The Dedalus Book of Dutch Fantasy
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Louis Couperus (1863-1923), one of the great masters of Dutch prose, whose classic novels such as 'Van Oude Menschen, de Dingen die Voorbijgaan' ('Of Old People, the Things that Pass') and the great tetralogy 'De Boeken der Kleine Zielen' ('The Chronicles of Small Souls') have become part of the national heritage. 'Blauwbaards Dochter' ('Bluebeard's Daughter') and 'De Zoon van Don Juan' ('The Son of Don Juan'), first published in the daily paper Het Vaderland in Autumn 1915, were collected in Legende, Mythe en Fantazie of 1918.
Johan Andreas Der Mouw (1862-1919) was a philosopher and poet who, in late middle age, adopted the new identity of Adwaita. 'De Heilige Vlinder' ('The Sacred Butterfly'), taken from among his juvenilia, was published for the first time only in 1962, by Ms. A.M. Cram-Magre in her thesis on the author.
Lodewijk van Deyssel (K.J.L. Alberdingk Thijm; 1864-1952) was a critic and author of naturalist and sensitivist prose. 'Zonderlinge Dingen op de Vlakte' ('Curious Things on the Plain') is the first part of a review, taken from Verzamelde Opstellen. Zevende Bundel (1904).
Inez van Dullemen ('1925) writes novels, short stories and travel books. Na de Orkaan' ('After the Hurricane') appeared in 1983 in a collection going by the same name, but was revised for the anthology of her work Een Kamer op de Himalaya (1990).
Jacob Israel de Haan (1881-1924) was a Law scholar and the author of naturalist and decadent novels, journalism and poetry. In circumstances never quite adequately explained, he was murdered in Palestine in 1924 when posted there as correspondent for the daily paper Het Handelsblad. 'Over de Ervaringen van Helens Marie Golesco' (Concerning the Experiences of Helenus Marie Golesco'; 1907) is one of the so-called Nerveuze Vertellingen which only appeared in book form in 1981.
Fritzi Harmsen van Beek (*1927) published a number of collections of exquisite poetry and short stories tending towards the bizarre and the absurd. Her story 'Het Taxivarken' ('The Taxi Pig') was taken from Wat Knaagt? (1968).
Marcus Heeresma (1936-1991) wrote poetry, novels and short stories, some with a touch of the grotesque to them. 'Stortplaats' ('Dumping Ground') appeared in Robert-Henk Zuidinga's anthology of original horror stories Uit den Boze of 1984.
A.F. Th. van der Heijden (*1951), published his early work under the pseudonym Patrizio Canaponi. He is currently at work on a huge cycle of novels known by its overall title of De Tandeloze Tijd. Like almost all Van der Heijden's work, 'Pompeii Funebri' enjoys kinship with the novel cycle and can be pencilled into its ground plan as sketch material distantly related to the as yet uncompleted volume III of the larger work. 'Pompeii Funebri', too, was first published in the anthology Uit den Boze (1984).
Jan Hofker (1864-1945), like Trollope, was employed by the Post Office for most of his working life. He wrote sketches and short stories of which 'Koediefje' ('Rustler'; 1892) has been included here. His stories were collected in Gedachten en Verbeeldingen of 1906.
Frans Kellendonk (1951-1990) was one of the most formidable talents among the generation of Dutch writers bom in the early 1950s. An English scholar and an exceptional stylist of Dutch, he wrote essays, novels, a novella, criticism and short stories, as well as a number of literary translations from English, the last of which, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which he managed to see through the presses while battling with Aids, must be ranked among the most sensitive and finely crafted renderings of that work ever to be achieved in any language. His 'Dood en Leven van Thomas Chatterton' ('Death and Life of Thomas Chatterton') was taken from Namen en Gezichten (1983).
Anton Koolhaas (1912-1992), was a critic and the author of novels, film scenarios and superlative tales of animals which have become classics of Dutch literature. 'Balder D. Quorg, Spin' ('Baldur D. Quorg, Spider') appeared in 1958 in the collection Er zit geen Spek in de Val.
Frans Kusters (*1949) is a writer of short stories. 'De Volledige Diagnose' ('The Full Diagnosis') has been taken from Het Chaplinconcours of 1980.
Harry Mulisch (*1927) is one of the most exceptional authors of his generation as well as one of the most versatile, with major works in almost all forms of literary creation: fiction, critical and scholarly prose, drama and philosophy. A deeply thoughtful writer of finely honed, incisive yet quite austere prose, his voice is painfully well suited to address the issues surrounding World War II, its essence and nature as well as its consequences, as demonstrated in probably his most widely known novel at home and abroad, 'De Aanslag' ('The Assault') of 1982. 'De Versierde Mens' ('Decorated Man') was taken from a collection of the same name, published in 1957.
