Showing posts with label
Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories 5.
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Showing posts with label
Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories 5.
Show all posts
Non-fiction ~ essay
First published in The Spectator, 18th November 1932¹
1,250 words
(First read 24/06/2014)
In his capacity as Mayor of Tilling Rye and spinner of unlikely yarns, EFB recounts the grim story of the town's most notorious, blunderous, and ever-so-faintly-humorous, murder: that of local big cheese Alan Grebell by the butcher John Breeds, in 1742. Breeds, in the manner so typical of 18th-century killers, was knocked off his trolley by something-and-nothing: the mayor had fined him for selling meat at short weight. That mayor ~ the intended victim ~ was none other than James Lamb, owner of the famous Lamb House in which Benson (amongst others²) lived. The tale is constructed of plot contrivances such as impenetrable fog, and improbabilities such as the victim dying without even realizing he's been murdered, but, unlike the overwhelming majority of the author's own similarly themed stories, it rings absolutely true ~ well, it is true. Still, Fred tells it with great relish.
You can read it online here.
¹ The article was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005).
² Elizabeth Mapp, Henry James, Emmeline Lucas, no doubt a whole herd of other terrifying old women.
Non-fiction - essay
First published in The Spectator, 29th April 1937*
1,515 words
(First read 12/06/2014)
Presumably the title Social Customs among the Extremely Rich and Fashionable in Victorian London wouldn't have been deemed catchy enough. This reads somewhat like EFB's notes for his quartet of novellas Old London, which was published in the September of the same year. He covers: the development of Belgravia, that swankiest of London districts; the 'season' and country house-parties; carriage etiquette; dinner-parties; entertainments at Buckingham Palace and elsewhere; seemly conversation; and so on and so forth. It's all jolly interesting if you're interested in that kind of thing, but doesn't really tell you much which, if you're interested in that kind of thing, you wouldnt've known already.
You can read the article online here.
*The essay was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005), under the title Social Customs in 1837.
Non-fiction ~ article
Published in The Spectator, 1st June 1928¹
835 words
(First read 20/04/2014)
29th May 1928 was, apparently, one of those days, like the one we had a couple of years ago², when the kind of folk who believe in ropey old prophecies (Nostradamus etc.) believe that the world is going to end. Speaking with the authority of someone who knows what he's talking about, which he does, and in his best quietly sarcastic style, EFB pooh-poohs the very notion that the precise or, as he wittily points out, precise-ish measurements of the Great Pyramid foretell anything whatsoever. The article is available online here and jolly good fun it is.
¹ The article was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005).
² 21st December 2012.
Non-fiction ~ review
Published in The Spectator, 11th July 1930¹
930 words
(First read 28/03/2014)
In which E. F. Benson commits an act of Extreme Naughtiness by reviewing the book of a very good friend and not acknowledging that they're even acquainted². The friend in question is Francis Yeats-Brown ~ for more on this chap see the entry for Mother (1925). The book is titled The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and was subsequently turned into a film, Airfix kit, beer, and restaurant. In a nutshell EFB likes the book but thinks it sags in the middle when, in the 1910s, FYB leaves India to go and take part in some war or other in Europe. Fred very successfully manages to entirely put me off reading it³ by saying this:
Going deeper yet, we are introduced to the topic which we rightly augur will be the main motif of the book ~ namely, the study of Yoga and the visit to Benares where he first gets into touch with the lore that is the life of India.
The review is available online here.
¹ The review was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005).
² STOP PRESS [06/12/14]: Since writing this back in April I've discovered that EFB did far worse than this. Here are Geoffrey Palmer and Noel Lloyd on the subject ~ the bolding is mine:
Fred had opened a new world to Francis. He had great literary ambitions but [circa 1910-12] they only amounted to a few articles published in Indian papers, and he had never before met a professional writer. Many years later he wrote, and re-wrote with Fred's help, Bengal Lancer, the story of his life in India.
(From E. F. Benson As He Was, 1988). So Benson was reviewing a book he actually had a hand in writing. Shocking.
³ The chances of that happening were minuscule to start with, I admit.
Non-fiction ~ article
Published in The Spectator, 21st February 1931*
1,075 words
(First read 16/03/2014)
An appreciation ~ thoroughly justified, IMHO ~ of the great Irish writer of ghost stories (1814-73). As well as explaining to us what makes Le Fanu's stories so good, EFB also has a pop at less successful authors in the genre, including his old pal Henry James, and a certain Charles Dickens. Oh but if only the man himself could have learnt something from his Victorian predecessor! Available online here.
*The article was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005).
Non-fiction ~ opinion piece¹
Published in The Spectator, 20th April 1934²
945 words
(First read 14/03/2014)
Or: Reading between the Lines, Lesson 93b. Benson appears to argue that superstition leads to religion which leads to Religion and that belief in magic white and black is ... erm ... a natural corollary of all three and that ... erm ... it's only natural that in this day and age that belief should persist among some people. At least, I think that's what he's saying: it's all rather vague. And as for his own beliefs, well, let's just say that he somehow manages to produce an opinion piece which contains no discernible opinion. It's clever stuff, in a way, but at the same time annoying and frustrating.
You can read it online here.
P.S. A bit of imagery Benson uses will put spook story fans in mind of his short story Atmospherics (1928).
¹ This will have to do: it lacks the length, breadth and depth of an essay; isn't about anything enough to be an article; and is far too po-faced to be considered a sketch.
² The article was collected in Sea Mist: Collected Spook Stories Volume 5 (2005).
