Title: Dracula’s Guest & Other Stories
 Author: Bram Stoker
 Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (1 May 2006)
 Paperback: 224 pages 
 Rating: 3 out of 5

Bram Stoker might have penned the most recognised novel on vampires – misconstruing the character of the Transylvanian prince of the Order of the Dragon along the way – but he was never a great yarn teller. I cannot tolerate Dracula, his magnum opus, for the melodramatically bad piece of writing that it is. His style, therefore, isn’t his saving grace in these collected stories, however he came up with some interesting if slightly folkloric tales of the supernatural. 

The title story, Dracula’s Guest, is thought to be a prequel to Stoker’s most recognised novel about the Transylvanian vampire Count with decidedly odd habits. The atmospheric prose of the story is accentuated by its setting in a cemetery. An unnamed narrator, possibly Jonathan Harker, is in Munich and travels on Walpurgisnacht. He is ‘English and therefore adventurous’, which proves to be something of a drawback by the end of his little experience. If he is the same Jonathan Harker from Dracula, it shows how stupid, stubborn and narrow-minded some characters are. They never learn their lesson! 

The Judge’s House is excellent and truly a frightening tale. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I tell the story to anyone who cares to listen. Most of them get the chills halfway through and one, a student of mine, ended up staring at me wide-eyed in fright. The story is inspired by Le Fanu’s An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street but it is, as mentioned by the editor of this collection, more visceral in evoking fear. 

Stoker’s other tales make for some worthy reading as well. Those that I found interesting are The Secret of the Growing Gold, The Coming of Abel Behenna and The Chain of Destiny. Stoker tends to romance it up whenever he can with his stories so the experience of reading supernatural fiction with tinges of courtship add to the factor that he doesn’t come up with many scary stories. In fact, The Judge’s House is the only real thriller in this collection. 

As with most collections, there are some good stories which share the pages with bad ones. In this case, Crooken Sands, The Red Stockade and The Dualitists are the culprits, especially the last which I find quite tasteless in its supposed humour.

Title: The Werewolf Pack
Selected & Introduced by Mark Valentine
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (12 Jun 2008)
Paperback: 224 pages 
Rating: 2 out of 5

This collection aims to provide a selection of werewolf tales that are popular, sometimes even rare, and once, quite weird. 3 stories from the book deserve mention for the reasons stated below. Read on. 

R.B. Russell, yes, the same man who penned Like Clockwork, does the bizarre routine again with his Loup-Garou – a short postmodern tale about French cinema, possible mania and a puzzling end that I couldn’t grasp. 

The Clay Party by Steve Duffy is a combination of the American Manifest Destiny, ambitious settlers, Romanian matriarchs and a pack of steadfast wolves. The story is reminiscent of the movie, Ravenous (which totally rocks by the way). Yeah, cannibalism rampant. 

Gail-Nina Anderson’s The Tale Untold tries to be Angela Carter’s In the Company of Wolves – the short story and the movie. So, that is very disappointing. Not many can imitate Carter’s prose and wicked sense of storytelling successfully. 

One thing shared by all authors mentioned in this review is that they are all contemporary writers. The rest of the stories in this collection make for some very dry reading. Not a good book to waste your time on.

Title: The Temple of Death
Authors: A.C. Benson & R.H. Benson
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (10 Sep 2007)
Paperback:  240 pages 
Rating: 3 out of 5

Don’t be fooled by the lurid title – the less famous brothers of E.F. Benson are much too preoccupied with religion and proselytizing their beliefs to actually write anything bloody or gory. I prefer R.H. Benson’s 7 short tales to each of A.C. Benson’s longish, ridiculous and extremely obvious tales. The latter has a tendency to come up with utterly uninspired ‘ghost stories’ that it is a chore not to yawn. The Uttermost Farthing passes muster as it borrows from M.R. James in style but the rest are dreadfully wishy-washy.

My favourite stories by R.H. Benson are Consolatrix Afflictorum, which is more of a Catholic mystical weepy than a ghost story, and The Traveller. This story successfully imagines the afterlife of the murderers of Thomas a Becket and it’s great when you read it on a rainy night with a cup of tea by your side.

Title: Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories
Selected & Introduced by Rex Collings
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (5 Jan 2008)
Paperback:  304 pages 
Rating: 4 out of 5

Yet another collection of ghostly tales from the Wordsworth publishing house! The Victorians loved their ghosts and the Edwardians carried that love on to some extent. This collection has the traditional fare on offer, from greats such as Dickens, Collins and R.L. Stevenson to surprising contributions from Elizabeth Gaskell, Edith Nesbit and William Thackery, individuals we associate with other types of literature than supernatural. 

