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The Unsettled Dust
A second collection of horror tales - following the publication of "The Wine Dark Sea" - by the recipient of the 1981 World Fantasy Award, and author of "Cold Hand in Mine" and "Painted Devils".
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Robert Aickman
153 books543 followersAuthor 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
June 25, 2019
The Unsettled Dust (4 stars)
Painfully bleak, dust-enshrouded England.
The Houses of the Russians (5 stars)
Eerie narrative about the buried soul of Russia; an amusing minor character (in the form of an obnoxious leftist called Rort) reinforces the strong anti-Marxist theme of this story.
No Stronger Than a Flower (5 stars)
A blackly humourous satire on the cosmetic industry.
The Cicerones (5 stars)
A short but extremely powerful story about a typical lukewarm modern man exposed to the Inexplicable in the depths of a gothic cathedral.
The Next Glade (4 stars)
Lost in the thickets of the unconscious…
Ravissante (4 stars)
A painter’s loathing and self-doubt in the occult world of fine arts.
Bind Your Hair (3 stars)
Ambiguous animal horror in a Celtic labyrinth.
The Stains (5 stars)
Stephen is a civil servant of the conservative, Humphrey Appleby type; yet his relatives are ‘modern’ and love multi-culti. Stephen’s dislike of Instinct (shown by his detestation of a statue of Shiva) doesn’t prevent him falling in love with a daughter of Nature…yet with devastating consequences, as he is too weak to hold his own against her dread Father.
The story can be read as an extended metaphor for the inadequecy of conservatism, and the necessity of revolutionary nationalism.
Painfully bleak, dust-enshrouded England.
The Houses of the Russians (5 stars)
Eerie narrative about the buried soul of Russia; an amusing minor character (in the form of an obnoxious leftist called Rort) reinforces the strong anti-Marxist theme of this story.
No Stronger Than a Flower (5 stars)
A blackly humourous satire on the cosmetic industry.
The Cicerones (5 stars)
A short but extremely powerful story about a typical lukewarm modern man exposed to the Inexplicable in the depths of a gothic cathedral.
The Next Glade (4 stars)
Lost in the thickets of the unconscious…
Ravissante (4 stars)
A painter’s loathing and self-doubt in the occult world of fine arts.
Bind Your Hair (3 stars)
Ambiguous animal horror in a Celtic labyrinth.
The Stains (5 stars)
Stephen is a civil servant of the conservative, Humphrey Appleby type; yet his relatives are ‘modern’ and love multi-culti. Stephen’s dislike of Instinct (shown by his detestation of a statue of Shiva) doesn’t prevent him falling in love with a daughter of Nature…yet with devastating consequences, as he is too weak to hold his own against her dread Father.
The story can be read as an extended metaphor for the inadequecy of conservatism, and the necessity of revolutionary nationalism.
October 18, 2020
A stunning set of stories, and easily my favorite of the three Aickman collections I've read. How did he do it? These stories are a wonder to behold. To read Aickman at the height of his powers is an immensely satisfying experience. Of course even as I write this I'm cringing at the shopworn superlatives flowing from the keyboard, but I don't care (though frankly it is a bit embarrassing, given Aickman's own impeccable command of the English language). The only story here that I'd read before was 'Bind Your Hair', and this second reading confirms it's one of my favorites of his, and one of my favorite horror stories in general. Here is a passage:
The next morning Clarinda had to admit to herself that she was very depressed. As she lay in bed watching wisps of late-autumn fog drift and swirl past her window, she felt that inside the house was a warm and cosy emptiness in which she was about to be lost. She saw herself, her real self, for ever suspended in blackness, howling in the lonely dark, miserable and unheard; while her other, outer self went smiling through an endless purposeless routine of love for and compliance with a family and community of friends which, however excellent, were exceedingly unlike her, in some way that she did not fully understand.Aickman held a penetrating insight into the human condition that adds an extra dimension to his stories, elevating them beyond just tales of the weird and strange. If you've never read him before, this would be a good place to start, as I think it contains many of his best stories.
October 28, 2015
After finishing The Wine-Dark Sea, I went straight into The Unsettled Dust without pause, and raced through it so quickly that when I sat down to review it, I was surprised to discover it contains the same number of stories as The Wine-Dark Sea. There's a sort of unevenness about this collection - it contains some of the briefest and the longest stories I've read by Aickman; some of the most conventional and some of the most difficult to define; and throughout the book, the characters seem to be quite weakly drawn. As a result, I enjoyed it less than I'd hoped, and would recommend both
Cold Hand in Mine
and The Wine-Dark Sea above it, although there are some gems, with 'No Stronger Than a Flower', 'The Cicerones' and 'Ravissante' being my favourites.
The Unsettled Dust - a man working for the Historic Structures Fund has a ghostly encounter at one of the estates he is asked to review. More of a traditional ghost story than most Aickman tales, although it has a number of typically weird touches.
The Houses of the Russians - a group of friends listen to a story told by a man in a pub; he recounts an experience from his youth concerning a group of apparently deserted houses in a bleak corner of Finland. Again, quite traditional, and could have come from any number of ghost story anthologies, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable.
No Stronger Than a Flower - a plain woman, Nesta, is encouraged to put more effort into her appearance by her lover, Curtis, but when she complies, he finds he is disturbed by the changes this brings about in her... I loved this one, which seemed quite unlike anything else I've read by the author. It's has a peculiarly modern feel that brought to mind, for some reason, a dark, minimalist stage set.
The Cicerones - another of the shorter stories. A traveller visits a cathedral in Belgium and meets several odd characters, ultimately allowing himself to be led into the crypt by a rather uncanny child. After reading this I discovered the brilliant 2002 short film adaptation by Jeremy Dyson, which I think helped me to appreciate the story more. (It lends itself wonderfully to film, and made me wish there were more to watch; Aickman's Wikipedia page says that others exist, but it doesn't seem like they'd be very easy to track down.)
The Next Glade - a woman is persuaded to take a walk in the woods with a stranger, who announces his intention to step into 'the next glade' and promptly disappears. She assumes he has walked away, and it's only later that she discovers this next glade appears to have a strange, dark power. This one annoyed me a bit - the setup is so odd; there's no explanation of the reason(s) why Noelle would acquiesce to John's request in the first place, so the whole episode just doesn't seem to make sense. And then the ending is practically science fiction... It's an odd mixture and I didn't find it entirely successful.
Ravissante - the narrator is left a collection of paintings when an artist of his acquaintance dies. Among them he finds an account of this man's visit to the widow of an artist who inspired him. In comparison to most of the others, this was deliciously over-the-top and I loved it.
Bind Your Hair - a young woman makes her first visit to her fiancé's family. There, she meets the vibrant, lustful Mrs. Pagani and her odd band of acquaintances. Can't say I retained much of an impression of this.
The Stains - taking up about 25% of the book, 'The Stains' is almost a small novella. It's a horrible 'love story' that deals with the ancient battle between man and nature, incorporating many fairytale elements (of the Grimm rather than the Disney variety). After the death of his wife, a man named Stephen visits his brother in the country, where he falls under the spell of a girl who appears to live in the wilds of the forest. It's powerful and complex, but nevertheless I struggled with 'The Stains'. Throughout it, I felt a magnified version of something that often plagues me when reading the author's work - a feeling of repulsion that made me feel almost physically nauseous and made me desperate, at certain points, to just get the story over and done with. The depiction of the girl, Nell, is particularly troubling, and yet in the end it becomes apparent that the relentless focus on her young body, childishness and manifest ignorance, often bordering on stupidity (all of these being the reasons Stephen is attracted to her) has a purpose within the story, that in fact it's kind of the whole point of the thing. Likewise, the sickly depiction of the 'affection', or whatever I should be calling it, between Stephen and Nell creates great unease precisely because of its contrast with the decay that surrounds them. Like many of the most memorable Aickman stories, 'The Stains' is both technically brilliant and so uncomfortable that its end comes as a relief.
The Unsettled Dust - a man working for the Historic Structures Fund has a ghostly encounter at one of the estates he is asked to review. More of a traditional ghost story than most Aickman tales, although it has a number of typically weird touches.
The Houses of the Russians - a group of friends listen to a story told by a man in a pub; he recounts an experience from his youth concerning a group of apparently deserted houses in a bleak corner of Finland. Again, quite traditional, and could have come from any number of ghost story anthologies, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable.
