Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness

by Fritz Leiber

In Conjure Wife, Norman Saylor strains the limits of conjugal love when he learns that his own wife is a practicing sorceress, and in Our Lady of Darkness, horror writer Westen discovers dark forces in San Francisco. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Collections, Supernatural, Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction

347 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was one of the more interesting of the young writers who came into HP Lovecraft's orbit, and some of his best early short fiction is horror rather than sf or fantasy. He found his mature voice early in the first of the sword-and-sorcery adventures featuring the large sensitive barbarian Fafhrd and the small street-smart-ish Gray Mouser; he returned to this series at various points in his career, using it sometimes for farce and sometimes for gloomy mood pieces--The Swords of Lankhmar is perhaps the best single volume of their adventures. Leiber's science fiction includes the planet-smashing The Wanderer in which a large cast mostly survive flood, fire, and the sexual attentions of feline aliens, and the satirical A Spectre is Haunting Texas in which a gangling, exo-skeleton-clad actor from the Moon leads a revolution and finds his true love. Leiber's late short fiction, and the fine horror novel Our Lady of Darkness, combine autobiographical issues like his struggle with depression and alcoholism with meditations on the emotional content of the fantastic genres. Leiber's capacity for endless self-reinvention and productive self-examination kept him, until his death, one of the most modern of his sf generation.

Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I am glad I finally read this one. I've had it in my pile for a while, and in my classic horror/fantasy reading quest, Fritz Leiber definitely is a must read.

So, let's get down to business:

Review of Conjure Wife

I read this out of the Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness duology, but I wanted to jot down my thoughts separately for this one before I finish the volume.

I found the writing clever. I was transplanted into the cutthroat world of college politics. Who knew that the wives could be just as fierce as their faculty husbands? And that they would resort to sorcery and witchcraft to keep their husbands (and themselves by relation) in power? Things get pretty nasty!

I think that there is some very interesting commentary about male and female relationships here. That old Venus Versus Mars argument. I felt at first that Norman was a rampant sexist (in a way that is very common even today). He had a superior attitude towards his wife, while simultaneously being in awe of her at the same time. He seemed to view her as an alien creature, constantly analyzing the way her mind worked, as if it was so different from his. I liked how his feelings of mental superiority over her backfired when he realized that she was in fact the one who was right about what was really going on, and how he had to rely on her knowledge of the situation. I liked how things turned around and it was clear how much he did care for his wife. How he fought for her well-being, willingly putting aside his hard-headed scientific skeptical thought processes to save her.

I feel that there is a heavy tone of satire cleverly mixed in with well-executed psychological horror. Norman's internal dialogue engenders a tone that is analytical and observational (although he doesn't seem to be as observant as one would think for a sociologist), wry and sarcastic at other times and quite laden with a menace that sneaks up on the reader. At first, I found him to be a bit of a pompous twit. I admit I can't stand when men treat women like their brains and mental capacities are limited. But I couldn't stay angry at him. He learned the hard way not to underestimate women, particularly his own wife. I think in this, Leiber is making a point. For all the men did have a tendency to view their spouses through a skewed lens, not realizing just how much power the women truly had in their lives and over them. Leiber seems to throw sexist ideas out with a wink and a nod, as if he expects the readers to reject those thoughts, or perhaps to poke fun at those who believe what he's saying. My take, anyway.

I wonder what the reception was to this book in the 1940s. The ideas of male/female relations are probing and insightful in a way that seems a bit subversive. But what do I know? At any rate, I liked this story very much. It's beautifully subtle in the slow building of menace and fear, and the ideas about society seem to be relevant today in how men and women and spouses relate to and view each other. Also it speaks to the often venomous way that women can sometimes turn against each other, belying what some (including myself) naively believe about the sisterhood of women. On the horror level, the truly heinous and scary nature of witchcraft used as a tool for power and control is enough to send a shiver down my spine. It makes you wonder just how much witchcraft may be going on behind the scenes today.

