In Search of the Unknown

by Robert W. Chambers

Our narrator is hired by the New York Zoological Society to assist a professor who is in charge of their gardens and exhibits. He embarks on his search for a Great Auk, a species that was extinct for fifty or so years.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Literature

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1904

About the author

Robert William Chambers was an American artist and writer.

Chambers was first educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute,and then entered the Art Students' League at around the age of twenty, where the artist Charles Dana Gibson was his fellow student. Chambers studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and at Académie Julian, in Paris from 1886 to 1893, and his work was displayed at the Salon as early as 1889. On his return to New York, he succeeded in selling his illustrations to Life, Truth, and Vogue magazines. Then, for reasons unclear, he devoted his time to writing, producing his first novel, In the Quarter (written in 1887 in Munich). His most famous, and perhaps most meritorious, effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of weird short stories, connected by the theme of the fictitious drama The King in Yellow, which drives those who read it insane.

Chambers returned to the weird genre in his later short story collections The Maker of Moons and The Tree of Heaven, but neither earned him such success as The King in Yellow.

Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living. According to some estimates, Chambers was one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status. Many of his works were also serialized in magazines.

After 1924 he devoted himself solely to writing historical fiction.

Chambers for several years made Broadalbin his summer home. Some of his novels touch upon colonial life in Broadalbin and Johnstown.

On July 12, 1898, he married Elsa Vaughn Moller (1882-1939). They had a son, Robert Edward Stuart Chambers (later calling himself Robert Husted Chambers) who also gained some fame as an author.

Chambers died at his home in the village of Broadalbin, New York, on December 16th 1933.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of five stories hunting for strange animals and the supernatural. They are vaguely linked by a frame narrative (our protagonist is sent to help secure an odd creature) and similar structure (our protagonist falls in love and fails to win the heart of the source of his infatuation). It's clear that Chambers mainly wrote romances, as that crept in quite distinctly. However, the character of the protagonist is not entirely consistent, leading us to determine that not all these were written at the same time. Like swimming squirrels, IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN navigates with the help of Heaven and a stiff breeze, but it never lands where it hopes to.

The first segment, also known as THE HARBOUR MASTER, sends our protagonist off to retrieve some great auks, believed to be extinct. While there, he is also to investigate reports of a strange amphibious humanoid. The book soars when the characters are wild and unpredictable. A true delight is the rivalry between our protagonist and the grumpy old man he is sent to negotiate with over the purchase of the auks. The quests for thimbles are a delicious metaphor with many folds available for interpretation. The atmosphere was good and I can see how this was an inspirational document for The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I thoroughly enjoy that Chambers hangs a lantern on the central conceit and then whimsically blusters about the seriousness of the tales. “As I say, I had only just returned from Java with a valuable collection of undescribed isopods—an order of edriophthalmous crustaceans with seven free thoracic somites furnished with fourteen legs—and I beg my reader's pardon, but my reader will see the necessity for the author's absolute accuracy in insisting on detail, because the story that follows is a dangerous story for a scientist to tell, in view of the vast amount of nonsense and fiction in circulation masquerading as stories of scientific adventure.” The second story was less compelling and less creepy. It is very similar to the frame of the first, with our protagonist being sent off to find a dingue and a wooly mammoth.

The third story about the large flightless ux wandered in new and entertaining directions. The frame here is a scientific symposium that will prove the existence of the strange ux that had been spotted at a distance by Mr. Darwin on his expedition. They will be shown to the world through a live hatching on the presentation stage. There are several eggs in incubators, whose pipework was being assembled and fitted by a large group of workers. “They informed us that they were union men and that they hoped we were too. And I replied that union was certainly my ultimate purpose, at which the young Countess smiled dreamily at vacancy.” Quite frequently, I believe these objects of affection are politely ignoring some really awful pick-up lines. These union men walk off the job at the end of their shift in solidarity with labor disputes outside the symposium. This leads to a failure of the incubator system, so it requires that the eggs be sat upon by the members of the ornithological committee including the crown prince of Finland and a titled lord of England. The eggs hatch and the committee rides crazily on giant flightless birds throughout the symposium. Hilarity ensues.

