BOOK REVIEWS
I have dispensed with my 'Books of the Year' postings which covered the years 2009 and 2010, and now attempt to review a selection of books that I have read both good and bad, in editions old and new. Much of what I buy is often based on suggestions by others, or some train of thought that makes me think "maybe I should try..." so they are not necessarily all strange/supernatural fiction.
With many small press books costing around £35-£40 each, and some seemingly worthy tomes changing hands on the second hand market for many times that, these reviews may also give the potential purchaser some indication of what they might receive for their money. Needless to say, my opinions should not be given any great value as I bring my own foibles to every review and these may change at any time.
Karl Hanns Strobl
'Lemuria Book 1'
(Translated by Joe E. Bandell)
Lulu (various formats) 2014
At his peak of his career around the period 1915-25, Karl Hans Strobl (1877-1946) was both a well known author in his own right and joint editor of the worlds first fantastic fiction magazine Der Orchideengarten (Garden of Orchids) which ran from 1919-1921. The latter printed new fiction and translations of classic texts from the likes of Poe, Maupassant and H G Wells. It also featured some great artwork some of which are online here.
Lemuria (1917) is a collection of short stories that went through a number of editions and was part of the Hanns Ewers edited Galerie der Phantasten (Gallery of the Fantasists) series (which also included Hoffmann, Balzac and Kubin). The volume under review here represents the first half of the original German edition and is by far the most substantial collection of his works in English to date.
It is a very curious volume.
Given the content of Der Orchideengarten, it should not surprise us to detect the influence of Hoffmann Poe and Villiers De l'Isle Adam. 'The Tomb At Pere Lachaise' and 'The Wicked Nun' are the most obviously inspired from those sources and are perfectly competent in execution albeit perhaps a little pedestrian for todays reader. For example the vampiric element in 'The Tomb...' is telegraphed way in advance of its 'reveal' and 'The Wicked Nun' has a bit too much touch of 'the Gothics' for me.
However his three opening tales, The Mermaid, At the Crossroads and 'The Witch Finder' are stated by the author as inspired by Heironymous Bosch and this, combined with a subscription to the Hanns Ewers school psycho-sexual content, leads us into some odd territory. 'The Mermaid' would almost qualify as a precursor to Lovecraftian in a subtle way or perhaps Machen circa 'Great God Pan'. The latter could certainly have inspired 'The Witch Finder' (it is possible that Strobl was aware of him) though its graphicness is more 'Witchfinder General' in intensity.
Strobl combines the graphic and grotesque with a knowing sense of modernist angst and these elements combine in three superb stories, which whilst superficially quite different, have underlying themes of decadence and decay.
In two cases 'Familiar Moves' and 'The Head' this is presented quite literally. In the former a morose medical student attends a performance set in a cemetery and ponders on the nature of society/ death and his own lost love.
"that modern music with its remarkable beat and intricate rhythms somehow causes the the listener to sense all the horrors of the grave. It is illogical music: the logic of music is in its melody. Mozart for example, was a logician and therefore takes us right where his spirit desires with the convoluted scene in 'Don Juan', not to the heart... but this modern illogical music goes beyond death, which itself is illogical...'
"And you are a medical student?" his neighbour asked...
Its ending is both poignent and chilling.
The school of Huysmans, Lorrain, Rops and Beardsley school is explicit in the wonderful 'My Adventure With Jonas Barg' which surely deserves the status of a minor classic of the genre. The narrator is a member of the 'Club of the Dauntless' whose highest law is 'not to speak of death and the dead'. The Members celebrate life and excess by recreating the orgies of Persian Kings, Decadent Rome the French Roccoco and, very oddly for after all this is Strobl writing, learning circus skills. However one of the members, Jonas Barg, does not really seem to like all the fun the club provides and and offers his own entertainment in the ruins of his castle. The banquet offered they are offered is certainly way beyond what they have experienced previously in terms of opulence and degeneracy but even this is not what it seems...
Finally 'The Head'. I believe I have read a lot of odd things but this is certainly one of the most bizarre tales I have ever encountered. It is a grotesque 'fantasy' (of sorts!) following a severed head from French revolutionary guillotine to dissolution. If one imagines a depraved and surreal landscape in which a woman nailing upholstery pins into a severed head is somehow a normal thing, and that even body parts might have some 'gender issues' you might start to approximate what happens in this tale. I am not sure that is is 'great' but it is something 'quite something' as my mother would have said.
Strobls unrepentant Nazism has no doubt hindered his status being acknowledged as a major (if perhaps uneven) writer of weird fiction and, like Hanns Ewers, it is surely only a matter of time before he is better known to the English reading world. He certainly deserves to be. Tales such as 'The Head' and 'The Witchfinder' could easily grace any anthology of 20th century horror stories and one could imagine tales such as 'The Mermaid', finding a small but devoted following among lovers of the weird.
Whilst I have my usual caveats regarding P.O.D., typography, binding, Bandel has done the weird fiction community a great favour by making these tales available at last and this is apparently the first of an (unknown) number of volumes devoted to him. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this fascinating author.
