Painted Devils: Strange stories
List Price: $8.95
There's a certain cool sensuality at the center of Aickman's chilling stories. His "turns" are suspenseful, surprising at times, and genuinely scary. A master of the slow reveal, Aickman leads his readers with a kind of command and the reader eagerly follows. He has sadly been lost to all but a small, but very devoted, cult following.
A Few of His Best, and Some Others
This book, published in 1979, was the first reprint collection of Aickman's short stories, and the only one published in his lifetime. It contained nine pieces published originally between 1951 and 1977, with the majority from the 1960s. The pieces were drawn from five of his eight original short-story collections.
During his lifetime, Aickman published 47 short stories, and two more have come into print since his death in 1981. For this reader, the best of his short works from throughout his career succeeded in balancing four elements: hypnotic developments and action, mesmerizing and dreamlike imagery that captured a character's inner life, an uncovering of the ways people behave toward each other, and a haunting and open-ended conclusion. Model stories combining these things included "The Trains" (1951), "Ringing the Changes" (1955) and "The Swords" (1969). Almost as good were "The Inner Room" (1966) and "The Hospice" (1975), despite extra layers of obscurity or developments bordering on parody. By comparison, many other pieces by the author often contained something memorable but felt lacking in one element or another; particularly from the late 1960s, the pacing of many seemed to grow increasingly deliberate, the text longer and the prose heavier.
Another type of worthwhile story from this writer expressed something more of what might be called his philosophical outlook, and for me the best of these was "The Wine-Dark Sea" (1966). Others were "Into the Wood" (1968) and "The View" (1951).
The present reprint collection contained two of the stories just named: "Ringing the Changes" and "The View." The former, among Aickman's best, strangest and most widely published stories, might be taken to concern mortality, the distance between people and the tragedy of loss. The latter might be seen as a too-lengthy description of an overly rational narrator's entry into and expulsion from a paradise.
The other works in this collection, for me, were in the category of "memorable but not his very best," lacking something in depth and power. The best of these was "Marriage," which followed a man torn between several women, was straightforward and had something striking to say, though it lacked the imagery of something more complex like "The Inner Room." Published in 1977, it was set in the England of the late 1940s/early 1950s and was one more of the more salacious of the author's stories read so far. "The School Friend" contained a ghost or projection of a character's unconscious and seemed to concern the relation between parents and children and the weight of the past.
"The Houses of the Russians" and "The Waiting Room" were ghost stories, more or less; the former involved a good-luck charm and was set mainly in Finland, the latter felt particularly tame and inconsequential. "Ravissant" involved a failed artist interviewing an enigmatic woman and confronting the question of his identity. It was a frame tale, like "The Houses of the Russians." "My Poor Friend" seemed liked it might have drawn on the author's visits to England's Houses of Parliament during his work in support of preserving the nation's waterways. A memorable image in it was of a large number of rooms in the Palace of Westminster, many of which hadn't been entered for years.
Currently the cheapest options for assembling a large sample of Aickman's short stories are the original collection Cold Hand in Mine and the reprint collection The Wine-Dark Sea (New York edition), which with Painted Devils contain 28 pieces altogether, including all of the pieces named above. In my opinion, Wine-Dark Sea and Painted Devils are good places to start, while Cold Hand is for those who are looking mainly for the writer's later, more deliberate tales.
Some excerpts from the collection:
"There was nothing inside but blood."
"The central lobby, as it is called, of the Houses of Parliament is about the last place in London really to recall Hogarth."
"The sheer oddity of life seems to me of more and more importance, because more and more the pretense is that life is charted, predictable, and controllable."
"He seemed eager to welcome me and reluctant to let me go, but entirely unable to make a hole in the wall that presumably enclosed him, however long he punched. Nor . . . can his wife be said to have been much help. Or, at least, as far as one could see. Human relationships are so fantastically oblique that one can never be sure."
"He sank into her being . . . . He had sailed into port. He had come home. He had lost and found himself."
