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Fantasy Fan, v. 1, issue 9, May 1934
Page 136
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136 THE FANTASY FAN, May, 1934 has discovered. On the way home, she stops at a chateau filled with fresh horrors--the abandoned wing where the departed chatelaine dwelt, and the bed of death with the black pall--but is finally restored to security and happiness with her lover Valancourt, after the clearing-up of a secret which seemed for a time to involve her birth in mystery. Clearly, this is only the familiar material re-worked; but it so well re-worked that "Udolpho" will always be a classic. Mrs. Radcliffe's characters are puppets, but they are less markedly so than those of her forerunners. And in atmospheric creation she stands pre-eminent among those of her time. Of Mrs. Radcliffe's countless imitators, the American novelist Charles Brocken Brown stands in the closest in spirit and method. Like her, he injured his creations by natural explanations; but also like her, he had an uncanny atmospheric power which gives his horrors a frightful vitality as long as they remain unexplained. He differed from her in contemptously dis- the external Gothic paraphernailia and properties and choosing modern American scenes for his mysteries; but this repudiation did notextend to the Gothic spirit and type of incident. Brown's novels involve memorably frightful scenes,and excel even Mrs. Radcliffe's in describing the operations of the perturbed mind. "Edgar Huntly" starts with a sleep-walker digging a grave, but is later impaired by touches of Godwinian didacticism. "Ormond" involves a member of a sinister secret brotherhood. That and "Arthur Mervyn" both describe the plague of yellow fever, which the author had wit- SIDE GLANCES by F. Lee Baldwin Frank B. Long, Jr. has studied at New York University and Columbia College. Writing is his sole occupation and he lives with his father and mother, the former being a dentist. Long Jr. is 31. E. Hoffman Price is 35, a World War veteran, a West Pointer, and a former cavalry officer; also superintendant of an acetylene gas machinery plant until 2 years ago. He now has a garage in Pawhuska, Okla., and writes fiction at leisure. nessed in Philadelphia and New York. But Brown's most famous book is "Wieland; or, the Transformation," (1798) in which a Pennsylvania German, engulfed by a wave of religious fanaticism, hears "voices" and slays his wife and children as a sacrifice. His sister Clara, who tells the story, narrowly escapes, The scene, laid at the woodland estate of Mittingen on the Schuykill's remote reaches, is drawn with extreme vividness; and the terrors of Clara, beset by spectral tones, gathering fears, and the sound of strange footsteps in the lonely house, are all shaped with truly artistic force. In the end, a lame ventriloquial explanation is offered, but the atmosphere is genuine while it lasts. Carwin, the malign ventriloquist, is a typical villain of the Manfred or Montoni type. (Next month Mr. Lovecraft takes up "The Apex of the Gothic Romance."
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136 THE FANTASY FAN, May, 1934 has discovered. On the way home, she stops at a chateau filled with fresh horrors--the abandoned wing where the departed chatelaine dwelt, and the bed of death with the black pall--but is finally restored to security and happiness with her lover Valancourt, after the clearing-up of a secret which seemed for a time to involve her birth in mystery. Clearly, this is only the familiar material re-worked; but it so well re-worked that "Udolpho" will always be a classic. Mrs. Radcliffe's characters are puppets, but they are less markedly so than those of her forerunners. And in atmospheric creation she stands pre-eminent among those of her time. Of Mrs. Radcliffe's countless imitators, the American novelist Charles Brocken Brown stands in the closest in spirit and method. Like her, he injured his creations by natural explanations; but also like her, he had an uncanny atmospheric power which gives his horrors a frightful vitality as long as they remain unexplained. He differed from her in contemptously dis- the external Gothic paraphernailia and properties and choosing modern American scenes for his mysteries; but this repudiation did notextend to the Gothic spirit and type of incident. Brown's novels involve memorably frightful scenes,and excel even Mrs. Radcliffe's in describing the operations of the perturbed mind. "Edgar Huntly" starts with a sleep-walker digging a grave, but is later impaired by touches of Godwinian didacticism. "Ormond" involves a member of a sinister secret brotherhood. That and "Arthur Mervyn" both describe the plague of yellow fever, which the author had wit- SIDE GLANCES by F. Lee Baldwin Frank B. Long, Jr. has studied at New York University and Columbia College. Writing is his sole occupation and he lives with his father and mother, the former being a dentist. Long Jr. is 31. E. Hoffman Price is 35, a World War veteran, a West Pointer, and a former cavalry officer; also superintendant of an acetylene gas machinery plant until 2 years ago. He now has a garage in Pawhuska, Okla., and writes fiction at leisure. nessed in Philadelphia and New York. But Brown's most famous book is "Wieland; or, the Transformation," (1798) in which a Pennsylvania German, engulfed by a wave of religious fanaticism, hears "voices" and slays his wife and children as a sacrifice. His sister Clara, who tells the story, narrowly escapes, The scene, laid at the woodland estate of Mittingen on the Schuykill's remote reaches, is drawn with extreme vividness; and the terrors of Clara, beset by spectral tones, gathering fears, and the sound of strange footsteps in the lonely house, are all shaped with truly artistic force. In the end, a lame ventriloquial explanation is offered, but the atmosphere is genuine while it lasts. Carwin, the malign ventriloquist, is a typical villain of the Manfred or Montoni type. (Next month Mr. Lovecraft takes up "The Apex of the Gothic Romance."
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