Howling Frog Books

I just realized that the James event is over.  I thought I had one more day to go!  But no, it is 10:30 PM on Halloween, and October is pretty much over now.  So I missed doing "The Fenstanton Witch" after all.  I was so busy today that I didn't even get past the first two pages. Here's what I did instead of reading one more MRJ story: made the kids do 3 hours of school in the morning ( "But Mom!  It's a holiday AND your birthday!  You deserve the day off!"   Nice try, kiddo.  Now tidy the schoolroom.)  Took the kids to the ever-marvelous Annual Pumpkin Drop at the college, in which we test various theories of gravity by dropping pumpkins off the 6th-floor balcony.  Igor was kind of off this year, BUT they also threw 250 super-bouncy-balls all at once, which was very cool and resulted in utter chaos.  Went out to lunch with two good friends, yum.  Carved jack-o-lanterns (I'm always late), fetched pizza for dinner, spent at le...

I was so taken up with Gothic October that I forgot to post a wrap-up for September.  However, I've also been slacking in the Greek department lately, so I haven't got much to report anyway.  I'm going to have to read a lot in the next two months!  I really am reading Artistotle's Rhetoric right now.  Just very slowly, on account of it's pretty tedious.  I miss Herodotus.  And I want to read Plato's Republic , too.  My 12-year-old daughter actually has to read Antigone next week for school, ha ha! How have you been doing with your reading?  And, happy Halloween!

Have you finished The Italian ?  What did you think overall?  I must say I did enjoy this story; I remember having quite a hard time with Udolpho (though that was years ago) but this was easy to get into and enjoy.  It's, ahem, just a teeny bit prejudiced about the Roman Catholic Church, but we knew that going in, right?  We've had some final revelations about the Mystery Monk and his role in the whole thing, and all has been cleared up between Ellena and the Vivaldi family.  Schedoni has conveniently removed himself and the Mystery Monk from the scene, so joy may reign unconfined. I was impressed with how Vivaldi matured through the story; I said a couple of weeks ago that he's a ninny, but by the end he's an ideal manly type.  Not only is he noble and sensitive and loving, he is honest, kind, and compassionate even to his enemies.  He's worthy of Ellena (who you'll notice gets married on her 18th birthday!). Paolo gets the last word, which was...

I think the title is my favorite thing about this story.  To be honest I was a little disappointed with the plot. Ghosts & Scholars says: "The Malice of Inanimate Objects" was originally published in the inaugural issue of an Eton ephemeral, The Masquerade , in June 1933. It fell immediately into obscurity and was only rediscovered, nearly fifty years later, when Michael Cox tracked it down while researching for his M.R. James: An Informal Portrait (Oxford, 1983). Thanks to Michael, Ghosts & Scholars was able to give the tale its first ever reprint in 1984. It has since appeared in one or two other places, most notably in Michael Cox's Casting the Runes and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics, 1987). We meet one Mr. Burton, who is having an unlucky day.  A man of his acquaintance has committed suicide, and it's implied that Burton drove the fellow to it with a court case.  As the day goes on, Burton get more and more unlucky, until he is my...

Piers the Ploughman , by William Langland At long last, I can proudly say that I have finished Piers the Plowman !  I would rather read this than the Romance of the Rose any day, but it was in fact rather long and on the repetitive side. This is a long alliterative (but unrhymed) poem in Middle English, written about 1360 or later.  I read it in a modern English translation--a very old Penguin copy.  (Those old Penguin paperbacks must have been very well-made; the spine is still perfectly sound and flexible though it dates from about 1960 or so.)  The whole thing is a huge allegory in the form of a series of visions about life, faith, and how we should live.   There is a lot of social criticism, and even more theology, much of which is a little weird by medieval Catholic standards. I was glad that I had read A Distant Mirror before tackling this text, because Tuchman mentions Langland several times and explains much of the background.  Pier...