"Suddenly, something dark and shapeless, with its arm seeming to hold a black vesture over its head, flitted, all sharp angles, like a bat, down the narrow ill-lighted street, the sound of its passage audible to none."
"In those previous seconds [he] had become aware of something dividing them which neither of them would ever mention or ever forget."
Macabre and Disturbing
This is a collection of nine of Aickman's eerie stories, five of which are published here for the first time. I always find this author unsettling: the words and sentences are lucid, even elegant, but the plots inspire strong feelings of confusion and uncertainty because it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the horror lies. Aickman never comes at you head on. Even the titles of some of Aickman's stories, and the epigraphs, obscure rather than enlighten.
The stories usually feature a protagonist who undergoes a bizarre, probably supernatural, life-changing experience. A common theme is his search for an underlying pattern, or meaning, which may not exist.
Aickman makes effective use of symbol and allusion, much more strongly in some stories than others. Even the names of the characters (Mrs. Iblis, Phyrnne) seem charged with secret meaning.
I found the strongest stories in this collection to be Ravissante and Ringing the Changes, but I recommend the entire collection highly.
Why Isn't this Great Horror Writer Better Known?
Although some reviewers describe Robert Aickman's work as being "unclassifiable", I believe it falls squarely in the Horror genre, within the subgenre often known as "quiet" or "psychological" horror. I also believe he is one of the greatest practitioners ever of the Horror writing craft, and should be required reading both for fans of the genre and aspiring horror writers. Horror is not about a guy in a hockey mask, high body counts, or nonstop action. Horror is internal. Good horror provokes a primitive visceral response of fear or unease in the reader. Aickman is a master of this kind of writing. His stories often provoke the reader to think: "I'm not really sure what's going on here but something very creepy is happening." The ambiguity heightens the feeling of menace. His stories are often laced with a dry English humor. I often find myself chuckling while reading them. But make no mistake, these are not quaint English ghost stories. While subtly told, his stories often deal with themes of incest, necrophilia, fetishism, monstrous offspring, and insanity. They are often structured to consist of an overlay of a fairly commonplace story beneath which something much darker is going on, something which asserts itself more and more as the story progresses. This is a fine collection. "Ravissamante", "Ringing the Changes", "Larger than Oneself","The School Friend", "Marriage", and "My Poor Friend" are all excellent. "The Houses of the Russians" was more of a standard ghost tale, and atypical for Aickman.
Ghost Stories and Beyond
Aickman's books are hard to find in the U.S., but his weird tales are among the best ever written, and it is definitely worth the time involved to scour used bookstores for his stories. Aickman is a ghost story writer in the classic English tradition of M.R. James, E.F. Benson, and H. Russell Wakefield, but his tales are more haunting and mysterious than those of his predecessors. The main difference is that, while the earlier writers often took great pains to leave no loose ends, Aickman seems to delight in ambiguity and uncertainty. For example, in the story "Ringing the Changes," the heroine gets caught up in a dance involving the recently dead in a small town, but it is never made entirely clear what happens. The action is off-screen, as it were, and the main witness really doesn't say much. There's a hit that something sexual may have been involved, but it is never resolved. The story ends: "She seemed to have forgotten Gerald, so that he was able to examine her closely for a moment. It was the first time he had done so since the night before. Then, once more, she became herself. In those previous seconds Gerald had become aware of something dividing them which neither of them would ever mention or forget."
List Price: $8.95
Description
The collection delves into nightmare and madness, death and the supernatural. stories are as follows:Eavissante- House of the Russians- The View -Ringing the changes - the school friend- the waiting room -marriage -Larger than one self- my poor friendCustomer Reviews
Excellent and ChillingThere's a certain cool sensuality at the center of Aickman's chilling stories. His "turns" are suspenseful, surprising at times, and genuinely scary. A master of the slow reveal, Aickman leads his readers with a kind of command and the reader eagerly follows. He has sadly been lost to all but a small, but very devoted, cult following.
A Few of His Best, and Some Others
This book, published in 1979, was the first reprint collection of Aickman's short stories, and the only one published in his lifetime. It contained nine pieces published originally between 1951 and 1977, with the majority from the 1960s. The pieces were drawn from five of his eight original short-story collections.
