On the Hill of Roses

by Stefan Grabiński, Mirosław Lipiński (Translator), Mark Samuels (Foreword )

Originally published in 1919, On the Hill of Roses was Grabinski's first collection under his own name. Nearly a hundred years later these pieces stand as testament to their author's talent and on-going literary quest for the bizarre. On the Hill of Roses is a sewn and jacketed hardcover, limited to 300 copies. Foreword by Mark Samuels Introduction by Miroslaw Lipinski On the Hill of Roses The Frenzied Farmhouse On a Tangent Strabismus Shadow At the Villa by the Sea Projections

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction, Gothic, Fiction, Polish Literature, Short Story Collection

134 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Stefan Grabiński (February 26, 1887 - November 12, 1936) was a Polish writer of horror fiction, sometimes called "the Polish Poe".

Grabiński worked as teacher in Lwów and Przemyśl and is famous for his train stories collected in Demon ruchu (The Motion Demon). A number of stories were translated by Miroslaw Lipinski into English and published as The Dark Domain. In addition, some of his work has been adapted to film, such as Szamota's Mistress.

Grabiński died of tuberculosis in 1936.

Reviews

[mark monday]

Stefan Grabiński, Polish author of strange stories, had a resurgence a few years back, his bleak and surreal tales receiving the acclaim that the author lacked during his lifetime. The stories in this collection are rather different than most classic weird fiction. As the introduction notes, their difference appears to come from why they were written in the first place: these are the author's explorations of his own state of mind, projected onto the page. He analyzes his own perspective, his flaws, his engagement with the world; constructing a satisfactory narrative or creating feelings of horror or transcendence are minor, secondary concerns. There is a certain abstractness to each of these tales, an internal quality that creates distance between reader and author. Despite the experimental design of some, the conte cruel twists in others, these often felt less like stories and more like ruminations on the nature of the mind, disguised as fiction. And so I was left both cold and fascinated.

"On the Hill of Roses": a man with outstanding olfactory powers is led to a lovely home and a less than lovely smell.

"Frenzied Farmhouse": a father who is definitely not insane does something for which he is definitely not to blame.

"On a Tangent": a deranged man obsessed with patterns and logic finds the logical end of his own peculiar pattern.

"Strabismus": scratch a cynic, scratch his damn eyes... and you'll find he has the ability to enter your chest cavity.

"Shadow": an unfortunate configuration of random objects casts an old man into dejection, night after night.

"At the Villa by the Sea": projected memories may overtake a man or boy, creating an unpleasant frisson for a murderer.

"Projections": beware those strange, fetching images cast upon your walls, when their source lies beyond those walls...

There are overarching motifs and themes that are threaded through the stories. In particular the idea that both past and future moments of disturbance can leave their physical mark on the present, a sort of stain, taking the shape of shadows or marks on walls or an odd scent or even bizarre actions that somehow feel inevitable. And by using the phrase 'moments of disturbance' I am certainly understating the cause of these effects, as these moments include murder, suicide, accidental death, and the slaughter of one's children.

The writing moves from unnervingly prosaic when introducing the troubled mind of each story's protagonist to an often lush descriptive power when depicting scenes and settings where a transformation or discovery will take place. The author withholds much information from the reader, rarely straying into the visceral while still carefully portraying various manic and depressive emotions only barely hidden beneath placid surfaces.

Of the stories, I was most impressed by "Frenzied Farmhouse" and "At the Villa by the Sea". I was also amused by "Projections" but mainly because who isn't amused by nasty nuns who reappear from beyond the grave in order to lead foolish introverts to a nasty death. Très amusant!

"Farmhouse" is utterly horrifying in its implacability: the father will abuse and then kill his children that he adores, as all parents kill their children in the farmhouse where he has chosen to live - against all local advice. The images of a stain on the wall depicting the slaughter to come and the descriptions of the surrounding garden, where various fauna and flora glory in the destruction of their young, gave me genuine chills. A perfectly told story that I will never reread.

"Villa" is almost a murder mystery, one in which the reader and probably the protagonist know exactly who the murderer is. The mystery is in what exactly is occurring: is the murderer projecting the personalities of his victims onto his friend, his stepson? Is this psychic projection a manifestation of his own guilt, or of karmic justice, or are the victims themselves returning to haunt all three? Of course there are no answers in this very elegantly told tale. But at least there is some welcome schadenfreude!

