The Horrible Dummy and Other Stories

by Gerald Kersh

'It is a quality of flamboyant vigour in Mr Kersh that wins attention first of all for his fiction, and more especially, perhaps, for his occasional short story. When his flamboyant energy of sentiment and language comes off he achieves an effect of genuine distinction; at his surest, that is, he is a short story writer of a strongly individual and rewarding kind... the best and cleverest [of the 23 stories in this volume] tells with excellent economy of a ventriloquist's dummy which was inhabited, or so it seemed, by the spirit of the ventriloquist's murdered father... 'The Drunk And The Blind', the sketch of an old, battered and mentally ruined boxer, is done with a telling and slightly brutal power. 'The Devil That Troubled The Chess-Board'... is another sound thing in a vein of the slightly macabre.' Times Literary Supplement (1944)

Genres: Fiction, Horror

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Gerald Kersh was born in Teddington-on-Thames, near London, and, like so many writers, quit school to take on a series of jobs -- salesman, baker, fish-and-chips cook, nightclub bouncer, freelance newspaper reporter and at the same time was writing his first two novels.

In 1937, his third published novel, Night and the City, hurled him into the front ranks of young British writers. Twenty novels later Kersh created his personal masterpiece, Fowler's End, regarded by many as one of the outstanding novels of the century. He also, throughout his long career, wrote more than 400 short stories and over 1,000 articles.

Once a professional wrestler, Kersh also fought with the Coldstream Guards in World War II. His account of infantry training They Die With Their Boots Clean (1941), became an instant best-seller during that war.

After traveling over much of the world, he became an American citizen, living quietly in Cragsmoor, in a remote section of the Shawangunk Mountains in New York State. He died in Kingston, NY, in 1968.

(Biography compiled from "Nightmares & Damnations" and Fantastic Fiction.)

Reviews

[Severian13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous early collection of short stories by the great Gerald Kersh. The first thing to note is that this is not a horror story collection, despite the fact that it certainly sounds that way judging by the title. In here you will find only a couple of stories that deal with the supernatural, but regardless of the subject matter, they are all (for the most part) powerful in how they concentrate on dissecting the human condition. The stories are eclectic, however, in setting and character. You will find a once-famous wrestler looking back on his life, a loyal dog following a tribe of cavemen, a group of old soldiers taking one last stand during WWII, and a story with a science fiction element that centres on a creator and dealer of guns that becomes a 'lord of war' ('Comrade Death', a personal favourite of mine). I will not give anything away, but some of the stories herein have ironic endings- 'The Evil Destiny Of Dr Polacek' springs to mind as having a jaw dropping final line that's irony is maddening.

Overall this is a great collection that is enthralling, touching and re-readable.

[Dylan Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of working-class sardonic tales that run the gauntlet from ironic comedy to supernatural . From Boxers, Jewish Salesmen to the Devil himself are filled with an almost flamboyant energy of genuine sentiment