No Stronger Than a Flower - a plain woman, Nesta, is encouraged to put more effort into her appearance by her lover, Curtis, but when she complies, he finds he is disturbed by the changes this brings about in her... I loved this one, which seemed quite unlike anything else I've read by the author. It's has a peculiarly modern feel that brought to mind, for some reason, a dark, minimalist stage set.
The Cicerones - another of the shorter stories. A traveller visits a cathedral in Belgium and meets several odd characters, ultimately allowing himself to be led into the crypt by a rather uncanny child. After reading this I discovered the brilliant 2002 short film adaptation by Jeremy Dyson, which I think helped me to appreciate the story more. (It lends itself wonderfully to film, and made me wish there were more to watch; Aickman's Wikipedia page says that others exist, but it doesn't seem like they'd be very easy to track down.)
The Next Glade - a woman is persuaded to take a walk in the woods with a stranger, who announces his intention to step into 'the next glade' and promptly disappears. She assumes he has walked away, and it's only later that she discovers this next glade appears to have a strange, dark power. This one annoyed me a bit - the setup is so odd; there's no explanation of the reason(s) why Noelle would acquiesce to John's request in the first place, so the whole episode just doesn't seem to make sense. And then the ending is practically science fiction... It's an odd mixture and I didn't find it entirely successful.
Ravissante - the narrator is left a collection of paintings when an artist of his acquaintance dies. Among them he finds an account of this man's visit to the widow of an artist who inspired him. In comparison to most of the others, this was deliciously over-the-top and I loved it.
Bind Your Hair - a young woman makes her first visit to her fiancé's family. There, she meets the vibrant, lustful Mrs. Pagani and her odd band of acquaintances. Can't say I retained much of an impression of this.
The Stains - taking up about 25% of the book, 'The Stains' is almost a small novella. It's a horrible 'love story' that deals with the ancient battle between man and nature, incorporating many fairytale elements (of the Grimm rather than the Disney variety). After the death of his wife, a man named Stephen visits his brother in the country, where he falls under the spell of a girl who appears to live in the wilds of the forest. It's powerful and complex, but nevertheless I struggled with 'The Stains'. Throughout it, I felt a magnified version of something that often plagues me when reading the author's work - a feeling of repulsion that made me feel almost physically nauseous and made me desperate, at certain points, to just get the story over and done with. The depiction of the girl, Nell, is particularly troubling, and yet in the end it becomes apparent that the relentless focus on her young body, childishness and manifest ignorance, often bordering on stupidity (all of these being the reasons Stephen is attracted to her) has a purpose within the story, that in fact it's kind of the whole point of the thing. Likewise, the sickly depiction of the 'affection', or whatever I should be calling it, between Stephen and Nell creates great unease precisely because of its contrast with the decay that surrounds them. Like many of the most memorable Aickman stories, 'The Stains' is both technically brilliant and so uncomfortable that its end comes as a relief.
September 6, 2024
It’s often difficult giving a mark to a short story collection because the quality of individual stories can be wide ranging. Indeed there are eight stories here, and two of them - although not bad - fall short, for me, of Aickman’s usual excellence (‘The Houses of the Russians’ and ‘Bind Your Hair’). But, such is the sheer brilliance and originality of three others in this collection that I have no hesitation in awarding a 5.
In the title story, ‘The Unsettled Dust,’ a ‘Special Duties Officer for the Historic Structures Fund’ stays with two sisters who live at one of the large houses under the organisations protection. He ponders on whether the house is being properly looked after by them. I think Aickman uses this set-up to take a few swipes at the ‘Inland Waterways Association’ – which he co-founded in 1946 and had a fiery relationship with. The story is typical Aickman with its relentlessly strange narrative, peculiar characters, and incessant observations of things ‘not quite right’ – here it’s the constant references to the dust, as well as the oddities of the sisters. What does it all mean? He does a couple of things different to his normal routine here – the narrator is like our colleague, stating his observations to us and constantly questioning, so we are not the usual lone outsider looking in at Aickman’s strange world; also, Aickman does offer an explanation for events, which is unusual. I’ll readily admit that I’m not sure what everything means and I look forward to a re-reading in a couple of years!
In ‘The Stains,’ a man, after the death of his wife, goes to stay with his brother. Whilst walking in the woods one day he comes across a strangely distant, unaware, but open young woman whom he uncontrollably falls for. Again, this is typical Aickman, leaving you constantly asking questions and wondering upon the point of this and the relevance of that. As is the case here, he was also fond of including a smouldering eroticism under the surface of many of his stories. Who is the ‘earthy’ creature that is Nell? For most of its 84 pages this is little short of brilliant. My only minor criticism is that the ending is a little long in the telling.
My favourite here is ‘Ravissante.’ One of very few stories I’ve given ten out of ten to in my personal collating system. A man becomes involved in the estate of his deceased editor/painter friend; during this work, he comes across his friend’s journal and reads it. It tells of a meeting with a strange old woman (Madame A.). This is a seriously wonderful story. Odd, mysterious, and very kinky; it will leave you puzzling over the strange and atmospheric happenings. Who is the peculiar old woman? What is her spidery ‘dog’? How do the outer and inner stories relate to one another? For me, this is one of his very best. Here is a typically odd passage which ends with an unsettling thought:-
And then an extraordinary thing happened. A real dog was there in the room. At least, I suppose, I am now not sure how real it was. Let me just say a dog. It was like a small black poodle, clipped, glossy, and spry. It appeared from the shadowy corner to the right of the door as one entered. It pattered perkily up to the fire, then round several times in a circle in front of Madame A., and to my right as I sat, then off into the shadow to my left and where I had just been standing. It seemed to me, as I looked at it, to have very big eyes and very long legs, perhaps more like a spider than a poodle, but no doubt this was merely an effect of the firelight.
At that moment there was much to take in fairly quickly, but one thing was that Madame A., as I clearly realised, seemed not to see the dog. She was staring ahead, her black eyes expressionless as ever. Even while I was watching the dog, I divined that she was still thinking of her adopted daughter, and was entranced by her thoughts. It did not seem particularly remarkable that she had missed the dog, because the dog had been quite silent, and she might well have been so accustomed to seeing it around the house that often she no longer noticed it. What puzzled me at that stage was where the dog had hidden itself all the time I had been in the room with the door shut.
Apart from these three tales, there are three others which I would rate as ‘very good.’
In ‘No Stronger than a Flower,’ a husband is sorry after he comments upon his wife’s looks. She begins to change. There is a creeping air of mystery and a constant build-up of tension in this. Nice characterisation; not too sure about the end.
In ‘The Cicerones,’ a tourist in a near deserted Belgian cathedral has an otherworldly, haunting experience. It’s all very ethereal and extremely atmospheric.
‘The Next Glade.’ A married woman meets a man who shows her warmth and affection - but he soon disappears in a walk in the wood. Some months later, she and her husband walk in the same wood and he injures himself, his blood becomes infected and he dies. The stranger comes back. Yet another of those Robert Aickman stories which constantly leave you questioning as to what is happening, and has happened. Well rounded characters and air of mystery. Another that I can’t wait to read again!
I think it’s the same introduction by Richard T. Kelly in all four of these Faber & Faber Aickman reprints, but each book has a different end piece - with this book having memories from two colleagues from his ‘Inland Waterways’ life.
Robert Aickman is a true original who follows no lazy formulaic paths. He is a highly literate writer of ‘strange stories’ - his preferred term. I’m aware that he is not going to be to everyone’s taste. If you like your stories straightforward with everything explained in crystal neatness at the end, forget it. But if you’re prepared to enter his world with an open mind, he may just hit your spot; if he does, the rewards and sheer enjoyment to be gained in his off-kilter world are huge.
I think this is his appeal. He gradually pulls you in to his mysterious, atmospheric and unusual world with a flowing skill where everything can be pondered and questioned. His craft relies more on the skills of the artist who builds character, setting, and situation, rather than blatant effect. This often subtle layering is I think the reason why he’s possibly the most re-readable genre author there is. I have intensely enjoyed so many of his stories but on finishing wondered what it is that I have just read. You have to be in the mood and moment when reading these. I suspect on re-readings that I'll see something I initially missed in the stories that I've marked down. I'll give it time, but can't wait to re-read.
If you do become hooked, you enter a sometimes obsessional society of keen devotees who debate the meanings of his stories and can’t stop singing the praises of this master craftsman who should be wider known. Perhaps the small cosiness of his following adds to the aura and mystique? Still, come and join us... Not too many though.