Sir Walter Scott – strictly Regency - gives us The Tapestried Chamber which is rather basic in its elements: an old castle, a haunted room and the residential ghost making its presence felt. The Spectre of Tappington is another equally weak offering from the pen of Richard Harris Barham. It’s meant to be a farcical take on the genre and is dreary and longwinded. 

All is not lost, what with 2 ghastly tales, as Edgar Allan Poe’s popular and well loved story, The Tell-Tale Heart, takes its place as a stalwart of the genre. There are 2 Le Fanu tales as well: An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street and the fantastically odd Narrative of a Ghost of a Hand. Thankfully M.R. James isn’t ignored; his The Haunted Doll’s House and A School Story provide more credit to the collection.

The surprising (to me) inclusion of Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Squire’s Story doesn’t really add up to much. The same goes for Thackery’s The Story of Mary Ancell. 

As to my favourites, there were pleasant discoveries. Charles Dickens (← I avoid him like the plague) gives the chills in To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt. Miss Braddon’s tale, Eveline’s Visitant, proves to be horrifying and fatalistic, evoking a melancholy sigh of regret from me on Eveline’s behalf. Edith Nesbit, the author of Railway Children, definitely wrote a memorable yet simple tale of village superstition come to life in Man-Size in Marble. 

The collection concludes with 3 true ghost stories as well but only one, A Ghostly Manifestation written anonymously by a clergyman, is truly frightening. It takes place in Calcutta in the 19th century and has some seemingly authentic details plus a violent back-story. The other 2 tales deal with famed manifestations of supernatural phenomena in the Tower of London, including the incident of the phantasmic bear.

Title: The Black Veil & Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths
Selected & Introduced by Mark Valentine
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (12 Jun 2008)
Paperback:  272 pages 
Rating: 4 out of 5

16 supernatural mysteries and the minds which break the barrier between ignorance and elucidation form this collection released by the Wordsworth publishing house. Some very interesting and frightening stories share the pages with some pathetic tales. For instance, I couldn’t bring myself to waste any time over The Curious Activities of Basil Thorpenden by Vernon Knowles. It was followed immediately by another appalling story, The Necromancer by Donald Campbell.

Other tales such as Like Clockwork by R.B. Russell aren’t strictly supernatural – unless you consider the psychic who merely serves as a means of propelling the tale forward – but make for some disturbing reading. I couldn’t stomach the imagery used by Russell to depict one of the characters’ untimely death. 

Clear-cut favourites are the 2 Carnacki stories by the original author, William Hope Hodgson and an author cum fan, A.F. Kidd. Arthur Machen’s The Red Hand is  a brilliant and deliberately presented tale of archaeology and the unthinkable that is rarely unearthed but still present. 

One thing which I appreciate in this collection is the range of stories on offer: from the Victorians to present day authors, we have the supernatural dealt with in appropriate styles. The final story, Spirit Solutions by contemporary author Rosalie Parker, is a steady build-up of mysterious happenings after the death of the family patriarch. The father’s restless spirit disturbs the children and they resort to seeking help from online psychics. The conclusion leaves much to be desired. Still it is a testament to the modern day mystery author and the continuing belief in life after death.

Title: Collected Ghost Stories 
Author: M.R. James
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (5 Jul 2007)
Paperback: 368 pages 
Rating: 5 out of 5

M.R. James, described by many as the best ghost story writer to come out of England, was born Montague Rhodes James in 1862. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, was a talented linguist, medievalist, paleographer and Biblical scholar. He served in various positions at Cambridge and Eton, remaining a bachelor till his death in 1936. 

M.R. James published 33 ghost stories in total, 30 of which appear in this collection that cost me a mere $9. His ghost stories are consistently entertaining and successful in evoking fear. Readers can expect various degrees of subtle eeriness and disturbing creepiness while elements such as shock, schlock horror and scare tactics used by many modern authors are completely absent. 

I was on the train the first time I read a story by James. It was Count Magnus - I broke out into goose-bumps even while the train hummed with afterwork tales and shared gossip. I was quite freaked out by one particular description that the character, Herr Nielsen, provides: 

So they went to the wood, and they found these men on the edge of the wood. Hans Thorbjorn was standing with his back against a tree, and all the time he was pushing with his hands – pushing something away from him which was not there. So, he was not there. And they led him away, and took him to the house at Nykjoping, and he died before the winter; but he went on pushing with his hands. 