Overall rating: 4.25/5.0 stars.

Review of Our Lady of Darkness

In this story, Leiber demonstrates an incredible knowledge base about dark and supernatural fiction, going back into the 19th and early 20th century. He writes this story in the style of Lovecraft, or should I say Machen, since he wrote The Great God Pan long before Lovecraft, in which the unknown menace is slowly being revealed to the protagonist. This is a knowledge too terrible to behold. Many have been damaged and have succumbed to it in the past.

I liked the nod and the reference to all those various works of literature, and the inclusion of real life people in the world of the arts and science in this story. That was very cleverly done. This does a lot to create and flesh out the fictional world. As with the other book in the duology of Dark Ladies, "Conjure Wife", Leiber does do a good job of building menace and the tension level, and with using that thematic question ‘Is it real or am I losing my mind?

This story has an air of decadence I didn’t care for. You can see changes in the times, with the shift in values that occurred past the mid-20th Century, both good and bad. For instance, there is an air of anything goes sexuality, the rejection of anything good and decent for the sake of nihilism or the love of chaos/anarchy, and the liberal use of drugs and alcohol. The author doesn’t quite condone this in the story, but he is not shy about showing some of these aspects. Some of it gave me a bad feeling, but then I have never been one for sexual violence, darkness or depravity, in real life, or in my fiction.

Overall, I can’t say I liked this book that much. There were some appealing components, such as the literary nods and the clear evidence of Leiber’s extensive knowledge of classic dark fiction and horror, as well having his bibliophilia show through in his characters. As a huge fan of MR James, it was great to see more than a couple of references to him. Similarly, fans of Lovecraft will appreciate the nods to his pivotal work in 20th Century horror and supernatural fiction. I guess my big issue was the fact that some concepts were just too out there for me (and their explanations somewhat tedious), the overall level of moral decadence (not a big draw for me), and the slow unfolding of the plot. Sure enough, the climax is a good payoff (really quite scary), but not enough to elevate this book to a higher level. Especially after how much I enjoyed its sister story, “Conjure Wife" out of Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness. It's never a good idea to compare things, but sometimes the comparison is obligatory and that one thing fails to live up to its companion in the end. Such was the case with "Our Lady of Darkness."

I would still consider this semi-required reading for the 19th-20th Century classic horror scholar or devotee. You might like it more than I did, and that would be an a good thing in the end if you find another book you love.

Overall rating: 2.5/5.0 stars.

Well, there you have it. My thoughts on this volume. Leiber is a good writer. He knows what he is doing and has a way with telling a scary story. I will be reading more of his books!

Although my rating for "Our Lady of Darkness" is low, I can't give this less than four stars overall, because it has an impact and seems very canonical in the development of supernatural fiction and horror from the 20th century overall. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it!

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully atmospheric and suggestive, these two novellas are among my favorite in a genre that is a peculiar blend of science fiction and horror. Leiber's ability to imply unsettling things makes both stories incredibly creepy. Of the two tales, I found Our Lady of Darkness to be the most sinister and effective. There's one passage concerning the 'scholar's mistress' in particular that was so nightmarish that it still bothers me to think about it. It wasn't disturbing in an overt monsters-under-the-bed or blood-and-gore way, but by creating something utterly fantastic that seemed almost palpably real.

If you're one of the people (like me) who still has trouble taking showers in motel rooms (you know... after having seen Psycho a few times over the years), then you'll understand why I don't like to fall asleep with books strewn around on the bed after you read Our Lady of Darkness.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Tor Double #36, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas. Unlike most of the volumes in the series, this one is not bound tête-bêche (back-to-back and inverted). There is only one cover. In this case, both are by the same author.

Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber (1943) ****
This was originally published in the April 1943 issue of Unknown Worlds. In 2019, it won a retro Hugo Award for best SF novel of 1943. A sociology professor at a small college finds that his wife has been practicing magic to advance his career. When he asks her to stop, his life goes downhill fast and he discovers that the other faculty wives are using the same powers against him. Some nice plot revelations and reversals near the end made this a very enjoyable read.

