The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories

by Robert Aickman, Philip Challinor (Introduction)

An omnibus collection featuring some of the finest works of a master of weird fiction

One of the preeminent writers of weird fiction, Robert Aickman is celebrated for his unsettling and often ambiguous "strange stories," but he once wrote that “those, if any, who wish to know more about me, should plunge beneath the frivolous surface of The Late Breakfasters,” his only novel, originally published in 1964.

In The Late Breakfasters, young Griselda de Reptonville is invited by Mrs. Hatch to a house party at her country estate, Beams (which, incidentally, is haunted). There, amidst an array of eccentric characters and bizarre happenings, she will meet the love of her life, Louise. But when their short-lived relationship is cruelly cut short, Griselda must embark on a quest to recapture the happiness she has lost.

Never before published in the United States and long unobtainable, Aickman's odd and whimsical novel is joined in this omnibus volume by six of his finest weird tales (three of them making their first-ever American appearance): “My Poor Friend”, “The Visiting Star”, “Larger Than Oneself”, “A Roman Question”, “Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale”, and “Rosamund's Bower”, as well as a new introduction by Philip Challinor.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Weird Fiction, Audiobook, Collections

512 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2016

About the author

Author of: close to 50 "strange stories" in the weird-tale and ghost-story traditions, two novels (The Late Breakfasters and The Model), two volumes of memoir (The Attempted Rescue and The River Runs Uphill), and two books on the canals of England (Know Your Waterways and The Story of Our Inland Waterways).

Co-founder and longtime president of the Inland Waterways Association, an organization that in the middle of the 20th century restored a great part of England's deteriorating system of canals, now a major draw for recreation nationally and for tourism internationally.

Grandson of author Richard Marsh.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

It pains me to say it, but I did not like this book. At all.

I knew going in that it might not work for me. I've read one of Aickman's collections so far, and many of the stories left me unsatisfied. But, it was just one collection; maybe I read it wrong? It happens. But after listening to this wonderfully narrated story, I think it will be a long time before I attempt to read the other Aickman collection that I own.

The man writes beautifully, there's no doubt about it. He is also capable of sly social commentary and has a keen eye for the reasons behind certain behaviors; I appreciate that. But, and forgive me for asking, where is the damn story? This seemed more like a rambling tale about repressed sexual feelings, that sometimes features a nice enough lady named Grizelda. There are a few, I stress FEW, weird moments...and that's about it.

The narration here is fantastic and to be honest, if it weren't for Matt Godfrey's soothing voice, I would have ditched this book without finishing. It seems like with such promise in the voices, the story just HAD to get better, or at least show up. But sadly, it never did.

As I mentioned, the prose itself was excellent as was the narration, hence my 3 star rating. If I were rating on narration and quality of prose ONLY, it would be 5 stars. But for me, there has to be a story, and here I could not find one. This is obviously how I and I alone feel about The Late Breakfasters. Your mileage may vary.

*I received this audiobook free from the narrator in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, I realize that I'm going to be in the minority opinion on this one.

Let me start by saying that Valancourt produces beautiful texts, and this is no exception. If I had to pick a single publisher to read for the rest of my life, it would absolutely be Valancourt.

Having said that...this was just not my cup of tea. It's a bit like...

Have you ever read Machen? Machen is one of my favorites. So imagine that you're reading Machen, and you read The Great God Pan, and it's fantastic. And then you read The White People, and it's great but you kind of wonder what just happened. And then you get to A Fragment of Life.

(For those of you who don't read Machen, A Fragment of Life is his attempt to write in a modernistic style. It has elements of creepy but is largely dull. It is included in many, many anthologies. It is not one of his more enjoyable pieces.)

Now imagine that, in the Machen collection you are reading, every novella or story you read is A Fragment of Life. Congratulations--you have just read The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Tales.

First of all, there isn't much that is truly "strange" about most of these stories. The underlying theme to each story seems to be, "People are quirky. Wouldn't it be weird to hang out with them?" Sadly, for the most part, the answer is, "Not particularly."

Each of the stories can be summed up as follows:

The Late Breakfasters - a woman hangs out with a bunch of weird people, then gets married.

My Poor Friend - a guy hangs out with a bunch of weird government employees.

