Brief Review of HP Lovecraft Short Stories Book Posted

H.P. Lovecraft

(1890-1837)

Lovecraft is often portrayed as the successor to Poe in the genre of short horror stories, but after reading Lovecraft's stories (and editing Edgar Allan Poe Annotated Short Stories), I can tell you that he is no Poe. Lovecraft is much less a pioneer than Poe in both character and Gothic atmosphere. Lovecraft gave us the Cthulhu Mythos of cosmic horrors, of ancient horrors lying dormant, of horrors that transcend space and time and dimensions. He holds his rightful place of high esteem in horror literature for this and must be remembered as a result. 

Lovecraft studied Poe. He worshiped him and rightly so. He wrote "The Outsider" in apparent homage to Poe. But the similarities stop there. Let's not forget that Poe wrote 80-100 years before Lovecraft, too. Lovecraft also used the word "foetid" more than any other writer that has ever lived by a factor of ten, but that's another article. Plus, he looked downright creepy, too. Although Lovecraft was no Poe he gave us some great stories and these are my favorites:

"The Call of Cthulhu"
"The Colour Out of Space"
"The Dunwich Horror"

Vampire Anthology Book Trailer

Vampire season is upon us and with it brings thoughts of classic bloodthirsty creatures. So here is the book trailer for The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849 for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Best_Vampire_Stories_Trailer_2.wmv Watch on Posterous

Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

On June 5, 2012, Ray Bradbury passed away.

To his millions of readers, he will live on through his myriad short stories and a few novels that are destined to be classics. The first is Fahrenheit 451, a nineteenth century classic that warns of the dangers of censorship and the banning of books. The second Bradbury classic is Something Wicked This Way Comes, with a title no less intriguing than the first.

In SWTWC Bradbury has given the world a fiendish tale reflected through the eyes of two young boys and their wonderment about a traveling circus. At times the metaphors, the similes, the personifications are overwritten; but mostly they sing across this dark field of a novel, soaring over flapping circus tents and the bizarre inside them. Though lesser known than the decade older “Fahrenheit 451,” SWTWC is a classic that will be read for decades to come. There have also been a few movies, too.

Even Robert Smith of The Cure has been playing a new song about the death of his brother that heavily uses the title of the book. The title is "I Can Never Say Goodbye."

Ray Bradbury isn’t dead. He lives on and plays on. Long live Ray Bradbury.

#SomethingWickedThisWayComes #RayBradbury #Bradbury #Fahrenheit451 #SomethingWickedReview

Andrew Barger Interview on The Best Vampires Stories 1800-1849 Anthology

Below are answers to questions about The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Vampire Anthology. Enjoy!

Interview with Andrew Barger

Q1. Why did you focus on the first half of the 19th century for your first vampire anthology?
A1. I knew the first vampire short story written in the English language was "The Vampyre" by John Polidori. He published it in 1819. There was obviously fresh dirt, so to speak, for this period and I started digging. I wanted to start from the beginning just as I did with The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849,The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 and The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849.

Q2. Did you unearth anything of note in vampire lore?
A2. Yes. I was surprised to find the first vampire short story penned by an American that has remained buried for nearly two centuries. It was published only months after Polidori's. It was titled "The Black Vampyre" and was published under a pseudonym by a Columbia University Law School graduate. In the book I demonstrate who the actual author was as background to the story. From my research it is also the first short story to advocate freedom for black slaves.

Q3. That is substantial. So you include background information on each story in the collection?
A3. Also author photos, publication dates and a list of stories read at the end of the book.  In the print version I include annotations like I did with the other books.

Q4. You stated that in your estimation Edgar Allan Poe wrote one third of the best horror stories for the fifty years in question, as well as one of the best ghost stories in "The Mask of the Red Death." Did he write any vampire stories?
A4. There is much speculation about this. Some assert "Ligeia" and "Berenice" are vampire stories but I dispel this in the Introduction: "With Teeth." In my view Poe did not pen a vampire tale. I didn't believe this when editing Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems and I don't now. It is also of note that neither Nathaniel Hawthorne nor Washington Irving wrote a vampire story, either.

Q5. Who are some of the more famous authors in the anthology?
A5. I mentioned John Polidori, Lord Byron's traveling doctor. Alexander Dumas, Joseph le Fanu and Théophile Gautier all have stories in the collection.

Q6. Do you have a favorite?
A6. "Clarimonde" by Gautier is the foremost thing of its kind. Of course Gautier had the advantage of all the great stories that came before his.

Q7. The strangest name has to be "Pepopukin in Corsica." How did you come across it?
A7. It was published in an old magazine in 1826. It is just the third vampire story originally published in the English language. It has not been republished since. The author was not given, only the initials A.Y. I was able to learn that it was Arthur Young who wrote a number of travel books based in France. "Pepopukin in Corsica" is the first vampire story to include poetry.

Q8. Didn't Polidori write "The Vampyre" in response to a bet by Mary Shelley? 
A8. There's a story within a story on that one. Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori challenged one another to write a ghost story. Mary ultimately wrote Prometheus Unbound (that we know now as Frankenstein) and Lord Byron penned a fragment of a vampire story that he never finished. Polidori used the outline and wrote "The Vampyre." It is little known that Polidori put Lord Byron in "The Vampyre" after they had had a falling out. Lord Byron is the vampire himself. He called him Lord Ruthven in the story. I lay out the many similarities between Lord Byron and Lord Ruthven in the background. It's fascinating stuff.