During his lifetime, Aickman published 47 short stories, and two more have come into print since his death in 1981. For this reader, the best of his short works from throughout his career succeeded in balancing four elements: hypnotic developments and action, mesmerizing and dreamlike imagery that captured a character's inner life, an uncovering of the ways people behave toward each other, and a haunting and open-ended conclusion. Model stories combining these things included "The Trains" (1951), "Ringing the Changes" (1955) and "The Swords" (1969). Almost as good were "The Inner Room" (1966) and "The Hospice" (1975), despite extra layers of obscurity or developments bordering on parody. By comparison, many other pieces by the author often contained something memorable but felt lacking in one element or another; particularly from the late 1960s, the pacing of many seemed to grow increasingly deliberate, the text longer and the prose heavier.
Another type of worthwhile story from this writer expressed something more of what might be called his philosophical outlook, and for me the best of these was "The Wine-Dark Sea" (1966). Others were "Into the Wood" (1968) and "The View" (1951).
The present reprint collection contained two of the stories just named: "Ringing the Changes" and "The View." The former, among Aickman's best, strangest and most widely published stories, might be taken to concern mortality, the distance between people and the tragedy of loss. The latter might be seen as a too-lengthy description of an overly rational narrator's entry into and expulsion from a paradise.
The other works in this collection, for me, were in the category of "memorable but not his very best," lacking something in depth and power. The best of these was "Marriage," which followed a man torn between several women, was straightforward and had something striking to say, though it lacked the imagery of something more complex like "The Inner Room." Published in 1977, it was set in the England of the late 1940s/early 1950s and was one more of the more salacious of the author's stories read so far. "The School Friend" contained a ghost or projection of a character's unconscious and seemed to concern the relation between parents and children and the weight of the past.
"The Houses of the Russians" and "The Waiting Room" were ghost stories, more or less; the former involved a good-luck charm and was set mainly in Finland, the latter felt particularly tame and inconsequential. "Ravissant" involved a failed artist interviewing an enigmatic woman and confronting the question of his identity. It was a frame tale, like "The Houses of the Russians." "My Poor Friend" seemed liked it might have drawn on the author's visits to England's Houses of Parliament during his work in support of preserving the nation's waterways. A memorable image in it was of a large number of rooms in the Palace of Westminster, many of which hadn't been entered for years.
Currently the cheapest options for assembling a large sample of Aickman's short stories are the original collection Cold Hand in Mine and the reprint collection The Wine-Dark Sea (New York edition), which with Painted Devils contain 28 pieces altogether, including all of the pieces named above. In my opinion, Wine-Dark Sea and Painted Devils are good places to start, while Cold Hand is for those who are looking mainly for the writer's later, more deliberate tales.
Some excerpts from the collection:
"There was nothing inside but blood."
"The central lobby, as it is called, of the Houses of Parliament is about the last place in London really to recall Hogarth."
"The sheer oddity of life seems to me of more and more importance, because more and more the pretense is that life is charted, predictable, and controllable."
"He seemed eager to welcome me and reluctant to let me go, but entirely unable to make a hole in the wall that presumably enclosed him, however long he punched. Nor . . . can his wife be said to have been much help. Or, at least, as far as one could see. Human relationships are so fantastically oblique that one can never be sure."
"He sank into her being . . . . He had sailed into port. He had come home. He had lost and found himself."
"Suddenly, something dark and shapeless, with its arm seeming to hold a black vesture over its head, flitted, all sharp angles, like a bat, down the narrow ill-lighted street, the sound of its passage audible to none."
"In those previous seconds [he] had become aware of something dividing them which neither of them would ever mention or ever forget."
Macabre and Disturbing
This is a collection of nine of Aickman's eerie stories, five of which are published here for the first time. I always find this author unsettling: the words and sentences are lucid, even elegant, but the plots inspire strong feelings of confusion and uncertainty because it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the horror lies. Aickman never comes at you head on. Even the titles of some of Aickman's stories, and the epigraphs, obscure rather than enlighten.
