Stories from a Lost Anthology

by Rhys Hughes, Michael Moorcock (Introduction)

Stories From a Lost Anthology is the third collection of tales by Rhys Hughes, an acknowledged master of the strange story, published by Tartarus Press. As in his earlier collections, Worming the Harpy (1995) and The Smell of Telescopes (2000), Hughes’s plotting and puns are frequently outrageous, but somehow, through a strong but warped internal logic, all is made probable, even believable.

Many of the tales in Stories From A Lost Anthology are set in the author’s native Wales, although they may not describe that country as the official guidebooks would have it. Have you ever wondered what happens in the rooms above a Welsh public house? Or to a vampire when it’s polarity is reversed? And how exactly would you kidnap Dylan Thomas, a half-century after his death? As Michael Moorcock says, Hughes is a:

" … daffy Dunsany, full of knowing favours, canny to the calls of a thousand rarees, this modern original is as eccentric as the great eighteenth-century mavericks he sometimes resembles. Few living fictioneers approach this chef's sardonic confections, certainly not in English. Perhaps Calvino comes to mind and The Misfortunes of Elphin offers a few echoes, to mention Meredith's father-in-law again. For me Shagpat and Farina itch at his references, but I suspect he's unfamiliar with Meredith in that droll, un-moral mode. If he's unfamiliar with any work of fiction at all, of course. He has clearly at some point swallowed a library."

Genres: Short Stories

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

A writer of Speculative Fiction who uses fantasy and comedy to explore unusual concepts. Known for his original ideas, intricate plots, love of paradox, and entertaining wordplay.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhys Hughes is a fantastic author. Plus this is a beautifully created book. Mr Hughes is cleaver, funny and creative. Michael Moorcock sings his praises in the introduction. He states "Few living fictioneers approach this chief's sardonic confections, especially not in english",

Contents:

Introduction: The Welsh Raree by Michael Moorcock
Portrait of an Artist As a Rusty Bus
The Lute and the Lamp
Toastmaster, Buttermistress
Journey Through a Wall
The Marsh Callow
Story from a Lost Anthology
Less Is More
Jellydämmerung!
The Macroscopic Teapot
Fallow
The Crab
Pyramid and Thisbe
The Lover and the Grave
The Evil Side of Reginald Burke
Asparagus on the Tooth
A Languid Elagabalus of the Tombs
Owlbeast
Tin in the Soul
Cockatrice at the Door
Robin Hood's New Mother
The New Giraldus

400 copies printed the first 150 are signed and numbered.

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three books (Worming the Harpy, The Smell of Telescopes, and this Lost Anthology), ostensibly once read by me when they were first published, are a mighty revelation, and with my lost memory, their stories (some the author’s most fundamental) have come up as if they are new, sharing a culmination of some long rite of passage just finished. The whole gamut provides its own lost anthology of mountainous memoryless proportions but with my gestalt-targeted real-time reviews, now enshrined by electronic googleable links to all the titles of stories no longer lost, if lost they were. Indeed, I think they have been, undeservedly, half-lost, at least. Now no longer, as they now seem to me to be half-found at least. I leave all you others to take over and complete the task of wholly finding them. Found art, not at least but at last … give or take even a cockatrice’s influence.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Renuka Mahadevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the author's biggest and best collections with a great introduction by Michael Moorcock. There are many fabulous stories in this book, for example. 'Toastmaster, Buttermistress', 'Cockatrice at the Door'. 'The Marsh Callow' and 'Tin in the Soul'. As always Hughes' stories are bursting with ideas.