An Ecstasy of Fear

by W.H. Pugmire, S.T. Joshi (Introduction), Gwabryel (Illustrator)

"Centipede Press" second collection of stories by Wilum Pugmire contains the author’s hand-picked greatest stories and prose poems (with no overlap with the first "Centipede Press" collection, The Tangled Muse). Profusely illustrated by Tom Brown, the book also features a dustjacket by Camille Alquier, frontispiece by Matthew Jaffe, and an interior illustration by Gwabryel.

Contents:
- Introduction
- "The Black Winged Ones"
- "Gathered Dust"
- "An Ecstasy of Fear"
- "Let Us Wash This Thing"
- "Artifice"
- "Letters from an Old Gent"
- "The Imps of Innsmouth"
- "Smooth Artifact of Bone"
- "Some Unknown Gulf of Night"
- "An Identity in Dream"
- "Hempen Rope"
- "Chamber of Dreams"
- "Unhallowed Places"
- "House of Legend"
- "A Shadow of Your Own Design"
- "Cesare"
- "To See Beyond"
- "A Quest of Dream"
- "Pickman's Lazarus"
- "To Dance Among Your Puppets"
- "Ye Horror on Tempest Hill"
- "Underneath an Arkham Moon"
- Source Credits

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2019

About the author

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire (born William Harry Pugmire, 1951–2019) was a writer of weird fiction and horror fiction based in Seattle, Washington. His works typically were published as W.H. Pugmire (his adopted middle name derives from the story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe) and his fiction often paid homage to the lore of Lovecraftian horror. Lovecraft scholar and biographer S.T. Joshi described Pugmire as "the prose-poet of the horror/fantasy field; he may be the best prose-poet we have" and as one of the genre's leading Lovecraftian authors.

Wilum lived in Seattle, WA and wrote Cthulhu Mythos fiction full-time. He was the self-proclaimed "Queen of Eldritch Horror". Writing weird fiction was his life, but congestive heart failure slowed his writing. He considered his finest books to be Some Unknown Gulf of Night (Arcane Wisdom Press 2011), Uncommon Places (Hippocampus Press 2012) and The Tangled Muse (Centipede Press 2011).

Reviews

[Karl]

This hardcover is numbered 40 of 300 copies, and is signed by:

Wilum Pugmire
S. T. Joshi
Camille Alquier
Tom Brown
Matthew Jaffe

Contents:

009 - Introduction
013 - "The Black Winged Ones"
021 - "Gathered Dust"
049 - "An Ecstasy of Fear"
075 - "Let Us Wash This Thing"
081 - "Artifice"
083 - "Letters from an Old Gent"
089 - "The Imps of Innsmouth"
095 - "Smooth Artifact of Bone"
103 - "Some Unknown Gulf of Night"
195 - "An Identity in Dream"
197 - "Hempen Rope"
199 - "Chamber of Dreams"
203 - "Unhallowed Places"
225 - "House of Legend"
227 - "A Shadow of Your Own Design"
233 - "Cesare"
235 - "To See Beyond"
253 - "A Quest of Dream"
267 - "Pickman's Lazarus"
279 -"To Dance Among Your Puppets"
289 - "Ye Horror on Tempest Hill"
309 - "Underneath an Arkham Moon"
319 - Source Credits

[Romuald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quote: "Brother of mine, tainted by my adoration, your breath is cosmic mistral that speaks the poison of Baudelaire, and I imbibe the alchemy. My star-brimmed eyes leak tears for you, beautiful and lonesome eidolon, my phantom-double; creature of desire and dismay." (from "Letters from an old gent")

One more quote: "They call to you with dreaming, from their sunken cities or their pits of cosmic void. They drink your lunacies and fears." (from "To see beyond")

Wilum Pugmire is quite a fascinating character... and an underestimated writer. Most people, maybe like at least 99.999%, have never heard of him. But within the very limited weird fiction genre he’s got almost a cult following. Funny enough, I also got absorbed into this cult so smoothly that I didn't even have time to contemplate on what was happening before it happened. There is something about this Boy George of literature, this Oscar Wilde of the new weird...



"An Ecstasy of Fear" is one of the lengthier Pugmire books and contains the author’s hand-picked greatest stories and prose-poems of recents collections, as well as several unpublished stories. Published by Centipede Press, signed and limited to just 300 copies, as well as illustrated beautifully by several illustrators, the book is impossible not to appreciate. There are no weak stories in this collection, but quite a few are absurd and macabre to the point that the inexperienced in weird fiction reader might discard this book too quickly. I would suggest reading Lovecraft or other weird fiction authors first before moving onto Pugmire as he is not easy to understand from the first touch.

Pugmire's fascination with both literature and old eras is obvious, and I love the feeling of reading the expressed appreciation of these in his stories, like here:
“He liked to imagine that he would have preferred to have lived in an earlier era, a time when, perhaps, life would not have been so complicated for a fellow such as himself. He had often felt a loner in the modern world, which was one reason he loved books, that world into which he could escape neoteric time. He felt, here in this entrance way to the building, that he had stepped into an earlier epoch, away from the dull prevailing age." (from "To see beyond")

Much of the material in this book feels like a tribute to Lovecraft, and Pugmire himself makes it clear that it is indeed so, by stating this in the beginning of the book. Most stories have a cosmic feel, but Pugmire is careful not to use Lovecraft mythology, instead he creates his own cosmic "gulf", his universe, where Sesqua Valley plays a central role, much as Arkham or Innsmouth do so in Lovecraft books. Moreover, Pugmire cleverly plays with our perception of these realms, where stories can appear as fantasies within a fantasy, which gives us an impression that the unrealistic world that accommodates the "magick" is actually quite real.

P.S. *** for Pugmire nerds *** Even if you've read some of the same Pugmire stories before, it is not a bad idea to read these anew in this collection, as Pugmire is known to rewrite his stories: some with minor wording changes, some somewhat more substantial. For instance, "Some Unknown Gulf of Night" cycle of sonnets differs somewhat from the original one which was published in 2011 by Arcane Wisdom. Firstly, one might notice some minor changes in wordings in many sonnets. Secondly, some are completely rewritten into new ones (XII, XIII, XXIX) or substantially rewritten (XXI).

My attempt to grade stories in this collection:
(📚 - indicate longer stories)

★★★★★ (5/5)
- The Black Winged Ones
- Gathered Dust 📚
- Letters from an Old Gent
- The Imps of Innsmouth
- Smooth Artifact of Bone
- Some Unknown Gulf of Night 📚
- An Identity in Dream
- Unhallowed Places 📚
- House of Legend
- A Shadow of Your Own Design
- To See Beyond 📚
- A Quest of Dream
- Pickman's Lazarus
- Ye Horror on Tempest Hill (A Presence of the Past) 📚

★★★★ (4/5)
- An Ecstasy of Fear 📚
- Let Us Wash This Thing
- Artifice
- Hempen Rope
- Chamber of Dreams
- Cesare
- To Dance Among Your Puppets
- Underneath an Arkham Moon