The stories usually feature a protagonist who undergoes a bizarre, probably supernatural, life-changing experience. A common theme is his search for an underlying pattern, or meaning, which may not exist.
Aickman makes effective use of symbol and allusion, much more strongly in some stories than others. Even the names of the characters (Mrs. Iblis, Phyrnne) seem charged with secret meaning.
I found the strongest stories in this collection to be Ravissante and Ringing the Changes, but I recommend the entire collection highly.
Why Isn't this Great Horror Writer Better Known?
Although some reviewers describe Robert Aickman's work as being "unclassifiable", I believe it falls squarely in the Horror genre, within the subgenre often known as "quiet" or "psychological" horror. I also believe he is one of the greatest practitioners ever of the Horror writing craft, and should be required reading both for fans of the genre and aspiring horror writers. Horror is not about a guy in a hockey mask, high body counts, or nonstop action. Horror is internal. Good horror provokes a primitive visceral response of fear or unease in the reader. Aickman is a master of this kind of writing. His stories often provoke the reader to think: "I'm not really sure what's going on here but something very creepy is happening." The ambiguity heightens the feeling of menace. His stories are often laced with a dry English humor. I often find myself chuckling while reading them. But make no mistake, these are not quaint English ghost stories. While subtly told, his stories often deal with themes of incest, necrophilia, fetishism, monstrous offspring, and insanity. They are often structured to consist of an overlay of a fairly commonplace story beneath which something much darker is going on, something which asserts itself more and more as the story progresses. This is a fine collection. "Ravissamante", "Ringing the Changes", "Larger than Oneself","The School Friend", "Marriage", and "My Poor Friend" are all excellent. "The Houses of the Russians" was more of a standard ghost tale, and atypical for Aickman.
Ghost Stories and Beyond
Aickman's books are hard to find in the U.S., but his weird tales are among the best ever written, and it is definitely worth the time involved to scour used bookstores for his stories. Aickman is a ghost story writer in the classic English tradition of M.R. James, E.F. Benson, and H. Russell Wakefield, but his tales are more haunting and mysterious than those of his predecessors. The main difference is that, while the earlier writers often took great pains to leave no loose ends, Aickman seems to delight in ambiguity and uncertainty. For example, in the story "Ringing the Changes," the heroine gets caught up in a dance involving the recently dead in a small town, but it is never made entirely clear what happens. The action is off-screen, as it were, and the main witness really doesn't say much. There's a hit that something sexual may have been involved, but it is never resolved. The story ends: "She seemed to have forgotten Gerald, so that he was able to examine her closely for a moment. It was the first time he had done so since the night before. Then, once more, she became herself. In those previous seconds Gerald had become aware of something dividing them which neither of them would ever mention or forget."
There are nine stories in "Painted Ghosts," but only three of them appraoch being standard ghost stories ("The Houses of the Russians," "The Waiting Room," and "My Poor Friend"). "Ravissante" involves a presence, but not really a ghost, and some strange animals. "The View" seems to be heavily influenced by European folktales of men who become enthralled by the fairies. "Ringing the Changes" involves the dead, but in more physical form than mere ghosts. "The School Friend" may involve a ghost, and certainly involves a monstrous baby that is heard but not seen. "Marriage" may or may not even have supernatural elements in it, depending on what you think of the main character's sanity. "Larger than Oneself" involves nothing less than the appearance of God. These pocket descriptions may give some idea of what these stories are about, but they do not hint at the richness and strangeness of the stories themselves. Some of the tales raise more questions than they answer, which is what makes them worth hunting down and reading.
Fantasy MagazineHypnos. Rivista di letteratura e fantastico italiano — anche per la difficoltà, se non a volte impossibilità, di recuperare i loro testi -, come Walter de La Mare, Fitz-James O'Brien, o Jean Ray, accanto ad autori del fantastico moderno o contemporaneo, come Robert Aickman o Thomas Ligotti.