Our Lady of Darkness, by Fritz Leiber (1978) *
This novella was originally published in its own book, and it won 1978 World Fantasy Award in the novel category. This extended dark mood piece barely has a plot. It's further lengthened with a tiresome compilation of references to early 20th century horror writers and supernatural mystics, and esoteric San Francisco geography. How could this have won an award, except just to honor Leiber’s earlier works?

[Bbrown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Fritz Leiber double feature contains two of his short horror novels that showcase his development as an author. The first, Conjure Wife, was the first novel that Leiber ever got published, and it is a painfully amateurish work. The second, Our Lady of Darkness, was published more than thirty years later, and it is clearly a work by a far more sure-handed writer. Neither is great, but the latter book is a huge improvement. Individual reviews below.

Conjure Wife is the slightly longer of the two works, with a premise of “what if the wives of a bunch of liberal arts college professors (and in fact, all women) practiced witchcraft?” That's not really a spoiler, as (even ignoring the title) it's glaringly obvious from the start that main character Norman's wife Tansy has been performing real magic. Yet, despite this being so clear, Norman doesn't accept what's happening even when the evidence is irrefutable. "Oh, my wife just called down a lightning strike to destroy a stone dragon that was about to jump through the window and kill me, but gee, I just don't know if this witchcraft stuff is the real deal." This irrational doubt continues even in scenes where you can't waive it away by attributing it to unexplained supernatural interference. Norman's willful blindness and the way the narrative keeps piling on supernatural events while still maintaining the pretense of “maybe it's all a coincidence” is more than a little infuriating. Tansy at least is sympathetic, but perhaps only in contrast to her unsympathetic husband. Despite this being a horror story, it's not frightening in the slightest, largely because the narrative fails to make the trio of old housewives that serve as the antagonists the least bit intimidating.

Even if Leiber had fixed Conjure Wife’s unlikeable protagonist, narrative wheel spinning, and failure to inspire any fear, the book’s main premise would remain a problem. The concept of half the human population secretly doing magic might be workable in theory, but it would require a lot of thinking as to what that world would look like. Leiber doesn’t show that he’s put much thought into the ramifications of magic being real. The premise is also flawed because it is only its most effective to a limited audience, namely men and children. To that audience, the premise of “maybe all women can do magic and they’ve just been keeping it a secret” still demands a suspension of disbelief, but a substantially lesser degree than if you’re a woman reading a story that insists that you’re part of a secret club that you’ve never heard of before, with arcane knowledge that you don’t possess. Adding insult to injury, Leiber furthermore depicts a man mastering more magic in a week than women as a group has ever managed, both because men are more analytical and because women have never trusted each other enough to cooperate.

Conjure Wife was written for a male audience, but even as a member of that target audience I found it to be a “horror” work with pacing problems that wasn’t the least bit scary, and with a protagonist that was so frustratingly dumb that I wouldn’t have minded if he’d been hit by a bus. Even as far as pulp goes, this work is wanting. 2/5.

The superiority of Our Lady of Darkness as compared to Conjure Wife, at least when it comes to prose, is made clear in its very first chapter. It’s no Proust, but Leiber’s prose describing San Francisco throughout this work is leagues better than the generic liberal arts college descriptions of Conjure Wife. Additionally, the book has the distinct advantage of actually constructing a creepy scenario, what with the protagonist viewing the strange brown figure in the distance from his apartment window, and the circumstances under which he sees the figure again. I almost wish that the work had left the explanation of the figure a bit more nebulous, instead of including the exposition dump courtesy of Donaldus Byers, but even so Leiber is wise enough not to over-explain all the elements of this story. The story is highly dependent upon coincidences, but this is more or less justified so that it’s hard to hold it against the book too much.

