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 Tarnhelm
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- The Best Supernatural Stories of Hugh
Walpole
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- With an Introduction by George
Gorniak
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- ‘If
subtlety, originality and ambiguity are hallmarks of the
best supernatural tales, then Walpole’s stand with the
very best.’—So writes George Gorniak in his
Introduction to this definitive collection of the most
admired of Hugh Walpole’s supernatural and macabre
shorter works, along with two previously uncollected
early masterpieces, ‘The Clocks’ and ‘The Twisted Inn’.
Perhaps best known for The Herries
Chronicle (1930-34), four historical Lakeland
novels which remain in print to this day, Walpole was
widely recognised in his own lifetime as a consummate
literary craftsman with a fine narrative style and an
admirable ability to portray character, humour and
dialogue. In classic tales such as ‘The Silver Mask’,
‘Tarnhelm’ and ‘The Snow’, he also demonstrates beyond
question that he understood the experience of sheer,
stark terror.
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- Walpole
had a deep and abiding interest in the supernatural and
consistently incorporated macabre, mystical and
supernatural elements in his work. He also exhibits a
markedly modern understanding of the psychological, and
it is this combination which allows his more traditional
ghost stories, such as ‘The Little Ghost’ and ‘Mrs Lunt’,
to retain their power today.
-
- This
collection of twenty-five stories should help renew the
recognition enjoyed by Walpole in his own lifetime. As he
said himself ‘. . . the creator who relies more upon the
inference behind the fact than upon the fact itself, more
upon the dream than the actual business, more upon the
intangible world of poetry than upon the actual world of
concrete evidence, this kind of creator will come into
his kingdom again.’
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- Tarnhelm, The Best Supernatural Stories
of Hugh Walpole is a sewn hardback book of 363+xiv
pages. Limited to 500 copies.
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- Price
£35.00/$60 inc. p&p. ISBN 9781872621746.
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- Reviews:
- "There are twent-five stories in this
generous volume: still generous if you discount one or
two which could have been omitted with advantage. Reading
them in bulk one becomes aware of Walpole's limitations,
but also of his great strengths. He is a master of
narrative: even his lesser stories are very readable. He
rarely commits an awkward sentence to paper, and there
are plenty of felicitous turns of phrase."
Reggie Oliver - All Hallows
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- "A
tantalizing offering of fine frights, this assemblage of
terror stories, most of them out-of-print, highlights the
forgotten achievements of a macabre master whose
understanding of the night side of human experience makes
him indispensable fire-side reading. " - William Simmons,
Flesh and Blood Magazine
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- "Literature would be a poor art without
fantasy and Hugh Walpole can stake a claim to be a part
of our literary fantasy heritage." - Jeff
Gardiner, Prism
- "Tarnhelm ... is a smart edition of
walpole's 'spook stories' (to borrow E.F. Benson's
phrase), and should introduce his work to a new
generation of readers." - Peter Burton, Gay
Times
Page updated
7th June 2009
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