What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
Query abandoned by poster
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ABANDONED. Gothic horror or pulp or weird tale; old short story about explorer who meets Monkey Woman
date
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Anyone know any other ways to find this short story?
Are there particular editors/scholars of fantastic literature I should write to?
Mod
I don't know. What you could try is finding groups on GR centered on this type of story/literature. Go to the groups page and use search words like gothic, weird, tale, pulp, poe, conan doyle, etc.
You could also try your local public library or whatever you have access to, university library or similar, and ask a librarian.
No Nick, it wasn't suppose to help somehow - that's the reason I posted it to begin with :D
Mod
Mod
Nick (OP) was last active on the site in October 2021.
-A 19th century or early 20th century setting/publication date
-Written in the first person
-Genre is Gothic horror/pulp/weird tale/ pseudo Poe- Conan Doyle
-Part of horror/fantastic tale anthology at school library
-Plot (as it was recounted to me):
A man whose friend was an explorer recently returned from the Amazon, or Barbados or some exotic tropical South American/Island locale. The explorer invites the man to his home for dinner and to meet his new bride. When he arrives, he notices the explorer's wife is peculiarly exotic... her facial features are striking, with large staring eyes, she has fine hair on her face, her arms are never exposed, her fingers are long, and she has a pet monkey.
The man feels an intense and unaccountable attraction toward the explorer's wife, as if there is an invisible aura tugging at him. He had only drunk a small glass of wine, so he knows it cannot be the effects of inebriation. He also notices the hem of the woman's dress twitch and fly up for no apparent reason.
Finally there is a dog present that becomes extremely agitated at the woman's presence. It barks ferociously at the woman, and the woman too loathes the dog. The dog attacks the woman's pet monkey and soon the woman and the dog are fighting. The woman leaps upward and begins crawling on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. She has a tail. The dog is perhaps killed, torn apart.
The man realizes that the explorer's new bride is actually a gigantic species of monkey/ape or lemur that had been carefully shaved and dressed so as to appear human. His intense attraction toward her was due to her scent. The twitching dress was due to her tail.
Some time passes before the man meets his explorer friend again. He learns that the ape/lemur-woman has died. The explorer, in his attempt to further humanize his bride, chopped off her tail. Suffering from extreme sadness at the loss of her tail she died. The End.
I would be most delighted if you could identify this story. My own searches have turned up nothing....though according to my father it is NOT the Lovecraft story "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" in spite of certain elements appearing similar. Thank you...!