The Smell of Evil

by Charles Birkin

A sinister baron and his wife inflict unimaginable tortures on their young niece to compel her to sign over her fortune. - In the aftermath of World War II, a German woman's garden is lush and beautiful, for an appalling reason. - Missionaries in Africa get a gruesome surprise when their converts take a biblical text too literally. - A child's fantasy becomes a deadly game with a macabre ending for his adult playmate. The thirteen stories in The Smell of Evil (1965) reveal Sir Charles Birkin (1907-1985) at his diabolical best. Largely eschewing ghost stories and tales of the supernatural, Birkin pioneered a different type of modern horror fiction, describing in exquisitely polished prose the sufferings of ordinary, decent people who encounter inexplicable cruelty and evil in their everyday lives. An important and neglected figure in 20th century British horror fiction, Birkin returns to shock a new generation of readers in this edition, the first in more than 30 years, which features a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy

189 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1965

About the author

Sir Charles Lloyd Birkin, 5th Baronet of Ruddington Grange (24 September 1907 – 1985) was an English author of horror short stories and the editor of the Creeps Library of anthologies. Mostly working under the pseudonym Charles Lloyd, Birkin's tales tended towards the contes cruels rather than supernatural fiction.

Reviews

[Rob Twinem · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable book of short horror stories by Charles Birkin with one story of sheer brilliance. Hilde Berger is flattered and enjoys the attentions of Herr Major Karl Schultz but her real love is the garden as it flourishes and blooms and each year she wins many accolades and awards at the local flower show..."The garden, too, which was spacious, covering as it did more than an acre, was a credit to her industry. The closely weeded gravel walks enclosed oblong or triangular beds of roses,  while during the summer months a hedge of sweet peas at the end of the main path of shaven grass shut off the vegetable section from view. On this July day both roses and sweet peas were at their peak." The good Major always arrives with his lorry and trusty "kapo" the latter ensuring that the garden always looks well and that the displays are immaculate. There is however a price to be paid and the realization when presented is both a joy and a horror to an unsuspecting reader.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another of Valancourt's reissues of hard-to-find horror. I should be pleased about that, but somehow all I can manage is a yawn. Birkin's crisply written contes cruels seemed to influence almost everyone who contributed to Herbert van Thal's anthologies for Pan, and he excelled in devising nasty happenings and plotlines. Unfortunately, it is all too clear that what frightens him (women, lesbians, the disabled, members of other races who haven't been to Eton) are not necessarily what frightens a modern reader. His characters are stuffed dummies waiting to be tortured - despite those lazy comparisons with Poe made by some of his critics, you'll be very disappointed if you're looking for 'The Cask of Amontillado II'. Birkin's psychology is crude, and his stories don't merit a second reading. What they do offer is a somewhat callow nastiness and lashings of cheap irony. That's probably why I enjoyed them when I was thirteen. What a lovely girl I was. So young. So innocent. To quote Victoria Wood, 'I never knew you could wake up feeling bored.'

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why Birkin is something of an acquired taste because he’s clearly an equal opportunities nihilist, looking at everyone and everything with the same withering and cynical disdain. But honestly that makes him somewhat better at this sort of thing than Roald Dahl because Birking fully, fully commits to the grimmest inevitable conclusion. Read as a whole, it does eventually get a little exhausting but there’s a gallows humour here that feels closer to the EC Comics people than anybody else in the genre. Heady stuff

[Rick Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I came across this book. I have never heard of this author, but his writing and stories are amazing.
Twisted, dark storytelling that runs the gamut of topics you would not imagine for the time these stories were published (rape, racism, torture, homosexuality, and others), that would cause an uproar in todays society.
Looking forward to finding more about this author.

[Rafael Morffi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unconventional horror/mystery tales. Pretty cool.

[Garth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 - The 52 Book Club Challenge

Week 2: Bibliosmia: A smelly book

“Gentle reader, beware. Before you begin to read the stories that follow I feel it only fair to warn you. You are holding in your hands a book of some of the bleakest, most well-written, deliciously nasty horror stories you will ever have the good fortune to find on the printed page. Stories about wealthy, beautiful people capable of the most shocking acts of cruelty. Stories where the wide-eyed innocence of a young child can lead to the most horrible kind of death, either for the infant concerned or the adult who has unfortunately found themselves in the most macabre of situations. Stories of brutal revenge, of petty jealousies that culminate in the most grimly spiteful acts.

Welcome to the world of Sir Charles Birkin.”

The best beginning to an introduction to a book, ever.

“May said that she hoped that Captain Marriott would bring sorely wanted medical supplies. There was hardly a drop of iodine left and her stock of aspirin and bandages was dangerously low. Besides which, they were nearly out of tea.”

Ah, running out of tea. The greatest of all British tragedies.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent collection from Birkin.

[Kiri Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliciously dark and creepy. Short stories with ironic twists are the best, I genuinely can't get enough of them!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Charles Birkin's collection of contes cruels a bit hit or miss. I appreciated his detailed style, his tight plotting, his wide range of characters and settings, and his black sense of humor, and I even appreciated the extreme misanthropy which he is so well known for. When all of these elements come together and he's firing on all cylinders, as in the title story, "The Lesson", "Green Fingers", and "Dance Little Lady," I found him to be a very tense but literate writer, able to set up despairingly bleak Rube Goldberg devices of human depravity with a cunning understanding of the darker aspects of human nature. What left me feeling cold was the often very predictable twists of some of his stories, and the sometimes problematic treatment of minority groups. But while I could deal with those, I think a lot of the time his unavailing stuffiness could get in the way of the story, dulling its emotional impact. Not to mention that sometimes, though they may have interesting setups, as in "The Cornered Beast," they simply don't go anywhere interesting, and left me feeling quite cold. Overall, while I did enjoy his stories more often than not, I wouldn't call them essential. Read at your own risk.