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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 9, Winter 1945
Page 23
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LITTLE-KNOWN FANTAISISTES HAROLD WAKEFIELD 7. E. M. FORSTER -o0o- (Note: at the last moment before stencilling this department we received a brief note from Mr. Wakefield, stating that he had discovered a further volume of short fantasies by Forster, The Eternal Moment. Due to the short notice, it has proved impossible to incorporate any information concerning this volume in this present article; we shall, however, attempt to have a supplement to the Forster essay in the next issue of The Acolyte. -- FTL/SDR -o0o- E. M. Forster, the British author of such books as Howards End, Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room With a View, and A Passage to India, makes his contribution to the field of fantasy with a collection entitled The Celestial Omnibus, first published in 1912, and reprinted by Knopf in 1923. This volume is one which may not appeal to all lovers of fantasy. The reader who seeks only the cosmic horror of the Lovecraftians, or the one whose taste leans only to the sensational will find little here to his liking. For those who enjoy a quiet, urbane style with a pleasant touch of the whimsical, this book is thoroughly recommended. Mr. Forster, one imagines, would have been happy in ancient Greece. Pan, fauns, naiads and dryads, all appear in his stories, even though all in this present volume have a modern setting. The title story, "The Celestial Omnibus", is woven around the very trite theme of a young boy who is transported to heaven in a mysterious omnibus, there to meet the great poets of the ages and their creations. The story, however, does end on a note of genuine horror when the boy's companion, w wolrdly-wise man who lacks the innocence of a heart to venture into the celestial regions, leaps from the vehicle and is found next day on the streets of London, horribly crushed as though fallen from a great height. The best story in the collection is, perhaps, "The Story of a Panic", which deals with the great god Pan and the stark, panic fear he brinks to a group of tourists in Greece by his presence. The rather obnoxious youth who actually sees him becomes estranged from the rest of humanity and from then on leads the life of a wild creature. The intimations of the presence of the fearful deity are handled with extreme skill. "The Other Side of the Hedge" (the least effective story in the book) is an allegory telling of a strange, peaceful world from which all human strife is banished. The idealism and sentimentality of this item seems today strangely outdated. A much more effective piece of writing is "Other Kingdom", in which a young woman--always very close and akin to nature--actually turns into a dryad to avoid the attentions of an unwelcome lover. The sense of the unknown pervades this story strongly. It and "The Story of a Panic" are the two best in the book from the point-of-view of a strict weirdist. "The Curate's Friend", a whimsical bit, deals with a faun who actually lives in 20th century England. The tale treats of his friendship with the local curate, and the disastrous way in which the faun's effort to help him reacts on the curate's love-life. The volume concludes with the rather poignant "The Road to Colonus". In it, an elderly traveller in Greece encounters a wayside shrine to a naiad and a dryad, experiencing for a brief period the fever of Hellenism, only to be torn away from strange and unimaginable -- 23 --
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LITTLE-KNOWN FANTAISISTES HAROLD WAKEFIELD 7. E. M. FORSTER -o0o- (Note: at the last moment before stencilling this department we received a brief note from Mr. Wakefield, stating that he had discovered a further volume of short fantasies by Forster, The Eternal Moment. Due to the short notice, it has proved impossible to incorporate any information concerning this volume in this present article; we shall, however, attempt to have a supplement to the Forster essay in the next issue of The Acolyte. -- FTL/SDR -o0o- E. M. Forster, the British author of such books as Howards End, Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room With a View, and A Passage to India, makes his contribution to the field of fantasy with a collection entitled The Celestial Omnibus, first published in 1912, and reprinted by Knopf in 1923. This volume is one which may not appeal to all lovers of fantasy. The reader who seeks only the cosmic horror of the Lovecraftians, or the one whose taste leans only to the sensational will find little here to his liking. For those who enjoy a quiet, urbane style with a pleasant touch of the whimsical, this book is thoroughly recommended. Mr. Forster, one imagines, would have been happy in ancient Greece. Pan, fauns, naiads and dryads, all appear in his stories, even though all in this present volume have a modern setting. The title story, "The Celestial Omnibus", is woven around the very trite theme of a young boy who is transported to heaven in a mysterious omnibus, there to meet the great poets of the ages and their creations. The story, however, does end on a note of genuine horror when the boy's companion, w wolrdly-wise man who lacks the innocence of a heart to venture into the celestial regions, leaps from the vehicle and is found next day on the streets of London, horribly crushed as though fallen from a great height. The best story in the collection is, perhaps, "The Story of a Panic", which deals with the great god Pan and the stark, panic fear he brinks to a group of tourists in Greece by his presence. The rather obnoxious youth who actually sees him becomes estranged from the rest of humanity and from then on leads the life of a wild creature. The intimations of the presence of the fearful deity are handled with extreme skill. "The Other Side of the Hedge" (the least effective story in the book) is an allegory telling of a strange, peaceful world from which all human strife is banished. The idealism and sentimentality of this item seems today strangely outdated. A much more effective piece of writing is "Other Kingdom", in which a young woman--always very close and akin to nature--actually turns into a dryad to avoid the attentions of an unwelcome lover. The sense of the unknown pervades this story strongly. It and "The Story of a Panic" are the two best in the book from the point-of-view of a strict weirdist. "The Curate's Friend", a whimsical bit, deals with a faun who actually lives in 20th century England. The tale treats of his friendship with the local curate, and the disastrous way in which the faun's effort to help him reacts on the curate's love-life. The volume concludes with the rather poignant "The Road to Colonus". In it, an elderly traveller in Greece encounters a wayside shrine to a naiad and a dryad, experiencing for a brief period the fever of Hellenism, only to be torn away from strange and unimaginable -- 23 --
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