Even though it’s a big step up, Our Lady of Darkness isn’t great by any means. A large reason for this is that its ending fails to be scary, trading in the understated tension of the earlier parts of the work for a big climax that I thought came out of left field. Additionally, I did not find any of the characters very interesting. They are a sight better than the characters in Conjure Wife, to be sure, but they are largely archetypes without any depth (even when a character is a “mysterious” archetype it’s still an archetype). The main character, a horror author protagonist named Franz that is a clear stand-in for Fritz Leiber himself, is an exception to the general rule of characters lacking depth, but that depth is told to the reader explicitly and it doesn’t make him actually interesting. A boring or archetype protagonist can work in a horror story, as it serves as a blank slate for the reader to project themselves onto, but in those scenarios the horror has to be effective throughout the work. In Our Lady of Darkness, where the horror fails at the end, you have to have at least one character that you care about to carry the tension through the conclusion, and there is no such character to be found.

Also, a pet peeve of mine: Franz, who constantly name-drops classic horror writers throughout the book, name-drops Fritz Leiber himself among them. No tooting your own horn, Leiber, even in a work of fiction.

Our Lady of Darkness was weird enough to be interesting, with a few effective parts, and those virtues put it well above Conjure Wife. Still, it has significant flaws, and I only give it a 3/5. Between the two that means I give this double feature a 2.5/5, rounding up because of the way it shows how much an author can improve over the course of a career.

[Steve Ellerhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Witches are like people. There are the sanctimonious, self-worshipping, self-deceiving ones, the ones who believe their ends justify any means” (131).

I picked up this two-in-one because the first novel it contains, Conjure Wife, just won the retroactive Hugo for the year 1943. I’d never read Fritz Leiber before so I was thankful the award put him on my radar. I like the whole wife-as-witch trope (I’ve had a lifelong crush on Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched) and the year—1943—made this jump out, because I’d not really read anything from the war years along these lines. Then I saw this volume had his later book Our Lady of Darkness in it and I’d just been reading a lot about the dark divine feminine, and somewhere I read that this one was influenced a lot by Jungian perspectives. So that was all more than enough to pique my curiosity and grab this omnibus.

I’ll start with Conjure Wife. This little novel really cracked me up from start to finish. It’s strange because it has that real pulpy feel to it but the writing is not at all lazy. Leiber’s voice is precise and he does not waste your time at all. I was reminded a bit of Ira Levin’s style—and this novel undoubtedly had to have influenced him. Another entertaining aspect is how the story follows around academics on a small college campus and the conflict is totally wrapped up in the politics of that environment. All of these professors and their wives are constantly stabbing each other in the back trying to attain higher positions in college administration, where they then complain about all the administrative work they have to do. It’s a very funny setup if you’ve ever been privy to any of that nonsense.

The other funny thing here is the notion that pretty much all women are witches and they hide this from men for a variety of reasons (from not being bothered with it to flying under the patriarchy’s radar). It’s a very funny spread of anxieties at play here and, beyond gender, Leiber does not shy away from dipping into issues of race and class. He portrays white people as both oblivious to magic conducted by people of color and pilfering their secrets. In some ways, his portrayal of the white academics who do this anticipates much later trends toward asking questions about privilege and equity. At one point Norman takes the piss out of the Greek system when a frat boy makes a snide comment about tribal peoples in Primitive Cultures class. One moment, when Norman goes over a spell recipe from his wife, really sticks out: “In general outline, it was similar to a hundred recipes for Negro tricken-bags he had seen or been told about. The phonograph needle, the knots, the one or two other items were obvious ‘white’ additions” (120). There’s so much to unpack just in those two sentences and I wish I was in a class with others reading this to talk about it. It stirs up so many questions about perception of the Other, about race relations in America, about whiteness—Leiber putting the word white in quotes, as if to undermine the very hint of the myth of white supremacy. It’s a fascinating little piece of literature from the WWII years…

Other interesting parts include a former student attempting to shoot Norman in his office. His reaction and the way he deals with it is utterly foreign to American thinking today. Basically he disarms the former student, locks the gun in his desk drawer, and calls his parents. The police aren’t involved. He’s then commended for his restraint in getting the student sent off to an asylum. You wouldn’t see that happen like that today. Another thing is that the conjure wife of the title, Tansy, was once Norman’s student. This practice of professors and former students marrying used to be a societal norm—Joseph Campbell married dancer Jean Erdman, who’d been his student at Sarah Lawrence, just for one example. It reminds me of the Ray Bradbury story, too, from 1951—titled “These Things Happen” (later changed to “A Story of Love”)—about a boy who falls in love with his teacher and later marries her. This is extremely controversial and exceedingly rare these days, of course, so it is interesting to see other attitudes at work. And yet, Norman and Tansy still felt they had to hide it before they were married; in a conversation they have reminiscing about it he says, “There would have been a magnificent scandal if [the night watchman]’d caught us” (98). So it shows us there was a collective problem with it at the time, too.

Moral of the story: If you’re going to get married, find yourself a lady like Tansy, because she’s a witch who will have your back no matter what and help you deal with witches actively trying to ruin your life. Also, just let her do her thing, because interfering or telling her to stop will just lead to you ruining your own life. I expected more fear of women and the feminine in this little book—but was pleased to find a lot of humor and quite a bit of respect for women instead. I’m so glad the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1943 went to it.

I give it 4 stars.

Switching gears now to Our Lady of Darkness, I was rather more excited to read it than the first book because I’ve been reading a lot about the dark divine feminine of late and it seemed a natural fit. Some reviewers I’d seen mentioned Leiber’s interest in Jungian psychology as an influence in writing it. He also wrote it following the death of his wife and a period of alcoholism, making it a work of healing – an act that I admire. So with all of that in mind, I started reading and found it taking me a lot longer to read than the first book.

As it goes, I am not so enthralled with this story as much as I’d thought I would be. The characters are alright – kind of reminding me of my time living in an apartment building in downtown Portland and how the tenants were friends – but they are also a touch flat. You’ve got the widower protagonist who’s slept with the woman twenty years younger than him two floors down and they’re all chummy and whatever. Middle-aged male fantasies of casual relationships on display here. It makes cartographic use of San Francisco, too, which is cool, but if you have only visited the city and don’t have a good grounding in where everything is located, it quickly starts to read like printed-out Google Maps directions. Published in the late ’70s, this would be a really fun read for anyone living there then or now, because surely things have changed a bit.

I was most eager for the dark stuff, the occult weirdness, the powerful women and whatnot. But it is more a story of a guy trying to sleuth out the purpose of a weird book on megapolisomancy (big city magic, maaaaaan) and a curse attached to it. Leiber gives us a love song to San Francisco authors of old – real ones like Jack London and Ambrose Bierce and Dashiell Hammett – where they are briefly described as having partaken in weird spells cast by this wacko sorcerer. That’s kind of cool but does get a bit fanboyish. Intertextuality is so hard to balance as far as that goes, ya know?

So yeah, I really wanted to like this one – love it even – but it wasn’t my cuppa tea, luv. I’m glad it’s out there doing its thing. I just would’ve preferred more dark lady energy in it. That and I figured out the twist right away. Ah well, it did have my favorite quote out of both novels:

“I think all modern cities, especially the crass, newly built, highly industrial ones, should have ghosts. They are a civilizing influence” (272).

