Valancourt Books discussion
General Discussion
>
Need a recommendation?
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
I'm reading The Other Passenger and just finished "Miss Thing." Aieeeeeeeeee! That was a great story,"
That was one of my favorite in the book! Glad you liked it. :)
Valancourt Books wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Hey Valancourt guys,I'm reading The Other Passenger and just finished "Miss Thing." Aieeeeeeeeee! That was a great story,"
That was one of my favorite in the book! G..."
Never mind that I got the title wrong. oops.
The Glass Eye is probably my favourite out of those I've read.
Why isn't the Kindle version of Clermont available? I would love to continue reading the Jane Austen Horrid novels.
Mod
It's available here: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...
I'm trying to get ahold of some old (or new) pulp fiction and need someone to recommend me some good reads and/or help me find out where to get them???
Felicity wrote: "I'm trying to get ahold of some old (or new) pulp fiction and need someone to recommend me some good reads and/or help me find out where to get them???"The Green Lama: The Complete Pulp Adventures Volume 1
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Wikipedia article on The Green Lama:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lama
I read two or three Green Lama issues and liked it.
Felicity wrote: "I'm trying to get ahold of some old (or new) pulp fiction and need someone to recommend me some good reads and/or help me find out where to get them???"I also liked the story "Unearthed" by William Preston.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
(Disclosure: I've interacted with the author on Internet forums.)
The protagonist in William Preston's "Old Man" stories is Doc Savage in all but name.
Felicity wrote: "I'm trying to get ahold of some old (or new) pulp fiction and need someone to recommend me some good reads and/or help me find out where to get them???"For old pulp fiction, I can suggest Seabury Quinn and Manly Wade Wellman. Or going back even further, Guy Boothby, who wrote a fun, pulpy Egyptian adventure called Pharos, the Egyptian: The Classic Mummy Tale of Romance and Revenge which is downright creepy and highly entertaining.
I'm going to be starting up Hundred Year Old Horror again next year so I'll likely have a few Valancourt underrated classics to go over and showcase.
I see people talking about The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck and I don't wish to sound like I joined simply to criticise, and knowing Valancourt aren't responsible for the writting naturally, I have to say that one's a right disappointment.It starts off great and then just sort of forgets it's entire premise and goes on with a boiler plate crime drama and it's so frustrating ! XD
David wrote: "I see people talking about The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck and I don't wish to sound like I joined simply to criticise, and knowing Valancourt aren't responsible for the writting naturally, I have to sa..."I thought it was a fun mad scientist read. Crazy weird, but fun. Then again, I love really old crime dramas.
Nancy wrote: "David wrote: "I see people talking about The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck and I don't wish to sound like I joined simply to criticise, and knowing Valancourt aren't responsible for the writting naturally..."But that's the problem. It *was* a fun mad scientist read....until that stopped being what it was about and the book became a "whodunit" until the end.
I am pleased to announce the return of Hundred Year Old Horror. It's hard to believe I started this back in 2013 and it's still going strong. With that being said here is a list of the works I plan on going over with the return of this blog.List of books from Valancourt Books I plan on analyzing:
The Devil in a Domino
’Twixt Dog and Wolf
The Feast of Bacchus
Terrifying Transformations: An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction, 1838-1896
The Mummy
Sins of the Cities of the Plain
Between the Dark and the Daylight
The Induna's Wife
The Mystery of the Sea
Round the Red Lamp
Horrid Mysteries: A Story - Vol. III
Rosalviva; or, The Demon Dwarf!
In a Glass Darkly
Other works:
Dracula(Analysis done before on book and Stoker but I'm reading so I'll provide an even more in-depth analysis)
-Works of Poe(Analysis was done on Poe but never for his individual works so this time individual works will be analyzed)
Mod
Thanks, Justin! Looking forward to reading them. :)
Justin wrote: "I am pleased to announce the return of Hundred Year Old Horror. It's hard to believe I started this back in 2013 and it's still going strong. With that being said here is a list of the works I plan..."Some of these sound interesting and am genuinely baffled I didn't read any of these.
