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Acolyte, v. 2, issue 4, whole no. 8, Fall 1944
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of far lesser merit. One can only conclude that he never encountered it. The other volume of Miss Irwin's weird writings, Madame Fears the Dark, consists of seven short stories and a play. Three of these are especially outstanding. "The Earlier Service" tells of the terrible experience of a young girl in a church in which the Black Mass had been performed five centuries earlier. Here we have all the elements of a typical M.R. James masterpiece--the setting in an ancient church, the antiquarian poking around among the curious carvings and manuscripts, and the gradual building up of a dramatic climax. Equally effective is "The Book", which tells of the hideous change that comes over a stolid business man when he reads a musty tome which mysteriously appears one day in his library--a book in which new passages appear daily to lead him further into evil. His eventual attempt to break from its influence accomplishes his death. In "Monsieur Seeks a Wife", Miss Irwin returns to the 18th century to relate the visit of a young nobleman to a remote and desolate region of France to choose a wife from among three young and impoverished French aristocrats. This story contains a particularly vivid picture of a witches' sabbat. The stories mentioned show what a loss weird literature sustained when Margaret Irwin did not continue in the genre. There is no doubt that she could have stood with Blackwood, James, and de la Mare. One has only to read these stories to realize how a skilled hand can make even such old themes as satan worship, witchcraft, and demoniac possession become terrifyingly new. Indeed, despite the position she now holds in modern letters, many critics consider her chief fame will rest upon these two books, Still She Wished for Company and Madame Fears the Dark. ******************************************************** BOOK REIVEW Francis T. Laney SEEKER TO THE DEAD. A.M. Burrage. Published by Gerald G. Swan, London, 1942. 3/6. (Mr. Wakefield omitted this volume from his column dealing with Burrage, and we publish this review of it somewhat as an addenda to last issue's column. Thanks must be extended to Forrest J. Ackerman for the loan of this volume for review purposes. FTL-SDR.) Seeker to the Dead turns out to be a book-length novel dealing with a combination of necromancy and possession. Dr. Garrow, the villain of the piece, is a Satanist who desires to revive a deceased inventor named Thurley in order to possess himself of certain secrets which Thurley is supposed to have taken to the tomb with him. In order to perform this necromantic feat, the blood and breath of a dying man are needed, and there are certain hideous rites which must be carried out. Roger Moorlock, our dashing hero, takes a job as secretary-companion to Dr. Garrow and finds himself in the midst of these horrors. The tale carries us through a series of painful scenes, and builds up gradually to a very good peak of weird horror. In the final denouement, Thurley's body is revivified, but is occupied by some unknown fiend, who rends Dr. Garrow and his servant Trode. This novel is badly marred by the conventional plot form, and by one of the most nauseous love elements it has ever been in my misfortune to encounter; however, the story otherwise carries genuine power and despite its faults, is well worthy of a place in one's permanent weird collection. --21--
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of far lesser merit. One can only conclude that he never encountered it. The other volume of Miss Irwin's weird writings, Madame Fears the Dark, consists of seven short stories and a play. Three of these are especially outstanding. "The Earlier Service" tells of the terrible experience of a young girl in a church in which the Black Mass had been performed five centuries earlier. Here we have all the elements of a typical M.R. James masterpiece--the setting in an ancient church, the antiquarian poking around among the curious carvings and manuscripts, and the gradual building up of a dramatic climax. Equally effective is "The Book", which tells of the hideous change that comes over a stolid business man when he reads a musty tome which mysteriously appears one day in his library--a book in which new passages appear daily to lead him further into evil. His eventual attempt to break from its influence accomplishes his death. In "Monsieur Seeks a Wife", Miss Irwin returns to the 18th century to relate the visit of a young nobleman to a remote and desolate region of France to choose a wife from among three young and impoverished French aristocrats. This story contains a particularly vivid picture of a witches' sabbat. The stories mentioned show what a loss weird literature sustained when Margaret Irwin did not continue in the genre. There is no doubt that she could have stood with Blackwood, James, and de la Mare. One has only to read these stories to realize how a skilled hand can make even such old themes as satan worship, witchcraft, and demoniac possession become terrifyingly new. Indeed, despite the position she now holds in modern letters, many critics consider her chief fame will rest upon these two books, Still She Wished for Company and Madame Fears the Dark. ******************************************************** BOOK REIVEW Francis T. Laney SEEKER TO THE DEAD. A.M. Burrage. Published by Gerald G. Swan, London, 1942. 3/6. (Mr. Wakefield omitted this volume from his column dealing with Burrage, and we publish this review of it somewhat as an addenda to last issue's column. Thanks must be extended to Forrest J. Ackerman for the loan of this volume for review purposes. FTL-SDR.) Seeker to the Dead turns out to be a book-length novel dealing with a combination of necromancy and possession. Dr. Garrow, the villain of the piece, is a Satanist who desires to revive a deceased inventor named Thurley in order to possess himself of certain secrets which Thurley is supposed to have taken to the tomb with him. In order to perform this necromantic feat, the blood and breath of a dying man are needed, and there are certain hideous rites which must be carried out. Roger Moorlock, our dashing hero, takes a job as secretary-companion to Dr. Garrow and finds himself in the midst of these horrors. The tale carries us through a series of painful scenes, and builds up gradually to a very good peak of weird horror. In the final denouement, Thurley's body is revivified, but is occupied by some unknown fiend, who rends Dr. Garrow and his servant Trode. This novel is badly marred by the conventional plot form, and by one of the most nauseous love elements it has ever been in my misfortune to encounter; however, the story otherwise carries genuine power and despite its faults, is well worthy of a place in one's permanent weird collection. --21--
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