Carel van Nievelt (1843-1913) was a civil servant, a journalist and the writer of sketches and tales. 'Dolende Zielen' ('Souls Errant') can be found in the collection Ahasverus of 1889.
Helene Nolthenius (*1920) has been a professor of music history and writes novels and short stories. 'Omzien als Wapen' ('Looking back: the Weapon') has been taken from De Steeneik (1984).
Gerard Reve (*1923) describes himself as a Romantic-Decadent writer. A unique voice in Western European literature as a whole, who may prove the greatest stylist the Dutch language has yet seen this century. Several of his novels, such as 'De Avonden' ('The Evenings'; 1947), 'Nader tot U ('Nearer to Thee'; 1966) and 'De Taal der Liefde' ('The Language of Love'; 1972) have become widely acknowledged classics in his own lifetime, while concepts and sayings from his work have gone into the language as 'Revian', in a manner similar to the way things 'Dickensian' or 'Shavian' have gone into English. Never one to shy from controversy, his work and public pronouncements have probably garnered him as much opprobrium as fame. His latest novel, 'Bezorgde Ouders' (1988), appeared in English under the title 'Parents Worry' in 1990. The novella Werther Nieland was first published in 1949.
Arthur van Schendel (1874-1946) was a writer of religious, historical and naturalist fiction. Attracted to symbolism in his early work, in his mature novels he turns to a very personal form of naturalist fiction as exemplified in 'Een Hollands Drama' ('A Dutch Drama'; 1935) and the two related novels that followed, 'De Rijke Man' ('The Rich Man') and 'De Grauwe Vogels' ('The Ashen Birds'): three penetrating, dour studies of the relentless ordinariness of life for ordinary people, their existence ruled and confounded by unanswerable questions of fate, heredity, sin, free will and God's grace. 'De Witte Vrouw' ('The White Woman') was included in the collection Nachtgedaanten of 1938.
Willem Schurmann (Willem Fredrik; 1876-1915), Rotterdam-born playwright, son of a wealthy merchant. Author of five plays which enjoyed a degree of success, and of a number of works in prose, among which a two volume, part-autobiographical novel 'De Berkelmans' (1906). 'De Onevenwichtige Koning' ('The Unbalanced King') can be found in the collection De Beul of 1910.
Jan Siebelink (*1938) is a writer of novels and stories with at first a decadent and later on a more realist slant. 'Genegenheid' ('Affection') appeared in 1978 in the collection Weerloos.
P.F. Thomese (*1958) made his debut in 1990 with the collection of extended short stories called Zuidland for which he received the coveted AKO Prize. 'Leviathan' is the first from this collection.
Simon Vestdijk (1898-1971) was a ship's doctor for a short time before embarking on a lifetime of literary endeavour. Prolific author of essays, criticism, poetry, short stories, and novels such as 'De Koperen Tuin' (recently re-issued in English as 'The Garden where the Brass Band Played') and the extended cycle of 'Anton Wachter' novels. 'Het Stenen Gezicht' ('The Stone Face') was taken from De Dood Betrapt of 1935.
Jan Wolkers (*1925), as well as being a respected visual artist and sculptor, is a prolific writer of novels such as 'Turks Fruit' ('Turkish Delight') and 'Terug naar Oegstgeest' ('Return to Oegstgeest'), and of short stories. 'Gevederde Vrienden' ('Feathered Friends'; 1958) forms part of the collection Gesponnen Suiker.
Titles currently available are:
The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy - editor Mike Mitchell
'Subtitled "The Meyrink Years 1890-1930', this is a of the bizarre, superb collection the terrifying and the twisted, as interpreted
by the decadents and obsessives of fin de siecle Vienna. It features big names like Kafka, Rilke and Schnitzler, but more intriguing are the lesserknown writers such as Franz Theodor Csokor with the vampiric "The Kiss of the Stone Woman", Karl Hans Strobl, whose "The Wicked Nun" begins as a ghost story but twists and turns into insanity and Paul Busson, contributing an uncanny tale of feminine sorcery, "Folter's
Time Out
'Divided into five sections (Possessed Souls, Dream and Nightmare, Death, The Macabre, Satire) that tell you all you need to know, the stand out works are those of Gustav Meyrink, Strobl and Schnitzler and Franz Csokor's wonderful, mad chiller "The Kiss of the Stone Woman".
