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Fox Woman and Other Stories.
The Fox WomanThe People of the PitThrough the Dragon GlassThe DroneThe Last Poet and the RobotsThree Lines of Old FrenchThe White RoadWhen Old Gods WakeThe Women of the Wood
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
4 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
A. Merritt
241 books125 followersAbraham Grace Merritt, wrote under the name of A. Merritt, born in New Jersey moved as a child to Philadelphia, Pa. in 1894, began studying law and than switched to journalism. Later a very popular writer starting in 1919 of the teens, twenties and thirties, horror and fantasy genres. King of the purple prose, most famous The Moon Pool, a south seas lost island civilization, hidden underground and The Ship of Ishtar, an Arabian Nights type fable, and six other novels and short stories collections (he had written at first, just for fun). Nobody could do that variety better, sold millions of books in his career. The bright man, became editor of the most successful magazine during the Depression, The American Weekly , with a fabulous $100,000 in salary. A great traveler, in search of unusual items he collected. His private library of 5,000 volumes had many of the occult macabre kind. Yet this talented author is now largely been forgotten.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 29, 2023
A strong collection of Abraham Merritt's shorter works. The Fox Woman is the main attraction for this collection and with good reason. It’s a really cool story with some Japanese influences about a shape shifting fox spirit. Though, When Old Gods Wake is the story that managed to intrigue me the most as it’s the beginning of the unfinished sequel to the wonderful The Face in the Abyss.
August 19, 2011
"The Fox Woman and Other Stories" is the only collection of Abraham Merritt's shorter works, and contains seven stories and two "fragments." These short stories span the entire career of the man who has been called America's foremost adventure fantasist of the 1920s and '30s. Several of the tales boast the lush purple prose of Merritt's early period (as seen especially in his first two novels, "The Moon Pool" and "The Metal Monster"), but all seven are finely written little gems. They run the gamut from full-blown fantasy to lost-world adventure to outright science fiction, and abundantly demonstrate that Merritt was a master of the concise short form, as well as the full-length novel.
The collection kicks off with one of its strongest tales, "The Fox Woman," a tale of revenge in a remote part of 20th century China. Here, a young American woman is attacked by a band of assassins and is aided by the shape-shifting entity of the title. This is one of Merritt's most poetic works, and one of his most unpredictable.
"The People of the Pit" follows, and is a lost-world tale that takes place in the wilds of the Yukon. A dying explorer tells the story of a civilization that he found far underground; one that contains a kind of semi-invisible snail/light populace. This is a tale that lovers of H.P. Lovecraft will enjoy, what with its bizarre creatures, brooding temple god and atmosphere of creeping menace. This is one memorable story, indeed.
"Through the Dragon Glass" is a fantasy that tells of a man who enters a kind of alternate world by passing through an ancient Chinese relic. Just as Lewis Carroll's Alice had done, Jim Herndon in this tale has some truly bizarre adventures.
In "The Drone," a group of men (including Alan Caranac, hero of Merritt's "Creep, Shadow, Creep"!) sit around and throw tales back and forth; tales concerning men who had the ability to change themselves into animals. We hear of a man/hyena in Ethiopia and a man/bee in the wilds of...New Jersey, and some theories for these happenings are propounded in very interesting fashion.
"The Last Poet and the Robots" is, as far as I know, Merritt's only piece of futuristic sci-fi, taking place as it does in the 30th century. Here, a band of scientists who have decided to live underground, away from the society they care little about, come to Man's aid when those pesky robots revolt. This tale features the outrageous superscience and way-out gizmos that typified much of the sci-fi of the 1930s.
"Three Lines of Old French" is the next offering, and is one of the loveliest tales in the book. Merritt himself appears as one of the characters in the tale's intro, but the story really concerns a young American soldier who seems to meet a French girl of 200 years ago, whilst he is on guard in his World War I trench. Or perhaps I shouldn't say "seems to"? This is one charming fantasy indeed.
Up next are two short fragments that were meant to be the openings of novels that Merritt never completed. "The White Road" tells of a young man who has had visions of that road since childhood. It's hard to tell just where Merritt intended to go with this tale, on the basis of the six pages that remain.
"When Old Gods Wake" was meant to be a sequel to Merritt's novel "The Face in the Abyss," set in Mexico, apparently, rather than the earlier book's Peru. The fragment entices with its exotic setting, squabbling lovers, and hints of elder gods coming back to life.
And the collection ends with "The Women of the Wood," a beautiful tale of a man who gets caught in a clash between some woodsmen and the dryads that they are endangering. This is the type of story that fans of Algernon Blackwood will appreciate...not to mention all "tree huggers." Blackwood always excelled at this kind of "Nature personified" tale, and Merritt here demonstrates that he was no slouch at the game himself. Anyway, this collection is a must for all Merritt fans, and for fantasy fans in general. Abraham Merritt surely did have a style all his own, and after reading "The Fox Woman and Other Stories," one will feel compelled to admit that that style translated extremely well to the shorter form. Seek this one out, by all means!