[Forrest]

Just today I read a short, tweeted lament by author Laird Barron regarding the lack of opportunity for short story collections to be published because they "don't sell". As those of you who read my reviews can tell, I love reading (and writing) short fiction. Yes, I read novels, as well, but a good short story can dig into my brain and, sometimes, into my heart and leave an impression that stays deep-seated. lodged in there, for some time. And, I'll be honest, I'd rather take the time to read short stories and novellas because, frankly, I don't want to spend hours reading a novel that comes out as a disappointment. If I waste an hour on a short story, oh well. But if I waste several hours on a novel. Well, I'm not too happy about that. So, give me a collection of short stories any day. I love them, especially when they are as good as Grabinski's On the Hill of Roses.

The title story puts the "decay" back in "decadence". I figured out the central conceit very early on (which is, admittedly, one of the dangers of reading a lot of short fiction), but the journey to get there was delightfully atmospheric and horrifically rewarding. Well worth the read, even if you guess what's going to happen in the end. Five stars.

"The Frenzied Farmhouse" was, like the first story in this volume, predictable, but the perverse joy of the journey more than makes up for having foreseen the destination. As Deep Purple used to say "It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase". Five stars.

I need to read the last 1/3rd of "On a Tangent" again! It's a brilliant unraveling of sanity and reality. Something very Roland Topor-esque about this story. Literary and manic at the same time, with the redolent smell of science fiction. I will note that there are a LOT of typos here that spell-check would not pick up, but a good editorial run would have. Despite the shoddy editorial work, five stars.

The line between psychological dysfunction and the Changeling or Skin Walker is blurred in "Strabismus". Or, if you will, it is a story about a doppelganger that is not, but is the one who sees it, like a rabbit re-absorbing its young, only the young is itself. If this is not making sense to you, perhaps you should just read the story. Four stars to this enigmatic, swirling tale of borderline personality disorder(?).

Now, while I enjoy tapping the deep parts of my brain while reading - this is my "entrance" into the labyrinth of reading - I am delighted when a story goes beyond just teasing my brain and sets its hooks in my heart. The next story did just that. I have three sons. I have a hard time imagining them ever being at odds with each other for too long. So, the story-behind-the-story in "Shadows" saddened me a great deal. It's a tale of two brothers who find themselves on the opposite . . . wait, now, you didn't really think I was going to spoil that, did you? An emotional gut-punch of a tale with a touch of the strange. Five stars.

I had a hard time with "At the Villa by the Sea," at first. There was a lot, too much, of explication and info-dumping in the beginning. Thankfully, the first stretch of the tale (and it was a long one) was subsumed in the overall tale. By the end, the story unfolded like a gothic lotus, dark, dreamlike, and with it's own intoxicating odor. I started out disliking it and ended up liking it very much. Five stars, in the long run.

The recipe for the last story in the collection, "Projections": Mix one part The Stone Tapes, one part True Detective (season one, of course), and three parts ancient cultist ghost of a nun driving a man, a rather M.R. Jamesian or Robert Aickmanesque protagonist, insane. Despite the comparisons, this story (created well before TV even existed) is a compelling whole with a nasty ending that I wasn't quite expecting. Five stars!

Grabinski's writing style reminds me very much of Brian Evenson's (which I love), with anachronistic back-echoes of Roland Topor (whose name I often accidentally spell "T-o-r-p-o-r" - I wonder why) and, has been mentioned, James and Aickman. As I also pointed out, there are lots of typos in this book, which is a disappointment, but not enough of a reason to drop my overall enjoyment of the volume. It is a beautiful little hardcover, published by Hieroglyphic Press, with stunning cover art by Eleni Tsami, the sort of gorgeous artifact that only the small press seems to be doing nowadays. As long as they are putting out collections of this quality (sans typos, please), I will continue to be a champion of both short stories and the small press boutique publishers. Long live the written word.

