Tagged “Evening Tales for the Winter”
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Revisiting the Tiger's Cave
“The Tiger’s Cave” was a story from Volume Two of Evening Tales for the Winter, which I identified in a previous post as first appearing in The Monthly Magazine, March 1831. It’s a pulpy piece about the adventures of the narrator and his friends in the...
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Notes on Nina Dalgarooki
A fun story, by an interesting, and possibly underappreciated, author. I'd planned not to write detailed posts about Volume Three of Evening Tales for Winter; most of the stories are fairly dreary. But I'll make an exception for "Nina...
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The Haunted Forest; plus, Wrapping Up Volume Two
It finally happened: for the first time since I started this project, I've drawn a complete blank. The Haunted Forest is a tale of temptation and trickery in the gothic style, set in a dark forest in Normandy. A virtuous widower and his three children...
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Notes on The Wreckers of St. Agnes
The Wreckers of St. Agnes is an ambiguously supernatural tale -- I like to think it's supernatural -- set on the coast of Cornwall, where the local folk are primarily miners, but also smugglers and wreckers when the opportunity presents itself. A wrecker,...
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Notes on The Lonely Man of the Ocean
"The Lonely Man of the Ocean" is another non-supernatural story: a maritime adventure and a tale of harrowing survival that's rather topical, given the state of current events. Young, newly-married Christian Loëffler sets sail for Brazil seven...
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Notes on the Hungarian Horse Dealer
The Hungarian Horse Dealer is a nonsupernatural tale, about a Hungarian traveler returning home from Vienna after some successful and profitable business dealings. On the way, he stops for the night at a respectable-looking inn. The host then inquired...
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The Cavern of Steenfoll
"The Cavern of Steenfoll," subtitled "A Scottish Legend," is a dark and lovely tale from the pen of German Romantic writer Wilhelm Hauff. If you've been following my research on Evening Tales for the Winter, then it will also be a...
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Notes on The Tiger's Cave
Investigating "The Tiger's Cave" was more interesting than the story itself. I dislike this story. It's a straightforward South American adventure yarn that reminds me a bit of pulp fiction from the early twentieth century, with an exotic native...
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Notes on The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman is the story of a ship's encounter with the legendary ghost ship of that name; the tale originally appeared as "Vanderdecken's Message Home" in Blackwood's Magazine, May 1821. (The second link is more readable than the...
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Notes on Peter Rugg, the Missing Man
"Peter Rugg, the Missing Man" first appeared in The New England Galaxy on September 10, 1824. This "cursed traveller" tale, about a man doomed to ride forever in search of his home in Boston, evidently caused quite an impression on...
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Side Excursion: The Struggling Astrologer, Issue One
In my previous post, I tracked down the origin of the story called "The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century" in Henry St. Clair's anthology Tales of Terror/Evening Tales for the Winter. That search led me to St. Clair's source: a story entitled...
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Notes on The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century
A literary sleuthing case with an unexpected payoff. UPDATE 3/21/21: The Ex-Classics Website recently put up a version of The Necromancer, directly from the original sources, with footnotes. Check it out! In 1983, in his authoritative reference The Guide...
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Wrapping up Volume One!
I'll finish up my posts on Volume One of Evening Tales for the Winter with a brief discussion of the remaining three stories. "The Cavern of Death" is a longer novella in the gothic style, set (of course) in the depths of the Black Forest. It...
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Notes on The Mysterious Bell
"The Mysterious Bell" is a short, enigmatic tale that feels like the beginning of an unfinished story, but I like it. It reminds me a bit of the spooky sea tales of William Hope Hodgson, or of the Belgian writer Jean Ray. It also has hints of...
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Notes on The Boarwolf
"The Boarwolf" is a great story, and also a bit of a puzzle. Everett Bleiler attributed this early tale of lycanthropy (and porcanthropy?) to Johann August Apel, in the Tales of Terror entry of his 1983 Guide to Supernatural Fiction (p. 441)....
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Notes on Der Freischutz
I thought this post would be straightforward, but then I dug too deep. "Der Freischutz" (aka "The Fatal Marksman") is yet again a deal-with-the-devil tale. It's based on the German folktale of a hunter who receives a handful of magic...
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Notes on The Nikkur Holl
"The Nikkur Holl" is a delightful yarn, full of allusions to folklore and cultural details of fishing village life in the Shetland Isles, supernatural dealings, and ghostly visitations. It comes from the first volume of Tales of a Voyager to the...
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Notes on the Gored Huntsman
I think of "The Gored Huntsman" as a gothic fairytale. It's the story of a German huntsman who gets lost in the forest, and comes upon a mysterious dwelling. Within this dwelling is a beautiful but somewhat sinister woman who permits him to...
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Notes on The Magic Dice
"The Magic Dice" opens up Volume One of Evening Tales for the Winter. It's a nice example of the "deal with the devil" story, about a young soldier who is offered a pair of always-lucky dice by what appears to be the ghost of his dead...
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The Puzzle of Judar
A certain merchant had three sons; the eldest was named Sálih, the second Selim, and the youngest Judar. So opens "The Story of Judar," from Volume One of Evening Tales for the Winter. It's the story of a young man who gains some magic...
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