SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE

Part Nine

by H. P. Lovecraft

IV. The Apex of Gothic Romance

Horror in literature attains a new malignity in the work of Matthew Gregory Lewis, (1773-1818) whose novel "The Monk" (1795) achieved marvelous popularity and earned him the nickname of "Monk" Lewis. This young author, educated in Germany and saturated with a body of wild Teuton lore unknown to Mrs. Radcliffe, turned to terror in forms more violent than his gentle predecessor had ever dared to think of, and produced as a result a masterpiece of active nightmare whose general Gothic cast is spiced with added stores of ghoulishness. The story is one of a Spanish monk, Ambrosio, who from a state of over-proud virtue is tempted to the very nadir of evil by a fiend in the guise of the maiden Matilda; and who is finally, when awaiting death at the Inquisition's hands, induced to purchase escape at the price of his soul from the devil, because he deems both body and soul already lost. Forthwith the mocking Fiend snatches him to a lonely place, tells him he has sold his soul in vain since both pardon and a chance for salvation were approaching at the moment of his hideous bargain, and completes the sardonic betrayal by rebuking him for his unnatural crimes, and casting his body down a precipice whilst his soul is borne off forever to perdition. The novel contains some appalling descriptions such as the incantation in the vaults beneath the convent cemetery, the burning of the convent, and the final end of the wretched abbot. In the sub-plot where the Marquis de las Cisternas meets the spectre of his erring ancestress, The Bleeding Nun, there are many enormously potent strokes, notably the visit of the animated corpse to the Marquis's bedside, and the cabalistic ritual whereby the Wandering Jew helps him to fathom and banish his dead tormentor. Nevertheless, "The Monk" drags sadly when read as a whole. It is too long and too diffuse, much of its potency is marred by flippancy and by an awkwardly excessive reaction against those canons of decorum which Lewis at first despised as prudish. One great thing may be said of the author; that he never ruined his ghostly visions with a natural explanation. He succeeded in breaking up the Radcliffian tradition and expanding the field of the Gothic novel. Lewis wrote much more than "The Monk." His drama, "The Castle Spectre," was produced in 1798, and he later found time to pen other fiction in ballad form—"Tales of Terror," (1799) "Tales of Wonder," (1801) and a succession of translations from Germany.

Gothic romances, both English and German, now appeared in multitudinous and mediocre profusion. Most of them were merely ridiculous in the light of mature taste, and Miss Austen's famous satire "Northanger Abbey" was by no means an unmerited rebuke to a school which had sunk far toward absurdity. This particular school was petering out, but before its final subordination there arose its last and greatest figure in the person of Charles Robert Maturin, (1782-1824) an obscure and eccentric Irish clergyman. Out of an ample body of miscellaneous writing which includes one confused Radcliffian imitation called "The Fatal Revenge; or, The Family of Montorio," (1807) Maturin at length evolved the vivid horror-masterpiece of "Melmoth, the Wanderer," (1820) in which the Gothic tale climbed to altitudes of sheer spiritual fright which it had never known before.

"Melmoth" is the tale of an Irish gentleman who, in the seventeenth century, obtained a preternaturally extended life from the Devil at the price of his soul. If he can persuade another to take the bargain off his hands, and assume his existing state, he can be saved; but this he can never manage to effect, no matter how assiduously he haunts those whom despair has made reckless and frantic. The framework of the story is very clumsy; involving tedious length, digressive episodes, narratives within narratives, and laboured dovetailing and coincidences; but at various points in the endless rambling, there is felt a pulse of power undiscoverable in any previous work of this kind—a kinship to the essential truth of human nature, an understanding of the profoundest sources of actual cosmic fear, and a white heat of sympathetic passion on the writer's part, which makes the book a true document of aesthetic self-expression rather than a mere clever compound of artifice. No unbiased reader can doubt that with "Melmoth" an enormous stride in the evolution of the horror-tale is represented. Fear is taken out of the realm of the conventional and exalted into a hideous cloud over mankind's very destiny. Maturin's shudders, the work of one capable of shuddering himself, are of the sort that convince. Mrs. Radcliffe and Lewis are fair game for the parodist, but it would be difficult to find a false note in the feverishly intensified action and high atmospheric tension of the Irishman whose less sophisticated emotions and strain of Celtic mysticism gave him the finest possible natural equipment for his task. Without a doubt, Maturin is a man of authentic genius, and he was so recognized by Balzac, who grouped "Melmoth" with Moliere's "Don Juan," Goethe's "Faust," and Byron's "Manfred" as the supreme allegorical figures of modern European literature, and wrote a whimsical piece called "Melmoth Reconciled," in which the Wanderer succeeds in passing his infernal bargain on to a Parisian bank defaulter, who in turn hands it along a chain of victims, until a gambler dies with it in his possession, and by his damnation ends the curse. Scott, Rossetti, Thackeray and Baudelaire are other titans who gave Maturin their unqualified admiration, and there is much significance in the fact that Oscar Wilde, after his disgrace and exile, chose for his last days in Paris the assumed name of "Sebastian Melmoth."

(continued next month)

WITHIN THE CIRCLE
by F. Lee Baldwin

Two different issues of Weird Tales are labelled Volume 19, Number 3. (Look on Index Page.)

E. Hoffmann Price is touring the Southwest and is planning to call on Robert E. Howard, dip into Mexico, stop at Clark Ashton Smith's and finally wind up in San Francisco. His beloved rugs are with him.

"The Curse of Yig" by Zealia Brown Reed has been reprinted in the S & B (London) "Not at Night" anthology a few years ago.

Forrest Ackerman on binding stf: "—Place together evenly all pages to be bound into one booklet; with thumbtack, press two holes thru pages, holes being as far apart as the wire clips removed from original copies of magazines containing the stories or parts of serial; push clip thru these two holes near top of magazine and bend together at back, then repeating operation near bottom. Story is now clipped together. Backs and covers can now easily be put on by use of adhesive paper.—Does that help you?"

"The Horror in the Museum," by Hazel Heald is scheduled for reprinting this year.

Here's one about Edgar Allan Poe: Mrs. Whitman, poetess, suggested that Poe remove the last stanza from his poem "Ulalume" as she thought it detracted from the work. He did, and there are very few of the younger Poe admirers who have seen it. Modern standard Editions don't contain this bit; it is only the older ones that do.

Howard Wandrei, Don's brother, is a weird painter of the most unusual order. His work is far beyond that of any weird illustrator employed by magazines, in my opinion.... Have a look some time you Editors who want to be surprised! Howard illustrated Donald's "Dark Odyssey."

Here are the stories in the "Randolph Carter Series" by H. P. Lovecraft. They were written as follows: "Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919), "The Silver Key" (1926), "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (1926-7, unpublished), and the collaboration with E. Hoffmann Price, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".... "At the Mountains of Madness" was written in the Spring of 1831 and "The Shadow over Innsmouth" was written in November of the same year. His latest tale is "The Thing on the Doorstep" written in August, 1933.

For those who would like to read some of the classics of weird fiction try "John Silence" by Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows" by the same author (found in "The Best Ghost Stories" edited by Bohun Lynch), "The Three Imposters" by Arthur Machen (Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, N. Y.), "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (found in "The Two Magics" by the same author), "The White People" by Arthur Machen (found in "The House of Souls" published by Alfred A. Knopf), and "Portrait of a Man With Red Hair" by Hugh Walpole (found in a public library).

SCIENCE FICTION IN ENGLISH MAGAZINES
Series Six
by Bob Tucker

Volume 1, numbers 12, 13, 14 and 15, of Scoops contains a great variety of stf. "The Humming Horror" (interplanetary); "The Black Vultures" (air pirates); "Devilman of the Deep" (sea monster); "Cataclysm" (another Armageddon, with the survivors going to Mars); "The Poison Belt" (Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's tale); "Scouts of Space" (interplanetary space pirates); "The Metal Dictator" (robot ruler plot); "The March of the Beserks" (scientist creates monsters who revolt); "Invaders from Time" (time travelling tale by our own John Russell Fearn); and "S O S from Saturn" (interplanetary).

In addition, Scoops maintains several departments, and a readers page, among which are: "To the Planets," a weekly column by P. E. Cleator, who is President of the British Interplanetary Society. This column reports latest news flashes of rocketeers and interplanetary projects all over the world. Two other departments called "Here's a Scoop" and "Modern Marvels" list the latest inventions, scientific discoveries, etc. Another column, "Can it be Done?" presents an illustration of some badly needed device or invention, and asks readers to try to invent them. The readers page occupies the back cover at present and quite a few good arguments are put up. It needs some American letters though, so get busy Mr. Ackerman and Mr. Darrow!

Several requests have been received for information on this magazine, so here it is: Scoops is published weekly at 18 Henrietta St., London, WC2, England. Yearly subscription price is 13s, or about $3.40. Remittance can be made in American postal money orders. English money values are not steady, in regards to American money, so the $3.40 may be either more, or less, when you subscribe. Scoops contains, on an average, 28 pages. It has a cover in two or three colors, depicting some scene from a story, or some scientific feat. The size of the magazine is 9 X 12 inches, and has small type, thus quite a lot of reading matter is put out, considering its small price of about 6 cents for a copy.

You can either subscribe for three months, six months, or a year. The three month price is three shillings and three pence. Six months is just double that. One year is 13 shillings. [We hope to present another article in this series very soon. Perhaps even as early as next month.]

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