The Visiting Star - a guy hangs out with a bunch of weird people, one of whom is an actress.

Larger than Oneself - a woman hangs out with a bunch of weird religious people.

The Roman Question - a married couple hangs out with a bunch of weird people, and there is a seance (this story was actually pretty great).

Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale - a guy hangs out with some weird people, and gets a haircut (this story was actually FREAKING AWESOME).

Rosamund's Bower - a guy hangs out with a weird peacock.

So not a great deal of thematic variety here. It's all well-written, and I'm looking forward to reading more Aickman....but I'm really, really hoping that, at some point, he learned how to write a different plot.

As I said, I'm sure others will disagree. Please talk to me! Tell me why you liked this collection. I would love to hear alternate views.

[Latasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

* I received this audiobook in exchange for a honest review.*

I did not finish this book. I'm sorry but I tried. The narrator is excellent. I probably would've gave up sooner if he wasn't so lovely. I gave this book about 4 hrs but the story has not aged well at all. It's just a bunch of nonsense. They mention the house is haunted and they may get to that eventually but I couldn't suffer til then. I know there's humor everywhere but I must be a robot, it wasn't funny. The quality of the recording is great and no problems there but the story ...!

[Nick Spacek · Rating 2 out of 5]

two weeks with this book, and I could never quite make it more than 20 pages at a stretch. while a clever take on the comedy of manners genre, it was too precise a reproduction. this left the novel rather too clever to be enjoyable, though the occasional bon mot did raise a good titter.

[Elle]

Kind of uneven although there are plenty of good stories here. The novel/novella had a lot of promise in places but the ending was a disaster and the use of the n-word was inexcusable. Also a few of the stories were really antisemitic in places which, also inexcusable. Anyway I read this because I wanted to read Aickman's available collections but I wouldn't recommend it; the other collections out there are much better

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the 6 strange stories and not the novel THE LATE BREAKFASTERS, which I'll come back and get to later.

From "My Poor Friend":

"Samuel Butler suggests that one of the defects of the theory of hell is that, if left there for eternity, the damned would get used to the torments" (281).

[Briar Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short stories, as all the Aickman short stories I've read so far, are fascinating, unsettling, erotic, disorienting, and unique. My favorites were "A Roman Question", "The Visiting Star", and "Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale". Of these, I'd say "The Visiting Star" is the tightest, most accessible, and closest to what readers tend to expect from a weird tale or supernatural horror fiction; "Mark Ingestre..." is the most repulsive and disturbing; "A Roman Question" is the most "typically Aickman".

The novel, THE LATE BREAKFASTERS, is a little weaker. It moves from one episode to another at an erratic pace, with shifts in tone and genre that sometimes worked for me and sometimes didn't, and its greater length gives Aickman more space in which to air his conservative, reactionary social and political views. (That said: considering said views, he's empathetic and pretty convincing in his depiction of homosexuality and bisexuality here!) While Aickman's work generally doesn't offer much in the way of conclusive explanations or answers, THE LATE BREAKFASTERS is probably the first thing I've read of his where that tendency frustrated me. I don't mind, for example, not knowing what happened to Louise, but *some* hint as to the reason behind her disappearance would've been appreciated. Then again, I'm more than willing to chalk that up to a failure on my part as a reader; possibly I missed something, or I was simply cranky and suffering from a kind of Aickman fatigue by the end of the novel.

On the plus side, THE LATE BREAKFASTERS' length also gives Aickman more opportunity than usual to develop his protagonist as a character, and more opportunity to engage in purely comedic scenes (I especially liked the dog funeral towards the beginning).

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Hickman is supposedly the Grand Master of weird fiction, but I don't see it, not from this collection anyway. They are odd stories but nothing actually happens in them. They are more like snapshots of strange scenes, or like old Viewmaster reels of someplace you never really ever thought about visiting, with crazy old people in the background, 3D, but slightly blurry.

