DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasy Fan, v. 2, issue 2, whole no. 14, October 1934

Transcribe
Translate

Fantasy Fan, v. 2, issue 2, whole no. 14, October 1934

Page 22

22     THE FANTASY FAN, October, 1934

Temptation of St. Anthony, and but for a strong realistic bias might have been an arch-weaver of tapestried terrors. Later on we see the stream divide, producing strange poets and fantaisistes of the symbolist and decadent schools whose dark interests really centre more in abnormalities of human thought and instinct than in the actual supernatural, and subtle story-tellers whose thrills are quite directly derived from the night-black wells of cosmic unreality. Of the former class of "artists in sin" the illustrious poet Baudelaire, influenced vastly by Poe, is the supreme type; whilst the psychological novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, a true child of the eighteen nineties, is at once the summation and finale. The latter and purely narrative class is continued by Prosper Merimee, whose Venus of Ille presents in terse and convincing prose the same ancient statue-bride theme which Thomas Moore cast in ballad form in The Ring.
The horror-tales of the powerful and cynical Guy de Maupassant, written as his final madness gradually overtook him, presents individualities of their own; being rather the morbid outpourings of a realistic mind in a pathological state than the healthily imaginative product of a vision naturally disposed toward phantasy and sensitive to the normal illusions of the unseen. Nevertheless they are of the keenest interest and poignancy; suggesting with marvelous force the imminence of nameless terrors, and the relentless dogging of an ill-starred individual by hideous and menacing representatives of the outer blackness. Of these stories The Horla is generally

THE FAVORITE WEIRD
STORIES OF
H. P. LOVECRAFT

(Courtesy of H. Koenig)

"The Willos" A. Blackwood, "The White Powder," "The White People," "The Black Seal" A. Machen, "The Fall of the House of Usher" E. A. Poe, "The House of Sounds" M. P. Shiel, "The  Yellow Sign" R. W. Chambers, "Count Magnus" M. R. James, "The Death of Halpin Frayser" A. Bierce, "The Moon Pool" (original novelette) A. Merritt.
The first nine titles were in Mr. Lovecraft's original list published in "The Slide Show." You will notice that he stipulates the original novelette version of "The Moon Pool" as the tenth selection. This of course eliminates the story as it was published in book form, including the sequel.

regarded as the masterpiece. Relating the advent to France of an invisible being who lives on water and milk, sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extraterrestrial organisms arrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without a peer in its particular department; notwithstanding its indebtedness to a tale by the American Fitz-James O'Brien for details in describing the actual presence of the unseen monster. Other potently dark creations of de Maupassant are Who Knows?, The Spectre, He. The Diary of a Madman, The White Wolf, On the River, and the grisly verse entitled Horror.
(Continued Next Month)

Saving...

22 THE FANTASY FAN, October, 1934 Temptation of St. Anthony, and but for a strong realistic bias might have been an arch-weaver of tapestried terrors. Later on we see the stream divide, producing strange poets and fantaisistes of the symbolist and decadent schools whose dark interests really centre more in abnormalities of human thought and instinct than in the actual supernatural, and subtle story-tellers whose thrills are quite directly derived from the night-black wells of cosmic unreality. Of the former class of "artists in sin" the illustrious poet Baudelaire, influenced vastly by Poe, is the supreme type; whilst the psychological novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, a true child of the eighteen nineties, is at once the summation and finale. The latter and purely narrative class is continued by Prosper Merimee, whose Venus of Ille presents in terse and convincing prose the same ancient statue-bride theme which Thomas Moore cast in ballad form in The Ring. The horror-tales of the powerful and cynical Guy de Maupassant, written as his final madness gradually overtook him, presents individualities of their own; being rather the morbid outpourings of a realistic mind in a pathological state than the healthily imaginative product of a vision naturally disposed toward phantasy and sensitive to the normal illusions of the unseen. Nevertheless they are of the keenest interest and poignancy; suggesting with marvelous force the imminence of nameless terrors, and the relentless dogging of an ill-starred individual by hideous and menacing representatives of the outer blackness. Of these stories The Horla is generally THE FAVORITE WEIRD STORIES OF H. P. LOVECRAFT (Courtesy of H. Koenig) "The Willos" A. Blackwood, "The White Powder," "The White People," "The Black Seal" A. Machen, "The Fall of the House of Usher" E. A. Poe, "The House of Sounds" M. P. Shiel, "The Yellow Sign" R. W. Chambers, "Count Magnus" M. R. James, "The Death of Halpin Frayser" A. Bierce, "The Moon Pool" (original novelette) A. Merritt. The first nine titles were in Mr. Lovecraft's original list published in "The Slide Show." You will notice that he stipulates the original novelette version of "The Moon Pool" as the tenth selection. This of course eliminates the story as it was published in book form, including the sequel. regarded as the masterpiece. Relating the advent to France of an invisible being who lives on water and milk, sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extraterrestrial organisms arrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without a peer in its particular department; notwithstanding its indebtedness to a tale by the American Fitz-James O'Brien for details in describing the actual presence of the unseen monster. Other potently dark creations of de Maupassant are Who Knows?, The Spectre, He. The Diary of a Madman, The White Wolf, On the River, and the grisly verse entitled Horror. (Continued Next Month)