Dead Drunk: Tales of Intoxication and Demon Drinks

by Pam Lock (Editor)

With a stiff measure of the supernatural, a dram of melodrama and a chaser of the cautionary kind, tales of drink and drunkenness can be found in a well- stocked cabinet of Victorian and early twentieth-century fiction, reflecting an anxiety about the impact of alcohol and intoxicants in society, as well as an acknowledgment of their influence on humans’ perception of reality.

Featuring drink-fuelled classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Body Snatcher’ alongside obscurities from periodicals such as Blackwood’s Magazine, this new collection offers a (somewhat poisoned) chalice of dark and stormy short fiction, brimming with the weird, the grotesque, the entertaining and the outlandish.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies

267 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2023

Reviews

[p. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The connection to the theme throughout seemed a little thin but I still appreciated the effort to also include different media of storytelling. Lock also presents excellent detail about the context of each of the works, bringing further appreciation to them.

Favourite stories: "The Body-Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson (always a delight to read, truly one of my favourite stories of all time), "The Ostler" by Wilkie Collins, "An Engineer's Story" by Amelia B. Edwards, "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably my favourite of the three Tales of the Weird anthologies I’ve read and not just because of the theme. The stories in this volume are of a consistently good quality. It’s also good to have a means to read something by Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins – let’s be honest, it was unlikely to happen otherwise.

[Alex Sarll]

Some of the Tales Of The Weird, I'm happy just to read, but this one I felt I had to own, even passing by two physical library copies, then being delayed by the BL shop not having the other volumes with which I planned to 3 for 2 it. Exactly the sort of self-control not displayed by some of its subjects, of course, because a lot of the stories here end up as temperance tracts, some more explicitly than others. Including the second and longest story here, Trollope's novella The Spotted Dog, which proved something of a roadblock for a while, especially since I had an idea of him as the most Victorian of Victorian writers. Turns out he's surprisingly readable; moralistic and sentimental, yes, but no more so than Dickens, and without the stupid names and terrible accents. I can only wonder whether Machen's disdain for him and love of Charlie had a little to do with the D's greater tolerance for boozers. Though, granted, there is less of the numinous to Trollope - to the extent that it's unclear to me what qualified this story as weird at all. Lock's introduction might have shed more light had it not been busy giving away the ending, and not for the last time; elsewhere, and more than once, we get a helpful gloss of that most obscure phenomenon "temperance (anti-drink)".

And you might almost conclude that the whole assembly of the collection had been temperance (anti-drink), not just in showing drinking as bad, but in attempting entirely to minimise its presence. I mean, this one seemed like an easy assignment, simply in terms of assumed ghost stories one riffs on with mates. The cursed decanter; the tavern you can never leave, or else never find again - did we invent these from whole cloth? Did their implicit originals never exist? Because if they do, they're certainly not here. Mostly, characters tend to do something foolish because they were pissed - but often it's one binge once in the story, more inciting incident than theme. Adding insult to injury, frequently what follows is not even weird. Which isn't to say they're necessarily bad stories; William Aytoun's How We Got Up The Glenmutchkin Railway is a rollicking satire of speculative capitalism and pious hypocrisy, but even Lock's introduction, along with giving the plot away again, admits that its inclusion here is a stretch. That's followed by James White's The Barber's Supper, which has very similar concerns but whose hints at cannibalism at least qualify it as weird, albeit probably more suited to The Uncanny Gastronomic than this volume (I also found myself wondering if its juxtaposition of a Whiffle and a pig had somehow influenced Wodehouse). Overall, most of what's in Dead Drunk is good, excepting only the outright temperance (anti-drink) screeds, and in particular the series of moralising Cruikshank pictures, which I suspect are probably crap anyway, but which certainly don't come out well at the size and standard of reproduction allowed here. However, less than half of the book has both the advertised attributes of a) centrally concerned with a tipple and b) weird, which for an open goal of a topic like this is just, well, weird.

[Alex Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the introductions and most of the stories, but How We Got Up the Glenmutchkin Railway and The Barber’s Supper were dull as hell. I’m not sure I could even explain their plots.

As usual, Amelia B Edwards’ story was great, and I thought Under the Cloak was really unnerving.

The illustrated stories were also interesting and unique.

[Midas ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The body snatcher ☆☆☆☆
amé la ambientación de la historia, pude imaginarme todo con lujo y detalle. No se si me gustó tanto la revelación final, pero tampoco me disgustó, así que eso dejó la puntuación tan cerca del 5

The spotted dog ☆☆☆☆
buenos personajes, se sintieron muy reales, amé la narración del libro, me gustó que fuera desde el punto de vista de los involucrados en la historia. En cusnto a la historia, se me pasó un poco lenta, pero aún así fue interesante.