'The best stories faultlessly follow the traditional template of deepening mystery grafted onto time-honoured methods of signalling narrative action. Recommended'
City Limits
The Dedalus Book of British Fantasy,- editor Brian Stableford
Beginning in 1804 with Nathan Drake's `Henry Fitzowen,' The Dedalus Book of British Fantasy traces the development of the genre through the stories and poems of Coleridge, Keats, Dickens, Disraeli, William Morris, Christina Rosetti, Tennyson and Vernon Lee until the end of the century and Richard Garnett's `Alexander The Ratcatcher'.
Each text has been chosen to illustrate the development of the various aspects of fantasy in British Literature - the comic, the sentimental, the erotic and the allegorical - and the contribution that these authors made to the emergence of a new genre.
`there are a number of items which very few people will be familiar with that are real gems, John Sterling's "Chronicle of England" and Christina Rosetti's Goblin
Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4
The Dedalus Book of Decadence (Moral Ruins) - editor Brian Stableford
Every aspect of The Dedalus Book of Decadence (Moral Ruins) received praise, from the brown and gold of its cover (Times Higher Educational Supplement), the introduction (The Independent), the choice of stories (City Limits), and the whole book (Time Out). It was a critical and commercial success, which featured in the Alternative Bestsellers List.
A few comments:
,an invaluable sampler of spleen, everything from Baudelaire and Rimbaud to Dowson and Flecker. Let's hear it for luxe, calme et volupte'
Anne Billson in Time Out
'The Dedalus Book of Decadence looks south to sample the essence of fine French decadent writing. It succeeds in delivering a range of writers either searching vigorously for the thrill of a healthy crime or lamenting their impuissance from a sickly stupor.'
Andrew St George in The Independent
Tales of the Wandering Jew - editor Brian Stableford
`This homage to one of the world's great stories collects the Wandering Jew's many English-language manifestations, a fascinating journey down the tangled roads of European Literature, as infinite as those Ahasuerus is still walking. This collection offers you the chance to hitch a lift on the immortal sufferer's back. It's not the sort of offer anybody should turn down.'
City Limits
`Geoffrey Farrington's Little St Hugh is a wonderful 13th century tale of fury and repentance, with a touch of The Monk. The historical style is impeccable.
Ian MacDonald's Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria is brilliantly written, mixing the early analyses of Freud, the Jew, and an evocative and disturbing foreshadowing of the Holocaust. Scott Edelman provides a bit of bizarre allegory with The Wandering Jukebox.
The whopper is the editor's own - Stableford's brilliant, appalling Innocent Blood. A heroin addict dying from AIDS, is chained up in a cellar by the Jew, and their relationship is a horror show of uncommunicated pain. Some powerful stuff here.'
Locus
£8.99 0 946626 71 5 384p B.Format
The legend of The Wandering Jew appears in several other books published by Dedalus: The Architect of Ruins - Hervert Rosendorfer; The Green Face - Gustav Meyrink; and The Wandering Jew - Eugene Sue
' These pieces of furniture amounted to (often ornately carved) wooden boxes, inside of which glowing coal could be stored, the resulting heat rising through holes in the top upon which the feet would be placed to warm. Tr.
' 'Make haste, the road is long. From now on we shall live a' the edge of the world, in a distant land remote from mine.' Tristia 1.3 Tr
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Arnold Aletrino In the Dark
Jan Arends Breakfast
Maarten Asscher The Secret of Dr Raoul Sarrazin
Belcampo Funeral Rites
Huub Beurskens Highest Honours
J. M. A. Biesheuvel Biker at Sea
Willem Brakman The Gospel According to Chabot
Remco Campert The Disappearance of Bertje S.
Louis Couperus Bluebeard's Daughter
The Son of Don Juan
Johan Andreas Der The Sacred Butterfly
Lodewijk van Deyssel Curious Things on the Plain
Inez van Dullemen After the Hurricane
Jacob Israel de Haan Concerning the Experiences of Helens Marie Golesco
Fritzi Harmsen van Beek The Taxi Pig
Marcus Heeresma Dumping Ground
A. F. Th. van der Pompeii Funebri
Jan Hofker Rustler
Frans Kellendonk Death and Life of Thomas Chatterton
Anton Koolhaas Baldur D. Quorg, Spider
Frans Kusters The Full Diagnosis
Harry Mulisch Decorated Man
Caret van Nievelt Souls Errant
Helene Nolthenius Looking Back: the Weapon
Gerard Reve Werther Nieland
Arthur van Schendel The White Woman
Willem Schurmann The Unbalanced King
Jan Siebelink Affection
P. F. Thomese Leviathan
Simon Vestdijk The Stone Face
Jan Wolkers Feathered Friends
NOTES ON THE AUTHORS
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Dousa was reminded of his return from Paris, when it had been autumn, too, and he had felt himself t