The collection kicks off with one of its strongest tales, "The Fox Woman," a tale of revenge in a remote part of 20th century China. Here, a young American woman is attacked by a band of assassins and is aided by the shape-shifting entity of the title. This is one of Merritt's most poetic works, and one of his most unpredictable.
"The People of the Pit" follows, and is a lost-world tale that takes place in the wilds of the Yukon. A dying explorer tells the story of a civilization that he found far underground; one that contains a kind of semi-invisible snail/light populace. This is a tale that lovers of H.P. Lovecraft will enjoy, what with its bizarre creatures, brooding temple god and atmosphere of creeping menace. This is one memorable story, indeed.
"Through the Dragon Glass" is a fantasy that tells of a man who enters a kind of alternate world by passing through an ancient Chinese relic. Just as Lewis Carroll's Alice had done, Jim Herndon in this tale has some truly bizarre adventures.
In "The Drone," a group of men (including Alan Caranac, hero of Merritt's "Creep, Shadow, Creep"!) sit around and throw tales back and forth; tales concerning men who had the ability to change themselves into animals. We hear of a man/hyena in Ethiopia and a man/bee in the wilds of...New Jersey, and some theories for these happenings are propounded in very interesting fashion.
"The Last Poet and the Robots" is, as far as I know, Merritt's only piece of futuristic sci-fi, taking place as it does in the 30th century. Here, a band of scientists who have decided to live underground, away from the society they care little about, come to Man's aid when those pesky robots revolt. This tale features the outrageous superscience and way-out gizmos that typified much of the sci-fi of the 1930s.
"Three Lines of Old French" is the next offering, and is one of the loveliest tales in the book. Merritt himself appears as one of the characters in the tale's intro, but the story really concerns a young American soldier who seems to meet a French girl of 200 years ago, whilst he is on guard in his World War I trench. Or perhaps I shouldn't say "seems to"? This is one charming fantasy indeed.
Up next are two short fragments that were meant to be the openings of novels that Merritt never completed. "The White Road" tells of a young man who has had visions of that road since childhood. It's hard to tell just where Merritt intended to go with this tale, on the basis of the six pages that remain.
"When Old Gods Wake" was meant to be a sequel to Merritt's novel "The Face in the Abyss," set in Mexico, apparently, rather than the earlier book's Peru. The fragment entices with its exotic setting, squabbling lovers, and hints of elder gods coming back to life.
And the collection ends with "The Women of the Wood," a beautiful tale of a man who gets caught in a clash between some woodsmen and the dryads that they are endangering. This is the type of story that fans of Algernon Blackwood will appreciate...not to mention all "tree huggers." Blackwood always excelled at this kind of "Nature personified" tale, and Merritt here demonstrates that he was no slouch at the game himself. Anyway, this collection is a must for all Merritt fans, and for fantasy fans in general. Abraham Merritt surely did have a style all his own, and after reading "The Fox Woman and Other Stories," one will feel compelled to admit that that style translated extremely well to the shorter form. Seek this one out, by all means!
January 26, 2016
Most of the stories--I'm thinking of "The Fox Woman" and "The Women of the Wood" specifically--have such an ambiguous moral stance that feels at odds with the romantic style of writing.
Charles Meredith is an obvious villain and dastard, and it is easy to wish vengeance against him, but his human villainy is commonplace compared to the fox woman of the title, with her air of delicate menace and cool inhumanity and inscrutable purposes. The story's ambiguous conclusion, where the fox spirit is set loose in America, suggests a story half-told.
Likewise, the conflict between the tree spirits and the human inhabitants of "The Women of the Wood" doesn't lend itself to easy good-and-evil dissection.
Charles Meredith is an obvious villain and dastard, and it is easy to wish vengeance against him, but his human villainy is commonplace compared to the fox woman of the title, with her air of delicate menace and cool inhumanity and inscrutable purposes. The story's ambiguous conclusion, where the fox spirit is set loose in America, suggests a story half-told.
Likewise, the conflict between the tree spirits and the human inhabitants of "The Women of the Wood" doesn't lend itself to easy good-and-evil dissection.
January 22, 2010
This is a mix of complete short stories and beginnings of novels that he left unfinished before he died, the title story in the latter camp. All of it is quite good. I have to laugh at Merritt's fascination with not-quite-human women.
November 4, 2014
Muchos relatos en esta compilación estas inconclusos. Y demuestran una gran obsesión por los humanos-animales, ya que en la mayoría de ellos este es su principal baza. Y una vez más se ve la gran influencia de Lovecraft en los autores posteriores a él.
También incluye como viene siendo habitual en esta editorial unas preciosas ilustraciones.
También incluye como viene siendo habitual en esta editorial unas preciosas ilustraciones.
December 10, 2023
7/10
When the story premise was engaging, Merritt’s writing style worked for me. It’s a detailed style, sometimes to the degree that the pacing of some of the stories suffer or I have a difficult time picturing stuff. Other times, his writing style made me slow down and see how he wanted to communicate certain themes in a way where the language purifies its messaging.