"Wailing Well" is another story set at Eton, and it's longer and more substantial than yesterday's story.  It also has quite a bit of detail about Eton life.  It's set in Dorset, on a camping trip, which is exactly where a group of boys were camping when MRJ read out the story to them.  The record states that "several boys had a somewhat disturbed night as the scene of the story was quite close to Camp"--which I take to mean that the story scared the dickens out of some of the boys!  As well it would; it's a creepy one. This story has some great humor as well, very suited to boys and masters.  I liked this comment: It was Wilcox again, whom the Provost noticed as he passed through the playing fields, and, pausing for a moment, observed to the Vice-Provost, “That lad has a remarkable brow!” “Indeed, yes,” said the Vice-Provost. “It denotes either genius or water on the brain.” Remember that MRJ was the Provost, and he and the Vice-Provost were no...

The History of the Caliph Vathek , by William Beckford Beckford wrote Vathek in French in 1782, at a time when there were two fashionable crazes: the Gothic and the Oriental.  Beckford married the two genres in a tale of an Arabian king gone wrong.  His story was published in English under the claim that it was a story directly from the Arabic.  The name Vathek sounds kind of German to me, but the name and the story are very very loosely based on a real person, the Abbasid caliph Al-Wathiq ibn Mutasim, who ruled in the 9th century.   Vathek is about 150 pages long, and has no chapters; it just goes from episode to episode without a break.  (Much, I suppose, as Beckford wrote it--he claimed it only took him a few days and nights.)  There isn't much in the way of character development. The story is that Vathek is a powerful caliph with a bad temper (his angry glance can kill people!) and a large thirst for knowledge.  A demon, Giaour, shows up an...

Dodger , by Terry Pratchett Pterry's new book is not a Discworld book; I'm probably the last person to know this, but I don't like to know too much ahead of time about the books or movies I'm going to enjoy, so I always avoid as much information as I can.  As you might guess from the title, it's a story of early Victorian London (Pratchett calls it a historical fantasy, since he's doing a lot of world-building but moving some bits and pieces around). Dodger is a boy of the slums--a tosher who searches the sewers for whatever bits and pieces get washed down (though I doubt that any real tosher ever found quite so many pieces of jewelry down there).  It's dangerous work, but Dodger is the best.  When he saves a girl from being beaten to death, he falls into an adventure that takes him to the top and the bottom of London society, and that introduces him to quite a few Victorian stars from Charles Dickens to Disraeli.  Pratchett drops several hints about Dod...

"Eton College from Playing Fields" Old folklore says that animals talk on Midsummer Eve, and in this little story MRJ imagines talking with an owl.  The conversation is interrupted several times, though, by the Little People, who torment the owl unmercifully.  The narrator decides to stick around to see what happens...and will only say that he no longer hangs around the playing fields at midnight, nor does he "like a crowd after dark."  The Little People did something that disturbed him greatly, but we never find out what. The story takes place on the playing fields at Eton.  Tomorrow's story is also set at Eton, where James presided as provost from 1918 until his death in 1936.  At Eton, the provost is the head of the college--like the president or headmaster--and is appointed by the Crown, so it's quite a prestigious position.

Montresor coat of arms All month I've been especially wanting to read Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."  I don't know why that story popped into my head; I'm not a specially big fan of Poe or anything.  I do remember reading this story in 8th grade and hardly understanding a word of it, which was the case with all the Poe stories we read that year.  (No one explained, for example, what an MS. was, which made "MS. in a Bottle" kind of opaque, and I seem to have spent all of my school years under the impression that I couldn't ask questions.) Anyway.  "The Cask of Amontillado" is the story of a perfect revenge-murder.  Very creepy and unsettling.  Montresor drops hints to Fortunato the whole time, but Fortunato does not heed the warning.  But everyone knows the story, so I don't have much to say about it. I've also been reading a couple of other things; I'm most of the way through the story of the Caliph Vathek, though ...