James’ style has been termed ’subtle’, ‘understated’, ’sinister’ and ‘authentic in details’. His stories can be compared to the wind howling through an empty, old house in the middle of the night. The characters are usually male professors, librarians, antiquarians, scholars and authors – clearly a reflection of what he was familiar with in his day to day existence as a provost at Cambridge and Eton. The supernatural entities are old world, sometimes pagan, which make gradual appearances in churches, English and Scandinavian seaside inns, archaeological sites and lonely woods among other mundane locales. Their appearance and intrusion upon the protagonists’ everyday lives create the tension and unease which are the hallmarks of James’ style. As I’ve mentioned, there is no over the top shockers awaiting the reader. Instead, we are in the hands of a master of the understatement, who occasionally hides behind a wry and ironic smile, for yes, there is some humour to be found in his prose. 

Out of the collected 30 stories in this edition, I list here 7 of my personal favourites, although I stress that all the stories are well-crafted and make for some cosy reading indeed. 

1. Count Magnus (but of course)
2. Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad
3. Number 13
4. A Warning to the Curious (the BBC tele-drama is exceptional in its treatment)
5. Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook
6. A View From a Hill
7. The Ash Tree 

After reading the collected stories, I have to say that M.R. James is one of the best writers of supernatural fiction and certainly my favourite.

 The Boleyn Inheritance is Philippa Gregory’s latest in the “Tudor Court Novels” and it’s the book I’m currently reading. I’ve got to say that Henry Tudor is really starting to annoy me. He sucks young women’s blood. I’m trying to avoid glancing at that portait of him – he stands there smugly on the spine of Antonia Fraser’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII directly in my gaze. 

I want to take a bath every other time I read one of Gregory’s novels. They make me feel corrupt and disgusted with myself. As if I were there intriguing against a desperate queen. First, the Boleyns, then Elizabeth and that wishy washy Hannah Green. Now it’s the duke of Norfolk and Jane Boleyn, wife of George Boleyn.

I will accept that Gregory has a talent for believable characterisation, despite certain historical inaccuracies. She’s not as good as Marion Zimmer Bradley in The Mists of Avalon, but somewhere pretty close in the contemporary writers’ list. Surely one of the top 10 in mine. 

The fact that Anne of Cleves reacted badly to the old fool’s advances – he stunned her with an “embrace” (a kiss in Gregory’s novel) while wearing one of his many corny disguises – might have been what caused her downfall. She didn’t get her head lopped off. Lucky enough for someone married to a serial killer husband. Nevertheless her reputation rests soley on the historical ‘acceptance’ that she was the turd amongst his 6 ladies – that he found her unattractive. Look at all 5 known portraits of the queens:

1. Katherine of Aragon
2. Anne Boleyn
3. Jane Seymour
4. Anne of Cleves
5. Catherine Parr

For the life of me, I don’t quite know what there was in Anne Boleyn that drove men crazy to such a reverberating extent. I don’t blame her for the English Reformation but you have to admit that she was a very important catalyst. I can imagine what a charmer she must have been, and quick-witted too; she accomplished quite much for a white woman in the 16th century.

Back to Anne of Cleves. If you look at the Holbein portrait that initially decided Henry’s choice of a Cleves wife, you’ll find she’s actually not the famous ‘Flanders Mare’. A cow, perhaps, but who says cows are ugly? She’s gentle and pleasant to behold. I shall not speculate how Katherine Howard looked like, of course. That stained glass depiction of the Queen of Sheba (psst! she’s supposed to be the one on the bottom right hand corner) shows a mannish woman and frankly, it’s too tenuous a claim to believe it to be a likeness of Katherine Howard. 

The title, The Boleyn Inheritance, seems to be a joke at Jane Boleyn’s expense. Gregory doesn’t spare the woman who gave false testimony – thereby inuring her husband’s reputation in scandal of the most gross order. She is coldly systematic in her conniving and displays a mannered ease in everything she does for Norfolk. 

The recent published study of Jane, Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox, doesn’t manage to salvage her reputation one bit – as most of the reviewers have already stated. Could this be another instance of historical fiction masquerading as fact? Or plain determination to sell a book with a teasing title like that based on conjectures?

Originally published @ my blog.

