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

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

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Author of the 18th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is Edgar Allan Poe


Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has made early and often appearances on this countdown of the Top 40 scary short stories from 1800-1849. Tomorrow I will post a link to his next story that uses a household pet in an ingenious fashion.