In the title story, ‘The Unsettled Dust,’ a ‘Special Duties Officer for the Historic Structures Fund’ stays with two sisters who live at one of the large houses under the organisations protection. He ponders on whether the house is being properly looked after by them. I think Aickman uses this set-up to take a few swipes at the ‘Inland Waterways Association’ – which he co-founded in 1946 and had a fiery relationship with. The story is typical Aickman with its relentlessly strange narrative, peculiar characters, and incessant observations of things ‘not quite right’ – here it’s the constant references to the dust, as well as the oddities of the sisters. What does it all mean? He does a couple of things different to his normal routine here – the narrator is like our colleague, stating his observations to us and constantly questioning, so we are not the usual lone outsider looking in at Aickman’s strange world; also, Aickman does offer an explanation for events, which is unusual. I’ll readily admit that I’m not sure what everything means and I look forward to a re-reading in a couple of years!
In ‘The Stains,’ a man, after the death of his wife, goes to stay with his brother. Whilst walking in the woods one day he comes across a strangely distant, unaware, but open young woman whom he uncontrollably falls for. Again, this is typical Aickman, leaving you constantly asking questions and wondering upon the point of this and the relevance of that. As is the case here, he was also fond of including a smouldering eroticism under the surface of many of his stories. Who is the ‘earthy’ creature that is Nell? For most of its 84 pages this is little short of brilliant. My only minor criticism is that the ending is a little long in the telling.
My favourite here is ‘Ravissante.’ One of very few stories I’ve given ten out of ten to in my personal collating system. A man becomes involved in the estate of his deceased editor/painter friend; during this work, he comes across his friend’s journal and reads it. It tells of a meeting with a strange old woman (Madame A.). This is a seriously wonderful story. Odd, mysterious, and very kinky; it will leave you puzzling over the strange and atmospheric happenings. Who is the peculiar old woman? What is her spidery ‘dog’? How do the outer and inner stories relate to one another? For me, this is one of his very best. Here is a typically odd passage which ends with an unsettling thought:-
And then an extraordinary thing happened. A real dog was there in the room. At least, I suppose, I am now not sure how real it was. Let me just say a dog. It was like a small black poodle, clipped, glossy, and spry. It appeared from the shadowy corner to the right of the door as one entered. It pattered perkily up to the fire, then round several times in a circle in front of Madame A., and to my right as I sat, then off into the shadow to my left and where I had just been standing. It seemed to me, as I looked at it, to have very big eyes and very long legs, perhaps more like a spider than a poodle, but no doubt this was merely an effect of the firelight.
At that moment there was much to take in fairly quickly, but one thing was that Madame A., as I clearly realised, seemed not to see the dog. She was staring ahead, her black eyes expressionless as ever. Even while I was watching the dog, I divined that she was still thinking of her adopted daughter, and was entranced by her thoughts. It did not seem particularly remarkable that she had missed the dog, because the dog had been quite silent, and she might well have been so accustomed to seeing it around the house that often she no longer noticed it. What puzzled me at that stage was where the dog had hidden itself all the time I had been in the room with the door shut.
Apart from these three tales, there are three others which I would rate as ‘very good.’
In ‘No Stronger than a Flower,’ a husband is sorry after he comments upon his wife’s looks. She begins to change. There is a creeping air of mystery and a constant build-up of tension in this. Nice characterisation; not too sure about the end.
In ‘The Cicerones,’ a tourist in a near deserted Belgian cathedral has an otherworldly, haunting experience. It’s all very ethereal and extremely atmospheric.
‘The Next Glade.’ A married woman meets a man who shows her warmth and affection - but he soon disappears in a walk in the wood. Some months later, she and her husband walk in the same wood and he injures himself, his blood becomes infected and he dies. The stranger comes back. Yet another of those Robert Aickman stories which constantly leave you questioning as to what is happening, and has happened. Well rounded characters and air of mystery. Another that I can’t wait to read again!
I think it’s the same introduction by Richard T. Kelly in all four of these Faber & Faber Aickman reprints, but each book has a different end piece - with this book having memories from two colleagues from his ‘Inland Waterways’ life.
Robert Aickman is a true original who follows no lazy formulaic paths. He is a highly literate writer of ‘strange stories’ - his preferred term. I’m aware that he is not going to be to everyone’s taste. If you like your stories straightforward with everything explained in crystal neatness at the end, forget it. But if you’re prepared to enter his world with an open mind, he may just hit your spot; if he does, the rewards and sheer enjoyment to be gained in his off-kilter world are huge.
I think this is his appeal. He gradually pulls you in to his mysterious, atmospheric and unusual world with a flowing skill where everything can be pondered and questioned. His craft relies more on the skills of the artist who builds character, setting, and situation, rather than blatant effect. This often subtle layering is I think the reason why he’s possibly the most re-readable genre author there is. I have intensely enjoyed so many of his stories but on finishing wondered what it is that I have just read. You have to be in the mood and moment when reading these. I suspect on re-readings that I'll see something I initially missed in the stories that I've marked down. I'll give it time, but can't wait to re-read.
If you do become hooked, you enter a sometimes obsessional society of keen devotees who debate the meanings of his stories and can’t stop singing the praises of this master craftsman who should be wider known. Perhaps the small cosiness of his following adds to the aura and mystique? Still, come and join us... Not too many though.
June 22, 2012
As for this excellently entertaining collection—so eerie, imaginative, intense and fluid within such formal and elegant stylistic constraints, and in which Aickman demonstrates to the full the power of less is more, wielding ambiguity and undeclared and/or unresolved events to stir the readers mind to a roil that the author does not explicitly assist in settling; which are possessed of the dexterous ability of provoking strangeness, evoking wonder, and stoking sensuality from within a narrative voice that little hints at such range; whose two shortest tales, No Stronger Than a Flower and The Cicerones, are just masterful executions of sustained tension, uneasy humour, and magnetic prose, while lengthier sublimities like Bind Your Hair and The Next Glade and Ravissante mirror supernatural evocations from a dead past with psychological disorders of the modern world, without delineating which is the reflection (or the more unsettling) and reaching its apogee amidst the rolling moors of The Stain, with its stagnating civilized standards, oreadic lichens, and full-moon feyness—I got nothing: like Mr. Sammler, I'm juiceless. Let me add that I would much enjoy seeing Aickman translated to the screen and/or his novel The Late Breakfasters reprinted by Faber Finds (if only as a sloppy publisher of last resort). Simply one of the best short story writers I have read, period—and one who, in my estimation and together with M. John Harrison, should be better known.
October 9, 2011
I know; it's getting boring isn't it. Another Aickman collection again rated five stars. Well, what can I say? He is simply brilliant. Or perhaps it's just that he offers exactly what I'm looking for it a book; Well written prose that both delights an disturbs in equal measure. Stories that stick with you for days afterwards as you turn them over in your mind, wrestling with their meaning and intent.
Thematically varied as usual, this is another quality collection showing that range of Aickman's ability. Alienation, repressed sexual desire, frustration, lack of a sense of purpose and boredom are the kinds of things his characters have to deal with. The horrors that they face are sometimes of a supernatural nature and sometimes simply man's inhumanity. Whatever form it takes, it is usually abstract, never spelled out in much detail, much being left for the reader to imagine. Exactly how much is real or merely psychological it is left for the reader to judge. Precisely what is going on is left to the reader to fathom.
I've now read the three collections of his made available by Faber and I'm left wondering where to go next. I've only read half of his published stories (ignoring his two novels) but I'm now left with the choice between expensive, limited edition prints made available by the likes of Tartarus press or chronically expensive second-hand copies of earlier, now out of print collections. Maybe someone will bring more of his work back into print more cheaply soon.
Thematically varied as usual, this is another quality collection showing that range of Aickman's ability. Alienation, repressed sexual desire, frustration, lack of a sense of purpose and boredom are the kinds of things his characters have to deal with. The horrors that they face are sometimes of a supernatural nature and sometimes simply man's inhumanity. Whatever form it takes, it is usually abstract, never spelled out in much detail, much being left for the reader to imagine. Exactly how much is real or merely psychological it is left for the reader to judge. Precisely what is going on is left to the reader to fathom.
