Gaslight digest of discussion from 97-apr-08 to 97-apr-10
----------------------------THE HEADERS---------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 10:35:47 -0500
From: "S.T. Karnick"
Subject: More doggone books to read [11185]
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 22:40:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: "Manacled" [11186]
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 21:02:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: laura_sardella(at)phoenix.com (Laura Sardella)
Subject: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:37:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: ronsmyth(at)idirect.com (Ronald Smyth)
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11188]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:23:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jo Churcher
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11189]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 11:14:16 -0400
From: "John D. Squires"
Subject: Ferret Fantasy Cat. R14 [11190]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 09:50:53 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: Etext avail: Chambers' "The Purple Emperor" [11191]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 11:45:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: Debah(at)aol.com
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11189] [11192]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 10:25:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Gullette
Subject: Re: Ferret Fantasy Cat. R14 [11190] [11193]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 15:00:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: The short of it [11194]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:29:58 -0500
From: "S.T. Karnick"
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 20:26:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Debah(at)aol.com
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196]
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 20:22:02 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196] [11197]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:29:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: Stephen Crane [11198]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:15:54 -0500
From: "Richard L. King"
Subject: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:24:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: AJ
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11200]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 08:28:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: "linda j. holland-toll"
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196] [11197] [11201]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 11:24:36 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: Re: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199] [11202]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 11:57:40 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: REVIEW: _Epilogue_ (1934) by Bruce Graeme [11203]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 12:52:30 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: REVIEW: _Epilogue_ (1934) by Bruce Graeme, Pt. 2 [11204]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:15:39 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11200] [11205]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:52:44 -0500
From: "Richard L. King"
Subject: Re: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199] [11202] [11206]
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 18:18:08 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Chambers' "The Purple Emperor" [11191] [11207]
-----------------------------THE POSTS-----------------------------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 10:35:47 -0500
From: "S.T. Karnick"
Subject: More doggone books to read [11185]
Gassers will be pleased to know that the Gutenberg folks have added two new
books by Jerome K. Jerome: IDLE THOUGHTS OF AN IDLE FELLOW
(http://tom.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/book/lookup?num=849) and STAGE-LAND
(http://tom.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/book/lookup?num=858). Also newly available
is Donald Ogden Stewart's delightful PARODY OUTLINE OF HISTORY
(http://www.softdisk.com/comp/naked/htmltext/apoohist.html). I strongly
recommend the Stewart book, which is hysterical: it is a history of the
U.S. written in the styles of writers famous at the time, 1921, such as
Fitzgerald, Lewis, Lardner, and Cabell. A wickedly funny book.
Best w's,
S.T. Karnick
skarnick(at)indy.net
===0===
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 22:40:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: "Manacled" [11186]
Reading this tale, I was very much reminded of that famous scene in _A
Midsummer Night's Dream_ in which the mechanicals (Bottom, Quince,
and company) must figure out some way, in the absence of scenery
and props, to communicate the action of the Pyramis and Thisbe story.
Crane's story reverses the situation. The props are real objects-"real
horses had drunk out of real buckets, afterward dragging a real wagon
off stage left." The reality of the fire that soon breaks out becomes the
show. The hero of the melodrama, manacled and trying to escape the
blaze, himself becomes a figure of comedy as he tries to fall down a
flight of stairs, unsuccessfully--at least up to the time when he tries to
climb another flight and, as we would expect in a comedy, quickly rolls
down them. Even his death becomes a theatrical event, as the
multicolored lights of the fire that is consuming him become "charming
effects." And then, of course, we have that horrifying image of the
theatergoers who die in the fire clutching their playbills-"as if they
had resolved to save them at all costs."
I think these ideas might work even better today, when film, through its
powerful images, often creates reality, or replaces reality with fictions
that take on a life beyond the movie house. But Crane makes it clear
enough how imagination can triumph over reality, especially when the
natural outlets for imagination--like the theater--become, as it were,
slavishly realistic. He makes it clear, too, that this realism is not in the
service of any imaginative work but of a melodrama that sounds about
as bad as melodramas get. This, too, is no surprise. The melodrama
needs all the realistic touches it can get because nothing else in the play
sounds convincing. (Again, I was reminded of many modern movies
where the technical effects and the stunts overwhelm the plot and
characterization, which are often preposterous.)