The search for the Sphyx in the fourth movement was clearly influential on Predator. "I am most unwillingly led to believe that there are—creatures—of some sort in the Everglades—living creatures quite as large as you or I—and that they are perfectly transparent—as transparent as a colorless jellyfish." You know, if the Predator was hunting baked apple pies like those comic book villains in the one-page Hostess advertisements. Imagine if the Alien vs. Predator comic books were made in the 70’s or early 80’s and the killers took a snack break to munch on delicious hostess pies. This fourth story is just as awesome as that headcanon advertisement. Any influence from Bierce’s The Damned Thing is purely coincidental.

“I have always, in common with other mentally balanced savants, despised writers of fiction. All scientists harbor a natural antipathy to romance in any form, and that antipathy becomes a deep horror if fiction dares to deal flippantly with the exact sciences, or if some degraded intellect assumes the warrantless liberty of using natural history as the vehicle for silly tales.”

This fourth story maintains its frame through the fifth, where our protagonist is heading back to the city with the lady of infatuation on a mission to acquire help to save the kidnapped professor from the colony of the sphyx. On the train, they meet a gentleman who tells strange tales of astral projection and reincarnation. The characters are wild and flamboyant, much like in the Harbour Master section, and really allows this final sequence to soar.

At the end of things, we have a number of dangling threads that are unresolved. Our protagonist is unchanged from his state of buffoonery, except for things that feel more like inconsistency in editing rather than development (or devolution). This is whimsical and entertaining for the right sort of antiquarian, but ultimately difficult to recommend.

This book is available for free on Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18668

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A bit of an odd read but that's the books charm.an account in fining unknown animals animals.intresting premise but wasn't as in love with the actual book as i had hoped but interested to read more by Robert W Chamber's

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second foray into Chambers after reading 'The King in Yellow' a few years ago. This was definitely less weird than that collection - for some reason the narrator Gilland and his stories of searching for unknown creatures struck me as a less abrasive & boisterous version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger. It took me a while to realize that Chambers was basically doing in a bit in having the various ladies in Gilland's tales fall for him and then suddenly ramble off to marry another at the last minute. (As summed up at the end by Gilland stating that Science will brook no rivals. Unlucky fellow.)

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny stories about unknown and supernatural creatures. Light entertainment and all the more surprising because this is the author of The King in Yellow which has some of the creepiest stories I've ever read.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This was a different book, with its strengths and weaknesses. It feels weird to give it a single rating, as there are so many different elements that I loved and didn’t care for at the same time. But let’s try to break it down.

The writing style is beautiful. Chambers does an especially fantastic job writing about nature. Additionally, there are some genuine moments of humor, where I just burst out laughing. It was fun to read.

There is a degree of disjointedness to the chapters. It feels as if this book is a collection of stories which were printed as an ongoing serial in a journal or newspaper. Which it very much could have been. However, some of the chapters are oddly split, so that it isn’t always one story per chapter.

This is a product of its time. This can have a variety of effects. Sometimes it makes for an interesting window into the views of the culture, or how society functioned or behaved. It’s interesting to read about jobs or means of action that are archaic to us now due to modern technology. Other times, it leads to the repetitive use of stock characters. The women are basically variants of the same model. They are all young, pretty, intelligent, demure, and described as “ivory”, “pink” and “dainty”. It’s not offensive, but it can be bemusing to read. Other times, there are moments where I would be taken aback by a passing thought or behavior that is more prevalent in older thoughts. This can be seen in... archaic... depictions of indigenous or blacks (but luckily was pretty infrequent), or in archaic approaches towards science and the scientific method.

However, despite the list of negatives I just espoused, I did genuinely enjoy the stories. I loved the writing style and humor, and even being able to read old fashioned views presented as normal (a lot of modern historical fiction typically places a modern character with modern ideals in a historical setting and clearly expresses how old the historical views are. This, being written in the time period it takes place in, doesn’t do that). I think, if you go in, and are looking for stories and excellent writing style, and understand that there are old-fashioned thoughts in the book, but you try to see them as a way of capturing the thoughts of society at the time, you will enjoy this book.

