From the Abyss: Weird Fiction, 1907-1940

Handheld Weirds #6

by D.K. Broster, Melissa Edmundson (Introduction)

D K Broster’s Weird fiction has long been forgotten, but she wrote some of the most impressive British supernatural short stories published between the wars. Melissa Edmundson, editor of Women’s Weird, Women’s Weird 2, and Helen Simpson’s The Outcast and The Rite, all published by Handheld, has curated a selection of Broster’s best and most terrifying work. From the Abyss contains twelve stories,

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction

290 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2022

About the author

Dorothy Kathleen Broster (1877 - 1950) produced 15 popular historical novels between 1911 and 1947.

The Yellow Poppy (1920) about the adventures of an aristocratic couple during the French Revolution, was later adapted by Broster and W. Edward Stirling for the London stage in 1922. She produced her bestseller Scottish historical novel, The Flight of the Heron, in 1925. Broster stated she had consulted eighty reference books before beginning the novel. She followed it up with two successful sequels, The Gleam in the North and The Dark Mile. She wrote several other historical novels, successful and much reprinted in their day, although this Jacobite trilogy (inspired by a five-week visit to friends in Scotland), featuring the dashing hero Ewen Cameron, remains the best known.

The Flight of the Heron was adapted for BBC Radio twice, in 1944, starring Gordon Jackson as Ewen Cameron, and again in 1959, starring Bryden Murdoch as Cameron. Murdoch also starred in radio adaptations of the book's sequels, The Gleam in the North and The Dark Mile.

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dorothy K Broster was a prolific, popular author, best known for her historical novels, in particular her Jacobite trilogy, eagerly devoured by generations of British schoolchildren, it was first published in the 1920s beginning with The Flight of the Heron. She was an early graduate of Oxford like a number of women writers of her era, she seems to have shunned publicity so not much seems to be known about her personal life except that she lived with another woman for many years, perhaps coyly, referred to as her long-time companion. This collection primarily draws from Broster’s two books of supernatural short stories, and spans the period from 1907 to the 1940s. Her early stories have an antiquated feel, with the kind of atmosphere and tone I associate with early 20th-century ripping yarns: a little stilted at times or overly ornate and gung-ho, with a hint of Conan Doyle or even G. A. Henty, but her writing loosens up and becomes far more compelling in her later work. Of the eleven featured here, the most famous is “Couching at the Door” and it’s still the stand-out, a Lovecraftian narrative of revenge and unnervingly strange, creeping things. Other memorable entries include: “The Window” a bloodthirsty variation on a haunted house narrative set during WW1; “Clairvoyance” a bizarre story of hypnotism and slaughter; "The Promised Land" a macabre, near-Hitchcockian account of murder and delusion with an unusual villain; and “The Pestering” centred on an obsessive search from beyond the grave. These are not so much supernatural or ghoulish pieces or even explorations of good and evil; Broster’s focus is on relationships disrupted by the strange, the mysterious or the improbable, often surfacing in conventional, staidly, middle-class settings. I didn't find them particularly striking but they were frequently enjoyable or entertaining. This edition of her short stories is edited and introduced by Melissa Edmundson, who specialises in weird fiction from women, with background notes by Kate MacDonald.

Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher Handheld Press for an ARC

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Handheld Press has released something bordering on excellent with this collection of eleven powerfully strange stories ranging datewise from the 1900s to the 1940s.

full post is here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2022...

From the Abyss focuses on the work of author D.K. Broster (1877-1950), whose stories in her 1932 collection A Fire of Driftwood caught the eye of critic HC Harwood who said (as quoted in editor Melissa Edmundson's introduction) that

"In Miss Broster's short stories there is ... a lot of kick. I refer more particularly to 'Clairvoyance' and 'The Promised Land;' either of which should have established the author as a really first-rate horrifier; a petticoated Poe."

As in the best weird stories, these two tales (and for that matter all of the tales included here) tend to start out in the realm of the ordinary and the mundane, but Broster inches the reader ever so slowly to that point where ordinary takes a strange detour. I have to say that I live for that particular moment in my reading of the weird, sitting back and watching things unfold in strange ways. While I count the two stories mentioned by Harwood in my top tier of favorites, that list is headed by the titular "From the Abyss" largely because it's so visible in my head from the first page onward and also because it is so out there, a definite plus. There are also eight more to enjoy; out of these the only one I'd read previously is "Couching at the Door" but its inclusion here didn't dampen my enthusiasm for another read. And then there's "The Taste of Pomegranates" which wins my vote for most disturbing.

