For the 15th best scary short story in the English language for the period 1800-1849, I pick Le Revenant by Henry Thomson. This is a tale of sensation and I will comment on it later in the week. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Author of the 15th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is Henry Thomson
Henry Thomson is not well known among readers of scary short stories because he didn't write many of them. Yet Thomson gave us one gem of a scary story that I will provide a link to in my next post. It is a tale of sensation and is one of the best of the bunch for this fifty year period.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Andrew's Thoughts on "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in the May 1842 issue of Graham's Magazine. The horror short story tells of a disease ravaging the land, a disease with no cure. Here Poe calls it the Red Death in a play on the term Black Death that previously invaded Europe.
The seven differently colored rooms in the palace represent the seven stages of life, with the last being the black room, or death. Poe may have drawn on the famous lines from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. As, first the infant, mewling and pewking in his nurse’s arms. And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then the soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice in fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; and so he plays his part. The six age slips into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide for his shrunk shrank; and his manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. Here Prince Prospero (also the name of a character in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”) chases the figure. Note the first room is on the east end of the abbey and the final death room is on the west end, mirroring the birth and death of the sun each day as though life is short.
Poe is also saying that no matter how rich one is and no matter what lengths one goes to avoid death, it is inevitable; just as he knew it was inevitable for his wife Virginia to die of tuberculosis that she contracted in 1842, the year this horror story was written.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The 16th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1850 is the Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
I pick as the 16th best scary short story for the first half of the nineteenth century Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. Enjoy the free link and I will give some thoughts on the classic story later in the week.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Author of the 16th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is Edgar Allan Poe
In my view Edgar Allan Poe is the king of scary stories from 1800-1849. This is the third time he has appeared on my Top 40 countdown and it not be his last. Tomorrow I will post a link to the 16th best scary short story that was written by him. I will give you a hint: It deals with the color red.
In other news, I now have an author profile on Goodreads where I post what I am reading, etc. Since it is brand spanking new, I am looking for friends on the site and would love to hear from other Goodreads members who read my blog: Andrew Barger's Goodreads Page. Thanks!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Review of The Singular Trial of Francis Ormiston by George Soane
The scary short story that George Soane titled The Singular Trial of Francis Ormiston was first published in Volume 9 of Fraser's Magazine for 1834. This was a February issue and the scary story was published anonymously. In it the protagonist is visited by a creature that is his destiny. It changes his entire disposition and life from that point forward.
I know not how long I slept— perhaps a few hours, for the moon was nigh when I was awakened from this delicious slumber by an unknown voice calling on me by name. I looked around my chamber, and in the farthest part saw a dusky figure, almost too undefined in its outlines to be described, and wrapt about with loose robes that resembled nothing so much as the palest moonlight on a dark ground. Upon the brow of the creature was a star, and the brightness of it glanced from his pale features like the cold, watery sunbeams from a rock of ice. It was as if winter had suddenly come into the room, so chilling was the air; and there I lay, numbed by frost, my teeth chattering, my limbs immovable, and the very marrow of my bones aching with intense cold. At length I managed to stammer out, Who art thou?
He is now predestined to be "a man of blood." After this visit by the creature it is not long before the protagonist fulfills his destiny and murders. First, however, he must decide on the victim. He struggles between killing a person that the world will not miss and one who will go "pure and innocent into the grave." He picks the later.
This is the first scary short story from 1800-1849 where the protagonist must chose his own murderous destiny. One feels for the characters and the writing excels. In "The Singular Trial of Francis Ormiston" George Soane has written one of the Top 20 scary stories from this fifty year period.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The 17th Best Horror Short Story 1800-1840 is The Singular Trial of Francis Ormiston
For the 17th best horror short story for the fifty year period in question, I pick The Singualr Trial of Francis Ormiston by George Sloane. I'll give my thoughts on it later in the week. Enjoy!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Author of the 17th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is George Sloane
When discussing horror stories for the first half of the nineteenth century, George Soane (1789-1860) is rarely mentioned. He is primarily known today as a playwright and scholarly translator of foreign poems and operas into English. Soane’s strained relationship with his famous architect father, John Soane, deflected much needed attention away from his short horror fiction. It also didn’t help his literary reputation when he started publishing many of his horror short stories anonymously. They were also spread out over a period of decades and first collected in three volumes titled, The Last Ball, and Other Stories of 1841. They are all produced at a high level. There is hardly a bad story in the lot. This is the finest, overlooked collection of horror, ghost and fantasy short stories by one author during the period in question. I hope to stem the tide of obscurity for George Sloane regarding his fine horror and ghost stories and it will begin with my next post of the 17th best horror short story from 1800-1849.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Comments on The Black Cat Scary Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Years before the black raven was ingrained into the minds of Americans as a reminder of lost love, another sable animal gained Edgar Allan Poe fame. The Black Cat ranks as one of Poe’s best horror short stories and one of the best from 1800-1849. I have picked it as the 18th best scary short story. Poe actually owned a black cat in 1840 when he published a short article entitled “Instinct vs. Reason.” Here is a snippet: The writer of this article is the owner of one of the most remarkable black cats in the world – and this is saying much; for it will be remembered that black cats are all of them witches. The one in question has not a white hair about her, and is of a demure and sanctified demeanor. He followed this line of thinking in the tale when speaking of the fictional cat:
This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point—and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.
Poe was a lover of cats to be sure. Besides his black cat, he owned a tabby cat with his wife, Virginia, named Catterina. Like many of his tales, there are other autobiographical elements here. As a child Poe killed a pet bird owned by his foster mother, Frances Allan, and later felt guilt and remorse. Poe gives a similar account of the cat:
When I first beheld this apparition—for I could scarcely regard it as less—my wonder and my terror were extreme. But at length reflection came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had been hung in a garden adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd—by some one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown, through an open window, into my chamber. This had probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I saw it.
"The Black Cat" was first published in the August 19, 1843 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It employs the most effective use of an animal for any of the Top 40 scary short stories of this period. The fine writing and building terror plant it firmly as the 18th best scary short story on the countdown.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The 18th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
I have chosen The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe as the 18 best scary short story for the fifty year period in question. Enjoy the free link and I will give my thoughts on it later in the week.
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