[Lachrymarvm_Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short novel, “In Search Of The Unknown” by Robert W. Chambers (originally published 1904) was next on my list of obscure antiquarian horror & 'weird fiction' that I've been working through for October. I chose it because years ago I read (and re-read) a shorter collection of stories by Chambers called “The King In Yellow” (published in 1895 – 9 years before "In Search Of The Unknown"). Since “The King In Yellow” has a well-deserved reputation as a gem of weird fiction/late Victorian horror (and influenced the likes of H.P. Lovecraft), I hoped for more in the same vein here…
______
“The wilderness is electric. Once within the influence of its currents, human beings become positively or negatively charged, violently attracting or repelling each other.”
- Robert W. Chambers, In Search Of The Unknown (1904)
______

“In Search Of The Unknown” is primarily told from the perspective of Mr. Gilland, a scientist working at the newly-completed Bronx Park Zoological Gardens in New York, under Professor Farrago. [Keep in mind, this book takes place around the same time it was published: the first few years of the 1900s]. Mr. Gilland then goes on 4 different adventures seeking “animals not seen for centuries.” Some are real creatures like the Great Auk (a bird said to be extinct but previously seen by Audubon) and the Mammoth (long extinct) – as well as creatures which were apparently invented by the author, or whose existence was only speculated, such as a so-called Dingue, or the Ux; or the ancient Thermosaur, the Ekaf-Bird, or the Ool-Ylliks.

After his last adventure, Gilland meets a stranger on a train back to New York, who then tells 2 additional tales – this makes for 6 nearly independent stories. And here’s the thing – throughout these tales are glimmers of Chambers’ brilliant writing, flourishes of description begging to be re-read. There were several genuinely bone-chilling moments of horror, but they were much too few and far between. The first 5 chapters were my favorite because they included a terrifying half-amphibian man called the Harbor Master, who sadly never comes up again...

This book actually has a fair amount of humor, which "The King In Yellow" has almost none of -- it makes the story read faster, and the tone feel more modern than it is (for something that was published almost 120 years ago!) but it also takes away from the more unsettling 'weird fiction' elements. There is a funny running joke though, where in each adventure Gilland is paired with some beautiful woman who he inevitably falls for, but each time she ends up marrying some other man, as a kind of punch-line after each tale. I have to say, it made me laugh each time it came up.

This was a genuinely fun read, and for certain people it might be right up their alley, but I have to say "The King In Yellow" is the better choice for eerie Halloween reading overall!
______
“For a moment I seemed to see the interior of my own skull, lighted as by a flash of fire; the rolling eyeballs, veined in scarlet, the glistening muscles quivering along the jaw, the humid masses of the convoluted brain; then awful darkness –a darkness almost tangible– an utter blackness, through which now seemed to creep a thin, silver thread, like a river crawling across a world – like a thought gliding to the brain – like a song, a thin, sharp song which some distant voice was singing – which I was singing.”
- Robert W. Chambers, "In Search Of The Unknown" (1904)
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[Wyntrnoire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a series of short stories cobbled together by the author to create a novel but it just doesn't work. Too many things had to be broken to fit into the box. I look forward to reading the stories in their original form.
However--I do love Chambers' writing style. He has a certain captivating way with words, descriptions.

[Quinton Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very strange book, and I suspect that a good portion of that for me is due to more than a century of distance in reading it. However, that is not completely it. First of all, the book is laid out in almost a series of connected short stories. These stories somewhat build on each other, and there are common themes among them. I think the strangest parts to me were understanding the emotions between people conversing, as they were often portrayed contrary to what I expected.

I think the best part for me what the opening poem:

Where the slanting forest eaves,
Shingled tight with greenest leaves,
Sweep the scented meadow-sedge,
Let us snoop along the edge;
Let us pry in hidden nooks,
Laden with our nature books,
Scaring birds with happy cries,
Chloroforming butterflies,
Rooting up each woodland plant,
Pinning beetle, fly, and ant,
so we may identify,
What we've ruined, by-and-by.