I've now read the three collections of his made available by Faber and I'm left wondering where to go next. I've only read half of his published stories (ignoring his two novels) but I'm now left with the choice between expensive, limited edition prints made available by the likes of Tartarus press or chronically expensive second-hand copies of earlier, now out of print collections. Maybe someone will bring more of his work back into print more cheaply soon.
February 21, 2014
Having read a few of Aickman's more anthologised stories - particularly 'Stains', as perfect a weird tale as there ever was - and been impressed by them, I think I at first expected too much from this collection. As you can see, I came around to thinking very highly of it anyway, but with some reservations.
Let's get those reservations out of the way. First of all, Aickman mainly deals with characters who are past their first youth, isolated and somewhat depressed. That's all very well as far as it goes, but sometimes I felt stifled by all these quietly desperate types with their poised, elegantly bitter reflections on life. Secondly, Aickman too often posits the weird elements of his stories around standard MR Jamesian hooks - things from the past, and from outside the main characters' experience or context. The title story is essentially a traditional ghost story with an added layer of desolate prose and telling characterisation. 'The Homes Of The Russians' is full of arresting images but it boils down to finding something supernatural and weird via the customs and revenants of a foreign culture. Even in the otherwise very good 'Bind Your Hair', the name Mrs. Pagani with its obvious overtones make it very clear where the strange stuff in the tale is coming from.
My problem here is that all this makes the strangeness somehow externalised, somehow merely the irruption of something otherworldly into our narrators' tidy if bleak little lives. Even the single most perfectly-pitched tale here, other than 'Stains', 'The Cicerones' has the weird stuff being tied into some foreign cult, possibly.
I love AIckman's style, love his quiet upsetting of reality, the subtle ways in which he creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and supernatural foreboding, but he is a far more normative writer in these ways than I am completely comfortable with. On the other hand, his use of the sexual element in 'Stains', 'No Stronger Than A Flower' and 'The Next Glade' is most effective, subtle and not at all explicit, but evoking the power of sensual passion to dislocate our personalities and lives. However, even this is sometimes evoked to unintentionally farcical effect in 'Ravissante'.
All in all, a strong collection of tales about quietly dispossessed people adrift in an unhinged universe. It's just a pity so much of the unhinged-ness comes from the usual sorts of sources that have been invoked for such things ever since the heyday of the Gothic novel - things ancient, occult and foreign.
Let's get those reservations out of the way. First of all, Aickman mainly deals with characters who are past their first youth, isolated and somewhat depressed. That's all very well as far as it goes, but sometimes I felt stifled by all these quietly desperate types with their poised, elegantly bitter reflections on life. Secondly, Aickman too often posits the weird elements of his stories around standard MR Jamesian hooks - things from the past, and from outside the main characters' experience or context. The title story is essentially a traditional ghost story with an added layer of desolate prose and telling characterisation. 'The Homes Of The Russians' is full of arresting images but it boils down to finding something supernatural and weird via the customs and revenants of a foreign culture. Even in the otherwise very good 'Bind Your Hair', the name Mrs. Pagani with its obvious overtones make it very clear where the strange stuff in the tale is coming from.
My problem here is that all this makes the strangeness somehow externalised, somehow merely the irruption of something otherworldly into our narrators' tidy if bleak little lives. Even the single most perfectly-pitched tale here, other than 'Stains', 'The Cicerones' has the weird stuff being tied into some foreign cult, possibly.
I love AIckman's style, love his quiet upsetting of reality, the subtle ways in which he creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and supernatural foreboding, but he is a far more normative writer in these ways than I am completely comfortable with. On the other hand, his use of the sexual element in 'Stains', 'No Stronger Than A Flower' and 'The Next Glade' is most effective, subtle and not at all explicit, but evoking the power of sensual passion to dislocate our personalities and lives. However, even this is sometimes evoked to unintentionally farcical effect in 'Ravissante'.
All in all, a strong collection of tales about quietly dispossessed people adrift in an unhinged universe. It's just a pity so much of the unhinged-ness comes from the usual sorts of sources that have been invoked for such things ever since the heyday of the Gothic novel - things ancient, occult and foreign.
December 16, 2014
WOW, short story collections don't get better than this. Aickman rarely tries to truly scare his reader, he wants to unsettle the reader. These are stories I find myself thinking about, days, weeks later. Images and situations presented really get under the skin, and stay in the mind like few others. Sometimes a story will build and build, then just end. Many concepts here feel fresh and original too.
I think my favorite thing though was the sense of atmosphere Aickman pours into these stories, they really generate their own sense of place and setting, in some of the longer novellas, by the end I almost feel as if I've settled into the place myself. I don't re-read a lot of stories, but I could see revisiting these in a few years.
The Unsettled Dust - A novella. This is a good ghost story, atmospheric, sad, unsettling, really gives a good sense of place. It’s not as satisfying as some of the best, and it ends with a bit of a whimper. A man who is to oversee the cleaning of a river for a preservation society stays in an old manor house nearby, also kept up by the society. Two old sisters live there with their housekeeper, silent, mysterious types all. He is troubled by the inordinate amount of dust that is always swirling and settling in the house – and later meets a ghost which perhaps explains the dust.
The Houses of the Russians - Weird little ghost tale, a rather vague ending, but it's got lots of atmosphere, a great setting too; a foggy island in a small Finnish village. Mild, but unsettling. A young apprentice surveyor travels to Finland with his employer to look over some land, and he comes across an island with houses on it, which looks utterly uninhabited, yet still seem to have some sort of "presences" about.
No Stronger Than a Flower - Really weird, shorter story, unsettling in a way too, well-told and to-the-point. Good themes here on loss of identity, subtly achieved. A man encourages his wife to "pretty herself up" a bit, but after she visits a mysterious beauty parlor in an ad, she starts to change into a totally different person.
The Cicerones - Another shorter story and one of my favorites. It’s certainly creepy at times, unsettling, realistic and memorable. An Englishman exploring a Belgian cathedral finds it deserted, except for some odd people who continue to show him increasingly grotesque paintings and images in the ancient building.
The Next Glade - This is a sad, weird and subtle story, we don't know for sure what happened exactly when we come to the end of it. Was it all in the protagonists mind, or was it a ghost? A woman meets a man at a house party who promises to come see her. The next day they take a walk in the woods, and he mysteriously disappears through some trees. Months later when she returns there with her husband, and goes in the direction he disappeared in, she sees him digging a hole in a frightful state. Meanwhile her husband cuts himself in the woods and dies sometime later.
Ravissante - Wow, this story is just messed up, and I still think about this one's disturbing imagery. It really builds up nicely, the atmosphere is just pitch-perfect, unsettling and sad. Thanks to the internet I was able to look at the art of many artists mentioned in this story, and it adds to the overall tone of it. A man uncovers an artists manuscript, which recalls his visit to the very strange widow of an artist he admired.
Bind Your Hair - Definitely one of the better Aickman stories I've read, although it's subtle to start out, he soon puts subtlety aside like in his horrific "Ringing the Changes" where he goes going for a real horror ending. Very weird, memorable and scary. A girl goes with her fiance to the country to meet her family. While there she meets a strange local woman who lives near a maze where queasy Pagan rituals are held.
The Stains - Another novella, the longest story in the book. This is the type of story you need some time to digest! It's begins very sad, feels hopeful in the middle, but there's a real unsettling undercurrent to it that just disturbs all the way through. The end is devastating frankly. This is a very Arthur Machen-ish tale too, it feels like it has a deep pagan sensibility to it. At the same time it's about people being at the mercy of nature, getting out of their normal life and routine, and realizing how "at sea" they are once that normal pattern is broken somehow, and they have to start over. Powerful stuff. A man who has been recently widowed, falls in love with a beautiful, mysterious girl he finds in the country, who seems to live in the wild. They start a life together, but he notices more and more "growths" around him, and on his own person.
I think my favorite thing though was the sense of atmosphere Aickman pours into these stories, they really generate their own sense of place and setting, in some of the longer novellas, by the end I almost feel as if I've settled into the place myself. I don't re-read a lot of stories, but I could see revisiting these in a few years.
The Unsettled Dust - A novella. This is a good ghost story, atmospheric, sad, unsettling, really gives a good sense of place. It’s not as satisfying as some of the best, and it ends with a bit of a whimper. A man who is to oversee the cleaning of a river for a preservation society stays in an old manor house nearby, also kept up by the society. Two old sisters live there with their housekeeper, silent, mysterious types all. He is troubled by the inordinate amount of dust that is always swirling and settling in the house – and later meets a ghost which perhaps explains the dust.
The Houses of the Russians - Weird little ghost tale, a rather vague ending, but it's got lots of atmosphere, a great setting too; a foggy island in a small Finnish village. Mild, but unsettling. A young apprentice surveyor travels to Finland with his employer to look over some land, and he comes across an island with houses on it, which looks utterly uninhabited, yet still seem to have some sort of "presences" about.
No Stronger Than a Flower - Really weird, shorter story, unsettling in a way too, well-told and to-the-point. Good themes here on loss of identity, subtly achieved. A man encourages his wife to "pretty herself up" a bit, but after she visits a mysterious beauty parlor in an ad, she starts to change into a totally different person.
The Cicerones - Another shorter story and one of my favorites. It’s certainly creepy at times, unsettling, realistic and memorable. An Englishman exploring a Belgian cathedral finds it deserted, except for some odd people who continue to show him increasingly grotesque paintings and images in the ancient building.
The Next Glade - This is a sad, weird and subtle story, we don't know for sure what happened exactly when we come to the end of it. Was it all in the protagonists mind, or was it a ghost? A woman meets a man at a house party who promises to come see her. The next day they take a walk in the woods, and he mysteriously disappears through some trees. Months later when she returns there with her husband, and goes in the direction he disappeared in, she sees him digging a hole in a frightful state. Meanwhile her husband cuts himself in the woods and dies sometime later.
Ravissante - Wow, this story is just messed up, and I still think about this one's disturbing imagery. It really builds up nicely, the atmosphere is just pitch-perfect, unsettling and sad. Thanks to the internet I was able to look at the art of many artists mentioned in this story, and it adds to the overall tone of it. A man uncovers an artists manuscript, which recalls his visit to the very strange widow of an artist he admired.
Bind Your Hair - Definitely one of the better Aickman stories I've read, although it's subtle to start out, he soon puts subtlety aside like in his horrific "Ringing the Changes" where he goes going for a real horror ending. Very weird, memorable and scary. A girl goes with her fiance to the country to meet her family. While there she meets a strange local woman who lives near a maze where queasy Pagan rituals are held.
The Stains - Another novella, the longest story in the book. This is the type of story you need some time to digest! It's begins very sad, feels hopeful in the middle, but there's a real unsettling undercurrent to it that just disturbs all the way through. The end is devastating frankly. This is a very Arthur Machen-ish tale too, it feels like it has a deep pagan sensibility to it. At the same time it's about people being at the mercy of nature, getting out of their normal life and routine, and realizing how "at sea" they are once that normal pattern is broken somehow, and they have to start over. Powerful stuff. A man who has been recently widowed, falls in love with a beautiful, mysterious girl he finds in the country, who seems to live in the wild. They start a life together, but he notices more and more "growths" around him, and on his own person.
July 10, 2022
The Unsettled Dust - 4/5
The Houses of the Russians - 4.5/5
No Stronger Than a Flower - 3/5
The Cicerones - 5/5
The Next Glade - 3/5
Ravissante - 5/5
Bind Your Hair - 5/5
The Stains - 4/5
The Houses of the Russians - 4.5/5
No Stronger Than a Flower - 3/5
The Cicerones - 5/5
The Next Glade - 3/5
Ravissante - 5/5
Bind Your Hair - 5/5
The Stains - 4/5
October 14, 2025
"Human relationships are so fantastically oblique that one can never be sure"
Nobody has ever done it like Aickman fr. I've long been acquainted with and dipped in and out of his work through the years but unlike most authors I become invested in I never really get a solid grasp on him, he's one of the rare artists in any medium where their work leaving me feeling a bit "cold" emotionally is actually part of the appeal. I can't really describe properly what makes him as difficult and intriguing as he is, or what necessarily makes him so distinct from all the "horror but Not Horror and more focused on psychological and subtle dread" authors, it's probably partly the comic slant in a lot of these but I think mostly its that gradually subverted sense of homeliness and domesticity in so many of his stories that make his style feel so odd. Ostensibly these are works of realism whose premises on the surface don't seem all too cut out to unnerve, but Aickman's off-kilter and counterintuitive prose style and the distorted psychological dimensions of these stories creates a uniquely disorienting effect in how these stories unravel into amnesiac incomprehension as they go along. But I think what endears me most to Aickman is his sense of playfulness even while inhabiting dreaded mindspaces; full of (often hilarious) British witticisms and a subtly tasteful disregard for short story convention, and a sometimes troll-ish tendency to subvert expectations in a way that feels very fourth-wall leaning and modern, and thankfully not in an overly cloying and winking way. And I can't help but get the sense that many of his stories have a very understated but potent Pagan undercurrent - very often it is his characters' unusual encounters with the unknowable teeming within the natural world that contributes to their psychological dissolutions. A confounding collection worth a lot of re-reading time and attention, one in which a star rating feels more arbitrary than usual.
Nobody has ever done it like Aickman fr. I've long been acquainted with and dipped in and out of his work through the years but unlike most authors I become invested in I never really get a solid grasp on him, he's one of the rare artists in any medium where their work leaving me feeling a bit "cold" emotionally is actually part of the appeal. I can't really describe properly what makes him as difficult and intriguing as he is, or what necessarily makes him so distinct from all the "horror but Not Horror and more focused on psychological and subtle dread" authors, it's probably partly the comic slant in a lot of these but I think mostly its that gradually subverted sense of homeliness and domesticity in so many of his stories that make his style feel so odd. Ostensibly these are works of realism whose premises on the surface don't seem all too cut out to unnerve, but Aickman's off-kilter and counterintuitive prose style and the distorted psychological dimensions of these stories creates a uniquely disorienting effect in how these stories unravel into amnesiac incomprehension as they go along. But I think what endears me most to Aickman is his sense of playfulness even while inhabiting dreaded mindspaces; full of (often hilarious) British witticisms and a subtly tasteful disregard for short story convention, and a sometimes troll-ish tendency to subvert expectations in a way that feels very fourth-wall leaning and modern, and thankfully not in an overly cloying and winking way. And I can't help but get the sense that many of his stories have a very understated but potent Pagan undercurrent - very often it is his characters' unusual encounters with the unknowable teeming within the natural world that contributes to their psychological dissolutions. A confounding collection worth a lot of re-reading time and attention, one in which a star rating feels more arbitrary than usual.
February 28, 2022
“There are no beautiful houses in England now. Only ruins, mental homes, and Government offices.”
September 5, 2024
Full review to follow.
These stories are far too good to hurry one out.
I’ve read a few of these before, but have just completed the audio version, read splendidly by Reece Shearsmith.
The Unsettled Dust 5 / 5
The Houses of the Russians 5 / 5
No Stronger Than A Flower 5 / 5
The Cicerones 5 / 5
The Next Glade 5 / 5
Ravissante 3 / 5
Bind Your Hair 5 / 5
The Stains 5 / 5
These stories are far too good to hurry one out.
I’ve read a few of these before, but have just completed the audio version, read splendidly by Reece Shearsmith.
The Unsettled Dust 5 / 5
The Houses of the Russians 5 / 5
No Stronger Than A Flower 5 / 5
The Cicerones 5 / 5
The Next Glade 5 / 5
Ravissante 3 / 5
Bind Your Hair 5 / 5
The Stains 5 / 5
July 27, 2020
42 SHORT STORIES IN 42 DAYS*
DAY 19: No Stronger Than A Flower
★★★
Rather far from Aickman's best, but still pretty damned good.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
DAY 19: No Stronger Than A Flower
★★★
Rather far from Aickman's best, but still pretty damned good.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
May 8, 2017
The Unsettled Dust contains some of my favourite Aickman stories. The Cicerones has haunted me with its subtle terror ever since I first encountered it in (I think) the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories and the title story is a masterpiece of creeping unease, conjuring an unsettling atmosphere from simple resources. I came across The Stains and Bind Your Hair more recently, but they certainly made their mark. The rest of the stories here were new to me - they range from the strangely depressing The Houses of the Russians, set on a Finnish island to the out and out weirdness of The Next Glade and Ravissante. I haven't much of a clue what was going on in either of those, but the atmosphere that Aickman creates in both is highly disturbing.
