“Beware the Beasts”
(A collection of stories as good as the cover is bad)
Edited by Vic Ghidalia and Roger Elwood
MacFadden-Bartell Books. 1970. $0.75
Cover art by Cover by “Jack Faragasso”
Cover Blurb:
“They dared invade the beast’s realm and saw things no human should ever
see. Some of them even came back-seemingly alive…”
Contents:
- 11 • In the Avu Observatory • (1894) • shortstory by H. G. Wells
- 19 • The Cats of Ulthar • (1920) • shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
- 23 • Here, Daemos! • (1942) • shortstory by August Derleth
- 33 • The Hound • (1942) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
- 49 • The House of the Nightmare • (1906) • shortstory by Edward Lucas White
- 59 • The Mark of the Beast • (1890) • shortstory by Rudyard Kipling
- 73 • The Squaw • (1893) • shortstory by Bram Stoker
- 86 • Metzengerstein • (1832) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
- 96 • The Tortoise-Shell Cat • (1924) • shortstory by Greye La Spina
- 111 • The Wendigo • (1910) • novella by Algernon Blackwood
My copy.
“Beware the Beasts” has the dubious honour of being the best collection
of stories with the most inappropriate cover art and blurb. Look at the cover
by “Jack Faragasso” you get the impression that this is a science fiction novel
and not a collection of classic horror/monster stories. I have strong memories
of buying “MB” and “Belmont2 books from the bargain bin at “Woolworths” back
during the early 1970s. I even went and looked this up just to make sure that
my memory wasn’t playing tricks. I mean, this was over 40 years ago. It turns
out that even though my memory is in good working order, I still wasn’t 100%
correct. It seems that during the early 70s and publisher named “Unibooks” sold
reprints of “MB” and “Belmont” titles under
their own imprint and sold them as instant remainders at such stores
“Woolworths”, “Woolco” and “Grants”. I
used to love digging through the bargain bin at Woolworths and finding such
good stuff as H.G. Wells titles and Ron Goulart’s “Space for Hire”.
As I said in my insert beneath
the title, “Beware the Beasts” is an outstanding collection of stories selected
by Messrs. Ghidalia and Elwood with some of the worst packaging that I ever
seen. At first glance and even at the 2nd, you get the strong
impression that this is a SF novel. Only after opening it up and taking a look
at the table of contents do you realize that this is actually collection of
horror stories. And as an added bonus, almost half of the stories are reprinted
from “Weird Tales” original incarnation! So let’s take a look at them there
stories!
This is a nice
little monster story by Mr. “War of the Worlds” Wells. An Astronomer working in
an isolated Observatory on a mountain top above the jungles of Borneo receives an
unexpected visitor one night in the form of a man sized bat “thing”. The story
is fairly mundane and incredibly straight forward in its telling. What makes it
such an entertaining story though, is Well’s description of the Astronomer’s
“cat and mouse” struggles with the monster bat in the total darkness of the observatory’s
dome after his lamp gets knocked over. Just the very idea of being trapped in
the darkness with something that’s out to kill me gives me the willies. I want
to bring to your attention that this is, in my opinion, is the weakest story in
the book. Which you should realize is
not at all a bad thing, considering how enjoyable of a story this is! This puts
the collection off to a good start which just keeps improving as you read
along.
I love “The Cat’s
of Ulthar” even though it’s been re-printed to death. This is one of HPL’s
stories that was written during his “Lord Dunsany” phase and is one of his most
popular. “Cats” is in Mr. Lovecraft’s “Dream Lands” and is one of my favourite
“revenge” tales. An old couple hates all things feline and are responsible for
all the cat disappearances in the village of “Ulthar”. Unfortunately for them
though, they make their worst and last mistake when they “disappear” the kitten
belonging to an orphaned “gypsy” child. This story manages to be simultaneously
creepy, poetic and humorous. You can
also see here in the story that HPL genuinely loved cats.
So never ever
forget that……
“It is said that
in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I
can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For
the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the
soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroë
and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of
hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin,
and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and
remembers that which she hath forgotten.”
The online text is HERE
“Here, Daemos” is
one of Mr. Derleth’s more effective stories. I’m almost willing to bet that
this is a small homage to “M.R. James”. A small village in England receives a new
Vicar. It’s seems that even though the village’s former minister was well
loved, he wasn’t exactly a financial genius and the parish is all but broke.
