Tales of Unease
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Product Description
Selected and with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. This gripping set of tales by the master storyteller Arthur Conan Doyle is bound to thrill and unnerve you. In these twilight excursions, Doyle's vivid imagination for the strange, the grotesque and the frightening is given full rein.We move from the mysteries of Egypt and the strange powers granted by The Ring of Thoth to the isolated ghostlands of the Arctic in The Captain of the Polestar, we encounter a monstrous creature in The Terror of Blue John Cap and the beings that live above our heads in The Brazilian Cat and The Leather Funnel; and we shudder at the thing in the next room in Lot 249. Sit down in your uneasy chair and enjoy this unique collection of chillers.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is not a comforting read, especially if you have preconceptions based on Sir Arthur's famous sleuth. I was surprised by how violent, sadistic and shocking the tales were. They did not seem dated at all. "Lot No 249" is the masterpiece of the collection, creating some unforgettable images and a real sense of fear. If you like cosy, safe tales, then go nowhere near "The Case of Lady Sannox" and "The Lord of Chateau Noir." If Conan Doyle had only written these tales he would still be worth remembering.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been somewhat type-cast as the author of Sherlock Holmes stories (exactly the thing that he had apprehended, and had consequently decided, somewhat hastily, to do away with the "meddling fellow" for good in Reichenbach). Unfortunately, this type-casting has led to our loss, and has made us unaware of the fact that above-all, he was a wonderful story-teller who knew how to tell a gripping story. The stories in this book all testify to this effect, and should be lapped up immediately. The stories are: -
The Ring of Thoth
The Lord of Château Noir
The New Catacomb
The Case of Lady Sannox
The Brazilian Cat
The Brown Hand
The Horror of the Heights
The Terror of the Blue John Gap
The Captain of the Polestar
How It Happened
Playing with Fire
The Leather Funnel
Lot No. 249
The Los Amigos Fiasco
The Nightmare Room
Many of these are classics on their own merit, and this very-very reasonably priced edition is highly recommended to all!
The Ring of Thoth
The Lord of Château Noir
The New Catacomb
The Case of Lady Sannox
The Brazilian Cat
The Brown Hand
The Horror of the Heights
The Terror of the Blue John Gap
The Captain of the Polestar
How It Happened
Playing with Fire
The Leather Funnel
Lot No. 249
The Los Amigos Fiasco
The Nightmare Room
Many of these are classics on their own merit, and this very-very reasonably priced edition is highly recommended to all!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Four stars for the collection of stories, but the full five for Editor and Introduction writer David Stuart Davies for being just about the only Academic in living memory to assume the Commentator role in a volume of Vicwardian Supernatural Literature without imposing the usual socio-political guff on our collective past.
Davies enjoys the Fiction of the Fantastic in and of itself and sees no reason why the past should be judged and condemned in terms of how far short it falls of contemporary mores - he is a true scholar in fact, but can also point up how Conan Doyle pretty well set up the literary template for the Mummy horror film genre.
Davies writes with authority in good Plain English and his judgement is sound (but on no account read the second section of the introduction before reading the stories themselves).
The stories collected together here pretty well sum up Doyle's potential, both fulfilled and squandered; perhaps the most versatile but thinly spread of major British Writers, he could have undoubtedly assumed Poe's coronet if he had focussed more on the Fantastic (never neglecting Holmes, of course) but the multi-faceted Doyle never could stay in one place for very long in any area of his life.
Any Holmes aficionado will also be aware of the extraordinary chronological range of Doyle's work, and we journey here from the text book Victorian atmospherics of the 1880s to a final 1921 story that, if you were to blind test it, I am sure would leave everyone failing to guess which apparent contemporary of Scott Fitzgerald wrote it.
A mini strand I found particularly interesting were a couple of `spiritualist' short stories - `Playing with Fire' sets up with expert economy a typical cross section of Victorian Séance enthusiasts (I had read Ronald Pearsall's excellent factual account `Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult' immediately prior to this volume - it dovetails) before embarking on a very interesting spirit dialogue (I found this the most fascinating part of the book) leading to the alarming dénouement. This is followed by `The Leather Funnel', which in the first few paragraphs describes the character, career and demise of a Parisian Black Magician that another accomplished writer could and should turn into an entire novel. And THEN the story starts.
In fact, as the ever reliable Davies points out, Conan Doyle was a cinematic writer before (mainly) Cinema, and this volume, from its haunted Polar landscapes to the Occult abodes of sinister scholars, would, I am sure, provide a marvellously rich little source volume for any putative Horror/Supernatural Cine-Director.
Davies enjoys the Fiction of the Fantastic in and of itself and sees no reason why the past should be judged and condemned in terms of how far short it falls of contemporary mores - he is a true scholar in fact, but can also point up how Conan Doyle pretty well set up the literary template for the Mummy horror film genre.
Davies writes with authority in good Plain English and his judgement is sound (but on no account read the second section of the introduction before reading the stories themselves).
The stories collected together here pretty well sum up Doyle's potential, both fulfilled and squandered; perhaps the most versatile but thinly spread of major British Writers, he could have undoubtedly assumed Poe's coronet if he had focussed more on the Fantastic (never neglecting Holmes, of course) but the multi-faceted Doyle never could stay in one place for very long in any area of his life.
Any Holmes aficionado will also be aware of the extraordinary chronological range of Doyle's work, and we journey here from the text book Victorian atmospherics of the 1880s to a final 1921 story that, if you were to blind test it, I am sure would leave everyone failing to guess which apparent contemporary of Scott Fitzgerald wrote it.
A mini strand I found particularly interesting were a couple of `spiritualist' short stories - `Playing with Fire' sets up with expert economy a typical cross section of Victorian Séance enthusiasts (I had read Ronald Pearsall's excellent factual account `Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult' immediately prior to this volume - it dovetails) before embarking on a very interesting spirit dialogue (I found this the most fascinating part of the book) leading to the alarming dénouement. This is followed by `The Leather Funnel', which in the first few paragraphs describes the character, career and demise of a Parisian Black Magician that another accomplished writer could and should turn into an entire novel. And THEN the story starts.
In fact, as the ever reliable Davies points out, Conan Doyle was a cinematic writer before (mainly) Cinema, and this volume, from its haunted Polar landscapes to the Occult abodes of sinister scholars, would, I am sure, provide a marvellously rich little source volume for any putative Horror/Supernatural Cine-Director.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
You may want to think again!
If you want a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's collected works book, the definitive book would be The Conan Doyle Stories. The Ring and the Camp. Pirates and Bluewater. Terror and Mystery. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Randy
Ahead of Their Time
A collection of stories that not only encouraged the whole Ancient Egypt string in horror, but stands as an excellent example of horror thrillers. Read more
Published 10 months ago by RL Cloherty
In The Shadow Of Sherlock Forever.
Whenever one hears the name Conan Doyle one cannot help but add Sherlock Holmes in the same breath. Like all Doyle's other works they will be perpetually in the shadow of the great... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Armchair Pundit
A Fine Collection of Tales
This is a fine collection of tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) who is, of course, most famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories. Read more
Published 23 months ago by M. D. Jenkins
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