The Man in the Bell, a tale of sensation by William Maginn, is picked as the 30th best horror short story from 1800-1849. Have fun reading it over the weekend and I will give my thoughts next week. Thanks!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
William Maginn - Author of the 30th Best Horror Short Story 1800-1849
Irish author, William Maginn (1793-1842), has penned the next classic horror short story in this countdown. Maginn was a journalist by trade who bounced around to various magazines while contributing articles that were of interest to his generation. While this only yielded him a meager living, his strength rested in writing short stories and poems. Unfortunately, he only wrote a few short stories. His novella Bob Burke's Duel with Ensign Brady is considered by many to be one of the funniest Irish tales during this period. Maginn published a few articles and stories under his pseudonyms "R. T. Scott" and "Sir Morgan O'Doherty." This is what The International Library of Famous Literature for 1899 had to say about him:
[william Maginn, Irish man of letters and typical bohemian, was born in Dublin, July 10, 1793. The son of an eminent schoolmaster, he carried on the school himself after graduation from Trinity College, Dublin, meanwhile becoming a voluminous contributor to Blackwood's and other periodicals under various pseudonyms (finally fixing on "Morgan O'Doherty"), suggesting the "Noctes Ambrosianjae" and writing some of it, and in 1823 settling in London for a literary life. He was Murray's chief man on the Representative; its foreign correspondent in Paris; returning, was joint editor of the Standard, then on the scurrilous Age. He founded Fraser's Magazine in 1830, and made it the most brilliant in Great Britain; contributed to Blackwood's and Bentley's later; and in 1838 he wrote the "Homeric Ballads" for Fraser's. His literary feuds were endless and savage. After running down for years and once being in a debtor's prison (Thackeray portrays him as "Captain Shandon" in "Pendennis"), he died August 21, 1842.]
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Rappaccini's Daughter - Andrew Barger's Thoughts on the 31st Best Horror Short Story 1800-1849
In Rappaccini's Daughter, Nathaniel Hawthorne has given us a classic horror tale that involves botany that is supposedly written by M. de L'Aubepine--the French name for the Hawthorne plant. More specifically, a beautiful young lady that is raised in the midst of poisonous plants. Over the years their effects wear off on her and she becomes poisonous herself. Her breath and even her touch are deadly. When a young man tries to get to know her, he suffers the effects of the plants himself.
This short horror story was first published in 1844. The garden in which the protagonist roams is the inverse of the Garden of Eden. The plants do not give life, they take it away. Beatrice is the name of Rappaccini's daughter, which is the love of Dante as he tries to reach her in The Divine Comedy. In this Garden of Hell, there is no escape. Consider this haunting passage:
"Yet Giovanni's fancy must have grown morbid while he looked down into the garden; for the impression which the fair stranger made upon him was as if here were another flower, the human sister of those vegetable ones, as beautiful as they, more beautiful than the richest of them, but still to be touched only with a glove, nor to be approached with out a mask."
"Yet Giovanni's fancy must have grown morbid while he looked down into the garden; for the impression which the fair stranger made upon him was as if here were another flower, the human sister of those vegetable ones, as beautiful as they, more beautiful than the richest of them, but still to be touched only with a glove, nor to be approached with out a mask."
No one in the first half of the nineteenth century combined Gothic horror and romance like Hawthorne.To modern sensibilities, this classic horror tale takes awhile to develop. Yet all good romances take pages to mature or they are useless. Therefore too many points cannot be deducted from this short story for doing such. "Rappaccini's Daughter" is one of the first horror short stories to effectively use plants in a horrific fashion and will surely be remembered for doing so long after this countdown is finished. It is certainly one of Hawthorne's best horror short stories.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The 31st Best Classic Horror Short Story 1800-1849 is Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Picked as the 31st best classic horror short story from 1800-1849 is Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Enjoy the free link and in my next post I will give my thoughts on why it is such a fine horror tale.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Author of the 31st Best Classic Horror Short Story 1800-1849
When considering the best classic horror short story writers for the first half of the nineteenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is one of the greatest. He is mentioned along with Edgar Allan Poe as one of the best American horror writers for this period--and rightly so. Nathaniel Hawthorne is the only author to appear twice in this countdown from the Top 40 to Top 30 slots. The underlying moral themes to his short stories have been derided by some, including Poe who shunned the teaching of morals in stories. Poe felt they were best left to preachers on Sunday mornings.
In my next post I will disclose and provide a free link to the story by Hawthorne. I will give you a hint: it is one of his most verdant tales. Have a great weekend!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Andrew's Thoughts on "The Fords of Callum" Horror Short Story by James Hogg
In this horror tale the reader is presented with death in the open field, or The Fords of Callum to be more exact. Janet and Wattie Douglas find the corpse of Annie Douglas "swathed in blood." Her clothes were torn but no violence was done to her body. Prior to this the wraith of Annie appeared. Under Scottish legend, if a wraith of a living person appears with the sun up, the person will have a long life. If it is the opposite, pending death looms. James Hogg wrote other short stories about wraiths that included "The Wife of Lochmaben," "Tibby Johnston's Wraith," and "The Fords of Callum." For purposes of this countdown, which excludes ghost stories, the brief appearance of the wraith does not make this a ghost story.
Once Annie's body is identified in the story, lingering questions remain as to the cause of her death until this haunting passage is revealed at her funeral:
Among the mourners there was one gentleman quite unknown to every one who was present. Indeed, from the beginning, he took upon himself, as it were, the office of chief mourner, carrying the head almost the whole way to the churchyard, so that all the people supposed the elegant stranger some near relation of the deceased, sent for, from a distance, to take the father's part, and conduct the last obsequies. When they came to the grave, he took his station at the head of the corpse, which he lowered into the grave with great decency and decorum, appearing to be deeply affected. When the interment was over, he gave the sexton a guinea and walked away. He was afterwards seen riding towards Dumfries, with a page in full mourning riding at a distance behind him. How much were all the good people of Johnston astonished when they heard that neither father nor mother of the deceased, nor one present at the funeral knew anything whatever of the gentleman ; —who he was; where he came from; or what brought him there.
On the negatives side, the thick Scottish accents used in the character dialogue of this story make it difficult to read at times, but this is a fine horror short story nonetheless.
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