Mr. Webly, the new Vicar, being a very ambitious man and meant for better
things, decides to remedy the situation with a wee bit of self righteous grave
robbing. This of course would be for a good cause, or so he tells himself and
his superiors. The grave in question belongs to a long dead Knight who was
rumoured to be a black magician. Local legend says that he had been entombed
with his entire treasure and a companion who was to act as guardian of the
treasure. Some of the villagers believe that the Knight was buried with his
faithful hound “Daemos” The legend also tells that the Knight’s hound was in
reality his “familiar” who he always summoned to his side by calling “Here,
Daemos!” so to make a long story short, the new vicar open the tomb to plunder
it’s contents and afterwards “hilarity ensues”. I have the impression that Mr. Derleth took a
little bit more time to write this one.
·
The Hound by Fritz Leiber
During his career,
the late Fritz Leiber wrote some of the most original horror stories ever
published. I think his greatest concept was that modern metropolises and their
collective psychic energies would create their own horrors and demons to
replace those of the middle ages. “Smoke Ghost” “The Girl with the Hungry
Eyes”and “Our Lady of Darkness” are probably his most famous examples using
this theme. Leiber’s Chicago in this story is
a dark, dreary, lonely and filthy place filled with annoymity and despair. A
young man in a dead end job at a department store becomes haunted and pursued
by the titular “Hound” and slowly starts to lose his mind. At first you suspect
that the events are playing out entirely in his imagination. We slowly learn
though that others around him are starting to notice the hound or at least
traces of its existence. And being a “Fritz Leiber” story, these folks, sensing
that something is terribly wrong, they
begin to distance themselves from him instead of offering him emotional
support. The ending is pretty unusual in that the young man eventual learns
that flight and resistance are futile, that there is no escape! He does though
gain an allie/witness to his suffering and horror which even though he might be
doomed does lessen his burden in that he isn’t alone with the horror anymore.
Fritz Leiber was one of America’s greatest
writers of weird tales even though he is mostly famous for his Science Fiction
and Fantasy stories/novels. I have to say though that the combined atmosphere
of doom, insanity, isolation and depression is so strong that I can’t honestly
call the story enjoyable. It is definitely not an easy read. What I can say
though, is that it is brilliantly written and disturbing as all hell.
Mr. White’s “House
of Nightmare” is one of my all time favourite horror/ghost stories. It’s so
good that is was included in “The Century’s Best Horror Stories” published by
“Cemetery Dance Press” and edited/selected by “John Pelan”. “The House of
nightmare” was chosen as the entry for 1906. You didn’t misread that, “Nineteen-Oh-Six”!
You can’t imagine when reading this story that it was actually published 107
years ago. This is one of those stories that shows that atmosphere can be
everything. A motorist has an accident while coming down from some mountains.
They aren’t named but something makes me think that they must be the
Ozarks. He goes looking for help and
ends up spending the night in what seems to be a dilapidated farm house on the
very edge of the woods. His host is a strange young boy with a hair lip who
seems to be living all alone. During the night the narrator is visited in a
vivid nightmare by what appears to be a monstrous hog which attempts to crush
and devour him. Upon waking up he finds that the young boy is no where to be
found. Giving up his search he walks to the next town to find a garage that can
repair his auto. He tells of his stay at the abandoned farm where he learns of
the house’s terribly past. This is a fantastic story. Even though you figure
out pretty quickly what is going on, the atmosphere and descriptions are so
incredibly that it’ll be a very long time before you forget the story! I dearly
love this one.
A British officer
desecrates a shrine in India and gets a curse
put on him by a beggar/holy man. The guy has it coming since he broke a golden
rule which is as valid today as it was in past centuries. This rule was even
pounded into our heads during my time in the Army. And it’s simply five little words.
“Don’t F##K with
the Locals”!
This is a fun
little tale that lets off some of the tension built up by the previous two
stories.
·
The Squaw • (1893) by Bram Stoker
Stoker’s „The
Squaw“, even with its completely non-PC title, holds a special place in my
heart. I first came across it in an adaptation that appeared in an old issue of
“Creepy” when I was a kid. The “Reed Crandall” art was deliciously appealing in
it’s goriness. The other reason that it’s so special to me is that it takes
place in Nuremberg and I’ve live
here in Nuremberg as a civilian for
the past 22 years and I was stationed here for 4 years during the 1980s with
the “2nd ACR”.