Ok, so the credits roll by and I sit there with a stupid grin on my face. Kind of like the Joker’s, except not as menacing. I couldn’t control my excitement. The movie exceeded my expectations, on all counts. Batman Begins, to me, was average, bordering on good. I gave it a 2.5 out of 5. (Don’t send me death threats.) The Dark Knight is a 5 out of 5 movie. It deserves every bit of press hysteria and critical patronage even though the fans will devour it regardless of the aforementioned dual factors.

>>Aside: I can’t believe Brother gave it a 3.7. But he’s the worthy soul who recommended such titles as Van Helsing and AVP II. (Read sarcasm) Sister, on the other hand, gave it a generous 4.5. She complains there’s not enough Christian Bale. A fair complaint but it is dismissed with the story’s arc and the director’s ability to shift away from condensing all the powerful hope and glory into a mythic hero such as Batman. It’s what a less able director would have resorted to.

I should warn the reader of possible spoilers to come, so beware!

Let me briefly assess the storyline of this latest ‘cloak and dagger’ (quite literally, if you notice) superhero opera. If Batman Begins was Genesis, The Dark Knight is Revelations. Full of blues and blacks, dark and stormy as they come, it dives into the story without frills and fanfare. It has enough to stand on with the opening bank robbery and the unravelling of the mask behind the Joker. So we’re introduced to Batman’s arch nemesis, the one villain he would kill – in time to come. He’s got to be so bad to deserve such an ‘honour’, right? And what a villain he is. Most of the time, I could only bite my fists in agony whenever the Joker made an entry. More of the man behind the Joker later. The city is inundated with Joker’s antics, all fearsome and terrifying with impunity. No one can stop him of course, not even Batman, least of all, Harvey Dent. But the latter tries and we know what happens if one crosses the path of the Joker and takes him for just another bad guy. What Harvey refuses to grasp – and never grasps, in my opinion – is that the Joker is in a class of his own. He lives to hurt, destroy and corrupt. He is a force of (criminal) nature. This dawns on Batman and he is ready to do what it takes before everything spirals out of control – but he is mistaken of the Joker’s real intentions. After bouts of soul searching and fighting his conscience, Batman gains the knowledge that makes him the better hero that he is by the end of the movie. He has matured, and like every phase of growing wiser, there comes the obligation to feel pain and suffer.

As with the previous movie, this installment of Batman has more than one villain. Perhaps it is a leitmotif that we can expect from Nolan’s possible further ventures into the franchise. And the storyline is crammed to the point of bursting. Many things are going on, but we want it that way or there’d be less satisfaction for the viewers. It goes without saying that in less capable hands, everything would have shambled on and started to resemble The Matrix trilogy.

Now, the cast.

First of all, there is Batman. Christian Bale is my preferred actor to play Batman, and I’m sure I’m not the first to say this. He’s already an accomplished actor, who made an impression in Empire of the Sun and went on to more and more roles wherein he’s demonstrated himself to be the fine actor that he is. Give him a role and he’s gonna impress you. He even maintains his impeccable American accent while giving press interviews and at premieres of the Batman movies. He’s a professional. Like Sister said, there is less Bale in the film. So he makes sure he delivers when he gets the screen. I think Nolan’s insistence on preserving the harsh voice of Batman has paid off in this movie. It sounds more uniform now than it did in the first one, when Bale sounds slightly queasy or squeaky at times.

And then, there’s the Joker. Heath Ledger (moment of silence, if you please) said he loved playing the Joker more than any other character, and it shows. He’s terribly good as the sinister dagger weilding bastard. He totally gave me the chills. It’s a performance already attaining cult status because it is so worthy. Believe the hype, the hushed reverence, cos everything he does in the movie threatens to overshadow all the others… It doesn’t though, what with Nolan’s clear view of what the movie is all about and his ability to maintain a precarious balance throughout. Yet, I feel it’s a shame that Heath is gone, now, when millions will be remembering and enjoying his turn as the Joker. It’s his best performance, hands down. And you’ll agree with me once you’ve watched the movie.

The next villain is Harvey Two-face. I didn’t know who Aaron Eckhart was until I read that he was in Erin Brokovich as the hairy biker boyfriend of the eponymous heroine. And his performance was a revelation to me. That guy is pretty good, standing on his own as one of the few Americans with a prominent role in a mostly British-populated movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal as the new Rachel is a much appreciated switch of cast. I’m of the opinion that Maggie is a surprising actress, talent-wise, ever since I first watched Secretary. However, I feel she sufferes what most female characters of any importance suffer in superhero flicks. But no actress should go into such movies with aspirations to prove her acting chops. I’m sure Maggie knows that.