[Andrew Kozma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, as always. And it is a pleasure to see what Aickman does with a novella, how his characters expand and how the strangenesses inherent in his world unfurl.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not think I have ever read anything of Aikman's that did not enchant me and that often disturbed me. This book was no exception. The stories were for the most part familiar to me. My favorite one was "Larger than Oneself" which is something of a mystical vision of another realm that is neither a heaven nor a hell but suggests bits of both and about the very ordinary but odd people who brush up against it. Each of the stories is typically ambiguous and elusive but only typical for Aickman: many have tried to mimic what his idiosyncratic fiction accomplished but none could possibly succeed because his writing style appears to be directly emergent from his characteristic and unique unconscious. Most of his stories do not lend themselves to explanation or understanding, any more than dreams do. They suggest and allude rather than relate a coherence of narrative that would be appreciated by collective apprehension. There are some stories that appear entirely different upon rereading after many years, almost different stories. Reading his books is a bit like looking into a personal dream journal and Aickman is unapologetic in his refusal to make such material accessible to a more rational "waking" consciousness. The title story is his only novel published during his life. There are bits of weirdness scattered throughout but it is not so much of a "supernatural" story as most of his others, at least until the very end. The ending does make it a rather bent fairy tale after the odd but mainly ordinary narrative presented up until then. It does not chill as so many of his other writings do but leaves one with a poignant irresolution. Patient Griselda never experiences the fulfillment of what she has longed for throughout the novel, but something stranger and very lovely takes its place. Even this apotheosis, it is suggested, cannot last, yet there is also a hint that it is somehow eternal. A marvelous story and as long as the reader can let go of the demand for a coherent narrative where there are understandable occurrences in explainable sequences, then he or she may be enchanted. Aickman is not for everyone but for those who can engage him, he is a perennial delight, even if a dark one.

[Ctgt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankly, this was an odd collection.

The title story is Aickman's only novel and it is really nothing like the type of stories for which he is known. The novel reminded me of a Jane Austen type of story with some odd and eccentric characters. Griselda de Reptonville discovers her first love while spending time at Beams house. We follow Griselda as she tries to deal with the consequences of her love of Leander and the subsequent upheaval this incident causes. A poignant story of lost love.

The second half of the book has six short stories that are more of what you would come to expect from Aickman, nuanced, subtle and disquieting. A Roman Question and Rosamund's Bower were my favorite.

A rather strange combination in this collection but still enjoyable.

7/10

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This honestly started as a slow-going book. Once I got in the rhythm of Robert Aickman’s writing, I was able to pick up the pace.

The main story, “The Late Breakfasters” is a feature-length novel that was, despite the book title, not at all strange. It was a type of mystery/romance that involved the sorrow of being a lesbian during the early 1900s as well as the negligible mention of a ghost (assumedly the ‘strange’ part). It seemed to be more a slice of life that followed the main character, Griselda, on her adventure to a mansion where she met the woman of her dreams briefly (Louise), and then in the haste of an angry hostess sending her away (without Louise’s contact information) for her sapphic transgressions, she goes about her life with a side-job of searching for this woman she fell in love with.

Some of the writing I enjoyed in this story was quite bleak, but worth mentioning in its ability to hit hard. For example, this exchange between Louise and Griselda:

“Yes. She lived in the house, but she was happiest in the Temple. She was seldom happy, poor Stephanie.”

“Like you, poor Louise.”

“Like us, poor Griselda.”

Another part that struck me was when Griselda expresses her discontent with life in such simple and painful terms:

“Griselda could not possibly go as far as that; but, after her recent loneliness and unhappiness, she admitted, though only to herself, that worse things might easily befall her. Kynaston was not very much of a man, but life, she felt, was not very much of a life.”

Despite the strong writing of Aickman, I felt deceived by this story that led me to believe something creepy was around each corner; some supernatural explanation for the missing lover maybe, but it never really came. I found myself getting into the story by the end, but it was still not my favourite.

Once this feature story was done, I much enjoyed the second section of the book where Aickman’s *actually* strange stories began. Each story was rich and read like a less-cosmic Lovecraftian tale. I was disturbed by “My Poor Friend” and the otherworldly implications that were ensconced in a story pertaining to life working in Parliament. I was enthralled by “A Roman Question” and found myself reading Plutarch afterwards like homework to better revel in the disturbance presented by Aickman. The same can be said of “Rosamund’s Bower” – a tale based off of a legendary maze that was said to have been built to hide Rosamund Clifford, King Henry II’s mistress, from his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. I find it really neat that Aickman used his extensive historical knowledge to draw inspiration and create these strange tales. It just makes the whole thing way more fun.