Crane is commenting as well, it seems to me, on the anonymity of the
crowd and the poverty of mind (the palpable presence of mindlessness)
that sometimes characterizes the crowd. In Crane's vision, people in
crowds don't share each other's distress, although the sharing of death-
threatening situations is quite possible among individuals, as he shows
in his great and moving story, "The Open Boat." Indeed, in "The Open
Boat," the men form a community--which Crane seems to find lacking
in the man-swarm of the city. Even the members of the theater company
leave one of their members manacled on the stage. The crowd, in fact,
can only find commonality in its amusements-in other words, at the
most superficial level. The idea of the facelessness of the crowd, which
in twentieth-century film and literature becomes a pronounced theme, is
adroitly handled here.
The satiric thrust of this work did surprise me a little. I don't normally
think of Crane as a satirist, though he does have considerable humor.
Bob Champ (member in good standing, I hope, of The Family Circle)
rchamp(at)europa.umuc.edu
===0===
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 21:02:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: laura_sardella(at)phoenix.com (Laura Sardella)
Subject: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187]
I just read "At the Villa Rose" by A.E.W. Mason (1909). Has anyone else
read any of his works? They're longish mysteries. "At the Villa Rose" was
similar to "A Woman in White."
Laura
laura_sardella(at)phoenix.com
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:37:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: ronsmyth(at)idirect.com (Ronald Smyth)
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11188]
On Tue, 08 Apr 1997 21:02:47 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:
>I just read "At the Villa Rose" by A.E.W. Mason (1909). Has anyone else=
=20
>read any of his works? They're longish mysteries. "At the Villa Rose" =
was=20
>similar to "A Woman in White."
>
> Laura
>laura_sardella(at)phoenix.com
>
Yes indeed. Along with his mysteries he also wrote some great
historical swashbuckling adventure stories, "Fire Over England" and
"The Four Feathers" etc.
Ron Smyth.
=20
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 08:23:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jo Churcher
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11189]
I remember reading A.E.W. Mason's books when I was still at school--I
believe _At the Villa Rose_ was one of them, and another was _The House of
the Arrow_, which I recall better. I recall that the French detective was
rather like Poirot--at least I always mixed up the two in my mind.
Mason also wrote historical fiction--there was a rattling good one called
_Fire Over England_, about Elizabethan England and Spain just before the
Armada; and there was _Koenigsmark_, a sombre story about the lover of
Sophia Dorothea, she being, as I recall, the wife of the future George I
of England.
Mason also wrote one of those books about reincarnation which seemed to be
popular at the time--about a pair of lovers that kept resurfacing at
various times through history. The first couple of times they were
tragically sundered, and only in the 20th century did their romance come
to fruition. Not sure of the name of that book--it might have been _The
Three Gentlemen_.
Thanks for the memories, Laura! *smile*
Cheers!
Jo
On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Laura Sardella wrote:
> I just read "At the Villa Rose" by A.E.W. Mason (1909). Has anyone else
> read any of his works? They're longish mysteries. "At the Villa Rose" was
> similar to "A Woman in White."
>
> Laura
> laura_sardella(at)phoenix.com
>
>
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 11:14:16 -0400
From: "John D. Squires"
Subject: Ferret Fantasy Cat. R14 [11190]
-------------Forwarded Message-----------------
From: John D. Squires,
To: unknown, INTERNET:mailserv(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
Date: 4/8/97 1:21 PM
RE: Ferret Fantasy Cat. R14
4/8/97
Gaslighters,
I have pretty much dropped from sight for a while due to demands
made by moving the office, technical problems, work, taxes & the other
minor details of regular [?] living, but thought some might want to hear of
George Locke's latest cataloque, R14 (April 1997) which arrived in today's
mail. George was one of the bidders at the Sotheby's auction of the A. E.
R. M. Stevens collection last December, news of which was posted to the
group. Now he lists 223 items, mostly acquired then, together with a
running summary describing other fabulous lots which got away. Locke's
prices are not cheap, but this is a catalgue most of you would probably
enjoy reading through whether or not you order anything. Catalogues are
free to regular customers, or subscriptions can be had for $6.00 for three
by air to the U.S. If interested, the address is: Ferret Fantasy, 27
Beechcroft Road, Upper Tooting, London, SW17 7BX, England, Telephone:
0181-767 0029 or 0181-333 9893.
In haste,
John Squires
Shiel_Search(at)compuserve.com
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 09:50:53 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: Etext avail: Chambers' "The Purple Emperor" [11191]
PURPLEMP.SHT
Robert W. Chambers' mystery, "The Purple Emperor",
will be the subject of next week's discussion.
send to: mailserv(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
the following command:
send [gaslight]purplemp.sht
I also have HTML versions of this story, and of
_Stage-land_, tho Project Gutenberg's is likely
as good if not better. I am off work with bad
knees, but hope to get in sometime soon to
mount these files on the WWW.
I thought _Stage-land_ would be an appropriate
tie in for this week's story, particularly the
character sketch about "The Irishman", which
lists some of the current theatrical realisms.
Stephen D
SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 11:45:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: Debah(at)aol.com
Subject: Re: CHAT: A.E.W. Mason [11187] [11189] [11192]
Loved his "The Four Feathers". Only saw "Fire Over England" as the movie
with Vivien Leigh. Of course, Four Feathers has been done as movies a few
times, too.
Deborah McMillion
debah(at)aol.com
http://www.primenet.com/~bucanek/
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 10:25:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Gullette
Subject: Re: Ferret Fantasy Cat. R14 [11190] [11193]
>George Locke's latest cataloque, R14 (April 1997) which arrived in today's
>mail.
John also provided me with the following, which I thought I'd share with
the innumerable Hodgson fans (and rich antiquarians) on the list!? TO WIT:
>Locke's catalogue, just at hand. The auction included inscribed copies
>of Hodgson's LUCK OF THE STRONG, BOATS OF THE GLEN CARRIG, & NIGHT
LAND.
>An uninscribed first of HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND went for 1300 pounds,
>plus 15% to the auction house. Locke claims to have paid 1700 pounds
>for a lot of 12 Shiel titles. The twelve are listed in his catalogue
>for 125 to 850 pounds each. Incredible.
Anybody want to shed a few pounds??
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 15:00:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: The short of it [11194]
I really admire Crane's ability to get so much action into such a short
a space (3 pages in my print-out). I have to say that
I'm not averse
To writers who are terse.
Bob Champ
rchamp(at)europa.umuc.edu
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:29:58 -0500
From: "S.T. Karnick"
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195]
Dr. Champ wrote,
> I'm not averse
> To writers who are terse.
I roundly curse
All posts in verse.
Best w's,
S.T. Karnick
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 20:26:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Debah(at)aol.com
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196]
In a message dated 4/9/97 3:20:13 PM, you wrote:
>> I'm not averse
>> To writers who are terse.
>
>I roundly curse
>All posts in verse.
How can you revile
What is in such style?
Deborah
===0===
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 20:22:02 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196] [11197]
Debah(at)aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 4/9/97 3:20:13 PM, you wrote:
>
> >> I'm not averse
> >> To writers who are terse.
> >
> >I roundly curse
> >All posts in verse.
>
> How can you revile
> What is in such style?
>
> Deborah
Style, style?
How can such a "pile" truly beguile?
(Sorry to be so rattling corny, ol gal; no offense!)
--
"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong
to be broken."*Samuel Johnson
Sherlene
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:29:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ
Subject: Stephen Crane [11198]
The following little essay is mostly about our author's most famous
book, _The Red Badge of Courage_, but it also tell us something
about Crane's life and times, although in a highly over-simplified
manner.
Bob Champ
rchamp(at)europa.umuc.edu
The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES
When _The Red Badge of Courage_ was published in 1895 (it first came out
in installments in a Philadelphia newspaper at the end of 1894), the Civil
War had been over for thirty years. In some ways Americans were forgetting
the war. In the South, whites tried to undo some of the war's effects. By the
1890s many of the old Confederate leaders were back in power, and blacks
had lost their right to vote, and couldn't go to school with whites. But in
other ways Americans liked to remember the Civil War. In little towns in New
England and the Middle West they built monuments to Civil War dead--
something they had not done after the Revolution or the War of 1812. Stories
about the war were tales of bravery and heroism. Its songs were stirring
anthems like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Imagine, then, how shocking it must have been to turn the pages of _The Red
Badge of Courage_. Here was a novel where you didn't even find out the hero's
name--if you could call a boy who ran away from battle a hero--until halfway
through the book. Instead of being wounded by Confederate fire, this so-called
hero gets his "red badge of courage" from a panicked fellow soldier. Henry
Fleming's best friend, the tall soldier, Jim Conklin, dies horribly, jerking
around alone in the middle of a field, rather than expiring decorously in
Henry's arms with his mother's name on his lips. When Henry overhears a
general speaking with his aide, he wants to know when he's getting his
cigars, not about the progress of the battle. And as if it weren't enough
that this Stephen Crane stripped away the glories of war, who had ever
written in such language? Most novels were graced by flowing sentences, ample
paragraphs, and chapters it took a whole evening to read. What was this? Who
had ever heard anything as weird as Crane's language?
Those of us who watched "M*A*S*H" or read Catch-22 are not shocked by
Crane's vision of war. But readers in 1895 couldn't wait to find out who
Stephen Crane was. One veteran insisted that Crane had been in his regiment
at Antietam (one of the great battles of the Civil War). He was wrong.
Stephen Crane was a twenty-four-year-old journalist who had never seen a
battle, much less fought in one; a young man who had flunked out of two
colleges, where he had displayed more talent for playing baseball and
drinking beer than for writing. (Several years later, after Crane covered
a war in Greece as a journalist, he confessed with relief to his friend,
the English novelist Joseph Conrad, that "_The Red Badge of Courage_ is
all right.")
So how did a twenty-four-year-old who had never seen combat create a novel
that would forever change the way Americans wrote about war? One answer might
be that he copied the style of a European novelist. In fact, European writing
in the 1890s was beginning to change in some exciting ways. Two French writers,
Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, published novels that outraged proper people.
Zola in particular wrote in a way that people found brutal and shocking. He
wrote about prostitutes and coal miners, people who did not appear in the
novels of the day. And he tried to show that people were in the grip of
forces--heredity, environment, and instinct--that they could not control.
Some modern critics have claimed that Zola's novel _La Debacle_ was one
inspiration for _The Red Badge of Courage_. Stephen Crane had read some of
Zola's novels--in English, since his French wasn't that good--and he knew
about _La Debacle_, although nobody knows for sure whether he read the novel
or only a review of it. _War and Peace_ and _Sebastapol_, both by the Russian
novelist Leo Tolstoy, have also been named as possible sources for _The Red
Badge of Courage_. Again, Crane may have read the books, but he also may have
read only reviews.
Crane liked to read, and in high school he had enjoyed nineteenth-century
British novels and the Greek and Roman classics. But he was always more
interested in two other things: playing baseball and acting rowdy--drinking
beer, playing cards, smoking, and swearing, all the things that would have
made his minister father turn over in his grave. It doesn't seem likely that
Stephen Crane would have been inspired by other people's books.
Baseball and being tough were probably what helped Crane imagine what war was
like. In fact, Crane once said, "I believe that I get my sense of the rage of
conflict on the football field. The psychology is the same." Actually,
baseball was Crane's sport. He was an excellent player, and loved to show off
by playing without a glove. Crane claimed that when he was at boarding school,
a place called Claverack College on the Hudson River in New York State, "I
never learned anything. But heaven was sunny blue and no rain fell on the
diamond when I was playing baseball." When Crane went to college (despite its
name, Claverack was a high school), first at Lafayette College in Easton,
Pennsylvania, and then at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, the
amount of time he spent playing baseball contributed to his flunking out.
Crane wasn't being fair to Claverack. He learned something there, something
about being a soldier. For Claverack was a military academy, and Crane's mother
had sent him there because the only thing he loved more than baseball was
playing soldier. (Once, as a boy in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Crane had gotten
so involved in a game of war that he buried a friend in the sand.) At
Claverack Stephen practiced military drills. And in the evenings, around
tables in the dining hall, the teachers, former soldiers, sometimes reminisced
about their experiences in the Civil War. Stephen's favorite, General John
Bullock Van Petten, had fought at Antietam, which the battle described in _The
Red Badge of Courage_ resembles in some ways (although it is closer to the
battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863). Some of the stories that showed up in
_The Red Badge of Courage_ may have been planted in Stephen's head by General
Van Petten's tales.
But in the end, Stephen Crane's ability to describe war and to get inside
soldiers' heads probably came from the kind of person he was, and the way he
had grown up. Stephen Crane was a minister's son--and a minister's grandson
and nephew, too-and like at least some other boys in that position, he wanted
to show people that he was a regular guy. That need may have led Stephen to a
career in journalism (although both of his parents also wrote, as did two of
his brothers), and to a desire to shock more respectable people.
The struggle to find out what he was really made of, and to test his courage
in battle, was as important to Stephen Crane as it was to Henry Fleming.
After _The Red Badge of Courage_ was published he traveled as a journalist
to Cuba, then fighting for its independence from Spain, and to Europe,
where he eventually settled in England. He became a respected war
correspondent for several newspapers, showing a great deal of bravery, and
he continued to write stories, novels, and poems. Like Henry, Stephen
could have said that "He had been to touch the great death, and found that,
after all, it was but the great death. He was a man." Stephen Crane died of
tuberculosis on June 5, 1900, five months before his 29th birthday. If he
had lived, would he have, as Henry did, "rid himself of the red sickness of
battle" and "turned... with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh
meadows, cool brooks"? It is hard to know. It's almost impossible to imagine
Stephen Crane as an old man.
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:15:54 -0500
From: "Richard L. King"
Subject: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199]
Can anyone please send me the cite to that very short piece we read a
year ago (or so) in which someone (was it one of the Bensons?) wrote
about going bicycling with M.R. James? Does anyone remember? I'm going
to quote or refer to it for an articles about James and I can't find my
own.
Thanks,
Richard King
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:24:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: AJ
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11200]
you can't make a purse
from a curse or a verse
Sorry...I needed that...aj wright//meds002(at)uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 08:28:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: "linda j. holland-toll"
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11196] [11197] [11201]
On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Sherlene wrote:
> Debah(at)aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 4/9/97 3:20:13 PM, you wrote:
> >
> > >> I'm not averse
> > >> To writers who are terse.
> > >
> > >I roundly curse
> > >All posts in verse.
> >
> > How can you revile
> > What is in such style?
> >
> > Deborah
>
>
> Style, style?
> How can such a "pile" truly beguile?
>
>
they style does rile
and is such a trial
but is it so vile
this so-called pile?
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 11:24:36 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: Re: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199] [11202]
Richard K. asks about James and his cycling companion,
so I resurrect an old post:
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 13:31:35 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: Anstey recollects M.R. James [9222]
The following is a Gaslight etext...
excerpts from _A long retrospect_ (1936)
by Thomas Anstey Guthrie ("F. Anstey")
In August 1906 I went on a cycling tour in Denmark and
Sweden with Dr. M.R. James (now Provost of Eton and author
of the most original and terrifying ghost stories in the
English language), Edward Stone, and A.B. Ramsay, both of
whom were then Eton masters; the last named is now the
Master of Magdalene.
In Denmark we found that the local dogs, a large and
fierce breed, had a peculiarly violent objection to
cyclists, which they showed by pursuing us furiously for
miles on most routes, fortunately without overtaking us.
Probably they were not nearly so savage as they seemed; once
when we were wheeling our bicycles through a village called
Amboek Kro and I was last in the single file, an enormous
Blue Dane came out and followed close at my heels, growling
in a way that made me speculate uncomfortably on what would
happen when I mounted my machine. But as soon as we passed
the end house of the village he gave me a gentle nip in the
seat of my knickerbockers and turned back, content with this
delicate hint that in his opinion English tourists were
better at home.
Near Viborg we came upon what appeared to be a serious
accident; an elderly farmer was lying on the road bleeding
profusely, and near him stood his horse and cart. We
stopped and moved him out of harm's way, when we found that
there was not much the matter with him beyond being
deplorably drunk. Presently another cart arrived containing
two elderly farmers, who pulled up so sharply out of
sympathy that they both fell out of their cart and proved to
be, if possible, more drunk than the first. Their
respective horses stood quietly looking on as if such
incidents were an ordinary feature in the return from market
day. And as the three farmers seemed perfectly satisfied
with the conditions, we left them under the care of the
horses.
*******
In August 1907 I went for another cycling tour with Dr.
M.R. James and A.B. Ramsay, this time through France. Most
of our route, little as we knew it then, lay along the
fronts of the opposing armies in the Great War.
Military manoeuvres were going on all round us that
August; now and then we came upon a regiment of Cuirassiers
being billeted in a village or a train of cavalry fourgons
rattling through a wood. Verdun was full of officers in
every variety of uniform who looked, it struck me, as if
they took their profession much more seriously than did
their predecessors in 1870. Most of them had the grave and
scientific aspect one associated more with German
staff-officers.
I have nothing more to record of that tour, which was as
lacking in incident as most other pleasant tours of the
kind, except that in the salle-*a-manger of the *H*tel du
Commerce at Roye we found two coloured prints with
inscriptions in English. One represented a group at table
endeavouring to make some impression on a very tough goose;
the title of this was 'To hard'; the other showed the same
group holding their noses in the presence of a lobster, and
under this print was the legend 'To ripe'.
There was a sort of artlessness in this anglicization
which somehow appealed to us. Eight or nine years later
those prints must have ceased to appeal to any one, being
probably buried under the debris which was all that the
war left of the Roye we knew.
And I must not forget Ramsay's story of the English
tourists, one of whom, after they had wandered for hours
without nearing their objective, said to the other, 'D'you
know, old man, I don't believe "tout droit" does mean
"first turning to the right" after all!'
In the *M*nster-platz at Basle we saw a funeral procession
in which the hearse was followed by a double row of mourners
all chatting and smiling more cheerily than ordinary
wedding-guests. Possibly the deceased had deprecated all
excessive grief; if so, he would have been gratified could
he have seen how loyally his wishes were being respected, or
he might not have been.
At Basle Ramsay had to leave us, but the Provost and I
went on along the Rhine to Constance, partly cycling, partly
by rail.
In *S*ckingen Cathedral (if it is a cathedral, which I
forget) we saw a statue of St. Fridolin with Count Hugo,
whom he miraculously restored from death to the bosom of his
family. Unfortunately the saint seems to have resuscitated
him as a living skeleton, so that his intervention might
have been more tactful. But very likely Count Hugo's family
were glad to have him back in any shape and soon got used to
his appearance. Still, I think the general opinion must
have been that if you must perform miracles it is just as
well to do the thing thoroughly.
We passed through Laufenburg, where I had written some
part of _The Giant's Robe_ in 1883, and found it unchanged;
in the tobacconist's window there still sat the big wooden
negro in the pearl necklace, the falls still foamed through
the arches of the quaint old bridge that Turner etched, the
big salmon-nets were still suspended from poles on the rocks
below it. Nothing had altered. In 1923 I went to
Laufenburg once more and hardly anything was the same.
From Constance we went to Lindau with its twin piers, one
ending in a lighthouse, the other in a huge seated stone
lion, and its gabled and frescoed old houses; and on another
day to St. Gallen, where the Provost examined eighth- and
ninth-century Irish manuscripts in the Stifts-Bibliothek
while I explored the antiquity shops, one at least of which
had some interesting Swiss glass. And then our tour ended
and we returned direct to London via Basle and Calais.
**********
On Saturday, August 6th, (1910) after attending the
funeral service at St. Mary Abbot's for Linley Sambourne, I
went to stay a few days with Dr. M.R. James, who was then
Provost of King's, and on the 26th started with him for
another pleasant cycling tour in France.
Visiting cathedrals, churches, and castles in the
Provost's company adds immensely to their interest, and I
learnt and saw far more than I should have, had I seen them
as a solitary tourist. But all I shall record here is a
story the Provost told me of a fiery little Welsh parson he
had met, who indignantly asked some one who had questioned
his statements: 'Do you take me for a coward or a mice or a
foolish nonsense?'
*********
In August 1912 I had another pleasant cycling tour with
Dr. M.R. James and A.B. Ramsay, during which we saw Autun,
Beaune, Nuits, Dijon, Auxerre, rode down through the pass
from Pontarlier to *Neuch*tel, on to Fribourg and Berne, and
back by Sens and Moret to Paris.
I find a note in my journal of that tour recording a story
of a certain very majestic and awe-inspiring headmaster of
Eton, who, on paying a surprise visit to the fifth form,
found them all very behindhand in their work and rebuked
them with tremendous severity. After which he opened a
door, and saying, 'Mind now, I shall come and see you again
in a fortnight!' he made a dignified exit into a large
cupboard, out of which he emerged in increased ill humour.
I doubt whether any one laughed at the time, but it must
have been an experience none of them would willingly have
missed.
Dr. James also told me of a certain reprobate old Fellow
of King's College, Cambridge, dead long before either his
time or mine, who when complimented by some one on the
success of his son at the Bar, replied, 'My nevvy, Sir, my
nevvy! Fellows of King's don't have sons!' He lived to a
great age without losing his zest for life and could often
be observed poking up worms with his stick on the college
lawns and crying triumphantly, 'Blast ye! Ye haven't got me
yet!'
********
In August (1913) I again cycled with Dr. M.R. James and
Ramsay in France, a tour which, delightful as I found it,
needs no description here. In the courtyard of our hotel at
Albertville I was pleased by the lofty amusement of a party
of British motorists on discovering our bicycles: 'Actually
some pushbikes!' they told one another, with the air of
discoverers of prehistoric remains. It was incredible to
them that any sane human beings could care to propel
themselves when there were cars to carry them, or be content
with a day's journey of thirty miles or so when they might
run hundreds with no exertion at all.
But though we got their dust, they never gave us the least
desire to exchange vehicles with them.
On the road from St. Omer to Boulogne Dr. James and I were
stopped by a couple of douaniers who told us that our
bicycles ought to have been furnished with metal plaques at
a cost of three francs each, and insisted that we should
accompany them back to St. Omer and repair this omission.
We politely declined to do anything of the sort, as we had
been in France for three weeks without any intimation that
plaques were required, and had no reason to think they were
compulsory.
We argued the point with them, until one of them lost his
temper to such an extent that I began to think we should end
the afternoon in the nearest Mairie, but eventually we wore
them down, and the more choleric of the two decided that
'nous n'avons pas le temps de nous *emb*ter avec vous
autres', after which they made a dignified retreat. I
believe they both knew that their demand was quite
unjustifiable, and were naturally the more annoyed with us
for resisting it. I have never been so near passing a night
in a French cell.
********
In August and September that year (1921) I again went for
a cycling tour in France with Dr. M.R. James and A.B.
Ramsay.
(End.)
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 11:57:40 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: REVIEW: _Epilogue_ (1934) by Bruce Graeme [11203]
Bruce Graeme was already a ten-year veteran of mystery writing
when he decided to tackle _The mystery of Edwin Drood_ (1870).
His approach was to introduce modern (1930's) C.I.D. inspectors
into Cloisterham to resolve the long-standing mystery.
Superintendent Stevens and Sergeant Arnold soon come to grips
with their unexplained time travel backward when they find they
have a mystery to solve. The historical Sir Richard Mayne
enters the novel and instructs them, as their Scotland Yard
superior, to find Edwin Drood.
Since the mystery was originally written to teeter thru
the second half of the novel on the verge of its denouement,
Graeme perpetuates the mystery by bumping off or removing
the characters who could easily tell the inspector what
has happened. (There were no Superintendents in Dickens'
day, so Stevens has suffered a demotion to inspector.)
Altho they are "modern" policemen, the transplants do not
bring any modern techinques with them, the only exception
being the search for fingerprints.
So Stevens and Arnold interview the familiar Droodian characters,
who are represented authentically by the technique of having
them repeat sections of the original novel in their speech.
Despite the opening time travel, this repetition makes the
reader yearn for something new to transpire.
The additional crimes and the ungenerous statements that
something interesting has happened without actually
demonstrating it tend to label this book as a cosy
mystery.
Grewgious is said to perform smartly as a witness at
Jasper's trial, but we don't see it. This despite the
latter third of the novel being devoted to Jasper's trial.
But the trial does have its merits.
The prosecution at is led by the historical Serjeant
Ballantine and the defense is conducted by the actual
Henry Hawkins (whose nickname "The hanging judge"
still lay in his future). Despite everyone's conviction
that Jasper is guilty of at least one murder, the trial
is an interesting display of how the prosecution's case
of inference falls apart before the clever Hawkins. Also
interesting is Stevens' attempt to explain the 20th Century
advances (in an exchange that loses him all credibility
with the jury), including the theory that the depression
has been caused by overproduction.
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 12:52:30 -0700 (MST)
From: "STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE"
Subject: REVIEW: _Epilogue_ (1934) by Bruce Graeme, Pt. 2 [11204]
I apologize for the first half of this review being
sent prematurely.
Graeme does a good job of fleshing out the novel and
has probably read some of the Dickensian literature
since part of his addition to the Drood lore mirrors
previous speculations. As a solutionist, he offers
nothing new. As a cosy mystery writer who wants to
contrast England 1857 with 1934 and who wants to
bring closure to an open-ended book, he is fine.
_Epilogue_ does not build up enough steam to end
with a bang, but Graeme does reserve his best
surprises for the end. And when justice is finally
served, the story is recapitulated in a wonderful
broadsheet ballad, read during a public execution.
This is the most evocative part of the book, and
well redemptive of any flaws or failure to meet the
reader's hopes for book.
Stephen D
SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:15:39 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: The short of it [11194] [11195] [11200] [11205]
AJ wrote:
>
> you can't make a purse
> from a curse or a verse
>
Unless said verse is unusually diverse.
--
"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong
to be broken."*Samuel Johnson
Sherlene
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:52:44 -0500
From: "Richard L. King"
Subject: Re: M.R. James Reference Needed [11199] [11202] [11206]
Thank you, Stephen, for sending out that wonderful M.R. James bicycling
story (stories, actually). Outstanding service, as usual.
Richard King
===0===
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 18:18:08 -0700
From: Sherlene
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Chambers' "The Purple Emperor" [11191] [11207]
STEPHEN DAVIES, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE wrote:
>
> PURPLEMP.SHT
> Robert W. Chambers' mystery, "The Purple Emperor",
> will be the subject of next week's discussion.
>
> send to: mailserv(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
>
> the following command:
>
> send [gaslight]purplemp.sht
>
> I also have HTML versions of this story, and of
> _Stage-land_, tho Project Gutenberg's is likely
> as good if not better. I am off work with bad
> knees, but hope to get in sometime soon to
> mount these files on the WWW.
>
> I thought _Stage-land_ would be an appropriate
> tie in for this week's story, particularly the
> character sketch about "The Irishman", which
> lists some of the current theatrical realisms.
>
> Stephen D
> SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
--
I will not ramble on, just wanted to say keep your chin up in regards
the knee thing. Been there, done that, bought the surgical scars!
Sherlene
End of Gaslight digest.