Q9. Another popular vampire story is "Wake Not the Dead."
A9. It was first published in English in 1823 and miss-attributed to Ludwig Tieck. Ernst Raupach is the true author.

Q10. Did you unearth any misconceptions in doing your research?

A10.  Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood, published in 1847 as a serialized Penny Dreadful was the first vampire novel. Bram Stoker's Dracula was not the first as many people believe.

 

My Review of "Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles brings Sherlock Holmes to his closest encounter with the supernatural. There are no vampires or ghosts, but a purported hound from hell measures out a good dose of horror. The novella is also one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most Gothic tales, set along the mores of England and in an ancient mansion that borders them. What we have is Doyle at his best and his excellent character Sherlock Holmes--who is derived from Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin as I pointed out in Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems--does not disappoint with his sleuthing prowess, either. If Poe had written one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, this would have been it. A must read!

Review of Gothic Novel: "Uncle Silas" by Vampire Author Joseph le Fanu

 

Joseph Sheridan le Fanu is perhaps the best ghost story writer to emerge from the Victorian Age. His ghost classics include The Familiar, Devereux's Dream, Madam Crowl's Ghost, An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House and A History of a Tyrone Family, which was included in The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849 that I recently edited.

And let's not forget his devil tales: The Drunkard's Dream and The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh that are the foremost of their kind. Green Tea is one of Fanu's most anthologized tales along with A Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter, included in The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849. While Fanu's 1872 Carmilla is one of the greatest vampire short stories of the nineteenth century.

So when Fanu penned his most ambitious work, set in an ancient mansion, the literary community took notice. In "Uncle Silas" Fanu has given us one of the best Gothic novels of the late nineteenth century. This was a time when corpses remained in the house for three days after death and laudanum, a cocaine derivative, was taken for the nerves. "Uncle Silas" has some of the best characters Fanu invented and is time well spent over a few wonderful stormy nights.

List of Vampire Tales in The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849

Back before there were sparkly vampires with waxed chests and gelled hair, there were the founding fathers of vampirism. These were the early vampires; the horrid bloodsuckers of John Polidori and Robert Sands and Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. The first half of the nineteenth century is a crucial point in the development of the vampire story and I tried to find the best of these stories printed in the English language for that time period. My anthology is The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Vampire Anthology and these are the stories:

1819 The Vampyre - John Polidori (1795-1821)
1822 Wake Not the Dead - Ernst Raupach (1784-1852)
1848 The Vampire of the Carpathian Mountains - Alexander Dumas (1802-1870)
1839 Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter - Joseph le Fanu (1814-1873)
1826 Pepopukin in Corsica - Arthur Young (1741-1820)
1819 The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Saint Domingo - Robert C. Sands (1799-1832)

1836 Clarimonde - Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)  

My First Short Story Collection Wins Finalist Award in the International Book Awards

My first collection of short stories, Mailboxes - Mansions - Memphistopheles, has won a finalist award in the International Best Book Awards. It has also been entered in the Shirley Jackson Awards for this year. I am keeping my fingers crossed! Here's a blurb on it:

In the collection Andrew unleashes a blend of character-driven dark tales, which are sure to be remembered. In "Azra'eil & Fudgie" a little girl visits a team of marines in Afghanistan and they quickly learn she is more than she seems. "The Mailbox War" is a deadly tale of a weekend hobby taken to extremes while "The Brownie of the Alabaster Mansion" sees a Scottish monster of antiquity brought back to life. "Memphistopheles" contains a tale of the devil, Memphis, barbeque and a wannabe poet. "The Serpent and the Sepulcher" is a prose poem that will be cherished by all who experience it. "The Gëbult Mansion" recounts a literary hoax played by Andrew on his unsuspecting social networking friends that involves a female vampire. Last, "Stain" is an unforgettable horror story that is uniquely presented backwards or forwards. Experience these memorable stories tonight!

#BestShortStories #ShortStoryCollection #InternationalBookAwards #DarkTales #DarkShortStories

Andrew Barger 

Truths Contained in Popular Vampire Superstitions

In 1847 Blackwood's Magazine published an article titled: "Letters on the Truths Contained in Popular Superstitions - Vampyrism." It contained many different examples of supposed real vampires that had been uncovered over the last hundred years. The story of the vampire Arnod was one of them. This is how it described how skeptics would be treated: "Your scepticism will abate pretty considerably, when you see him stealthily entering your room, yet are powerless under the fascination of his fixed and leaden eye—when you are conscious, as you lie motionless with terror, of his nearer and nearer approach—when you feel his face, fresh with the smell of the grave, bent over your throat, while his keen teeth make a fine incision in your jugular, preparatively to his commencing his plain, but nutritive repast."

The article further describes a "real" incident when a body was unearthed that was suspected of vampyrism: "The body," says the report, "was found in a perfectly fresh state, with no sign of decomposition. Fresh blood had recently escaped from its mouth, with which its shirt was wet. The skin (the epidermis, no doubt) had separated together with the nails, and there were new skin and nails underneath. As it was perfectly clear from these signs that he was a vampyr, conformably to the use established in such cases, they drove a stake through his heart. Whereupon he gave an audible groan, and a quantity of blood flowed from him. The same day his body was burned to ashes, which were returned to the grave."

Midwest Book Review of The Best Vampire Short Stories 1800-1849 is Posted

The Midwest Book Review has just published a glowing review of The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Vampire Anthology - "an absolute 'must-have' for any aficionado of vampire literature, highly recommended."