I give it 2 stars.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up at a library with the intent to read more genre classics. As such it was very good and surprisingly not all that dated, particularly the first story, which was the oldest one. I very much enjoyed Leiber's writing style, his attention to detail and the premises, particularly the second one. It was a bit long winded at times or suprisingly and somewhat oddly whimsical, if that's the right word, at others, the effervescent quality of old movies or sitcoms. Not a particularly quick read, but quite an enjoyable one and a good introduction the the author. Recommended.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Leiber and I enjoyed both novels immensely. Conjure Wife has the better conceit and explores it satisfyingly. Our Lady of Darkness was more enthralling, with characters and a mystery I was sad to leave. Leiber's best trick is leaving me wanting more, which is a good one. As a literary nerd, OLOD was more fun because it has that historical literary mystery type story that I just really enjoy. Not a whole lot of books do this, but when it happens it is so my jam. Conjure Wife is a novel I admire so much more, but it was slower going, though the pay off is well worth all the time and effort invested. In the end I think that Conjure Wife has more to say about personal catastrophe and the ways we cope and how we try to take control of the uncontrollable. It also says a lot about heteronormative marriage in the early part of the 20th century, in terms of communication, trust, and belief (shared or otherwise). Unlike a lot of authors contemporary to Leiber, he shows true consideration of his female characters. They are fleshed out and integral to the stories he's telling. True, neither passes the Bechdel Test (which is atrocious for novel length stories), but I appreciated the recognition women received as characters of equal worth and importance to the male hero(es). I'm looking forward to reading more by Leiber in the future.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fritz Leiber, I can't wait to read your other works. I have no doubt that your Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books are going to be stupendous. However, I do hope your endings don't suck so much as these two novellas.

At times, it was difficult for me to get through Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness. Leiber's protagonists are far too inactive for me to really jive with. I suppose that's what you get with investigative fiction. I also disliked many of the startling elements within Leiber's prose. There were a number of times during Our Lady of Darkness, for example, where I questioned the author's decision to include drugs and perversion, especially the unnerving hints of sexual desire towards children. If I am to believe Franz Westen is a fictional stand-in of the actual Fritz Leiber, then I am both revolted and intrigued by his decision to open his soul so intensely to his readers.

While I question the moral grounding of the author, Leiber does receive excellent marks for fascinating stories. The premises of both novellas are quite simple, but the way in which Leiber weaves suspense and mystery makes his plots wholly believable; I know that I will refrain from leaving books on my bed any time soon.

Between the two novellas, I would note that Our Lady of Darkness is much better written than the two, with plenty of nods to other authors -- like Clark Ashton Smith, Jack London, and H.P. Lovecraft -- that reconnected me with pulp-y works I have delighted in over the years. It is a macabe-lover's tribute, relatively solid, and paranoid-complex, if you're into the biographical history of horror authors.

However, even though I would argue that Our Lady is much better written, ultimately, I enjoyed Conjure Wife more, especially in terms of story-telling and horror-building. While, again, I am displeased with the ending, I felt more connected with the struggles of the protagonists in this novel. It was also more gruesome (animated cat-crushing gargoyles, anyone?) and extremely cheeky (Leiber gives himself so many pats on the back in his writing that it's hilarious).

Overall, despite the shortcomings, I was pleased with this double-feature. Definitely a double that I would recommend to anyone interested in science-fiction and horror.

[Benjamin]

A while ago I picked this up on the strength of Leiber's name and the one short story I've ever read of his ("Ill-Met in Lankhmar" being a surprisingly moving sword-and-sorcery story).* The two short novels here are billed on the back cover as urban fantasy, which is to say, they're about what happens when fantasy elements break through into our world (so, Gaiman urban fantasy, not Mieville urban fantasy). In the first, an academic wife uses witchcraft to help her anthropologist husband, while in the second, a widowed writer discovers a Lovecraftian horror at his doorstep. The first is a fun ride -- you can tell because they filmed it three times; the second is more interesting because it seems like a meditation on story-telling itself (that is, most of the book is in the vein of investigative horror, where not much gets done, but a lot gets said -- the whole book is full of people talking about what other people said). The second is also more devastating because of how nakedly autobiographical it is, what with Franz Weston dealing with the death of his wife with a three-year alcoholic funk, just as Fritz did.

* Oops, forgot "Alice and the Allergy" (eh), "A Bad Day for Sales" (worth reading), "Catch that Zeppelin!" (better), and "Coming Attraction" (best).

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This time out I actually just re-read Our Lady of Darkness, but both it and Conjure Wife are great novels, and I've rarely bought a book I was happier with than this particular double feature.