April 26, 2023
With their uncanny realism, Robert Aickman's 'strange' stories belong not to our world but to its slanted shadows, casting their pall over everyday domestic situations and lives lived in unruffled bureaucratic comfort. The strange and the supernatural hover one step away, in the next glade or over the hill, so that astonishing turns of event hardly evoke surprise or horror in Aickman's characters. Part of this is because the realm of the strange isn't just limited to the world of ghosts and ghouls but also exists in everyday human interaction. Aickman's narrators observe supernatural events and social interaction alike with the same dispassionate eye and slight bemusement, as if any understanding of the world at large is always slightly beyond reach.
There's hardly a story here I didn't enjoy, except for maybe the shortest one, 'No Stronger Than a Flower', but only because I think his writing is at its best when strangeness is given time and space to take root and bloom. Even a rather straightforward ghost story like the titular story struck me as original in its depiction of the supernatural. Will definitely be seeking out 'The Wine-Dark Sea' soon.
Some examples of Aickman's wit in observing social complexities:
The Next Glade:
Ravissante:
There's hardly a story here I didn't enjoy, except for maybe the shortest one, 'No Stronger Than a Flower', but only because I think his writing is at its best when strangeness is given time and space to take root and bloom. Even a rather straightforward ghost story like the titular story struck me as original in its depiction of the supernatural. Will definitely be seeking out 'The Wine-Dark Sea' soon.
Some examples of Aickman's wit in observing social complexities:
The Next Glade:
Only when Melvin, her husband, was on his travels, did Noelle herself go to these parties where almost everyone was younger than she. But that was quite frequently, so she realised how lucky she was that people like Simon and Mut could still be bothered with her. Not that Mut in particular was so enormously much younger. Noelle and Mut had aforetime shared an apartment. The then infant Simon had already been Mut's lover, been it for years, but Noelle had not yet met Melvin. Indeed, when Mut had been out of the room, Simon could be depended upon for a small-scale agitation, or quick pass. It was a tradition that still lingered.
As it happened, a surprising number of men seemed still to fall fractionally in love with Noelle, and to prefer dulcet and tender talk with her to such other things as might be on offer elsewhere. Noelle could never whether it was merely her appearance or something less primary that drew them. She often reflected upon how little she had to complain of.
Ravissante:
...I fear that I very slowly strangled the connection. I was sad about it in a general sort of way, but neither the man nor his wife had truly touched anything about me or within me, and associations that are not alive are best amputated as skilfully as possible before the rot infects too much of one's total tissue and unnecessarily lowers the tone of life. If one goes to parties or meets many new people in any other way, one has to take protective action quite frequently, however much one hates oneself in the process; just as human beings are compelled to massacre animals unceasingly, because human beings are simply unable to survive, for the most part, on apples and nuts.
January 5, 2026
"Bind Your Hair" is the best story in here. For some reason many of these didn’t evoke the same sense of dread for me as his other collections did. But nonetheless this was a great collection I’d recommend to anyone interested in reading him. The 3 stars just represent my immediate experience. I didn’t love any of these stories beside the one mentioned. But still, all of them kept me reading and engaged.
Edit: The last story was a serious bore. It just went on and on… And the ending felt utterly unsatisfying:/
(Also Aickman seems hella reactionary. But that’s besides the point.)
Edit: The last story was a serious bore. It just went on and on… And the ending felt utterly unsatisfying:/
(Also Aickman seems hella reactionary. But that’s besides the point.)
April 26, 2015
This is the third volume of Aickman’s short stories that I’ve read, and while in personal preference I’m tempted to rank it slightly below the recent reissues of ‘Cold Hand in Mine’ and ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’, it’s still another basically peerless assortment of strange and haunting tales. There’s something about his work which seems somehow calculated to apply very specifically to my own tastes and sensibilities; each story seems enchanted with (to borrow Poe’s title) a sense of mystery and imagination that goes beyond simply the generic elements of a ghost story.
One aspect that particularly applies to this collection is the sense I often have when reading this author: that his fiction is shot through with an allegorical aspect that lies somewhere just beyond my own understanding. This is especially true in three of the strongest stories here. The titular story sets the scene in what appears to be an entirely conventional country house ghost story, but which refuses to grant any individual trope the security of a clear literary meaning. ‘Ravissante’ is a typically Gothic and grotesque piece that appears based within the psychosexual anxieties of an artist, but it seems to end almost before it has begun, leaving behind a series of images and suggestions that are in themselves more potent than any explanatory confrontation. Perhaps strangest of all is ‘The Stains’, which invokes a combination of ancient mythology, opera, and the biological science of lichens in a uniquely effective and unsettling story.
What makes the author such an interesting figure is that he is supremely uninterested by questions of literary realism. Elsewhere in books and films, when something extraordinary happens, there is a tendency to want to ascribe this to either an actually occurring supernatural event, or the manifestation of some kind of psychological breakdown, or a kind of trick — or any combination of the above. But here, none of that stuff matters. All that matters is what is happening, and what it could mean. Questions of why or how are temporarily rendered irrelevant. The result is a prose which, though quite calm conventional in style, approaches a poetic sensibility through a masterful use of tension, imagery, and atmosphere.
The experience of picking up one of Aickman's books is much like wandering alone through an art gallery hung heavy with the idiosyncratic works of a single artist. Encountering each story is like being drawn slowly into the canvas of a painting — each one divorced from the context of the wider world, full of profound ambiguities, somehow both inviting and rejecting an expressly symbolist interpretation — and you are drawn in further and deeper still with every turn of the page, until the end of the story comes, and you are spat out, blinking and confused, into the world outside. You might not be any wiser but you are, perhaps, changed.
One aspect that particularly applies to this collection is the sense I often have when reading this author: that his fiction is shot through with an allegorical aspect that lies somewhere just beyond my own understanding. This is especially true in three of the strongest stories here. The titular story sets the scene in what appears to be an entirely conventional country house ghost story, but which refuses to grant any individual trope the security of a clear literary meaning. ‘Ravissante’ is a typically Gothic and grotesque piece that appears based within the psychosexual anxieties of an artist, but it seems to end almost before it has begun, leaving behind a series of images and suggestions that are in themselves more potent than any explanatory confrontation. Perhaps strangest of all is ‘The Stains’, which invokes a combination of ancient mythology, opera, and the biological science of lichens in a uniquely effective and unsettling story.
What makes the author such an interesting figure is that he is supremely uninterested by questions of literary realism. Elsewhere in books and films, when something extraordinary happens, there is a tendency to want to ascribe this to either an actually occurring supernatural event, or the manifestation of some kind of psychological breakdown, or a kind of trick — or any combination of the above. But here, none of that stuff matters. All that matters is what is happening, and what it could mean. Questions of why or how are temporarily rendered irrelevant. The result is a prose which, though quite calm conventional in style, approaches a poetic sensibility through a masterful use of tension, imagery, and atmosphere.
The experience of picking up one of Aickman's books is much like wandering alone through an art gallery hung heavy with the idiosyncratic works of a single artist. Encountering each story is like being drawn slowly into the canvas of a painting — each one divorced from the context of the wider world, full of profound ambiguities, somehow both inviting and rejecting an expressly symbolist interpretation — and you are drawn in further and deeper still with every turn of the page, until the end of the story comes, and you are spat out, blinking and confused, into the world outside. You might not be any wiser but you are, perhaps, changed.
November 4, 2012
This is the second collection of Aickman's stories I've read, so this time I knew what to expect: beautiful, eerie tales of the supernatural - or not. With Aickman, you just don't know. Maybe his characters are simply delusional. Or maybe the world really is a dangerous place where at any moment you might get lured into a maze full of bodies while avoiding your in-laws, or meet weird and alluring creatures on the moor, or be cornered by strangers in a Belgian cathedral. I'll certainly be looking over my shoulder the next time I'm in a crypt, and should I run into a kid lost the woods, well, he better not expect any help from me.
All eight stories are marvellous. They are told in very precise prose and are firmly grounded in an ordinary, mundane world, yet retain a disturbing, dreamlike quality. And I mean disturbing in the best way possible!
All eight stories are marvellous. They are told in very precise prose and are firmly grounded in an ordinary, mundane world, yet retain a disturbing, dreamlike quality. And I mean disturbing in the best way possible!
June 12, 2013
It seems to me that Robert Aickman is the most underrated British writer of the post-war era, in any field of literature, high or low.