I seem to have joyfully landed in my reading element here with this book, with its blending of the supernatural, the weird, obsession, history, art and social commentary but more to the point, with the discovery of an author from long ago whose work is new to me. My many thanks to Handheld Press for my e-copy; while their website offers August 9th as the release date, I found a hard copy at Amazon which now sits with the other books I've bought from this publisher. Some day I would love to just sit and chat with Melissa Edmundson, who somehow manages to find the best authors from bygone days, bringing them to the attention of modern readers. From the Abyss is truly a gem of a collection that should absolutely not be missed by readers of the weird and the strange; it is also a book I can certainly and highly recommend.

[Ends of the Word · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Kathleen Broster was in 1877 near Liverpool. She achieved a second-class degree in Modern History at Oxford in 1900, although she had to wait until 1920, when at last women students were permitted to receive their degrees, to formally get her BA and MA. For thirteen years, Broster was secretary to Sir Charles Harding Firth, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and then worked as a nurse in the First World War before eventually dedicating her life to writing. Her knowledge of history proved useful in Broster’s career as author. In her lifetime she was best known for her historical novels, most of which have naval settings. She was particularly famous for her Jacobite Trilogy, a bestselling series of novels which remained in wide circulation in Scotland up to very recently: The Flight of the Heron (1925), inspired by a visit to Lochaber, was followed by The Gleam in the North in 1927 and The Dark Mile in 1929.

Broster’s forays into weird fiction are a relatively minor, but hardly insignificant, share of her output, found primarily in her two collections A Fire of Driftwood (1932) and Couching at the Door (1942). Broster was a very private individual and, reading Edmundson’s typically illuminating and erudite biographical introduction to the volume, one senses the editor’s difficulty in discovering details about the author beyond what results from her publications. In this context, it is quite tantalising to conjecture what might have sparked Broster’s interest in occult subjects – much darker fare to what she usually wrote. That said, there is certainly an overlap in the author’s sources of inspiration, with many of the featured supernatural stories in this volume also having a strong historical background. For instance, the events in Fils d’Émigré take place in 1795 during the French Revolution, and many of the other stories, albeit set in the present, follow well-established traditions of supernatural fiction, where the past encroaches on the modern world. In The Window, a young British army officer on duty in France is trapped by a falling sash window in a deserted chateau, an accident which leads to visions of past violence during the French Revolution. The Taste of Pomegranates (featured in a previously unpublished version) is a peculiar “time slip” story, where the protagonists have an unexpected glimpse of the Palaeolithic Age. The Pavement refers to an ancient Roman mosaic and the strange pull it exerts on its elderly custodian – it can be read as much as a “supernatural” story as one of obsession and madness. But perhaps in this respect the most effective piece is The Pestering, the longest item in this volume. A couple buy a Tudor-era house, and soon start to be bothered by an insistent stranger who wants to be let inside. After a quasi-comic start to it, the tale becomes darker and eerier – this is a different take on the “haunted house” genre.

Although I find the “history” element to be one of the defining ingredients of Broster’s oeuvre, let me contradict myself immediately by stating that some of her most chilling works do not involve any historical aspects at all. I have in mind, for instance, Couching at the Door, the title-piece from Broster’s 1942 collection and one of her more widely-anthologised weird tales. At its heart is the unsettling image of a fur boa which supernaturally comes to life – a shocking souvenir of a disgusting ritual conducted by decadent poet Augustine Marchant. The details of the occult ceremony are left untold, but readers are nudged towards reaching their own conclusions about its contents, based on the horrid consequences of that “glamorous, wonderful, abominable night in Prague”. Also notable is the story which which lends the title to the present volume – From the Abyss tells of a survivor of a car crash who develops a doppelgänger, leading to a tragic conclusion. This is a truly original tale which shows that Broster was not content with simply following the rich tradition of speculative fiction, but was a distinctive voice who actively contributed to it. Kudos to Melissa Edmundson and Handheld Press for bringing her stories to a new public, in a high-quality annotated edition.

