite good.

I must say that, as the series continues, I am glad they also continue to include lesser-known writers of the field as, though there is a reason they are less well known, they often wrote some delightful tales, and occasionally one comes across a true stroke of genius in their writings....
 
The Crowley should be in the stores here in a couple of week's time. I wasn't aware of the Onions, so that's one I'll definitely be getting. I've collected the entire series to date excepting those authors whose works I already have covered in other editions.

Like J,D. I too am pleased to see Wordsworth publishing at an affordable price, some of the great names of yesteryear...:)
 
This is what the blurb says about "The Dead of Night":

With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies
Oliver Onions is unique in the realms of ghost story writers in that his tales are so far ranging in their background and substance that they are not easily categorised. His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives. This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature.
Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.
 
Sounds like a good collection, though I doubt it holds even a half of what Onions wrote in the field. Incidentally, I've seen reference to Lovecraft's opinion on "The Beckoning Fair One" before, but I fear this is apocryphal, as nowhere in either his essay nor in any of his published correspondence (at least that I recall or can find at a quick glance at the various indexes) do I see mention of that particular story, or Onions in general. In fact, scholar Peter Penzoldt took HPL to task on that very topic (cf. The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature, p. 12 and n. 17 to the introduction). He also missed Robert S. Hichens (another writer well worth investigating), whom he does briefly mention in his letters....
 
About Crowley's short fiction - I only could get my hands on a satirical story , "His secret sin" , which I am not sure if the racism it contains can be called mild and satirical or low and vengefull . Based on what I heard about the man it would very well seem to be the later .
 
Well, my copy of Oliver Onion's "The Dead of Night" has arrived and I was suprised because it's quite a large volume. 657 pages with 26 stories. Should give me a good sampling of his ghost stories I hope...
 

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