Best Tales of Terror

by Edmund Crispin (Editor)

Nice Copy - Signed By James E. Gunn On His Story. British First Edition, First Printing. Book Is In Very Good Plus Condition. Boards Are Clean, Not Bumped. Fore Edges Have A Small Amount Of Reading Wear. Interior Is Clean And Legible. Not Remaindered. Dust Jacket Is In Very Good Plus Condition. Very Mild Wear Along The Edges. Not Price Clipped. Dust Jacket Is Covered By Mylar Wrapper. Thanks And Enjoy.

Genres: Short Stories

255 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1962

About the author

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of (Robert) Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978). His first crime novel and musical composition were both accepted for publication while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford. After a brief spell of teaching, he became a full-time writer and composer (particularly of film music. He wrote the music for six of the Carry On films. But he was also well known for his concert and church music). He also edited science fiction anthologies, and became a regular crime fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times. His friends included Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Agatha Christie.

He had always been a heavy drinker and, unfortunately, there was a long gap in his writing during a time when he was suffering from alcohol problems. Otherwise he enjoyed a quiet life (enlivened by music, reading, church-going and bridge) in Totnes, a quiet corner of Devon, where he resisted all attempts to develop or exploit the district, visiting London as little as possible. He moved to a new house he had built at Week, a hamlet near Dartington, in 1964, then, late in life, married his secretary Ann in 1976, just two years before he died from alcohol related problems. His music was composed using his real name, Bruce Montgomery.

source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/philipg/...

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s probably a mug’s game trying to trace where story ideas come from but I might make three suggestions here.

1. The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs from 1902 is a great horror story in which – maybe – a family member comes back from the dead. The Emissary, included in this collection, is a story by Ray Bradbury from 1947 in which a beloved PET comes back from the dead. Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary came out in 1983 and includes pets AND human family members coming back from the dead.

2. In this oddball collection (published 1962) we find The Man who Liked Dickens by none other than Evelyn Waugh of Brideshead Revisited fame. It’s a great creepy story about (spoilers) a white guy called Mr Henty who gets lost in the Amazon rain forest and is rescued by another white guy named Mr McMasters who’s been living in a village with a local tribe for years. Mr Henty is very ill with fever and the kindly Mr McMasters nurses him back to health. When he’s all better he wants to repay Mr McMasters in some way – guy saved his life. Oh there is one thing you can do, says Mr M, you can read to me from y complete collection of Dickens. I love me some Dickens and sadly I myself cannot read. And there are no other white people living near this village. None at all. So Mr Henty begins to read (Bleak House!), and every day he is making strong hints that now he’s better he should be getting back to civilization, people will be looking for him. Of course, as he hasn’t a clue where he actually is, he’s completely at Mr McMasters’ mercy. But Mr McMasters keeps making feeble excuses. We can’t leave now, it’s the rainy season. I can’t leave now, one of my wives is having a baby. That kind of thing. Mr Henty is beginning to think he is a prisoner. By now he had got through Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby and Dombey and Son…that’s a lot of daily reading. Comes a point where Mr McMasters drags Mr Henty to a village celebration for the birth of his 18th son, and Mr Henty is constrained to participate in the drinking of a certain local brew which has the effect of conking him out. The story ends:

”I say, I’ve never slept so long.”
“Not since you were a baby. Do you know how long? Two days.”
“Nonsense. I can’t have.”
“Yes indeed. It is a long time. It is a pity because you missed our guests.”
“Guests?”
“Why yes. I have been quite gay while you were asleep. Three men from outside. Englishmen. It is a pity you missed them. A pity for them, too, as they particularly wished to see you. But what could I do? You were so sound asleep. They had come all the way to find you, so – I thought you would not mind if I gave them a little souvenir, your watch. They wanted something to take home to your wife who is offering a great reward for news of you. They were very pleased with it. And they took some photos of the little cross I put up to commemorate your coming.”


And he blandly suggests that later Mr Henty might start Little Dorritt which is one of Mr McMasters’ favourites. “There are passages in that book which I can never hear without the temptation to weep.”

This all struck me as very reminiscent of another Stephen king book (I only saw the movie) – Misery. In which an author, not a reader, is kept prisoner and forced to write, not read. In each case the guy is rescued and cared for by the person who then, subtly, and later not so subtly, becomes his jailor. I’m not accusing Stephen king of ripping off these two stories, but it’s a curious coincidence.

3. The Mine by L T C Rolt. This obscure story could be the germ which was expanded into the great recent horror movie The Descent. Whaddya mean you never saw The Descent?! Stop what you’re doing and see it now!



"Yes of course I'll come on a potholing holiday with you - it sounds delightful!"

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Crispin’s mystery fiction and figured he’d have a good eye for quality stories. I’d only heard of or read about half of these tales and/or authors. I like Aickman, Hartley, and Rolt, and their stories are great, and probably their most well-known. Dahl and Bradbury are always enjoyable. I never liked Waugh’s Dickens story for whatever reason—it tries my nerves. Of those I didn’t know, some hit and some missed. Ballard’s Manhole 69 and Gunn’s The Misogynist we’re both good reads, but John Collier’s Bird of Prey is exquisite and is the kind of short story that reminds you why you love short stories. It’s a gem and I actually went out and bought a huge volume collecting fifty of his stories.

Nothing here terrifies in any sense of the word, unfortunately, but it’s a good package if you like short weird fiction.