Anything Goes , by Theodore Dalrymple What?  a non-Gothic book? Yes, and I even read it a couple of weeks ago, but since all my blogging energy is going into MRJ posts, there's been little time to post about much else. I like grumpy old guys who write grumpy books, and Theodore Dalrymple is probably the King of Grump.  (Well, except maybe Peter Hitchens--I read one of his books once and he made Dalrymple look like sunshine and roses.)  All that is not to say that I don't think Dalrymple has got some valuable things to say; he does. Anything Goes is a collection of over 30 essays on some pretty random topics.  They were written between 2005 and 2009 for New English Review , a journal I'm not familiar with since probably it's a UK publication. It is in fact a bit difficult to get Dalrymple's books if you live in California, unless you actually buy them.  I got this one as a Kindle book, and then read it on a road trip.  One advantage of e-books is t...

A gibbet stone There is not a single rat in this story.  Still, it's a good creepy title, sitting there all by itself.  It's really a reference to the quotation from Dickens story "Tom Tiddler's Ground" used as an epigraph, but the description in the epigraph matches an event in the story. Mr. Thomson, a typical Jamesian protagonist--that is, scholarly, too curious, and perhaps a bit rabbity--is staying at a quiet country inn for a month to get some reading done.  (Holy moley, who can do that?  I'm not sure if it sounds like paradise or too stultifying for words.  Paradise for a week, at least.)  Anyway, young Thomson is a bit too prone to poking his nose in where it doesn't belong.  He peeks into the inn's front-facing upper room and finds more than he bargained for. I noticed that there's a mention of a stone base for a gibbet in this story, and those happen pretty frequently with MRJ.  Since they're nearly always described as a sto...

We're almost done, and information is being revealed! Wait, I'd better start at the beginning of our section for this week. Ahem. This week's reading started off by checking on Ellena and her situation at the new convent.  This convent is run by a very different kind of abbess than the old evil convent.  In fact, this abbess is Radcliffe's Ideal Woman--and her ideal woman is not actually a Catholic, so it gets a little awkward towards the end of the first paragraph: This lady was a shining example to governesses of religious houses, and a striking instance of the influence, which a virtuous mind may acquire over others, as well as of the extensive good that it may thus diffuse. She was dignified without haughtiness, religious without bigotry, and mild, though decisive and firm. She possessed penetration to discover what was just, resolution to adhere to it, and temper to practise it with gentleness and grace; so that even correction from her, assumed the winning a...

Illustration used as cover image for G&S Today's story is a very very short one, and as James says, it's very old and familiar.  Do you know a version of this story?  The title of the story is "the beginning of the story about sprites and goblins which Mamilius...was telling to his mother" when she was dragged off to prison.  This is from "The Winter's Tale,"  Act II, Scene 1, and here is the dialogue: Hermione. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now I am for you again: pray you, sit by us, And tell 's a tale. Mamillius. Merry or sad shall't be? Hermione. As merry as you will. Mamillius. A sad tale's best for winter: I have one Of sprites and goblins.  Hermione. Let's have that, good sir. Come on, sit down: come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites; you're powerful at it. Mamillius. There was a man— Hermione. Nay, come, sit down; then on.  Mamillius. Dwelt by a churchyard: I will tell it s...

The Cerne Abbas Giant (Victorianly expurgated edition) This story does not feature an actual ghost or creature; instead it's just about people engaging in some sort of pagan rituals--particularly ugly ones evidently.  And it has an unusual little frame around the story. I quite like the frame, about how in the old days granny would tell terrifying stories by the fire, and the mid-Victorians came up with books especially "aimed at extinguishing by substituting for Error and Superstition the light of Utility and Truth."  I think I have one of these books on my tablet; it's by Charles Kingsley, called Madam How and Lady Why .  There is this funny little mock conversation between a father and son, such as you would find in one of these books, and that never ever happened in any real household: Charles: I think, papa, that 1 now understand the properties of the lever, which you so kindly explained to me on Saturday; but I have been very much puzzled since then in...