Gordon, the stalwart cop, the good man to a fault: Gary Oldman, an unsung actor who deserves better pay and higher accolades than what he has now, gets more screentime. And such emotional rollercoasters these occasions prove to be! Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, both typecast old-timers, get their few witty lines and wry wisdom droppings in this movie as in the previous one. Good for them. The only surprise is Eric Roberts… Who is Eric Roberts? He’s Julia Roberts idiotic and equally irritating brother, It’s perhaps his single claim to fame, in my opinion. I don’t even want to talk about his Oscar nomination – proves everyone’s point that the Oscars is utter tosh. And he just goes about doing every expression he knows – namely, one – and trying not to looked overwhelmed by the company he’s in… What was that all about Christopher Nolan?

To conclude my review, The Dark Knight is, thus far, the best movie of the year.

Originally published @ my blog.

Title: Atonement 
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Briony when she’s 13… Her earnestness and her desire for the housekeeper’s son, Robbie, take her in the most horribly wrong direction. Saoirse Ronan’s face! My god! Those icy cold eyes, that neat, short blonde hair and her frequent appearences in white frocks combine to create a striking character.

I really like James McAvoy here. He’s Robbie, the housekeeper’s son who studies medicine due to the generosity of the Tallis patriarch. His problems begin as soon as Briony catches her sister, Cecelia, stripping to her underthings in front of the young man so that she can retrieve a piece of an ugly vase from the fountain. Briony wrongly believes that something awful is happening – that Robbie is ‘assaulting’ Cee. To make matters worse, Cee doesn’t know how to behave towards him after he starts at Cambridge. It’s the age old tension between the classes that makes her stumble in her attitude and behaviour towards Robbie. The poor guy of course is not as confused by her sending out mixed signals. He knows how she must be feeling towards him and his sudden elevation due to her father’s willingness to assist him. And yes, he loves her but doesn’t get the oppurtunity or the courage to reveal his feelings – until he writes 2 letters and delivers the wrong one into the hands of his messenger, Briony. He has no idea that she sees him as a threat to Cee. And then things really start rolling.

When he is wrongly accused of raping Lola, Briony’s precocious cousin, everyone is convinced that Briony’s testimony to the police must be the truth. Everyone except Cee and his mother. As he gets dragged away, Cee promuses him that her love will never die. The chocolate magnate, some awful upperclass twit who behaves in a most forward manner towards Lola, is the real culprit but the girl doesn’t dare say anything to contradict Briony’s insistence that Robbie’s the rapist. I can’t help but imagine why she let Briony decide the matter for her. And this brings me to the next thing that really stood out: Lola marries the rapist. How can she do that with a clear conscience?

Briony fulfills her childhood ambition and becomes an author, but not before she abandons the Cambridge offer and atones for her sins by becoming a nurse during the second world war. Her last book is Atonement. She suddenly reveals very matter-of-factly that the ending that we’ve just watched was made up. Robbie and Cee never get the chance to reunite. Robbie dies during the war and Cee dies in an underground bomb shelter during an air raid. The little girl who erred suffers for almost the rest of her life. She becomes a nurse and slips into harsh anonymity.

Title: Vile Bodies 
Author: Evelyn Waugh
Publication: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition (3 Feb 2000)
Paperback: 256 pages 
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The good things first. The cover is absolutely stunning. It’s an original illustration fromVanity Fair, 1928. The novel starts out funny, quaint jazz age, English upper crust funny. Every English aristocrat knows the other. Miss Runcible is too, too ridiculous. And the minor characters like the Drunk Major and Father Rothschild are usually amusing to the reader. However, the novel’s ‘protagonist’, Adam Symes, and his girlfriend, Nina Blount, are thoroughly boring. I understand that the rich are supposed to be thoroughly bored with their lives but to subject me, the reader, to their boredom is unpardonable. I felt very let down.

Somehow or other, the novel feels extremely dated. I love reading classics and I like history and all that, but as long as it’s relevant. I don’t think Vile Bodies deserves a spot in the modern classics. It is sometimes a chore to get through a page of inane chatter – I suppose that’s the whole point of the book. People had not one thing to do except fall from chandeliers and kill themselves before they turn 30 or pretend sophistication when they’re unbelievably wet behind the ears. It’s a wonder what Holden Caulfield would do were he unleashed into the society of the Bright Young Things…