Our Lady of Darkness is just simply an amazing novel, an amazing piece of atmosphere and suggestion, and one of my favorite books ever. I re-read it this time because I just recently watched Suspiria, and the connection between the two (by way of Thomas de Quincey's Suspiria de Profundis) got me interested. Next up I'm going to try to read the de Quincey, and I'm thinking of tackling John Langan's House of Windows again, because of its connection to Our Lady of Darkness. We'll see.

[Emily Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only just discovered Leiber as a writer, so I'm randomly picking books of his to read. I really enjoyed Our Lady of Darkness more than Conjure Wife. The best thing about it was finding the seeds of the Harry Potter story in it: Leiber creates the idea of "paramentals" (spirits which come out of a living being and are similar to animals) and also uses as an evil antagonist a "noseless one" (can't get more Voldemort than that!). The ending was a letdown but the journey there was fantastic!! Another link to things I love is the use of the nursery rhyme Tuffy was a Welshman. In the Rifftrax for one of the Harry Potter movies, Bill Corbett chants this, which is also a theme in Our Lady of Darkness. It may be a coincidence or maybe the rifftrax guys love Franz Leiber who knows?

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fritz Leiber's writing style is spell-binding. I enjoyed the two novellas, but I liked Conjure Wife the best. Both are spooky, haunting tales with rich textures and likable, intriguing characters. You will be on the edge of your seat with suspense. Conjure Wife especially had me biting my nails and fretting for days! Our Lady of Darkness was a little more convoluted than it needed to be, I thought. I think it was a little cluttered, but still the climactic end was quite chilling.

[Scott Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some 'weird' fiction from Fritz Leiber...pretty creepy.

[RunningRed NightBringer]

Conjure Wife is rather interesting story. Written in the 1940s it's about a young sociology professor who finds out his wife has been dabbling in magick. Not casting fireballs or pentagrams, but small charms and talismans, for luck and success. Norman is a modern man of Science and poo-poohs such things. Norman convinces (well, strong-arms) his wife into destroying these silly tokens of superstition. And....his life turns to shit. Every bit of bad luck and coincidence comes his way.
Turns out the other professors' wives also make charms and talismans and he left himself and his wife super defenseless.
Leiber writes the story so it's never definitive whether the events of the story are due to "magick" or due to coincidence and the magick is all in their heads. It's possible to read the story either way.
I originally came to the story from having seen the movie adaptation with Richard Benjamin and Terri Garr but feel the book is superior because of the ambiguity.

Our Lady of Darkness not so much. Written in the 70s about a writer in San Francisco who thinks he sees weird stuff out his window. The story is supposed to be a love letter to the old Lovecraftian tales, with references to actual authors and stuff, but the story bored the shit out of me. Too longwinded with the main character endlessly musing on shit but nothing actually happening. It's like getting stuck on a road trip with someone who rambles on about nothing but keeps name dropping other people.
Supposedly this story won awards. I don't see it. I love the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series so I know Leiber was capable of better.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leiber coined the phrase "sword and sorcery" to refer to a certain kind of fantasy fiction. He also authored the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser S&S adventure series. In these two short novels, Leiber moves into the realm of horror. In Conjure Wife, a sociologist discovers that his wife has been using witchcraft to protect him against the viciousness of faculty politics. Though the story is set in the 1930s, faculty politics haven't gotten any less vicious. There are echoes here of Rosemary's Baby, Stepford Wives, and the 1988 movie D.O.A., starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. Our Lady of Darkness features a writer of weird and horror literature chased by the ghosts of San Francisco past. One wonders if there isn't a certain amount of autobiography in the story.

[Erik Wyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it hard to overlook some serious faults in Leiber's prose. The dialogue is unbelievable, full of expository dumps, with many of the characters appearing to function merely as authorial mouthpieces and wish fulfillment. Still, despite some obvious flaws in craft, Leiber has a compelling idea of a story, and it is in the rare moments where he dives headlong into this core that the work sings. If only he had let the story breathe more, and taken time to let the atmosphere of dread and unknown sink into the reader.

