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Eight Tales
Eight Walter de la Eight Arkham FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Arkham House, 1971. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good. Dust jacket is very good. Great copy of this collection of science fiction and fantasy stories. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 344426 Science-Fiction & Fantasy We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
- GenresHorror
108 pages, Hardcover
18 people want to read
About the author
Walter de la Mare
526 books173 followersWalter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fiction, including "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows". In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 18, 2015
This was a decent collection of stories, I don't think it's a good representation of Walter de la Mare's best work generally, however they will give one a taste of the great atmosphere de la Mare was able to put into prose. These stories are often very short, often as short as 2,000 words. Some of these come off as very brief "mood pieces."
"Kismet" is a very brief, dark little tale that generates some atmosphere and mood of dread. It's got the same feel as a conte cruel. It's about a man who hitches a ride on a cart with an nonspeaking rider, both bound for what ends up being eerily similar reasons.
"The Hangman's Luck" is another short, weird story also about two people with an eerie connection neither of them realizes until the end of the story.
"A Mote" was one of the best stories in this collection -- it's got some creepy moments, but turns into something far more imaginative, expressing the power of de la Mare's imagination vividly. Not to give too much away, it's about a man's uncle who is able to roll his eyes back into his head and starts to have the most incredible visions which start to affect his own life.
"The Village of Old Age" is a sort of atmospheric "mood piece" more than a story I thought, but I enjoyed it on that level. It's about a man who visits an old friend in a strange village where everything seems to have been warped by age.
"The Moon's Miracle" has an interesting concept, but I found the first half of it to be confusing and a bit over-written. A count and his friend witness two armies in the sky fight it out over the course of the night, above London.
"The Giant" is a very short story about a boy fearful that the Devil himself lurks in his aunt's garden.
"De Mortius" is sort of interesting but ultimately forgettable overall. This one has a neat sense of place about it, but not much atmospherics like the others. It follows a man exploring a cemetery and reading the various inscriptions about those who are buried there.
"A:B:O" is the longest story, coming in at a mere 7,000~ words. It's a good, if rather vague story with some scary moments, but it also has a rather wry, odd humor to it as well. A man and his friend dig up a box from a garden and discover an aborted fetus within it which is still alive, and which comes to haunt them.
"Kismet" is a very brief, dark little tale that generates some atmosphere and mood of dread. It's got the same feel as a conte cruel. It's about a man who hitches a ride on a cart with an nonspeaking rider, both bound for what ends up being eerily similar reasons.
"The Hangman's Luck" is another short, weird story also about two people with an eerie connection neither of them realizes until the end of the story.
"A Mote" was one of the best stories in this collection -- it's got some creepy moments, but turns into something far more imaginative, expressing the power of de la Mare's imagination vividly. Not to give too much away, it's about a man's uncle who is able to roll his eyes back into his head and starts to have the most incredible visions which start to affect his own life.
"The Village of Old Age" is a sort of atmospheric "mood piece" more than a story I thought, but I enjoyed it on that level. It's about a man who visits an old friend in a strange village where everything seems to have been warped by age.
"The Moon's Miracle" has an interesting concept, but I found the first half of it to be confusing and a bit over-written. A count and his friend witness two armies in the sky fight it out over the course of the night, above London.
"The Giant" is a very short story about a boy fearful that the Devil himself lurks in his aunt's garden.
"De Mortius" is sort of interesting but ultimately forgettable overall. This one has a neat sense of place about it, but not much atmospherics like the others. It follows a man exploring a cemetery and reading the various inscriptions about those who are buried there.
"A:B:O" is the longest story, coming in at a mere 7,000~ words. It's a good, if rather vague story with some scary moments, but it also has a rather wry, odd humor to it as well. A man and his friend dig up a box from a garden and discover an aborted fetus within it which is still alive, and which comes to haunt them.
May 28, 2010
This is a collection of the earliest work Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) produced, only assembled together and published fifteen years after his death. Although he made something of a name for himself in children’s literature and in the genre of ghost stories, these tales of the macabre, penned in his early days, are not scary, nor do they awaken any sort of psychological uncertainty a la Henry James. They are most interesting simply as period pieces that demonstrate the late Victorian impulse of mediocre writers to convey Romanticism through excruciatingly purple prose, and one’s time could be better spent reading elsewhere. Several of the stories offer heavy handed attempts at how imagination might help us confront Death or Old Age (or in one particularly distasteful submission, Abortion.) One thing I did like: the first line in a story entitled “A Mote”: “I awoke from a dream of a gruesome fight with a giant geranium.”
September 20, 2025
In this book of, well, eight tales, the first few are decent but I lost interest upon finishing.
November 8, 2014
Excellent collection of atmospheric Victorian-Gothic literature. While the chills (death, madness, abortion - among some others) of these stories may not be as profound as they were when written, the stories are still interesting. A good collection to read during the Halloween season.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
August 21, 2013
I had higher hopes for this one - maybe I am just to stupid to understand the prose.
January 24, 2020
I almost always pick up these small older Arkham House hardcovers if the price is right, even though the quality of them vary wildly. This book was mostly a miss for me.
Some quick wiki-background on the author: “Walter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners",[2] and for a highly acclaimed selection of subtle psychological horror stories”. Notably, “De la Mare's supernatural horror writings were a favourite of H. P. Lovecraft, who in his classic study Supernatural Horror in Literature remarked that "he is able to put into his occasional fear-studies a keen potency which only a rare master can achieve", especially praising his short stories "Seaton's Aunt", "The Tree", "Out of the Deep", "Mr Kempe", "A Recluse" and "All Hallows", along with his novel The Return.”
Now, none of those works mentioned are actually in this collection, which is a bummer because I’m not sure if I just don’t care for de la Mare’s stuff (for the most part) or if these are just poor examples of his craft. Now there are a couple of decent stories here (most notably “A:B:O” which is surprisingly fucked up for the time when it was written) but nothing in this collection is particularly essential.
Some quick wiki-background on the author: “Walter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners",[2] and for a highly acclaimed selection of subtle psychological horror stories”. Notably, “De la Mare's supernatural horror writings were a favourite of H. P. Lovecraft, who in his classic study Supernatural Horror in Literature remarked that "he is able to put into his occasional fear-studies a keen potency which only a rare master can achieve", especially praising his short stories "Seaton's Aunt", "The Tree", "Out of the Deep", "Mr Kempe", "A Recluse" and "All Hallows", along with his novel The Return.”
Now, none of those works mentioned are actually in this collection, which is a bummer because I’m not sure if I just don’t care for de la Mare’s stuff (for the most part) or if these are just poor examples of his craft. Now there are a couple of decent stories here (most notably “A:B:O” which is surprisingly fucked up for the time when it was written) but nothing in this collection is particularly essential.
November 26, 2024
The first efforts at atmospheric writing that make up this collection fall flat for me. Most of the description in most of the stories is unnecessary and tedious. On the other hand, I find it useful to read the early writings of an author like De La Mare. It reminds me how much practice improved their work, so that I do not attribute too much to the idea of the author's innate genius.
August 12, 2024
A very uneven collection of de la Mare's earlist works. A few very good stories, some, not as much.
February 6, 2024
A nice collection for de la Mare fans. His early works that showed his potential for the eerie and weird that he is known for in his future works. For the discerning of tastes of strange tales. My favorite story being A.B.O. which is the most chilling of the bunch.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews