The Hellfire Files of Jules de Grandin

Jules de Grandin #1

by Seabury Quinn

"The Occult Hercule Poirot"

FOLLOW JULES de GRANDIN AS HE DARES TO DESECRATE THE SACRED RITES OF SATAN!

Jules de Grandin, the inimitable, indomitable occult investigator, plunges over the threshold of terror as he pursues the spawn of Satan to their most hidden lairs. No fiend is too foul, no monster too menacing, to deter the great supernatural detective from using his uncanny powers and awesome knowledge to protect the bodies and souls of the innocent--and to send his foes back to the eternal darkness from which they came.

A tribe of Oriental Devil people...the sinister Greek God Pan...a wolf man who casts an unholy spell of horror...a world of lost and lusting souls ruled by a vampire king...a horrifying private club devoted to inhuman rites...a hand of evil that no ordinary mortal can resist...all are unforgettable chilling challenges as Jules de Grandin goes after his eerie enemies on their own hunting grounds.

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Fantasy, Short Stories, Occult Detective, Collections, Adventure

222 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1976

About the author

Best know as an American pulp author for Weird Tales, for which he wrote a series of stories about occult detective Jules de Grandin. He was the author of non-fiction legal and medical texts and editor of Casket & Sunnyside, a trade journal for mortuary jurisprudence. He also published fiction for Embalming Magazine, another mortuary periodical.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories by the most popular author of Weird Tales is certainly trashy, but it is also good fun. Jules de Grandin--"the Sherlock Holmes of weird fiction," "the occult Hercule Poirot"--endeavors to keep the world in general--and Harrisonville, New Jersey in particular--safe from psychic harm.

In this volume the Frenchman de Grandin, accompanied by his faithful American companion and chronicler Dr. Trowbridge, confronts and conquers: 1) an ape man, 2) the spirit of a medieval French nobleman in the form of a large white snake, 3) a half-breed Arab pirate-king in command of cannibal Malays, 4) a magician who hypnotically directs a thieving dismembered hand, 5) a vampire, 6) a werewolf, and 7) the suicidal influence of the sermons of a guilt-haunted preacher cursed by a negro voodoo queen.

You get the idea.

These stories are chock full of racism, chauvinism, outlandish ethnic accents, scantily-clad young women menaced by dark forces, improbable French oaths, sword cane thrusts, pistol shots, predictable plots and emotionally overwrought prose. Quinn is undeniably a good storyteller, though, and I look forward to reading more de Grandin stories in the future.

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mixture as before, but a good mixture--if you don't mind the casual racism common in pre-WWII pulp fiction.

It starts out with "The Devil-People," a classic de Grandin tale in which sinister dark-skinned folk--in this case, devilish Rakshasas from Malaysia--attempt to reclaim a sacred pearl stolen by a lovely Malay woman in love with a brave Caucasian, and are literally beaten senseless for their efforts (with big spiky clubs) by de Grandin, some Irish cops, and the aforementioned Caucasian. The "Great God Pan" involves a cut-rate Aleister Crowley who uses his pagan finishing school to further a murderous plot, "Restless Souls"--starring the undead and a vampire king--tells of a vampire/human love almost as tender and emo as "Twilight," "The Wolf of St. Bonnot" involves the ghost of a werewolf recalled to corporeality by a seance, the "Hand of Glory" features a ceremony summoning the ancient evil of the Sacred Mother, and "Mephistopheles and Company, Ltd" exposes a group of con artists using demonic possession as part of a scam.

Quinn has a gripping narrative style, and if you can imagine yourself--no problem for me!--as a twelve-year-old boy in the early 1930's reading his forbidden copy of "Weird Tales" under the blanket with a flashlight, I guarantee you will be both terrified and entertained.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of very pulpy stories featuring the occult detective Jules de Grandin, who is kind of like a ghostbusting Poirot. They're often silly, sometimes salacious, and definitely have the feel of stories from another decade that were bashed out quickly to make a buck. None of that makes them less fun though, and the sheer variety of foes de Gradin and narrator/sidekick Trowbridge go up against means each story is fresh.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Occult investigator Jules de Grandin was the creation of Seabury Quinn and was the hero of over ninety stories published in the early half of the last century, most of them in Weird Tales magazine. I was surprised to learn that Quinn was both the most popular and most prolific writer in the history of the magazine; I'm sure most people would guess H.P. Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard. (I would have said Clark Ashton Smith.) Popular Library released a half-dozen de Grandin books in the 1970s, and this is the first one in that set. The back cover bills him as "The Occult Hercule Poirot," but I think he is much more derived from Algernon Blackwood's John Silence or William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, as well, of course, as Denis Nayland Smith and Sherlock Holmes. (De Grandin is French, and does speak in a charming and consistent patois, with frequent exclamations like "By damn sixty green monkeys!") The stories are good pulp fiction, and are much better written than most other such stories from the 1920s detective pulps. This volume contains seven stories, including the first two, which seem atypical as they're not set in Harrisonville, NJ, and de Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge aren't rooming together yet. Some of the monsters faced include vampires, zombies, and werewolves, not to mention your basic evil satanic black magic. Not all of his opponents or solutions are supernatural in nature; in one, for example, he must escape from cannibal pirates. His companion is Dr. Trowbridge, who narrates the stories as de Grandin's Watson. In one of the stories in this collection we learn that he's a fan of genre fiction, which may explain a lot; he mentions having read Haggard's The Wanderer's Necklace a half-dozen times. The stories don't have many strong female characters, as was characteristic of the pulps, and do show some ethnic and racial stereotyping; for example, in one story it's stated quite matter-of-factly that poor French people have an "inborn hatred of fresh air," and in another we're told that "the Irish have the gift of seeing things that you colder-blooded Saxons may not." Despite such aged drawbacks, I was pleasantly surprised by both the quality of the writing and the stories themselves in this second book of Quinn's de Grandin I've read, though I thought the stories in the other book, The Horror Chambers of Jules de Grandin, were a bit smoother in context if slightly more grotesque in content. I'll look forward to reading further in the series.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book published as a anthology of Seabury Quinn most famous characters - Jules de Grandin.

I bet that in the 20's or 30' this stories were top-notch but today they are a bit dated. The interesting part is that this book can be read as if Sherlock Holmes's crimes were supernatural.

The first tale we meet Jules de Gradin and his new friend Trowbridge. If Grandin is interesting guy; Trowbridge it's not. He is there to be mocked by Grandin and a reason to Seabury Quinn explain the stories, because Trowbridge is clueless in every aspect in life.

So, the two friends try to uncover the mystery behind an ape-man; a vampire; werewolves that were made not the usual way, they travel to the seas to meet an evillord that could be compare to those evil master mind that 007 had to battle.

Advisable to anyone who enjoys pulp fiction. To everyone else I advice reading one or two stories before buying the book. There are several stories free in Project Gothemburg. Beware: Racism and machismo feels this pages - no female character exist on this tale; besides the ones who are naked or in trouble. You have been warmed.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vintage "Weird Tales" stuff featuring, as he is described on the back of the book, the occult Hercule Poirot. The character of De Grandin is fun, his sidekick Trowbridge less so. The stories are a mix of actual occult evil and con artist tomfoolery. I'm glad to have read this collection, but I think one is enough.

[bluetyson]

The Hellfire Files of Jules De Grandin by Seabury Quinn (1976)

[Karina]

Underrated fantasy series

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

read some time in 1986; one of a series of pulp reprints; the entire available Jules de Grandin stories have been reprinted in 3 volumes at between $300-$400.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

typical De Grandin; has "biography" section on de Grandin & Trowbridge in back of book

[Ninde · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Los señores del más allá"