Isn't this a great drawing? Oh boy, I think this is a great story!  It must be one of the most famous MRJ tales.  Two scholarly gentlemen are taking a seaside holiday at Seaburgh (a lightly disguised Aldeburgh, in Suffolk), and meet another, younger man who is strangely anxious and relieved to have a bit of company.  This fellow is named Paxton and he has a weird tale to tell; he heard a local legend about ancient crowns buried on the coast to protect England from invasion.  Two are lost, but he managed to figure out where the third crown would be and actually discovered it.  Now he is haunted by the crown's guardian, and he must put the crown back.  Even so, he knows he has committed an unforgivable crime and he'll have to pay. I just love ancient legends like this, so I hunted around a little for information about the crowns.  Did James make it up or does it have roots in reality?  I'm having a hard time finding solid information, actua...

Atlas of Love , by Laurie Frankel Jenny at Teach Your Baby to Read did a PNW authors festival recently, and asked me if I'd read Atlas of Love (the link is to her excellent review).  I'd never heard of it, but the plot intrigued me and I promptly ILLed it. We have three grad students in literature who are best friends as they study and teach at a university in Seattle.  When Jill becomes unexpectedly pregnant and her much-younger boyfriend disappears, the three women decide to move in together, make a family, and raise a baby while earning their Ph.D's. I really enjoyed about 75% of this book.  There was lots of good writing about the nature of love and family.  I got attached to several of the characters, the plot kept me hanging on, I felt for the narrator--I could hardly put it down.  Some bits were very funny and yet real at the same time. Overall, the book is pretty great. (The rest of my review here is a little ranty and over-long.  You may ...

I ought to make a list of haunted items in James stories; it's would be so varied and funny. Curtains Lots of books Mezzotint Dollhouse Bedclothes (twice) Prayer-book Whistle Binoculars! Yes, today's possessed item is a pair of binoculars. They have lain undisturbed for years, so the current owner doesn't realize, but lends them to a friend, who promptly activates them by giving an accidental blood offering.  (I love how Mr. Fanshawe reacts by calling it a "disgusting Borgia box" --but then he makes a mistake in saying "I don't begrudge a drop of blood in a good cause."  He'll be taken seriously.)  The binoculars have an amazing property for the person who can use them, and Mr. Fanshawe is bewildered by what he sees. It seems that one Mr. Baxter made the binoculars and filled them with...I suppose, the boiled-down essence of a man hanged long ago. (My book's notes say that it's the actual eyes that were used, but that seems ...

Paul Lowe's illustration for "A Neighbour's Landmark" "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark."  That's Deuteronomy 27:17, and it's a curse that comes true in today's story. Our narrator is a lucky fellow who has taken on the pleasant job of sorting through and cataloging a friend's library: "...generations back, two country-house libraries had been fused together, and no descendant of either stock had ever faced the task of picking them over..."   So he's staying in a pleasant country manor and  he's all set.  (Perhaps not everyone thinks this is such a great job, but I am a librarian, after all.) He comes upon an interesting bit of local folklore that is almost entirely forgotten: an old country song that says That which walks in Betton Wood  Knows [not] why it walks or why it cries. Some detective work will uncover the story--but before we find out about that, the narrator actually experiences...

An early 18th century prayer book Possessed prayer books--I have to say, that's a little odd.  Doesn't the Book of Common Prayer have a section on exorcism? These, however, are uncommon prayer books with a special section just for cursing Oliver Cromwell, on his birthday no less. (I checked my copy of the prayer-book and sure enough, April 25 is St. Mark's Day and no service ever uses Psalm 109.)  I suppose the old Royalist grandmother observed the cursing for the rest of her life, and went on doing it afterwards too.  Or do you think it was something else? I like how Mr. Davidson realizes that no ordinary prayer-book would have been likely to be printed in 1653.  I suppose a British person interested in history would be bound to realize that 1653 is the middle of the Protectorate--Lord Peter Wimsey would know it right away--but I certainly never would.   ...as he was changing his socks before dinner, he suddenly paused and said half-aloud, ‘By ...

