Book Review: 'Alfred Hitchcock's Fear and Trembling'
'Alfred Hitchcock's Fear and Trembling' first was printed in 1948 by Alfred Knopf. This little Dell paperback edition (192 pp.) was issued in 1963, and features cover art by Fred Banbery.
I'm really going back in time with this review, into territory more frequently covered by M. Porcius, whose blog focuses on sci-fi and fantasy literature from the postwar era. In my experience the literature of this era can be rewarding more for the mystery / detective / suspense genres, and considerably less so for sci-fi.
The fourteen stories compiled in this anthology all saw print in the first 50 years of the 20th century, and almost all were written by British authors. Unlike the latter Hitchcock anthologies, which were edited by Robert Arthur, it is unknown who edited this particular volume.
My capsule summaries of the contents:
Cassius, by Henry S. Whitehead: a strange, and dangerous, little animal is loose on the otherwise tranquil grounds of an estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands / St. Thomas. This novelette is overwritten, but imaginative. Its prose is too un-Woke to be viable nowadays.
The Tarn, by Hugh Walpole: amidst the idyllic vistas of the English Lake Country, evil is nurtured in the dark heart of a recluse named Fenwick.
Little Memento, by John Collier: in the drowsy Somerset countryside, a young man named Eric Gaskell makes the acquaintance of the village eccentric, an elderly man who knows "all that goes on."
Although only five pages in length, this is a well-constructed tale, in which dialogue is used to direct the plot towards an understated, but effective, denouement (one with a note of viciousness). Collier (1901 - 1980) is considered one of the most capable short-story writers of the 20th century. I have ordered a couple of his anthologies for further reading.
Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad, by M. R. James: while 'on holiday' in rural England, Professor Parkins, a fussy and unimaginative man, unearths an artifact that was best left alone. This story first was published in 1904, and is too fuddy-duddy for this anthology.
One Summer Night, by Ambrose Bierce: a short-short tale that still is memorable, more than a century after its first publication in 1906 in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Telling, by Elizabeth Bowen: it's an Evelyn Waugh, Downton Abbey- style fine summer morning in the English countryside. Everyone is rousing themselves from a long night of partying. But Terry, it seems, did Something Bad last evening.....
The Jar, by Ray Bradbury: a backwoods simpleton named Charlie decides to buy an artifact from a county fair sideshow. A decent enough tale from Bradbury, although the highly descriptive prose style rapidly tires after a few pages.....
The Badlands, by John Metcalfe: a young man suffering from a 'neurosis' seeks quietude and healing in the coastal Norfolk village of Todd. A road near the hotel leads him to a strange and troubling landscape. Is it a figment of his neurosis ? This story is reminiscent of the stories of Arthur Machen and William Hope Hodgson, and (arguably) a progenitor of the 'weird fiction' genre.
Ghost Hunt, by H. R. Wakefield: you may remember the 'ghost hunters' program that was popular 20 years ago on the Syfy channel. This 1947 tale from Wakefield is the progenitor.
Skule Skerry, by John Buchan: a 'skerry' is a small, windswept island located in the Orkney or Shetland archipelagos. In this story, an ornithologist decides to spend a few days on one of the most remote and isolated of such islands. He finds himself in an unexpected struggle with violent weather and its associated eerie manifestations.
'Skule' is not a ghost story in the traditional sense. The unsettling aspect comes from the protagonist's insistence on intruding into a locale that intrinsically is hostile to man. Despite the lack of overt horror elements, it nonetheless is an effective story.
The Red Room, by H. G. Wells: a 'modern' (as of 1896, when the story was published) take on the haunted house trope.
The Sack of Emeralds, by Lord Dunsany: a fable about a wretched man and his burden. Despite its brevity, the tale's prose is adept at communicating the atmosphere of a foreboding October night in the English countryside, with horror looming from the darkness
The Night Reveals, by William Irish: 'William Irish' was the pseudonym of Cornell Woolrich. In this story, a man discovers his wife has been going on for late-night assignations of a disturbing kind. 'Night Reveals' is a well-told noir tale, but a bit out of place compared to the other contents of this anthology.
The verdict ? For a collection of 'traditional' ghost stories, stories that invariably had the adjective 'macabre' applied to them in the era in which they saw print, this Alfred Hitchcock anthology is quite readable. I favor these stories over the figurative and opaque prose style of the 'quiet horror' movement of the latter decades of the 20th century. If you share my attitude, then 'Fear and Trembling' will be a rewarding acquisition.
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