[Patrick.G.P]

In the stories of Stefan Grabinski, the world becomes a place riddled with awful, cryptic meaning, where lunatic minds would see an esoteric code waiting to be puzzled out. To be solved by the mad, the insane looking for a reason, any reason to act upon their horrifying impulses. Synchronicity becomes something entirely different from this viewpoint, is the world waiting for something to respond to it or are you waiting for the world to respond to you? It’s as if nature is the unknowable driving force behind many of the occurrences and man's limited knowledge about the forces that surround him is but a fraction of the almost supernatural force that uncoils in the background of their lives. Showing glimpses of a strange, ethereal world beyond. Grabinski’s characters seem to be out of tune with society, either shunned or avoiding it, seeking solitude and nature while some bizarre logic unfolds in their minds and lives. There are grisly images, disturbing moments of violence and death in his prose, and they read almost like a natural conclusion to the horrific events that have taken place.

There is a pessimism here that one can trace to Ligotti’s even bleaker tales and mysticism that reads like something out of Machen and Blackwood. The stories in On the Hill of Roses are deeply atmospheric and unsettling to read, burrowing themselves into the subconscious, creating a sense of unease few other authors are able to invoke in their tales. This is my second collection of Grabinski’s tales, and this cements him as one of my all-time favorite authors.

[Sakib]

This book was recommended to me by a fellow reader here on Goodreads, and thanks to him I've discovered a wonderful and magical power of a writer, who, as far as I know, is sort of like the "first man" in writing such genre of fiction in the gifted realm of Polish literature.

The recognition Grabiński should've deserved while he was alive didn't even touch him; the kind of fiction he was crafting was a on a class of its own, in Poland, which is basically the reason why he was all alone around his creation, with not enough souls to feast on the fantastic darkness he was brewing with his pen and paper.

With prose very much like the "drunken magic" resembling the other magicians of Polish literature, the tales in this collection, I felt, rose in their execution and maturity, becoming bolder in psychological and philosophical notions, slowly but surely, with me getting shocked more and more by the "awful" pleasure from an unknown and faraway writer whom I've just known...

My favorite of the stories is At the Villa by the Sea. Atmospheric, and gives the depth of knowledge and imagination of Grabiński had in human psychology and the relation of various paranormal threads with it. Though somewhat predictable, the ending betrayed all my mixed feelings about any predictions I had...

The title story is also quite atmospheric; arises a feeling of gloom that is felt in sunny summer afternoons, when everything is so quiet yet so loud. With that, the author surprisingly coagulates the sense of smell and psychic phenomenon.

The Frenzied Farmhouse is the one I least liked, but a nicely written story of a "haunted place", and quite unique against anything I've read of the sort.

On a Tangent, with its philosophy and psychology of one's belief in "premonitions" and "omens", was also predictable but I've felt somewhat lost with the unpredictability the writer (perhaps intetionally) created in the storytelling. But I was not ready for the final outcome, which might've been what was aimed all along... I feel like I need to re-read it again...

The fourth story, Strabismus, with a rich prose and ending very much reminiscing of Poe, is a tale of split personality, immense conflict and mental agony that might arise in the face of a perverse intrusion into one's mind and ideas.

And now the "weirder" story called Shadow, doesn't contain any grisly outcome (or does it?), but a thought-provoking and haunting tale of how someone's past with all its grief and heartbreak can manifest an oppressive environment...

The last one, Projections, like an ominous veil hiding behind it a grotesque discovery, delivers the last performance of this collection. It is probably the most mature, and in a very specific sense of "explicitness", unlike any of the other tales.

I hope to pick up any of the other works of Grabiński as soon as I can. I end my review with a philosophical quote from one of the stories:

I perceived the principal difference in this, that symbolism in life is always impulsive, innocently unconstrained and unaware of itself, whereas its counterpart in art is, from the essence of things, a result of intentional and aware of the developing creative work. Undoubtedly the artist, as a 'son of the earth,' with his childlike intuition and imagination, is also an impulsive expression of the pandemonium of existence, but nevertheless still an expression aware of itself, in which a potent intelligence collaborates. That is why I would call the symbolism of life 'virginal' in its innocent impulses, in its naive outpouring of sincerity.