"The Horla," by Guy de Maupassant I've never read de Maupassant before.  Gothic October is opening up all sorts of new doors for me!  Since "The Horla" is only the first story in a whole book of stories that I downloaded, I'll need to read the other ones too.  One is simply titled "Mad!"  I have GOT to read that one soon. The story is written as a series of journal entries and we never learn the narrator's name.  He's feeling pretty good one day as he watches the ships sail up the river, but after that he gets gradually more and more disturbed, especially at night.  He's convinced he must be sleepwalking, or perhaps going mad.  A trip away restores his health, but once home, he gets worse again, and eventually realizes that some entity is trying to take him over... It's a very spooky and tension-filled tale, a classic of the genre.  It has inspired imitations and homages--movies, Star Trek episodes, and most famously, Lovecraf...

The house under construction  "The Haunted Dolls' House" was written for a very particular occasion: the gift of an enormous, elaborate, amazing dolls' house to Queen Mary in 1924.  The Queen loved miniatures.  It was Princess Marie Louise's idea, and a good many of the most famous names of the day helped in the design and building.  Lutyens built it, composers contributed musical scores, authors gave specially written stories in tiny books (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a Sherlock Holmes story just for the house), and on and on.  It's so detailed and thorough that it's actually a nice source of historical information about domestic life in the 1920s.  You can explore the dolls' house here.   MRJ, naturally, wrote a special ghost story for the  house's library, concerning a dolls' house that is remarkably similar to Queen Mary's, though it's a replica of a fabulous manor house "in Strawberry Hill Gothic" instead of a roya...

MRJ in 1900 MRJ's later stories mostly have elements of detective stories included (as we've already seen).  "The Two Doctors" really is a murder mystery for the reader to solve; it's just a supernatural murder mystery.  If you piece together the clues, you can figure out what happened. I hate to tell you what happened, though, which doesn't exactly give us a lot to talk about today.  I will point out that the doctors' names, Quinn and Abell, sound remarkably like Cain and Abel, although their characters are switched. I do love the opening sentence.  It really made me laugh when I read it: It is a very common thing, in my experience, to find papers shut up in old books; but one of the rarest things to come across any such that are at all interesting. I rather assumed that a bedstaff is one of the posts on a four-poster bed, but Ghosts & Scholars says that it's "a staff for making up a bed," which is hardly helpful.  How d...

Jane Austen's Sewing Box: Craft Projects and Stories from Jane Austen's Novels , by Jennifer Forest As soon as I heard about this crafty sewing book back when it was published, I wanted to get it.  It wasn't printed in the US, though, and I was worried that it would turn out to be like many current sewing books--long on simple projects and pretty photography, but short on anything I would actually want to do.  Even my favorite designers seem to do that.  I finally decided to get the book through ILL so I could check it out properly, and I'm very glad I did. This book is beautifully illustrated--full of Regency fashion plates, old drawings, and photographs (mostly very close-up photos of furnishings).  Pretty pictures are at least half the content.  It has lovely essays on  Regency domestic life, sprinkled with apt quotations from Austen novels.  It features 18 fairly simple projects based on everyday items: a reticule, a workbag, a netted purse, a...

Wow, things have been moving right along in our story!  I am a little frustrated that there has not been one word about Vivaldi all week.  The poor guy is languishing in the dungeons of the Inquisition or something but we don't know a thing about how he's doing.  Spoilers follow: Our story has followed Ellena and Schedoni almost exclusively.  The Inquisition toughs were only actors, and they turned Vivaldi over to the real thing but brought Ellena out to Schedoni's remote house!  (Which means that Schedoni has indeed turned Vivaldi in.  Boy, that's going to backfire on him, don't you think?)  Ellena is marked for death, but there is a big reveal! And I really was surprised by it.  I did not expect Schedoni to turn out to be Ellena's father.  What would you bet that he was once married to Olivia? Meanwhile, the Marchesa has had such a moral downfall that she is upset to hear that maybe it's OK that Ellena is still alive, although she's ...