That poem seemed to suggest some irony and suspense to look forward to, and there was some, but not nearly as much as I expected.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this more than a number of Lovecraft's stories in a similar vein; some of it comes across as fairly hokey, of course, but definitely a more fun read than I was initially expecting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "The Harbor Master," which is the first 5 chapters of this book. I enjoyed it. I'd say it was a nice Lovecraftian tale, but it predates, and I think inspired, the work of H.P. Lovecraft

[El jardín de las lecturas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nos encontramos ante un clásico de lo más pintoresco. Se trata de una recopilación de relatos de aventuras.
Reconozco que, en ocasiones, se me ha hecho un poco denso debido a la forma de narrar del autor, pero no podemos olvidar que este libro se escribió en 1904.
Aún así, lo he disfrutado bastante.
Gilland es un joven que trabaja como secretario del profesor Farrago, director del parque zoológico del Bronx. Cada vez que el zoológico recibe un aviso de un avistamiento de alguna criatura que se cree extinta o que no está clasificada, el profesor Farrago enviará a su secretario a investigar sobre ello.
De esta manera, Gilland nos llevará de su mano a los lugares más exóticos en busca de estas criaturas, que son de lo más extrañas. Aunque no todo saldrá siempre como está planeado y es que con estas criaturas es difícil trabajar.
Si a eso le unimos que Gilland no es que sea la mente más lúcida que hayamos conocido, que es un enamorado empedernido de prácticamente todas las mujeres que se encuentra en su camino y que es muy ingenuo, las aventuras que he vivido a su lado han sido de lo más peculiar que he leído últimamente.
Un libro sin duda curioso, con visos científicos y con un toque de humor de lo más mordaz que hará las delicias de los amantes de los clásicos de aventuras.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loosely connected stories of whimsy and mystery, mostly involving an amusing young man very susceptible to young women but who NEVER gets the girl and to the wackadoodle in life. A story about a search for the great auk is followed by stories of increasingly unlikely encounters with increasingly off-the-rails situations. There's a layer of dry wit here that keeps the stories from tilting over into romantic slosh. Chambers sometimes overdoes descriptions, but often he finds the perfect phrase to make the setting vivid.

What was surprising is that Chambers' female characters are competent, interesting, and self-assured--not what I expected of young women in a book from this time period. They take on "big, bitey snakes" (a phrase that got repeated in one of the stories), mammoths, and invisible people with a lot of aplomb. (Unfortunately, Chambers gives the one black character with a speaking part some cringeworthy dialect.)

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I don't care so much for supernatural stories, so while these bordered on that at times (especially the last one), they also elicit snickers and smiles along the way. The narrator flirts with and falls in love with any young, single lady he encounters (and they're all the most beautiful creation in the world), but never ends up with her. All this while trying to collect for the zoo (or prove the existence of) fantastical creatures thought long since extinct.

The last story was of a different type than the rest, and seemed almost an anomaly. A story within the story, it wasn't the narrator's experience, but another character's. I didn't enjoy it as much, since I don't care for reincarnation, astral projection, and hypnotism. But even here there was some humor interspersed in the story.

[Luke Bajana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating Read

Compared with the King in Yellow, this lacks much of the imagination and scope of that effort. If you were looking for a pulpy adventure yarn, then even this too feels underwhelming.

Much of the issue in the book is frankly how repetitive the stories are in the book. The WASP narrator goes on an adventure to hunt cryptids, becomes enamored shortly with a woman he meets, ends up seeing the creature but with no proof of the encounter and loses the girl to another. This format is just repeated in each story, with little characterization or humor to really make up for its lack of originality.

Furthermore, the narrator is racist and sexist. Having read and enjoyed most of Lovecraft, I can mete out these strands in many of the writings from this era as being somewhat de rigeur. However, when as blandly written as this effort it stands out for the worse.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those who only know Robert W. Chambers from the King in Yellow fame might be disappointed with this one. It is equal parts satire on academic institutions and collection of adventure stories with horror elements.

Our main character only cares about the good name of the Bronx Park Zoological Society of New York (and his own position within it), yet life keeps throwing cryptids at him. Which would be acceptable if we were talking about honest cryptids, such as: supposedly extinct great auk or the last surviving mammoth colony; unfortunately, there is always something suprnatural lurking just around the corner to wreak havoc.
And he never gets a girl he's had his eyes on.

