Nine Horrors and a Dream
By Joseph Payne Brennan
Ballantine Books. 1962. $0.35
My Copy!
And I own four of the book advertised on the back cover!
This week’s book “Nine Horrors and a Dream” has been
one of my most sought after books these last several years. I already have Mr.
Brennan’s other paperback collection “The Shapes of midnight” and
previously owned 3 hard back collections which I parted with during the great
book purge of 2009. I finally found a “good” copy at abebooks.com for a very
reasonable price. And I finally got to read it this past weekend thanks to some
seriously lousy weather.
This edition is a reprint of the “Arkham House”
hardback from 1958. The AH edition costs an arm and a leg and is extremely hard
to find. To be honest though, all of Mr. Brennan’s short story collections are
hard to find and at a high price. I think this shows how popular he is with
collectors and fans (I don’t want to use the word connoisseur.) You can find 3
of his hardback collections at just a bit more than the two paperbacks are
going for. I also bet that the wonderful
“Richard Powers” cover art has help to maintain the high interest in this
specific collection. So I was very happy to get this book at a fair price. I
love sellers who don’t bother to accurately describe their books. If the seller
had done that then they could have gotten 3 or 4 times more than the amount
that I paid.
Two of the stories in this collection are among the
first horror tales that I can remember reading back when I was young. This must
have been back around 1971 or so. I first read “Slime” and “Levitation” in
“Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster Museum”
and in “Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural” respectively. I was so impressed
with both stories back then that I have never forgotten either one.
What I enjoy so much about these stories is Mr.
Brennan’s economy of word, sense of place and strong mood. Most of his stories
a fairly short, but he stills manages to make them into fully fleshed out
reading experiences. “Nine Horrors and a Dream” is a prime example of this. I
read the entire collection last Sunday in one setting and yet I’m still mulling
over each and every story. This shows how good these stories are considering
that only 3 of the 9 tales can be considered some of Mr. Brennan’s best work,
yet even the lesser stories are still circling around in my head days
afterward. That calibre of writing is something you stumble across every day.
You can go here
and here if you are interested in Mr. Brennan’s life and works!
Now let’s take a look at those stories.
“Slime”
“Slime” is
one of the grand daddies of the “Shapeless horror” genre.
A storm washes up the titular creature from the
oceanic depths and it goes about sating its appetite until it has a little run
in with the National Guard and a flame thrower. This remains one of my all time
favourite stories. It’s gruesome goodness through and through. This is also Mr.
Brennan’s trademark story which has been anthologized 50 times!
“Levitation”
This is
another good that’s seen quite a few reprints.
Its carnival time in a small rural town and young farm hand accepts a dare from the
carnival’s resident Hypnotist are he get called out for heckling. The Hypnotist puts the young man in a trance and convinces him that he can levitate. Things
start out well, but it seems that the Hypnotist hasn’t been following his
doctor’s advice and cut back on his cholesterol intake. As a 10 year old I
thought that this had to be one of the most horrible fates that I could
imagine. This is another powerful, but economical short story.
“The Calamander Chest”
A young man
buys a large and beautiful chest at an antique store at a ridiculously low
price. The young fellow figures that there has to be catch since the price is
too good to be true. He’s also bothered by the fact the antique dealer seemed
to be desperate to be rid of the chest. Well, it turns out that there is a
catch. A man was murdered and his body was stored in the chest that the young
fellow purchased. It turns out that the dead guy’s spirit is still occupying
the chest an he seems to be wanting a little company. This is a truly scary
story with such an awful end, that even though it’s just a story, I was hoping
to god that the guy was actually dead at the end of the story. Since if he
wasn’t he suffered one of the most nightmarish fates that I myself can imagine.
I wouldn’t even wish this on my worst enemy.
“Death in Peru”
“Death in Peru”
is a fun and nasty little story that exceeds even “EC” comics at their
grisliest. A white man has his way with a barely of consenting aged Peruvian
girl. He suitor takes issue with this and has a curse placed on the explorer.
The explorer’s partner tries to lift the curse and bungles in one of the most
horrible ways possibly. You would think that the man would take more
precautions when digging up the “voodoo” effigy of some one near and dear him.
“On the Elevator”
“On the
Elevator" is some seriously black comedy. A huge storm off shore from a resort
town ends up washing up some thing from the ocean floor (sound familiar?) that
he been better left un-washed up. It makes it’s way to an ocean front hotel
where the night clerk spends the better part of the evening running up and down
the stairs from floor to floor after the thing as it uses the elevator to visit
a few guests. I love this story. It’s extremely creepy and funny at the same
time. It raises more questions than it answers. I figure that that must have
been Mr. Brennan’s intent. This is a great story that’s both frightening and
playful. This is a very rare combination in the horror genre.
“The Green Parrot”
This is the
weakest story in the book and it’s still a fine, entertaining and minimalist
horror story. A motorist travelling through some woods see a green parrot fly
across the road. He stops to investigate
and is approached by a little old lady who emerges from the wood in pursuit of
the bird. It seems that the bird is her sole companion and taking pity on her
the narrator agrees to help her in the search. This turns out to be not one of
the best ideas since he later learns that she’s been losing that parrot over
and over again since the two of them perished in the big snow storm of 1860!
“Canavan’s Back Yard”
“Canavan’s”
has to be Brennan’s second most famous story. The premise is simple and
simultaneously brilliant. Mr. Canavan, a New England
book dealer”, has a house with a very interesting back yard. It seems to be
infinite. He keeps being drawn to it and develops an obsession against his will
to wander off into it and lose himself. It seems that his property is part of
an old marsh were a convicted witch was hunted down by starved hounds a few
centuries before. With her dying breath she curses the property and those who
live upon it. I bet that you can figure out where this one might be going.
Another superb tale in an overall great collection!
“I’m Murdering Mr. Massington”
This has to
be the strangest story in the book. A writer is asked by a chance acquaintance
to write a story about him. The acquaintance, Mr. Massington, fears that once
he dies there will be nothing to show that he ever existed. He’s convinced that
if he is a character in a story then he won’t be completely forgotten. What he
plans on doing after the publication of the story and the role that the reader
of said story plays in Mr. Massington’s ultimate fate gives the story it’s
fairly surprising twist ending.
“The Hunt”
“The Hunt”
is another story that even though it’s fairly playful still manages to be
frightening and creepy. A man gets pursued across Connecticut
by a stranger who saw him waiting for a train. I don’t want to give it away, so
all that I can say is “The thrill of the hunt and the anticipation of the kill
are more important that the results of the hunt.
“The Mail for Juniper Hill”
True to the old adage that “Neither
wind, nor rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor dark of night can stop the U.S. Mail.” A drunk and stubborn mailman doesn’t even let death from keep him
from his duties.
Looking back, I can only come to the conclusion that
Mr. Brennan has been so unfairly neglected. As amazingly good that this
collection is, the majority of his other stories are even better.
So if you can
find them do your self the great favour of (re)discovering this neglected
master of the macabre!
Take care and thanks for stopping by.
Doug