This is the full list of stories in the volume, which I heartily recommend:

· ‘All Souls Day’ (1907)

· ‘Fils D’Émigré’ (1913)

· ‘The Window’ (1929)

· ‘Clairvoyance’ (1932)

· ‘The Promised Land’ (1932)

· ‘The Pestering’ (1932)

· ‘Couching at the Door’ (1933)

· ‘Juggernaut’ (1935)

· ‘The Pavement’ (1938)

· ‘From the Abyss’ (1940)

· ‘The Taste of Pomegranates’ (1945)

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of D.K. Broster before, but picked this one because I have previously enjoyed Handheld Press editions. She is better known for her historical fiction and after reading these stories, I'm tempted to give them a go. As always with Handheld Press there is a great introduction and plenty of helpful notes.

Some of the earlier stories reminded me a bit of M.R. James, in the atmosphere they conjured, if not the quality of the stories, but the later ones have their own, distinct flavour. As always, some work better than others, and my personal favourites were The Pestering, a longer story than the rest, about a presence pestering to get into a couples house and Juggernaut, about an old man who seems a bit strange after the death of an old lady he used to take about in his Bath chair. I was less keen on Couching at the Door, which is probably the most well known of these stories. At first I wasn't too sure I was going to get on with these stories, but by the end I really liked them and will probably be looking out for more by her.

*Many thanks to Edelweiss Plus and Handheld Press for a copy in exchange for and honest opinion.*

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5!!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does not pay to be too fastidious when writing weird fiction. Poe certainly wasn't; and not even Henry James was as fastidious as D K Broster when he wrote The Turn of the Screw and his other stories. I enjoyed the stories in From the Abyss: Weird Fiction, 1907-1945, but only up to a point. She never seemed to take that extra step that sent a shiver down the reader's spine.

Of the eleven stories in the collection, I enjoyed "The Promised Land," even though it was as much a mystery as a weird story; "The Pestering"; and "Juggernaut."

[Carole Tyrrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only story that I had previously read by D K Broster was ‘Couching at the Door’ a sinister tale of a fashionable playwright (perhaps reminiscent of Oscar Wilde) who is menaced by a mysterious entity….
So having the opportunity to read ‘From the Abyss’ was a real treat as it was a collection of her supernatural stories which included ‘Couching at the Door.’
However, D K Broster or Dorothy Kathleen Broster, was primarily known as a historical novelist. ‘The Flight of the Heron’ which was the first part of a Jacobean trilogy is probably her best known work and she also wrote historical romances set in the 18th or 19th centuries. This collection of her supernatural short stories is from Handheld Press and has their usual high production values. In the introduction, Melissa Edmundson, discusses Broster’s historical novels and work and this showed in the stories in ‘Into the Abyss’. The cover features a fashionable lady of the 1920’s wearing a red cloche hat staring enigmatically out at the reader. Broster’s supernatural tales were well regarded at the time they were published and she was described as a ‘petticoat Poe’!
Some of my favourites were:
‘The Window’ features Romilly, an Army officer who is desperate to get into a deserted chateau to go exploring and lives to regret it. The window of the title falls, imprisons him and there is to be no escape as he is there to avenge an ancient injustice.
Strode Manor in ‘Clairvoyance’ repels the local villagers as they are ‘frightened of seeing the ghosts’ of a young girl and a small boy. The young girl, Cynthia, is encouraged to try out her clairvoyant skills on an ancient Japanese katana sword with deadly results. The cosy English drawing room and garden become touched by something more deadly and brutal.
Ellen Wright in ‘The Promised Land’ is on holiday in Italy. She has always wanted to visit the country but alas she is not alone. Caroline Murchison, with whom she lives, has accompanied her and Ellen wishes she hadn’t. Caroline is bossy, determined and Ellen trails in her wake like a minnow following a whale. Ellen is alone in the world and after a muddle with investments Caroline was able to buy Rosemead, Ellen’s home, and move in. In Italy they are dismissed by one observer as ‘two old Baedekerites.’ Eventually Ellen resorts to desperate measures but is it too late……A fine study of madness and frustration. Freedom at last or is it?
‘The Pestering’ is the longest tale in the collection and in which a couple buy a Tudor-era house and start to offer teas. They begin to be pestered by a stranger who demands to be let inside. And one day he is by accident. It builds to a climax in the attic as they find out what he wants.
‘The Pavement’ has also been recently serialised in the ‘Strange Relics’ collection also from Handheld Press which features a Roman mosaic and its devoted, perhaps obsessional custodian.
In ‘Couching at the Door, the reader is never made explicitly aware of what Augustus Marchant did to attract his sinister visitor but his attempts to lose it end in a worse horror. Broster’s insinuations and hints are more disturbing that if she stated them outright.
This is a good collection and again Handheld are to be congratulated on their finding another writer of weird fiction who has fallen out of the public eye. It was encouraging to read more stories by an author who has one story that often appears in anthologies. There was so much more to D K Broster.