[Seregil of Rhiminee]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

This was the first time that I read a short story collection by Stefan Grabinski, but it won't be the last time, because I enjoyed his stories. I was introduced to Grabinski when I read one of his stories (The White Wyrak) in The Weird (an anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer). I was immediately impressed by his writing, because his story reminded me a bit of the tales written by old masters of horror.

I have to mention that Hieroglyphic Press has done a big favour for fans of dark fiction by publishing On the Hill of Roses, because it contains fascinating horror stories.

There are probably several readers who aren't familiar with Stefan Grabinski, so here's a bit of information about him. Stefan Grabinski (1887-1936) was a Polish writer of horror fiction. He has sometimes been called "the Polish Poe". He died of tuberculosis.

Within the pages of this book the readers will find stunning depictions of human life, morbid tragedies and seducing weirdness. As a big fan of quality horror and dark fiction, I must say that On the Hill of Roses is one of the best horror short story collections available at this moment, because it contains beautiful prose and frightening happenings which will appeal to fans of dark fantasy and horror.

On the Hill of Roses contains the following stories:
- On the Hill of Roses
- The Frenzied Farmhouse
- On a Tangent
- Strabismus
- Shadow
- At the Villa by the Sea
- Projections

The collection also contains a foreword by Mark Samuels and an introduction by Miroslaw Lipinski.

Here's a bit more information and my thoughts about the stories:

On the Hill of Roses
- A story about a man who is fascinated by a walled area where the scent of roses comes. He becomes more and more intrigued by the area and finally goes there.
- This is an excellent story with a great and horrifying ending.

The Frenzied Farmhouse
- The protagonist of this story buys a farmhouse and moves into it. The farmhouse has a disturbing effect on his psyche.
- I loved this story, because the happenings were intriguing.

On a Tangent
- An interesting story about Wrzecki. This story can be analyzed in different ways depending on the reader.
- This is one of my favourite stories, because it's a deeply disturbing story when you begin to analyze it in a philosophical way.

Strabismus
- A story about a man who struggles with his personality.
- This is a very interesting and disturbing story.

Shadow
- A disturbing and strangely captivating story about a man who sees a mysterious shadow, which reveals a horrible act. He becomes fascinated by what he sees and wants to know more about it.
- A tragic and well written story.

At the Villa by the Sea
- The protagonist of this story spends time at his friend's villa.
- This is an atmospherical and amazingly well written story, which slowly gathers momentum and ends in an interesting way.

Projections
- A fantastic story about a man who writes a diary. The man writes about his visits to the ruins of an old monastery.
- I loved the atmosphere of this story and I enjoyed the ending.

Analyzing Stefan Grabinski's prose is interesting. His stories are supernatural, gothic and classic horror stories, which are full of mysterious and bizarre happenings. These clever and unsettling reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen and M. R. James.

Stefan Grabinski's stories have a distinct and wonderful feel of the early 20th century in them and that's part of their charm. What makes his stories interesting is that he writes about human life and the lives of his characters in an observing way. His characters are almost like Lovecraftian characters, because they are fascinated by macabre things (for example, the protagonist in Shadow wants to find out more about what he sees and what causes it).

The characters in these stories make interesting and sharp observations about their environment and other people. It was interesting to read about the different places, surroundings and people, because the descriptions were lush and poetic.

The prose is astonishingly atmospherical and lyrical. The author paints vivid pictures of beautiful landscapes, wild gardens, houses and tragic happenings with his words.

Categorizing Stefan Grabinski's stories is easy. His stories are gothic and classic horror stories, which contain weird elements. His stories aren't Lovecraftian weird fiction, but they're weird horror stories. I think that his stories can also be called disturbing and macabre dark fantasy stories, because there are fantastical elements in them.

I'm not sure if other readers agree with me on this, but in my opinion Stefan Grabinski can be seen as a "missing link" between Edgar Allan Poe and Algernon Blackwood. He's just as good a writer as these old masters and his stories have the same kind of effect on the readers as their stories, but the contents of his stories differ nicely from Poe and Blackwood's stories. If there's any justice in the world, hopefully Stefan Grabinski will someday be recognized as one of the greatest horror writers ever, because he deserves wider recognition.