As far as The Induna's Wife, I hope it's better than Mitford's "The Sign of the Spider" which was kind of a meandering tone deaf adventure novel where the main character becomes a slaver and makes money off of it and that's just okay and he gets to keep the money he made off of it.
Thought I’d take a different approach to Hundred Year Old Horror today and look at an anthology published in 2012 but has stories from 1838-1896. It’s called Terrifying Transformations: An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction, 1838-1896. The anthology contains 15 stories about lycanthropy and features many well known authors such as Bram Stoker, Sir Author Conan Doyle, William Butler Yeats and W.M Reynolds. An anthology dedicated entirely to werewolves is something truly unique and showcases old stories from well over one hundred years ago. The book also features a new introduction, explanatory notes as well as rare Victorian werewolf illustrations. So how does such a unique rank here on Goodreads? Well lets find out!The book has 13 ratings and 1 review on Goodreads. It has an average rating of 4.38 meaning most reviews are either 5 or 4 stars which is well above average. This also means the book has hardly any ratings under 4 and is very well received by readers as it should be being such a rare and unique book. The book is being shelved under horror, shapeshifters and werewolves as well as speculative fiction. One thing I can immediately draw from all this is that people really enjoy werewolf fiction today and since horror has become so big these days it’s no surprise that this book would be ranked so well. I also cannot stress enough how rare a book solely about werewolves really is. Especially since it comes from stories that were written so long ago. So how do you think this book ranked back in the day?
Horror stories weren’t as popular back one hundred years ago as they are today so most likely these werewolf stories weren’t as well received as they are now. Horror may not have been big back then but these stories must have pulled some weight as they have stood the tet of time and are still being read today, heck they were republished to be enjoyed today. With added features such as notes for readers to better understand some of the language back then these werewolf stories are a sure treat for horror and werewolf readers alike. Valancourt Books once again shows that fiction from hundreds of years ago needs recognition and needs to be appreciated and they have done just that by republishing this anthology of classic lycanthropy and horror stories.
Hundred Year Old Horror is back! For the newest analysis, we look at the novel, The Mummy written in 1912 by Riccardo Stephens. The Mummy is about a doctor who is presented with the death of two men who die of two different causes however both men have the same mummy case in their homes. The doctor tries to see if there is more to this or if it's just a mere coincidence. There is also a new introduction by Mark Valentine in this revived piece of work that talks discusses and argues many points of how the novel is a weird yet strange mystery of work and how it is similar to the works of well-known authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. Before talking about and analyzing the book the final thing to know is that right away I sensed a strong presence and take on this book by people and even found a review someone left about this book which you can read here: https://skullsinthestars.com/2016/04/...A look on Goodreads shows that the book has 16 ratings and 5 reviews. The overall rating for The mummy is 3.44 which is a little above average in ratings for such a book and mostly has been given 4 stars. People have rated it well and their reviews support the rating as they give the novel a find review and opinion. Those who didn't like the book I would guess and say probably didn't understand the novel or perhaps it wasn't for them because those who enjoyed it go to great detail in explaining why the book was good whereas those who didn't enjoy it did not leave a review. Sure, this is the case in most books because just from examining the books page on Goodreads really gives me that if you didn't like it you probably didn't enjoy it sort of feel. Also, seeing as the book is compared to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson in the synopsis of the book already tells me it has a lot to live up to and something a reader must be looking forward to before they begin reading it.
Compared to others books during its day I would say The Mummy ranks well at the top in common company with other horror books of its day. The book is a horror, mystery and supernatural and given that books of those genres were a bit more appreciated after the 1900s it's also accurate that it rates well. However, on Goodreads, this is the only true credited novel of Riccardo Stephens as his 5 others have no ratings at all. So as far as Goodreads is concerned this is Riccardo Stephens only rated work. There are also three quality and prestigious reviews within the synopsis of the novel. These reviews are from the Sydney Morning Herald, the Evening Post in New Zealand, and the Evening Standard, I normally don't see reviews within the description of the book so the fact that they are here tells me this book clearly must be good and one that these places perhaps look forward to reading or perhaps they were sent a copy in hopes of boosting the books new revival.