My favorite stories are as followed
The Fox Woman 9/10
The People of the Pit 8/10
Three Lines of Old French 8/10
The Women of the Wood 8.5/10
I will give Merritt’s other work more of a look down the road!
When the story premise was engaging, Merritt’s writing style worked for me. It’s a detailed style, sometimes to the degree that the pacing of some of the stories suffer or I have a difficult time picturing stuff. Other times, his writing style made me slow down and see how he wanted to communicate certain themes in a way where the language purifies its messaging.
My favorite stories are as followed
The Fox Woman 9/10
The People of the Pit 8/10
Three Lines of Old French 8/10
The Women of the Wood 8.5/10
I will give Merritt’s other work more of a look down the road!
December 31, 2021
The titular story and two others (Three Lines of Old French and The Women of the Wood) are excellent. The other four (not counting the two fragments) are middling to poor - even the Lovecraftian ones are dull.
October 30, 2021
I didn't like The Moon Pool, thorough world-building though it was, so I was surprised to enjoy these so much. I wish he'd finished The Fox Woman, it's a really intriguing start, with (I suppose) a female protagonist in the offing.
July 5, 2020
[The Women of Wood] *****
Forse uno dei più bei racconti che abbia mai letto, insieme a The Far Islands di John Buchan. Aleggia un'ambiguità morale che non è quella alla "Games of Thrones" dove ognuno cerca di pugnalarsi alla schiena per mero gioco politico, ma più un dato di fatto, per cui creature "aliene" agiscono in maniera diverse da noi, proprio per loro natura. La colpa è nostra, di come interpretiamo questi esseri abitualmente. Non è più neanche un discorso di bene o male, la stessa dicotomia è trascesa (uao anche io so usare i paroloni).
Il finale malinconico è poi la ciliegina sulla torta. Leggi l'ultima riga e, con un sospiro, ti chiedi: "Poteva andare diversamente? Cosa avrei fatto io?"
[The Fox Woman] ?
Bello finché dura. Dalla scrittura traspare un evidente "orientalismo" dell'autore, che imbastisce una serie di luoghi comuni attorno al modo di parlare e ai comportamente dei cinesi. Merritt sembra affascinato da questa antica civiltà e lo stereotipo non è mai offensivo, riflette più una certa ingenuità dei tempi.
In ogni caso il racconto parte e prosegue benissimo, un'alternanza di pause e accellerate che tengono incollati alla lettura. Il vero grande "problema" di questo The Fox Woman sta nell'improvviso finale. Si gira la pagina, ci si aspetta un nuovo capitolo, ma la storia è finita. L'interruzione è così brusca che sulle prime ho pensato che fosse una problema della mia edizione, troncata a metà per qualsivoglia motivo. E invece no, il racconto è proprio tutto lì. A quanto pare l'autore non riuscì a concluderlo prima di morire. Peccato.
Forse uno dei più bei racconti che abbia mai letto, insieme a The Far Islands di John Buchan. Aleggia un'ambiguità morale che non è quella alla "Games of Thrones" dove ognuno cerca di pugnalarsi alla schiena per mero gioco politico, ma più un dato di fatto, per cui creature "aliene" agiscono in maniera diverse da noi, proprio per loro natura. La colpa è nostra, di come interpretiamo questi esseri abitualmente. Non è più neanche un discorso di bene o male, la stessa dicotomia è trascesa (uao anche io so usare i paroloni).
Il finale malinconico è poi la ciliegina sulla torta. Leggi l'ultima riga e, con un sospiro, ti chiedi: "Poteva andare diversamente? Cosa avrei fatto io?"
[The Fox Woman] ?
Bello finché dura. Dalla scrittura traspare un evidente "orientalismo" dell'autore, che imbastisce una serie di luoghi comuni attorno al modo di parlare e ai comportamente dei cinesi. Merritt sembra affascinato da questa antica civiltà e lo stereotipo non è mai offensivo, riflette più una certa ingenuità dei tempi.
In ogni caso il racconto parte e prosegue benissimo, un'alternanza di pause e accellerate che tengono incollati alla lettura. Il vero grande "problema" di questo The Fox Woman sta nell'improvviso finale. Si gira la pagina, ci si aspetta un nuovo capitolo, ma la storia è finita. L'interruzione è così brusca che sulle prime ho pensato che fosse una problema della mia edizione, troncata a metà per qualsivoglia motivo. E invece no, il racconto è proprio tutto lì. A quanto pare l'autore non riuscì a concluderlo prima di morire. Peccato.
December 16, 2023
While less challenging than Lovecraft, it suffers from lacking the dense mood and sense of dread that old H.P. was so adept at crafting.
October 22, 2024
Was a house club book pick. Neither of us could finish all of the stories, we read the first few and just couldn't keep going.
June 25, 2015
It was rather The Woman of the Wood.
January 23, 2016
An OK story from this pulp era writer. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews