Freaksome Tales

Likewise, "The Hundred Doors of Kanhaksha the Mazdakite" plays out as a straightforward supernatural adventure tale, refusing to play up its inherent ridiculousness. It's true that at time one wishes for a little more in the way of overt humor, but the few hilariously arch lines are reward enough when they do come.

• Devils Origin (Devils Lies Book 1).
• Wassergeschichten (German Edition);
• Freaksome Tales, Edited by William Rosencrans. Book review!

A great part of the charm of Freaksome Tales is the interplay between the stories and the personality of the invented author. Gloume himself, as revealed in the foreword and in story notes, was reclusive, racist, sickly, and neurotic, and those facts are reflected in stories like "Vile Sickness of This World Born Not," which literalizes the racial fear that undergirds certain lesser Lovecraft tales, and "Hysteria horrificans," which does something similar for male anxiety about female sexuality. It's not all politically-charged and vaguely Oedipal, though.

Likewise "Metempsychosis," which turns reincarnation and Lovecraftian erudition on their head. And the final entry, "The Hideous Dereliction of Mrs. Blaughducks," is a neat comic spin on "psychic investigator" stories.

See a Problem?

The least subtle of these ten stories, it's also the funniest. Perhaps the best parody is the penultimate tale, "Manuscript Found beneath a Service Pipe ," which is almost something a bad writer could have produced in earnest. You have to stop and think a minute before grasping how ridiculous it all is, but the mental images are worth the payoff. If you're a very serious-minded reader of Lovecraft, then you'll probably be scared off by the vaguely familiar cover portrait of Gloume , and won't have to read these stories and discover that they make light of something you care deeply about.

But if you can laugh a little at Lovecraft and the American horror tradition without losing your appreciation for them, Freaksome Tales is worth a look. May 21, Kathy Cunningham rated it it was amazing Shelves: Rosencrans is writing here in the persona of an early twentieth-century writer of weird fiction, V. Swigferd Gloume, whose medical problems in childhood contributed to the macabre nature of his later work.

Gloume is, of course, a product of Rosencrans's imagination, but he is so intricately described and so cleverly developed that it's difficult to believe he doesn't actually exist.

Freaksome Tales by William Rosencrans

One can only hope! There are ten stories collected here, all of which are bizarre and strange in ways that can't help but get under the reader's skin. Rosencrans has defined Gloume as both a misogynist and a racist, and both traits are incorporated into his many strange characters. In "Hysteria Horrificans," for example, Dr. Finrod Broakmirth is in France a country both he and Gloume despise beyond reason - Frenchmen stink of "wine and cheese" to study treatments for hysteria in women.

Broakmirth when he is called to the bedside of an aristocratic French Comptesse she complains of a "restless uterus" is a horror beyond description, especially for a man with an abhorrence of the female gender! Other stories in the collection involve the conjuring up of demons, reincarnation, and spiritual possession, among other such paranormal activities. The story is about a group of "Oddfellows" who regularly gather in Heftmonks' house full of curiosities.

This time, the group indulges in "psychotropic tea," and there are treasure maps and a French villain Baron Houldebecq.

Heftmonks actually reminds me of Aloysius Pendergast, enigmatic hero of a number of thrillers by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Both Heftmonks and Pendergast are eccentric and brilliant, not to mention absolutely fascinating. I got the Pendergast vibe again in the final story in the collection, "The Hideous Dereliction of Mrs. Blaughducks," in which a strange man in black investigates the sudden and inexplicable recovery of a year-old woman on her death bed.

This investigator is decidedly otherworldly - he's described as having "something like the face of an undertaker in a play" - and his insinuation into the lives of Mrs. Blaughducks' nephew and his wife is definitely creepy.

• !
• The voyages and adventures of Edward Teach.
• 09 Hostage in the Highlands (The Wallace Boys)!
• The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future.
• Thomas Wingfold, Curate;
• Booze Survival Guide.
• WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LEARN ABOUT REAL LIFE IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL UNITED STATES HISTORY CLASS (MAKING HISTORY INTERESTING TO STUDENTS).

At the same time, the story is ultimately hysterical as poor afflicted Mrs. Blaughducks takes on various personas and her nephew scrambles to turn the whole mess into a financial gain. Rosencrans suggests that the inscrutable investigator who is not named in the story is actually Aeonius, a "drifter between Worlds" who appears in other works by Gloume - again, this is a fictional invention which Rosencrans makes totally believable, even in its absurdity.

Rosencrans is a phenomenal writer, and he is able to pull off his "scam" with aplomb. A Scraping" sounds fascinating, as does "The Aeonian Chronicles," which would undoubtedly follow the further exploits of that mysterious spectral investigator of Mrs. That none of these novels actually exist is decidedly disappointing!

Freaksome Tales

I would urge readers not to miss the incredibly detailed Index at the back of the collection, which is absolutely hilarious - there's one entry for "urine: I recommend FREAKSOME TALES to any readers who delight in literary fiction, who would love to immerse themselves in beautifully written prose that harkens back to an earlier time, and who enjoy a bit of tongue-in-cheek or a good wink along with their macabre tales of horror. This is a unique and fascinating collection of stories. I'm glad I had a chance to read them.

I was provided a copy of this book for review; the opinions expressed here are my own. Oct 14, John Allen rated it it was amazing. I found Rosencrans' central premise for his collection refreshingly hilarious "V.

Account Options

There is a popular expression: Given the mental condition of his parents, the less-than-standard aspects of his childhood development, and the altogether jaded, insular existence that resulted in him living as a grown man with two aged aunts, it is fair to say H. Lovecraft may qualify as one whose thoughts found dark, unintentional corners of the brain most others do not. One of the most famous writers of horror and weird, the manner in which his personal life leaked into his fiction would seem to have become source material of its own.

In his collection of short stories titled Freaksome Tales: Swigferd Gloume , William Rosencrans does precisely this; examine the meta-text of Lovecraft in fictional form using classically styled tales from the genre itself. The result a mix of entertaining stories with veiled commentary, fans of Lovecraft and horror of the early 20th century in general, should continue reading.