That's the basis for most of the humor, which makes it very hit-or-miss. I laughed at least once in every story, and some of the creepy elements made my skin crawl, which means a good experience overall.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

Like The King in Yellow, this is a collection of weird short stories, this time connected by the character of a scientist who, in the fashion of the times, goes on hunts to retrieve sample organisms previously only rumored to (still) exist.

Very much in the mode of its day, the breathless excitement of taking ownership via description and study of wild things resonates very differently now. It is notable that Chambers, whose later career was writing mostly romantic fiction, grafts a romance onto the last story that has an unfulfilled unreturned love in it.

Wildside Press offers a trade paper edition for $15.95, or you can opt for a free Kindle edition.

[Azuregos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming, engaging, mischievous and easy-reading collections of stories merged as a single novel. It has a nice ensemble of likable character, radiates an upbeat adventurous mood and pleases with its great literary quality are wordplay. With a charm of its age 'In Search of the Unknown' might be the closest thing to X-Files people could get in 1904.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you believe that a year should be started in strange and confused ways, as strange as the tales in this book or as confused as the protagonist within, this is the book for you... But I have some good news though, there are also quite a few elements of humour, so you will definitely be entertained throughout...

[Heneiddio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good at first with interesting characters, until the flow of each short story became repetitive and monotonous;

1. man hears about something bird related
2. man goes to investigate
3. man sees woman he finds attractive
4. man sees some beast
5. man has a strange romantic fling with the woman
6. man never sees woman again

rinse, repeat

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. The book is really a series of short stores, and they'd be best read maybe in a monthly magazine, because reading them all together gets a bit repetitive--narrator (who in most of the stories works at the Bronx Zoo, but a couple have a different narrator), heads off to find a bird/animal that had been thought to be extinct, finds a very attractive woman, waits around and is rude/annoying, has an encounter with the animal, and winds up wither neither creature nor woman (who inevitably winds up marrying someone mentioned in passing). Some stories are stranger than others. They're fairly amusing, and I did like the glimpse into the early 20th century.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written stories of the Here There Be Monsters variety but nothing terribly scary.

[Elian]

Oddly violent and strangely insightful. Would not recommend, but it was interesting.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd!
Off the wall!
Funny!
Entertaining!
Creepy!
Strange!

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes genuinely funny, but all in all the strongest piece is the first few chapters that were originally published as a separate short story.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hidden Gem.

[mzbeastle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, wacky, interesting, "Around the World in 80 Days" type of book! Surprised me, first time reading this author. The main character became quickly a favorite as I followed his exploits, with quite a few laughs, and memorable strange stories! I don't know if all this author's books are this much fun, but I am going to find out!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining listening 🎶🔰

Another will written fantasy adventure thriller short story by Robert W. Chambers about a young 👦 man who changes jobs to work for Bronx Park Zoo searching the strange creatures for the zoo. I would recommend this novella to readers looking for something a little different. Enjoy the adventure of novels 👍🔰 and books 📚. 2022 😮🗽👒

[Joey Brockert · Rating 2 out of 5]

From way back, a series of short stories about a ornithologist finding unusual birds and animals around the world. The trick is that these stories are more like Paul Bunyan or Baron Munchausen stories. Our hero is hired by the New York Zoological Society to assist a professor who is in charge of their gardens and exhibits. The first story is of his search for a Great Auk, a species that was extinct for fifty or so years. He does find the bird, and the seller, but the birds are lost transporting them home, and the seller and his beautiful nurse get married and go elsewhere.
The second story is much like the first only the object and beautiful woman are different. The third starts out the same, and that is where I chose to stop reading this book. If you know what is going to happen, why read the story except to find out what the strange creature he is chasing is. No wonder this story is not still read and published today.

[Jim Bradford · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the little poem that precedes it. It's not a horrid read - it's light and fast-paced and not entirely unpleasant - but it's relatively vapid and repetitive in theme from story to story, to the point of becoming a bit predictable and boring.