Although Stefan Grabinski has been called "the Polish Poe", it isn't exactly an appropriate way to describe him and his prose. In my opinion Grabinski's stories are more investigative than Poe's stories and he explores surreal happenings in a cerebral way (everybody who has read Poe and then reads Grabinski will most likely notice similarities between them, but I'm sure that he/she will also notice the differences in the storytelling). I think it's best to say that Grabinski explores life and the mysteries of life in an investigative way.

Stefan Grabinski writes fluently about different physiological and psychological phenomena and how they affect us. For example, the protagonist of the title story has an interesting sense of smell, which separates him from other people.

I'm not sure how many stories Stefan Grabinski has written, but if there are more stories out there, it would be nice to see them translated to English, because his stories are fantastic. I think that everybody who likes quality horror will want to read more stories by him. It's possible that fans of modern masters (Laird Barron, W. H. Pugmire, Thomas Ligotti etc) will fall in love with these stories, because the roots of their stories can be found in the early 20th century horror.

I'm sure that On the Hill of Roses will be of interest to everybody who loves beautifully written, disturbing and gothic horror fiction (this collection belongs to the bookshelf of every horror fan). On the Hill of Roses is a superb collection, which can be read over and over again, so don't miss it!

Before I finish writing this review I'll mention that the translation by Miroslaw Lipinski is excellent. I'll also mention that the cover art by Eleni Tsami looks beautiful (Eleni Tsami has managed to capture the feeling of the title story in her painting).

I highly recommend this collection to all horror readers and fans of weird fiction.

[Andy]

The title of this book doesn't exactly scream "horror stories" but that's what these are. Grabinski's stories feel a bit like standard Victorian-era ghost stories, but they're a bit more fresh because they often take on the supernatural from original angles and are more horrific than the average (and occasionally contain sexual elements). Grabinski's story "The White Wyrack" (not included here) is one of the creepiest stories from that era I have read.

I thought his collection "Dark Domain" was a bit better than this one. There's too many similar elements throughout these -- narrators having visions in dreams for example, perhaps the most overused Victorian ghost story device. In a few of the stories there is too much preliminary material, or strange explanation for events than I prefer, which take me out of the story. "The Black Hamlet," "Shadow" and "Strabismus" were my favorites.

On the Hill of Roses
This is a story I've read previously, it has a somewhat decadent feel while touching on the condition of synesthesia as a sort of explanation for the supernatural events. A man discovers a walled in garden, and becomes increasingly intrigued and troubled by what he believes is contained within.

The Frenzied Farmhouse
This is the shortest story in the book, and although it's obvious what is going to happen, the poetic, atmospheric nature of the story is what makes it so worthwhile. A man recounts how a place took over his will, and made him commit a horrible act.

On a Tangent
This is a very strange story, it has a bit too much preliminary at the start for my taste. It plays out like an obsessive fever dream. A man is convinced that several odd circumstances he encounters on a walk by mere chance are directing his steps, to a fateful conclusion.

Strabismus
This is one of the best stories here, I thought I knew where the story was headed, but I was completely surprised by a creative wild card. After inadvertently causing someone's death, a man finds he has adopted a new personality.

The Black Hamlet
This was another good one, maybe my favorite it creates a great sense of a place that is strange and otherworldly, and it uses the "dream" device to great effect. A man has a strange dream which he is sure has caused a terrible change within him in real, waking life.

Shadow
This story reminded me a bit of H.D. Everett's ghost tale "The Crimson Blind," where a murdered ghost is seen projected on a red window blind in an old house. Overall this was one of the better stories here. A man becomes intrigued by an old forester, on whose window is seemingly cast the shadows of two men at the exact moment of a murder.

At the Villa by the Sea
Another story of an old murder coming back to haunt the present. This one does have some creative touches that make it a little different, but it's terribly predictable. A man vacationing at the home of a friend finds himself being influenced by a supernatural force.

Projections
This is another of the better stories, building up a creepy sense of place, some shocking discoveries and an equally shocking conte cruel-like ending. A man becomes intrigued by a long-abandoned monastery, where he makes increasingly strange discoveries.

[Ronald]

On The Hill Of Roses

Foreword by Mark Samuels
Introduction by Miroslav Lipinski

Stories:
On the Hill of Roses
The Frenzied Farmhouse
On a Tangent
Strabismus
Shadow
At the Villa by the Sea
Projections

Not only do I like the contents of the book, but I'm impressed with its high production values.

A brief foreword is by Mark Samuels, an excellent writer of weird fiction himself. The Introduction is by the translator of this book, Miroslav Lipinski. Lipinski's Introduction is sort of a biography of Grabinski. Grabinski was not a totally obscure writer. He had some measure of success. But toward the end of Grabinski's life, it did seem that he was largely forgotten. A dying Grabinski was visited by a friend, who predicted that a time will come when Grabisnki's fiction will be known throughout the world.

That prophecy has been fulfilled.

"On the Hill of Roses"
A man is resting in a pleasant area, when he smells roses from a walled area. He goes to that area and encounters a fascinating genius loci. The story has a tragic ending.

"The Frenzied Farmhouse"
The story is told by a Poe-like unhinged narrator. A man and his children move into a farmhouse. This farmhouse has a disturbing influence on his mind. The violence in this story is very a-typical from Grabinski.

"On a Tangent"
A metaphysical story. Doing that kind of story well is difficult, and I'm not sure if Grabinski entirely succeeds. While reading the story, I was reminded of Charles Fort's worldview that everything is interconnected--disparate, obscure facts are inter-connected at some level. The protagonist of the story has a theory that, while some events might at first seem to be due to chance or strange coincidences, these events have a secret pattern, which gives "some sort of indication, some sort of uncovering, a fulfillment of some fated role..." So was what happened to the protagonist at the end of the story fated to happen?

"Strabismus"
This story is about a man who struggles with a person who is "the personification of antipathy. He was my living antithesis..."

"Shadow"
A man sees a mysterious shadow, which reveals a horrible act, and investigates this. I would classify this story as a Gothic tale, which nevertheless has an interesting, original idea behind it.

"At the Villa by the Sea"
This is a kind of story that Robert Aickman might have written--uncanny stuff happens, and the reader has to infer some things. The narrator visits his distant cousin Richard. Richard is a widower, well off, and has a boy. The narrator and Richard discuss a poet they knew, who died tragically. It appears that this dead poet has a telepathic influence on all the characters in the story. The reader has to infer why the dead poet is doing this.
I am greatly impressed by this story.

"Projections"
Occult fiction told in diary form. The narrator investigates the ruins of an old monastery.

[Murat Dural]

1800'lerin sonunda yazılan böylesi, korku, gotik unsurlarla dolu, tekinsiz hikayelere denk gelmek her seferinde şaşırtıyor beni... "Tanjant Üstüne" öyküsü ise fantazyanın oldukça enteresan bir tarafına dokunuyor; evrenin örgüsü. Bu aralar Douglas Adams'ın kitabından uyarlanan "Dirk Gently Holostik Dedektiflik Bürosu" dizisini izlerken Grabinski'nin öyküsünü okuduğumda şaşkına döndüm. Stefan Grabinski'nin dünyası, öyküleri çok ilginç sembollerle dolu.

[Χρυσόστομος Τσαπραΐλης]

"On the Hill of Roses": concerning a walled garden in a secluded park and a man's strange ability to "see" things through their smell. It is dreamy, atmospheric and takes a definite turn towards the macabre in the end; still, this namesake story is nothing spectacular.
"The Frenzied Farmhouse": it focuses on a Genius Loci which is responsible for a house's demented hue, which makes all beings there follow a specific twisted behavioral pattern. This was rather predictable but very much enjoyable.
"On a Tangent": the worst so far. A man develops strange theories which are occasionally semi-confirmed by clues he "discovers" in the environment. In this particular case he thinks that there are random events which pull persons out of their normal trajectories of life, towards other points. The issue is that the story feels disjointed, full of apparently random facts, and it is a bit of a toil to read. Most of the literary attempts to portray the workings of an unhinged mind fail, being rather tiresome to read - that's the case with this one.
"Strabismus" was good, a doppelganger story where you're unsure about the objective reality of the double. It gets quite macabre, is reminiscent of the House of Leaves, and the writing is quite terse. The protagonists verge on the edge of hysteria, and are somewhat theatrical in their flamboyant monologues.
"The Black Hamlet" was strange and rather satisfying in its unexplained weirdness. A man falls into a 10 minute stupor, and in his dream visits a black hamlet, a diseased colony, and brings something back upon waking. It also has a rather excellent description:
Sleep and waking! Dream and reality! In what utter confusion they merge, with what fury they collide on the crossroads of thought! ... Someone malicious beyond human measure has removed all the border signs and obliterated the boundaries, gone without a trace are all the sign-posts, and delusion - the mad queen of stray paths and highways - reigns supreme..."
"Shadow" was amazing, the best so far. It concerns the window of a secluded cottage on which the protagonist watches a gruesome shadow-play whenever he passes along. He learns about the cottage's owner, befriends him, and finally told the history behind this strange shadow-play. Original and very well executed with biblical and fairy tale elements.
"At the Villa by the Sea" was good but not impeccable. A man visits an old friend living with his young son. The threads of a recent tragedy unfold slowly as the protagonist adopts the mannerisms of a dead poet. The premise wad good but the finale was somewhat anticlimactic and felt sparse.
"Projections", where a man who is regularly visiting the ruins of a local monastery brings back home shadows of objects from the ruins. This is a great story, verging on the pulp gothic. Includes some amazing descriptions of the monastery grounds, while the idea of sourceless shadows is great and quite ahead of its time.


On the whole, Grabinski has very good, out-of-the-box ideas that feel fresh even today, especially in comparison with the majority of contemporary weird fiction. His prose (obviously channeled through the translation) is rich but not cumbersome (although it does have its awkward moments which I intuit may be due to translation issues). The Frenzied Farmhouse, The Black Hamlet, and especially Shadow and Projections are the shiny jewels of this here collection.

[Robert]

For me, a new Grabinski book is cause to rejoice. This new translation by Miroslaw Lipinski succeeds on all levels, and it's a beautiful little book published by Hieroglyphic Press. A must for readers of Thomas Ligotti, Simon Strantzas, Robert Aickman, and related.

[Rafal Gluchowski]

After the false start that was the stylistically overwrought collection "Z Wyjątków. W Pomrokach Wiary" (in English it would go something like this : "From the Exceptions. In the Twilight of Faith"), it is "On the Hill of Roses" – published nearly a decade later – that can be considered the true debut of Stefan Grabiński.
And it’s a very successful debut.

Those “exceptional” first attempts already revealed the author's talent and his ability to build an uncanny atmosphere. But here, once the hysterical,expressionist-style poeticism is replaced by a tighter (though still colorful and ornate) language, it instantly serves the ideas behind the stories far better. The strangeness begins to resonate with full force.

+

"On the Hill of Roses" (original edition consists of just six stories without "Projections") – but each is intriguing, and each deserves its own commentary.

The best story in the volume – “The Frenzied Farmhouse” – was already known from "The Exceptions". It’s the only story that Grabiński deliberately returned to in his mature work. And rightly so, because while the plot may seem predictable by today’s standards, it remains utterly eerie and uncanny. Suspended somewhere between Poe’s “The Black Cat” and… Stephen King’s "The Shining"(!).
A widower with two small children moves into an abandoned farmstead on the outskirts of town. The house – neglected and gloomy – is surrounded by an equally strange garden. The new place begins to exert an increasingly powerful, inexplicable influence on the man…
No need to spoil more – this is classic Grabiński, a must-read.

Among the remaining stories, “Strabismus” stands out – with its thick, weird atmosphere and another nod to Poe, this time to “William Wilson.” But here, it’s much creepier. The protagonist – spiritual and poetic – has his antithesis: a coarse, earthbound scoundrel he despises. After the man dies (with the protagonist playing no small part in his demise), disturbing changes begin to manifest. He starts taking on the traits of his dead enemy. Desperate, he spends hours in internal struggle, trying to resist this influence and return to his former ideals. And during these struggles, strange scraping sounds start coming from the wall…
Powerful stuff.

Equally striking is “On A Tangent”, a story about a man running through the city. Through a sequence of seemingly random, unrelated events, he moves toward a terrifying, uncanny finale. That ending – while not entirely unexpected – lands perfectly thanks to the rhythm and structure of the narrative.