So if your looking for a book to an old new book to read then look no further than The Mummy by Riccardo Stephens written in 1912. It's got horror, mystery and even some ancient history to create for a dark adventurous read.
Mod
This week on Hundred Year Old Horror we take a look at the book Between the Dark and the Daylight written in 1902 by Richard Marsh. Richard Marsh is no stranger to Hundred Year Old Horror as I have analyzed his book The Beetle and did an author analysis on him. Since I do recall The Beetle having a good rating and Marsh being a well-known author during his time my quick assumption will be that this book will also be of great caliber. This will be the first of two books from 1902 that I will be looking into. So what is Between the Dark and the Daylight about? Well, unfortunately, there is no synopsis or description on the book on Goodreads so I have taken the liberty to copy and paste the one from Valancourt Books so the following description on the book is from Valancourt Books’ page. “One of Richard Marsh's rarest works, Between the Dark and the Daylight (1902) contains twelve of Marsh's cleverest stories, ranging in theme from slapstick humour to Gothic horror.
In "My Aunt's Excursion," the opening story of the volume, an urbanite Londoner leads his provincial aunt and her party of mostly deranged followers on a hilarious and madcap romp across London. In "Exchange is Robbery," Marsh's recurring characters and jewelers to the aristocracy, Messrs. Golden and Ruby, discover they have been the victims of a massive jewel fraud. "The Haunted Chair," one of Marsh's strangest and most unnerving stories of horror, features an old chair at a gentlemen's club, whose owner seems capable of returning from the grave. In "A Relic of the Borgias," an ancient cameo ring appears to possess the power to kill. Other stories, like "Em" and "Nelly," reveal Marsh's softer side as a romantic novelist.
This new edition, the first in over a century, features the unabridged text of the original work, along with an introduction by Prof. Paul Fox and a reproduction of the impossibly rare jacket cover of the original six shilling edition.”
There’s a lot to take from this well-written description which will help me with my analysis of the book. First thing’s first let’s take a look at how the book rates on Goodreads. The book has 20 ratings and 4 reviews for an overall rating of 3.10. 3.10 is rather below average for a book during this time based on my previous ratings and discoveries of such a book. This isn’t to say the book is bad by any means but in my own personal opinion that people enjoyed it but it wasn’t quite way they were expecting. However, there is a bit of a discrepancy because while the average rating is 3 stars, the 4 people who reviewed it rated it 4 stars and 5 stars meaning they enjoyed it immensely. So again while some thought the book was good at least 4 who reviewed it thought it was great. Again this is only an assessment and analysis so you can draw your own conclusions on what the ratings mean.
Let’s now talk about some of the things I found interesting about the description which also ties into my thoughts on why perhaps people rated it so low. The first thing I find interesting is that it’s one of Marsh’s rarest works which means it was likely lost and not many people had a chance to read it so Valancourt’s resurrection of the book has done it some serious justice. Second, there’s a wide range of short stories within the book from slapstick humor to gothic horror which may mean that some people enjoyed certain stories over others. Some may have preferred horror over humor and vice versa. One of the stories is a romantic story which again some may not have enjoyed but to others showed that Marsh is capable of writing in a wide range of genres.
Personally, this is a book I would read just based on his previous well-rated works, his name and I find the title and description to be interesting, interesting enough for me to wanna give this book a chance. So what does the analysis tell me? I think Between the Dark and the Daylight is an intriguing novel that people should definitely read and the 3.10 rating of it should make you curious enough to draw your own conclusions on the book after you read it. With Marsh’s known ability to write gothic horror, to write short stories and other genres means that it’s a book worth taking a chance on. So if you are in fact looking for a book to read don’t let the 3.10 fool you because something tells me that Between the Dark and the Daylight may surprise you.
I loved The Cook by Harry Kressing, how do I proceed? :)
Mod
Thanks! I'll definitely check all these out!
Valancourt Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Auctioneer (other topics)Foreign Affairs (other topics)
The Servant (other topics)
The Devil's Own Work (other topics)
Between the Dark and the Daylight (other topics)
More...
I'm reading The Other Passenger and just finished "Miss Thing." Aieeeeeeeeee! That was a great story,