Aickman made two mistakes, when it came to literary fame: he was a writer of short stories in an age that is too busy to read short literature; he was a writer of ‘strange’ stories, which have never appealed to highbrow critics. His work was too 'literary' for the ‘weird’ crowd; too ‘weird’ for the 'literary' crowd. And yet this split nature is what makes his stories so rewarding. They offer the pleasures of serious writing, and the pleasures of ‘genre’, in a single package, each amplifying the other, and in some way cancelling out the other’s drawbacks: I can think of few writers who achieve this fusion so successfully.
Aickman made two mistakes, when it came to literary fame: he was a writer of short stories in an age that is too busy to read short literature; he was a writer of ‘strange’ stories, which have never appealed to highbrow critics. His work was too 'literary' for the ‘weird’ crowd; too ‘weird’ for the 'literary' crowd. And yet this split nature is what makes his stories so rewarding. They offer the pleasures of serious writing, and the pleasures of ‘genre’, in a single package, each amplifying the other, and in some way cancelling out the other’s drawbacks: I can think of few writers who achieve this fusion so successfully.
March 16, 2016
Having read and quite liked "The Trains" and "Ringing the Changes", I was hoping to find a handful of great Aickman stories. This collection, although rich in atmosphere and architectural detail, was a little disappointing. The tales lack narrative and direction, thus coming across as dream sequences rather than works of fiction. This may have been Aickman's point, but it gave me the impression that they had been poorly planned or left unfinished.
September 7, 2022
The Unsettled Dust is a collection of strange, dreamlike, and suble stories of quiet horror. Aickman drops you into each story, slightly pulls back the curtain and leaves you to decipher the meaning of the story and it's hidden depths all for yourself.
January 9, 2020
Тут нужно сказать об одной стилистической особенности нашего прекрасного автора. Жуткое и странное в тексте он отнюдь не нагнетает - оно дается как бы мимоходом, какой-то вроде бы малозначащей деталькой, так что потом поневоле возвращаешься и перечитываешь, как бы не веря глазам своим, чтобы чего-то не пропустить. Но, как правило, ничего не пропускаешь. Ну и зевгмы, эллипсисы и фигуры умолчания у него заметны, конечно. И в каждой истории присутствует незаметный ключ, некая мораль или обобщение, какой вроде бы чуточку приподотпирает тайну сюжета. А некоторые истории просто встраиваются в некий существующий миф как бы мимоходом, закулисно, и ты понимаешь, что оказался в некоем древнем измерении, только уже дочитав. В этом есть некоторое сходство с японскими сказками Мураками.
"Дома русских" - рассказ гениальный и неожиданный от англичанина, который русской революцией иначе вроде бы никак не интересовался.
"Дома русских" - рассказ гениальный и неожиданный от англичанина, который русской революцией иначе вроде бы никак не интересовался.
November 9, 2018
Curiosamente la mayoría de los relatos que aparecen en esta antología fueron publicados por Atalanta en el volumen "Las casas de los rusos" (y en el mismo orden). Sin embargo, por alguna razón, en la edición de Atalanta se eliminaron "The Cicerones", "The Next Glade" y "Bind Your Hair" para incluir "Growing Boys" ("En edad de crecimiento") que en mi humilde opinión no es precisamente lo mejor de Aickman.
El resultado es que esta edición de Faber resulta mucho más consistente que la antología de Atalanta. Además me gusta como se han organizado los relatos en un crescendo de calidad que culmina con el excepcional "The Stains", el mejor cuento de amour fou para señores mayores (yo) que he leído, con una interesante variación sobre los personajes femeninos féericos y fatales que me ha recordado mucho a "Los ojos verdes" de Bécquer. Una narración angustiosa acerca del dolor por la pérdida de un ser amado, la vieja Inglaterra conservadora que desaparece poco a poco en la marea post-colonial y la desesperada necesidad de amar y ser amado para congelar el inexorable y destructor paso del tiempo en un momento efímero y eterno. Una necesidad que toma, irónicamente, la forma de un extraño súcubo del arcano páramo de la Inglaterra profunda y que no podrá ser satisfecha jamás.
De entre el resto de relatos destacan "Ravissante" una bizarra historia sobre posesiones frustradas y el hecho artístico que entra en los terrenos del fetichismo sexual en un ambiente grotesco entre el giallo y David Lynch. "The Cicerones" o los peligros de entrar a una iglesia a turistear cuando ya están cerrando, una especie de versión de "El ceremonial", de Lovecraft pero sustituyendo los antiguos cultos impíos a criaturas pulposas por la morbosa iconografía cristiana fascinada con el martirio y la muerte. Curiosamente, este es el único cuento de Aickman que he leído en el que sabía lo que iba a ocurrir desde el minuto uno, pero aún así resulta satisfactorio por su cuidada ambientación y la capacidad de crear inquietud en el lector por medio del absurdo.
"The Next Glade" es un típico relato Aickman en el que el conflicto psicológico de la protagonista se manifiesta exteriormente en una serie de acontecimientos muy extraños sin que ella sea consciente de que esta serie de movidas muy raras tienen su origen en sus deseos reprimidos: el adulterio y la necesidad de desprenderse de las responsabilidades familiares. Otros rasgos muy aickmanianos del cuento son el bosque como símbolo del subconsciente y esa corriente de sexo chungo soterrado que Aickman emplea creando una atmósfera inquietante e irreal. Y finalmente, "Bind Your Hair", un estupendo relato de "horror folk" británico sobre extraños cultos de la Inglaterra arcana, un poco en la línea de las películas "El hombre de mimbre", "La garra de satán" o "Kill List", donde de nuevo el conflicto psicológico de una mujer de visita a su familia política en el campo se funde con los extravagantes acontecimientos que habrá de contemplar, las relaciones sociales de un villorrio inglés interpretadas como un arcaico y extraño culto.
Finalmente quisiera dejar claro que estas son únicamente interpretaciones mías de los cuentos de Aickman, porque quizá lo más interesante de los relatos aickmanianos sea su riqueza temática y su ambigüedad, su vaguedad subconsciente, dejando la puerta abierta a nuevas relecturas, nuevas interpretaciones, nuevos significados, como si le hablara más a nuestro inconsciente que a nuestro yo racional, ese pequeño y retorcido homúnculo que cree, erróneamente, estar al mando de las turbulentas mareas que gobiernan nuestra mente.
El resultado es que esta edición de Faber resulta mucho más consistente que la antología de Atalanta. Además me gusta como se han organizado los relatos en un crescendo de calidad que culmina con el excepcional "The Stains", el mejor cuento de amour fou para señores mayores (yo) que he leído, con una interesante variación sobre los personajes femeninos féericos y fatales que me ha recordado mucho a "Los ojos verdes" de Bécquer. Una narración angustiosa acerca del dolor por la pérdida de un ser amado, la vieja Inglaterra conservadora que desaparece poco a poco en la marea post-colonial y la desesperada necesidad de amar y ser amado para congelar el inexorable y destructor paso del tiempo en un momento efímero y eterno. Una necesidad que toma, irónicamente, la forma de un extraño súcubo del arcano páramo de la Inglaterra profunda y que no podrá ser satisfecha jamás.
De entre el resto de relatos destacan "Ravissante" una bizarra historia sobre posesiones frustradas y el hecho artístico que entra en los terrenos del fetichismo sexual en un ambiente grotesco entre el giallo y David Lynch. "The Cicerones" o los peligros de entrar a una iglesia a turistear cuando ya están cerrando, una especie de versión de "El ceremonial", de Lovecraft pero sustituyendo los antiguos cultos impíos a criaturas pulposas por la morbosa iconografía cristiana fascinada con el martirio y la muerte. Curiosamente, este es el único cuento de Aickman que he leído en el que sabía lo que iba a ocurrir desde el minuto uno, pero aún así resulta satisfactorio por su cuidada ambientación y la capacidad de crear inquietud en el lector por medio del absurdo.
"The Next Glade" es un típico relato Aickman en el que el conflicto psicológico de la protagonista se manifiesta exteriormente en una serie de acontecimientos muy extraños sin que ella sea consciente de que esta serie de movidas muy raras tienen su origen en sus deseos reprimidos: el adulterio y la necesidad de desprenderse de las responsabilidades familiares. Otros rasgos muy aickmanianos del cuento son el bosque como símbolo del subconsciente y esa corriente de sexo chungo soterrado que Aickman emplea creando una atmósfera inquietante e irreal. Y finalmente, "Bind Your Hair", un estupendo relato de "horror folk" británico sobre extraños cultos de la Inglaterra arcana, un poco en la línea de las películas "El hombre de mimbre", "La garra de satán" o "Kill List", donde de nuevo el conflicto psicológico de una mujer de visita a su familia política en el campo se funde con los extravagantes acontecimientos que habrá de contemplar, las relaciones sociales de un villorrio inglés interpretadas como un arcaico y extraño culto.