A Brtish tourist accidentally kills a kitten while visiting the
“Kaiserburg” in Nuremberg with friends.
Later they are visiting the town’s famous medieval dungeon with its preserved
torture chamber. Our tourist, having not learned his lesson, goofs around by
posing inside of Nuremberg’s infamous “IronMaiden”. This is then the moment where momma cat makes her move. Being a British
story I guess that you could simply say that this is all “bloody good fun”.
·
Metzengerstein • (1832)
by Edgar Allan Poe
„Metzengerstein“is
a Poe story that I never read before. I’m always surprised to rediscover how
many of his stories hold up so well when compared to modern writing styles. A
young spoiled count whose family has been feuding for centuries with their
neighbours enjoys a great moment of “schadenfreude” when said neighbours
stables burn down and the families head dies in the fire. A short time later
the young count’s grooms find a stray horse carrying the markings of the
neighbouring family. The neighbours deny all knowledge of this steed and the
young man decides to keep it. He does notice that the horse bears a striking
resemblance to one that is portrayed being ridden by an ancestor of the
neighbour’s in a tapestry celebrating a military victory of his ancestors over
the ancestors of his neighbours. It also happens that during this battle the
ancestor was killed while riding the horse. Now here’s where the story falls
apart for me. On the very same day that the live horse is found, the other
horse vanishes from the tapestry. The
young counts only response to this mystery is to have the chamber contain the
tapestry walled off. Of course the young man becomes obsessed with his new
steed even though it never ceases trying to throw him. His obsession becomes so
great that he gives up all contact with the outside world to spend all his time
riding about his estate on this horse. Of course it all ends tragically. Except
for the odd logic, this is a very good story that holds up after all these
years. Good for you Mr. Poe!
Miss La Spina’s
“Tortoise-Shell Cat” is an extremely entertaining tale of theft, love, loyalty,
voodoo and a Were-Cat taking place as a preparatory school for wealthy young
women down in Louisiana during the 1920s.
This could have made a great supernatural “Nancy Drew” mystery if it wasn’t for
the covert and casual racism that plays a major role in the attitudes of the
characters good and bad in the story. It’s sadly that kind of racism that’s
completely taken for granted and seems to be assumed that it’s the natural
state of things. It’s not easy, but if you can accept it as a period piece and
read it with a huge grain of salt, you will find it to be an interesting and
suspenseful story. The racism isn’t mean spirited, it’s just some outmoded
assumptions on relationships between the races that by today’s standards verge
on pure idiocy. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.
·
The Wendigo • (1910) by Algernon Blackwood
“The Wendigo”, by
Algernon Blackwood, ends this anthology on such a high note that if it had been
placed first in the contents every story that came afterwards would have paled
greatly in comparison regardless of how truly good they were.
Mr. Blackwood
lived a very active and interesting life. He spent much time in the wilds of Canada and it shows here.
His experience in the Canadian wilderness adds a depth of atmosphere and
authenticity that is rarely seen in horror stories. This story had such a huge
influence on H. P. Lovecraft that that it has been more or less officaly added
to the “Cthulhu Mthos”. The “Wendigo” is a Native American
demon/spirit/demon/elemental that is said to posses it’s victims and turn them
into berserker cannibals. Blackwood’s “Wendigo” is not quite as gory as this,
but it still makes for one hell o a frightening tales. A group of hunters and their
guide are lured by their greed for a “big kill” ever deeper into the Canadian
wilderness where they fall prey to the never shown, but ever present “Wendigo”.
This is truly one of the finest horror stories ever written. This is another
fine example of showing that what is not shown can be more terrifying that what
is shown. Even though we never see the “Wendigo” it is still one of the greatest
monsters ever portrayed on the printed page. It’s available to read on line. So
if you consider yourself a genuine horror/weird tales fan and have never read
this story then do it now or shame on you!
“Beware the Bests”
is one of the better anthologies that I’ve read lately. It has a strongly
focused theme and consists of very strong stories where even the weakest ones exceptional
stories. It’s well worth getting if you can find an affordable cop some where.
That’s it for this
time.
Thanks for
stopping by.
Doug
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