[Julia O'Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this collection, I was familiar with D. K. Broster only from her short story “Couching at the Door,” which was my favorite of the tales collected in Volume 1 of Women’s Weird, also edited by Melissa Edmundson. In the introduction to From the Abyss, Edmundson explains that Broster was fairly well known—especially in Scotland—for her historical novels, but that her short stories have not received nearly the attention they deserve. Broster’s work with thoroughly researched historical fiction informs her approach to supernatural stories. Indeed, Edmundson highlights the idea of the past haunting the present—which I consider the core tenet of the Gothic—as one of the main themes pervading Broster’s works. Other common themes include blurred boundaries and identities, possession, and obsession. Following the introduction are eleven tales spanning Broster’s half-century writing career, presented in chronological order.

See my full review: https://www.thegothiclibrary.com/revi...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest of Handheld Press’s series of weird fiction by neglected women writers features eleven tales whose chronological arrangement reveals how Dorothy Keane Broster’s uncanny stories evolved out of her métier, historical fiction. Relics feature prominently in many of these stories, such as the guillotine-like revenge of a sash window in an old French house in The Window, or in the cunningly framed Clairvoyance, in which a razor-sharp ancient katana is improbably reunited with its samurai master, to supremely terrifying effect. Other stories have the macabre relish of John Collier, as in The Promised Land, where tensions between frumpy traveling companions erupt in the city of Dante. Broster’s best known story, Crouching at the Door, succeeds in evoking shudders from a fur boa, the embodiment of a fin de siècle author’s decadent affectations, and a ghastly transgression committed for their sake. Both subtle and sudden, this solid collection artfully combines vivid atmosphere, supernatural horror and psychological terror across a diverting variety of conceits.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the first time I read something by this author and I will surely read other books as I found the storytelling and the stories fascinating.
I was glad to discover this new to me author.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were deliciously eerier by the fourth. I would recommend this to someone who appreciates weird/horror/supernatural tales of the unexpected and unexplicable, from the early 20th-century. A glossary at the back translates and explains foreign and archaic expressions, phrases, and nouns.

[Delcene Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird stories indeed.

Delightfully creepy stories.

I enjoyed the different style of writing too.

[Syd ⭐️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting paranormal short stories. Compared to other spooky short stories from this time, I’m thinking particularly of Ghosts by Edith Wharton which this book reminded me most of, this one is slightly more inaccessible in its language and plot. The highlights for me were “The Window” and “From The Abyss”

[Meg Bats and Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possessed katanas ⚔, unhinged septuagenarian murderesses 👵🏻🩸, cursed bronze statues 🗿, destructive elderly spinsters obsessed with a Roman mosaic ☠️ – these are just a few of the eccentric subject matters we come across in this collection of short stories by D K Broster. In style, they're comparable to M. R. James’s antiquarian horror, but Broster seems more focused on the psychological horror, despite the Gothic props and the supernatural elements frequently used in her stories.

I am an absolute fan of a Victorian-adjacent horror story evolving around a cursed archaeological artefact in a quiet British countryside🏺. Hence, when the first story started with “The old priest was out when we called at the presbytére, but we were told by his housekeeper that he would soon be back, and were invited to wait in the parlour,” I instantly knew this collection would be my utter comfort read.

The stories take place in realistically described historical settings, with vivid characters who usually struggle with intense emotions. This is where the “weird” factor comes in – the strength of these stories is in the exploration of human mind’s susceptibility to psychological/supernatural disturbances and the absolutely deranged results that vulnerability may lead to. 😱

To balance that, some of the stories feature flashes of unexpected and wicked humour, often emphasising the ironic turns of events.

My absolute favourites are:

“Couching at the Door” – a decadent writer begins to realise the horrific consequences of an unforgivable act he committed in an occult ceremony;

“Juggernaut” – a Victorian bath chair goes over the cliff… with a very complex turn of horrific events leading to it. It also presents one writer’s losing fight with typos, which had me laugh out loud. 🤣

I am aware that this genre is rather niche, but if you like weird fiction, I heartily recommend this collection!

[Steven Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very kind of "gentle" read, given many of them were written 70-odd years ago. Still, they are well written and intriguing, coming, obviously, from a very different mindset and time.