Finalmente quisiera dejar claro que estas son únicamente interpretaciones mías de los cuentos de Aickman, porque quizá lo más interesante de los relatos aickmanianos sea su riqueza temática y su ambigüedad, su vaguedad subconsciente, dejando la puerta abierta a nuevas relecturas, nuevas interpretaciones, nuevos significados, como si le hablara más a nuestro inconsciente que a nuestro yo racional, ese pequeño y retorcido homúnculo que cree, erróneamente, estar al mando de las turbulentas mareas que gobiernan nuestra mente.
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May 16, 2023Eight more strange stories from Aickman, who I hadn't realised was the grandson of Richard Marsh (not the Die Hard one, unless there's some serious Cable shenanigans afoot). On the front cover ST Joshi proclaims that "There are few writers who are as purely pleasurable to read", which serves mainly to confirm what an odd cove ST Joshi is; Aickman is an excellent writer, but for me one who goes beyond the unease standard for his genre to an almost physical itchiness. Gaiman, on the back cover, is closer to the mark: "Reading Robert Aickman is like watching a magician work, and very often I'm not even sure what the trick was. All I know is that he did it beautifully." Because often, I couldn't even quite paraphrase what it was that happened in these stories, let alone why it should be so horrific. When the protagonists survive, I think some of them might be in the same boat - in later life this won't be their defining trauma, the heart of their nightmares, just a moment that sometimes comes back to them with a little shudder. That makes Aickman sound inconsequential, which he isn't, though as ever the biographical material struggles not to make him sound petty: of course he had an enormous feud with LTC Rolt, the other ghost writer of note in the Inland Waterways Association. And maybe it's that pettiness which was the engine for Aickman's horror; just as Arthur Machen spent much of his career crafting stories to get across something of the vast and magnificent things he apprehended when he saw a bright house against a dark wood, so there are stories here which I suspect are structures intended to communicate the sheer ghastliness of litter in a suburban woodland, or realising your in-laws are well-meaning but fundamentally dull. Stories where the real horror isn't what may be lurking on the moors, but the sudden realisation "If only the nature of time were entirely different!"
Elsewhere, the inciting incident may be a little closer to what you'd expect in a ghost story: getting lost on your first trip overseas, 'there bain't been a Russian emigre community here forty years or more', or spooked in a cathedral. What exactly are you scared of at times like this? Well, Aickman still won't show it exactly, doesn't even come as close as Lovecraft's pointed non-descriptions, but will leave you with the sense of having stumbled further into its lair, been luckier to make it out. A terrible detachment between the sexes is often part of what's up, which could have left the tales feeling dated, except that for the most part it's just one facet of a more general separation of people one from another, a universal aloneness. The title story, and the one whose bristly lead seems most reminiscent of the author, is perhaps not the best choice of starting point; it's arguably the least unsettling thing here, and definitely the one whose premise ('an old house is dusty. No, *really* dusty') one can most readily imagine mocked by the Midnight Society. So maybe come back to that one. But just look at that gorgeous Tim McDonagh cover, the absolute certainty that something untoward is happening in that countryside. The highest praise I can give the other stories here is that they live up to that picture.
Elsewhere, the inciting incident may be a little closer to what you'd expect in a ghost story: getting lost on your first trip overseas, 'there bain't been a Russian emigre community here forty years or more', or spooked in a cathedral. What exactly are you scared of at times like this? Well, Aickman still won't show it exactly, doesn't even come as close as Lovecraft's pointed non-descriptions, but will leave you with the sense of having stumbled further into its lair, been luckier to make it out. A terrible detachment between the sexes is often part of what's up, which could have left the tales feeling dated, except that for the most part it's just one facet of a more general separation of people one from another, a universal aloneness. The title story, and the one whose bristly lead seems most reminiscent of the author, is perhaps not the best choice of starting point; it's arguably the least unsettling thing here, and definitely the one whose premise ('an old house is dusty. No, *really* dusty') one can most readily imagine mocked by the Midnight Society. So maybe come back to that one. But just look at that gorgeous Tim McDonagh cover, the absolute certainty that something untoward is happening in that countryside. The highest praise I can give the other stories here is that they live up to that picture.
April 16, 2025
Сподобалась навіть більше ніж інша, тут такі самі моторошні оповідання і більше жінок.
The unsettled dust - сама назва яка красива. Пилюка, яка не опала (між вами). Дві жінки в дивному домі, привид померлого, збитого насмерть чоловіка одної з них (збитого іншою?) і як це все плететься і не опадає.
The houses of the russians - поїздка в екзотичні фінські землі і дома росіян залиті кровʼю, доволі круті образи
No stronger than a flower - це взагалі зе бест, дружина яка не йде на поводу у чоловіка і стає гротескною маскою, яку він вже ніколи не пізнає
The cicerones - всяка неясна чортівня в церкві, куди ж без цього
The next glade - чудове про подружню зраду, а може просто бажання іншого життя, і чи був таки той чоловік "на наступній галявині" так і не зрозуміло.
Ravissante - зваблива дивна жінка по-старше, якої може і не було
Bind your hair - знов подружнє життя вс. нон-конформізм, сільське вс. міське
The Stains - цікаве про конфлікт патріархату і сучасного світу, традиції і сучасності, хаосу і спокою, репресованої сексуальності, і тд і тп, ну і звісно якийсь мох як метафора природи, яка буде жити навіть у "найнесприятливіших" умовах
The unsettled dust - сама назва яка красива. Пилюка, яка не опала (між вами). Дві жінки в дивному домі, привид померлого, збитого насмерть чоловіка одної з них (збитого іншою?) і як це все плететься і не опадає.
The houses of the russians - поїздка в екзотичні фінські землі і дома росіян залиті кровʼю, доволі круті образи
No stronger than a flower - це взагалі зе бест, дружина яка не йде на поводу у чоловіка і стає гротескною маскою, яку він вже ніколи не пізнає
The cicerones - всяка неясна чортівня в церкві, куди ж без цього
The next glade - чудове про подружню зраду, а може просто бажання іншого життя, і чи був таки той чоловік "на наступній галявині" так і не зрозуміло.
Ravissante - зваблива дивна жінка по-старше, якої може і не було
Bind your hair - знов подружнє життя вс. нон-конформізм, сільське вс. міське
The Stains - цікаве про конфлікт патріархату і сучасного світу, традиції і сучасності, хаосу і спокою, репресованої сексуальності, і тд і тп, ну і звісно якийсь мох як метафора природи, яка буде жити навіть у "найнесприятливіших" умовах
November 24, 2018
The forth of the available Robert Aickman collections that I have read and I’m sad that it’s the last. Unusually for a book of short stories, it gets better as it goes along. The first two are great but they make use of a more conventional form than the author’s fans might be used to. It’s when things get weirder that the writing begins to soar, starting with ‘No Stronger than a Flower’, where a newlywed visits a beauty consultant and an unstoppable transformation begins. Aickman’s best stories feel like they possess an internal logic, but the logic is just beyond the reader’s grasp. Like nightmares, they are constructed from familiar parts that don’t quite fit together as they should but seem to make some kind of terrible sense at the time. Who can say what the budding painter really encounters when he visits the old woman’s apartment in ‘Rivissante’? I’ve can only guess, but it’s one of the most entertainingly unsettling passages of weird prose I’ve ever come across.
July 7, 2018
Contains much of this master of the short story's best work, from the folk horror of "Bind Your Hair" to the fungal gothic romance of "The Stains." Only the title story and "Houses of the Russians" fall short of Aickman's highest marks, and even those tales have their merits. There is no one like Aickman, and Faber are to be commended for bringing these back into print.
May 9, 2024
If you are after stories about deterioration and uncertainty that comes with age, this book will get your motor going. Generally, I liked the themes, but they are very timid and mild. I appreciate Aickman's art more when he plunges fully into the mysterious depths of reality.
March 24, 2023
Perfectly unsettling and not at all dusty.
October 3, 2021
Really recommend Robert Aickman's strange stories! He unsettles me in a similar way to Shirley Jackson. Love this kind of horror.
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