[Justin Rettke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, dark, tense, and compelling. These stories are not action-packed, but they are boiling with tension. Tone and intonation are essential to the power of both books. I highly recommend both Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness to anyone who enjoys dark, tense stories involving the supernatural and/or the occult. If you enjoy H.P. Lovecraft, you must read Leiber.

[Nick Chianese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both stories start with such incredible promise--only to devolve into repetitive, convoluted, annoying nonsense.

If you want Lovecraftian horror of the urban, modern, and still terrifying variety, T.E.D. Klein is still the only man for the job. (Seriously, I've written this on several reviews--someone needs to put his anthology "Dark Gods" back into print).

[Mercie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to rate this since it’s two novellas in one novel, but both were still good. I did prefer the first story “The Conjure Wife” for the more straightforward story and the plot that ran seamlessly through. “Our Lady of Darkness” was also good, but the story meandered more and seemed of have more unnecessary parts. The ending seemed a bit ex machina.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conjure Wife only gets a 2.5 for its more dated qualities. Our Lady of Darkness is excellent though, 5/5.

[Francine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It kept me interested. I read and finished it a long time ago, probably 2 years ago.

[Ray Savarda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like Our Lady of Darkness somewhat more than Conjure Wife.
It is very well written, even if the storyline wasn't all that attractive to me as more of a hard Sci-Fi fan.
But worth the read.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both novels in Dark Ladies depend upon a psychological uneasiness rather than gore, and while there are moments that startle and shock, they inspire anticipation and suspense more than nausea or disgusted intrigue. (Just my type of horror.) The philosophical underpinnings remain fascinating long after the stories are over, and while the two novels are independent from one other, if they're read as though they exist in the same world, the ideas behind each blend and deepen in some really interesting ways. I especially love how Fritz Leiber plays with the purpose and roles of men and women in supernatural situations.

[Electric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read "our lady of darkness" because I really liked Leibers short story "Smoke Ghost" in the "Weird" collection. It was an interesting read, especially if you are into the whole pantheon of weird authors at the turn of the 20th century in the US (Lovecraft, Ashton Smith etc...) I guess it was pretty radical for the times, looking for horror in an urban setting. Moody, at times a little slow but full of ideas that connected really well with me. I liked the conclusion of the story a lot but overall it felt a little dated when compared to the people that have been influenced by this stuff.

[Jonathan Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Specter is Haunting a Writer in San Francisco. A writer notices strange things when he sees a brown cloak walking through a park from a far. The answers are found the history of the city around him and the geometric patterns of the buildings as well. Its sort of an expanded version of M.R. James "Whistle and I'll Come to You.". Good reading. Recommended for those who love stories of local color like "Who shot who at the bar in 1902." kind of stuff.

[Steven Cady]

Conjure Wife of 1944 is well written with a dramatic climax, conjuring if you will, the conflicts among university professors. Our Lady of Darkness of 1977 seems reflects Leiber's life at the time and is somewhat similar to Tales of the City but with a supernatural element that seems more strained than in the other novel collected here.

[Aneel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horror story written in a slow-building style, full of the protagonist's unfocused dread. Reminiscent of Lovecraft, structurally. Quite a bit of the plot revolves around San Francisco geography, and some of the climactic scenes take place just up the hill from my apartment.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror and fantasy mix. This is the precursor of the tv sitcom "Bewitched" and a lot of ideals of the modern witch. Author wrote Our Lady of Darkness while re-covering from alcoholism and grieving a lost relationship. Kind of Lovecraft-esque.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lieber brings supernatural to suburban life. Man finds his wife is witch, trying to stem curse by another suburban witch. Ghost manifests as city smoke, encapsulating city fear and anger. Lieber, instrumental, in bringing horror to contemporary settings.

[Brett]

Fantasy