Kitty's dream and its results ☆☆☆
Cortito, preciso y consiso. Cute! no hay mucho más que decir.

The bottle / The drunkard's children: ☆☆☆☆☆
Increíblemente cruda en su contenido, pero muy real. El hecho de que la historia se cuente visualmente aporta al contenido, es un juego muy macabro de "encunetra las 5 diferencias" en la primera historia, en las que la casa comienza a verse menos y menos viva con el paso del consumo de alcohol.

The ostler: ☆☆
Interesante, pero no lo suficiente. Tiene un elemento paranormal que queda sin resolución al final, y el alcohol no tiene mucho que ver con los conflictos presentados en la historia. Predecible, lastimosamente. La narración y la escritura son buenas de todas formas, logra hacerte sentir parte de la historia.

A enginnieers story: ☆☆☆☆☆
BEST! muy buena escritura, hace que te encariñes de los personajes inmediatamente, hace que la historia te atrape a un nivel sentimental increíble. En todo momento me sentí parte de la historia, y todo lo que sentían los personajes era real. Muy buena, realmente mi favorita hasta ahora.

Under the cloak: ☆☆☆☆☆
Cortita pero perfecta, me gustó mucho el sentido del humor y la narración de ls protagonista. Oh, que triste es que desde tiempos victorianos se les advierta a las mujeres no aceptar tragos agenos...

How we got up the gentlemunchkin railway: DNF
Tremendamente fome, no sentí simpatía por los personajes principales en ningún momento, ni se me hizo interesante la historia de ellos.

The barber's supper: ☆☆☆
No soy muy buena prediciendo plot twists, así que me sorprendió! me gustó que (spoiler) el final fuera relativamente feliz para el protagonista, siento que no es usual en este tipo de historias.

The mark of the beast: ☆☆
Supongo que mis ideologias actuales impiden que me sienta inmersa en las ideas que tenían los ingleses en tiempos coloniales sobre las mitologías de sus respectivas colonias. De todas formas fue una interesante lectura.

[Alasdair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not! One of! Their! Best!

Drinking connection often pretty tenuous, but more damningly the majority of these just aren't very weird or supernatural at all. Some can coast by on being 'Gothic' melodramas, but some (looking at you The Barber's Supper and How We Got up the Glenmutchkin Railway) are just endless tiresome... farces? Whatever they are they were pretty tough to get through and really felt out of place in this series. Whatever problems I had with the Cornish Horrors volume, this one is the same but worse. When it comes to these British Library Tales of the Weird volumes, I think I definitely get on better with those that roughly span 1850-1950 rather than those with a more 1800-1900 focus like this one.

Highlights probably The Body Snatcher, The Ostler, and An Engineers Story, but even then, they were just ok. Other loose thoughts below:

An Engineers Story: They were... Roommates.
How We got up the Glenmutchkin Railway: Interminable stonks farce, what on earth is this doing here.
The Spotted Dog: Trollope takes an awfully long time to say not very much.
The Mark of the Beast: Needless leper torture from Kipling here.

[Samantha van Buuren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid this collection was mostly disappointing. I enjoyed The Body Snatchers by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Ostler by Wilkie Collins. I also enjoyed the illustrated story of a family losing eveything to drink. But this one does feel like the stories we're chosen simply because alcohol is involved at some point and not for their horror aspects.

Most of the stories are incredibly dense and dull. I skipped the endings of two because I just could not push myself through all those words with so little meaning.

I love this collection but there was bound to be one or two amongst so many that I didn't enjoy.

[Abbie Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5✨

Was really looking forward to this one and although there were some great reads, it felt like it was grasping at straws relating it to either the weird, drink - or both. Some of the stories were also quite difficult to enjoy and of course with collections of short stories people are going to enjoy different writing and stories but overall I felt like there could have been much stronger contenders.

[Rhys Bevan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I felt this book would be providing something a bit different than what I got but ultimately, I didn’t enjoy the majority of the stories. A couple of them provided a fantasy thrill and supernatural fear, but overall the drink did seem to have a rather side role to play in most stories. However there were a couple of upsides and in particular, the story of the grey-eyed woman was a particular favourite

[Kieran Gibbons · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the British library collections are nice and I did like this book and the stories within, it stands out from the collection. Most of the stories lack a supernatural element and are more about the fall of the Victorian gentleman from status due to alcohol. While gothic filled and an interesting read, it's not the first of the collection I would recommend

[Tamsin Pamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

the men in 'an engineers story' should have kissed each other rather than fighting over a woman who didn't care for either of them

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written stories overall with a loose connection via the presence of alcohol use. Strange but entertaining.