The titular “On the Hill of Roses” has a simple, classical structure. The protagonist spends sunny summer afternoons on a rose-scented hill, on which sits a walled-off property. There’s no entrance in the wall. One day, driven by curiosity, the man climbs over the brick wall… On the other side – a dense rose garden and an abandoned villa hiding a Secret.
Pretty, atmospheric – though the ending is as predictable as it is unremarkable.

In “Shadows”, we encounter a story of family tragedy – a crime from years past – that begins to manifest itself through a peculiar arrangement of shadows cast by household objects. The effect is subtle, moody, pleasantly unsettling.

Finally, “At the Villa by the Sea” is a tale rooted in psychological unease. Two men – the host of the titular villa and his guest – reminisce about a mutual acquaintance who vanished without a trace. Over time, the guest begins to resemble the missing man – in gestures, speech, and behavior. The host gradually unravels, falling into a state of anxious dread.

+

This still isn’t Grabiński at his very best – not yet the level or weight of the ideas we’ll find in "The Mad Pilgrim", "The Motion Demon", "The Book of Fire", or "The Uncanny Tale".
But it’s already excellent reading.
These are refined, fully-formed weird tales – capable of surprising and, at times, genuinely frightening.
Highlights? The macabre "Frenzied Farmhouse", the brilliant, weird "Strabismus" – but the whole collection is worth reading.
Grabiński is truly becoming Grabiński here.

[Marco López]

"I cannot find a path to that other, nightmarish side which weighs upon my memory with its overwhelming gloom. Somebody must treacherously have removed the connecting passage, mined the bridges. And then an abyss opened up beneath me, dark, unfathomable, bottomless…"

Eight short tales from the so-called Polish Poe, focusing on the psychological aspect of horror and atmosphere.

Both the title story and "The Frenzied Farmhouse" have protagonists moving to a new location and experiencing dreamlike scenarios with macabre results, particularly gruesome in the latter. You can foresee the endings, but the writing makes up for it.

Favorite one was probably "Strabismus"; it's a tale of revenge and guilt with an identity conflict twist, with elements reminiscent of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Telltale Heart".

When it comes to setting up atmosphere, "The Black Hamlet" excels, with the narrator vividly describing a dream journey to a dark, barren land and his return with a morbid souvenir.

In "Shadow" the imprint (both physical and psychological) of a murder haunts an old forester who refuses to let go of the past.

"Projections" is more of a Gothic mystery, complete with an old monastery, ghostly apparitions and rancid catacombs.

The other two stories were not as memorable, but overall it's certainly a worthwhile read, I enjoyed it more than The Dark Domain.

[Zach]

Grabiński is most well-known for writing horror stories about trains, but more of his output is dedicated to lush and evocative depictions of eroticism, death, and decay. The stories in this collection, his first published under his own name, fall into that category. The stories themselves are fantastic, but the translation is turgid and archaic. If you're new to Grabiński I recommend picking up the Orchard of the Dead collection put out by Valancourt and translated by Anthony Sciscione, which features a wide breadth of his stories and a much livelier translation.

[beyz]

Stefan Grabínski’nin anlatı dünyasında her şey karanlık. Alacakaranlıkta bir çiçek tarhında, güz gününde gün batımında bir ormanda ya da gece vaktinde köhne bir malikaneye adım atıyorsunuz.

Kısa hikayelerden oluşan ‘Güller Tepesinde’ ‘yi sevdim. Uzun zaman sonra gün gün okuma açlığımı bastıracak iyi kurgulanmış farklı hikayelerdi.

[Tadeusz]

Aż ciarki przechodzą po plecach. Świetna książka.

[Kylie Mann]

Pretty good

[Jane Watson]

10/10 - 5/5

[Krzysztof]

Im więcej czytam Grabińskiego tym mniej mi wchodzi. Żadne opowiadanie z tego tomu nie zrobiło na mnie zbytniego wrażenia, wszystkim zabrakło satysfakcjonującej konkluzji, część z nich była napisana jeszcze bardziej zawiłym niż zazwyczaj językiem, pełnym pseudo-naukowych wynurzeń. Trudno mi polecić ten zbiór - ale szczęśliwie nie był zbyt długi.