Conclusively, I can wholeheartedly recommend Robert Aickman’s strange stories with gusto. As for his lesser-known “The Late Breakfasters” section, I might take a pass on it knowing what I know now, and since this story was the bulk of this book, I must give it a rating of 3/5.

[Avid Cobwebber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go ahead and ignore others, in this case--the title story is an impressive work!
If you have started on Aickman's shorter tales, perhaps like myself you started dreaming of one that wouldn't end so soon. And here it is--250 pages of it!
I respect Aickman for inserting certain challenges which others might describe as shortcomings of the book. Without going into it, I will say I don't think so: When I reflect on the meaning of weird episodes, so diverse and uncanny, the reader feels the author's love for his main character Griselda as the novel plays out.
There are many distinct characters, a few unforgettable ones (I wish had gotten their own spinoff novel!), and the kind of low-stakes bizarreness that Aickman upholds in the basic laws of his universe.
With a creativity as attuned as Aickman's, it is reasonable that people raise their expectations, wanting their fifth book to be as thrilling as the first... but cleanse your mind of expectations. If the book had some unknown name of a person who only ever wrote this set, people would say "what an obscure gem!"
The other stories are worthy of unbiased considerations. Again, full of Aickman's seamless translation of dream logic into reality.

[Ross McClintock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novella and short story collection was a frustrating read. Frustrating because Aickman has great talent, and some amazing way with words, yet he is so determined to be whimsical above all else. And whimsical is the best way to describe these tales. Strange as well, hence the title. In the novella sometimes there is a passage of strange delights, yet increasingly book-ended by passages that read like a treatise on social mores of England. The short stories were a little more focused, due to the nature of being short stories, and they left the most positive impressions with me, but unfortunately none really stood out as exceptional

This was worth it in the end to read, for all the wonderful descriptions and trips to the surreal that happened- but otherwise I would not recommend it to most readers.

[Brent Legault · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel is quiet masterpiece of 20th century literature. The stories are typical of Aickman's genius for that sort of thing, though you can probably ignore the last two. But the novel, sheesh, the novel is a flat-out brilliant example of its kind (perhaps uniquely so - a literary novel that includes a ghost but is not a ghost story and is mysterious without being a mystery) and deserves more fame and respect than it has thus far received.

[Halli Villegas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Shades of Angela Carter. His short fiction is amazing. The kind of no clear ending or meanings that keep you thinking and are truly scary, but his only novella The Late Breakfasters is surreal and somehow uplifting. This collection gives you a taste of both. I am now going to buy as much of his stuff as I can. On my permanent reread shelf.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, really. Meh.

[William Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old rich people have odd habits. That’s it. That’s the book.

[Rachel A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boring but in a cozy 19th century realism way.

[Luca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shirley Jackson ma con il pipo.

[Ryan Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, The Late Breakfasters stands as one of Aickman's finest works. As always, Valancourt has done a marvelous job in making this text easily available again, and their copy is beautifully done. The novel itself is a wonderful riff on the 'country house' and 'haunted house' tropes, peopled with Aickman's particular brand of characters who show their oddities in the most delightfully unexpected ways. What I love most about Aickman's writing is that his stories are left tantalizingly ambiguous and open-ended. We catch a glimpse of this almost parallel world that is made all the more uncanny by the banality of its creepy strangeness, and just as suddenly we leave it. Griselda de Reptonville is fascinatingly idiosyncratic, especially for a heroine written by a man, and Aickman is to be admired for his ability to balance a certain amount of identification with Griselda while still maintaining the strangeness of her character within an already strange world. I also want to highly recommend one of the additional stories printed in this book, "Larger than Oneself." In my opinion, it's one of Aickman's finest, and delicately mixes existential/religious longing with his characteristic reserved wit and mundane downplaying of extraordinary events. For students of weird 20th century fiction, this is a must-read; Aickman is truly different from any other weird fiction author.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting based on my previous experience with other Aickman collections of "strange stories."

What weirdness there is here is mostly that of a young person testing her own, confused sense of self against a varied cast of eccentric characters. I kept hoping the otherworldly, queer elements would start to take center stage, but this mostly ended up being a witty coming-of-age narrative.

Not without its charms, but not nearly so haunting as Aickman's other works (imho.)