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Dark Ladies: 'Conjure Wife' and 'Our Lady of Darkness'

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The two stories in this book despite being over forty years apart are closely linked by a common theme.

CONJURE WIFE : Being of a scientific inclination Norman Saylor is unconvinced by his wife, Tansy, that her secret conjurings are in any way pertinent to their lives within a small-town college environment, and that his success to date, has been due to his academic endeavours. So Tansy being the good wife she is, and in a moment of self doubt, disposes of her hoard of graveyard dirt, pieces of hair, scraps of metal, and dried herbs, etc. At first nothing seems to change, as Norman had insisted it wouldn't, but as Tansy had hitherto believed, the Saylors become the target of the other wives' ambitions - especially Mrs Carr's.

To begin with, Norman's moral conduct is questioned by some his colleagues in an attempt to discredit him, then the family cat, Totem, is brutally killed. But Norman, the unbeliever, ignores the get-out-of-town advice, and has his life threatened by Tansy whose soul has been taken over by the other wives.

By this time Norman begins to consider the notion of witchcraft more seriously, and applies himself to a steep learning curve in order to outsmart the other wives and so get Tansy's soul back to where it belongs.

In hindsight it seems that Norman was being used as a way to get at Tansy so that he would convince her to shed herself of her protections and so become vulnerable to the other wives' combined attack. For it turns out that they knew, though Tansy didn't, that Tansy was the most powerful of them all.

OUR LADY OF DARKNESS: Franz Westen, a writer who converts `Weird Underground' television episodes into novels, falls prey to a curse put upon another - Clark Ashton Smith - by the long dead founder of Megapolisomancy, Thibaut de Castries. This is a consequence of three chance happenings: the buying of a book in a second-hand shop inside which Thibaut de Castries has secreted the curse between lightly gummed together pages; the taking up of residence at 607 Rhodes, a room in an apartment building that had been lived in by Thibaut de Castries and frequented by Clark Ashton Smith, and concealed within the walls of which is hidden another text -`The Fifty Cipher'; and the viewing of a brown robed figure on the peak of Corona heights - a hilltop directly in front of Franz Westen's living room window.

In today's terms this is horror in the style of The Blair Witch Project. A story permeated by a sense of menacing creepiness.

Our Lady of Darkness continues one of the, forty years earlier, themes of Conjure Wife; that women are possessed of the power of witchcraft to a greater or lesser degree, so creating the linkage for this pairing. As is usual for Fritz Leiber, the writing is tremendously slick.

I really enjoyed this book, and have read it three times already.

Let's cut to the chase: if you like tautly paced little terror tales loaded with atmosphere, then you should buy "Dark Ladies."

Fritz Leiber was a Grand Master of Fantasy and Terror fiction, and I pretty much grew up on the sly and cynical exploits of his Sword & Sworcery adventurers Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser. Leiber's stories seemed to my adolescent mind to be more worldly, more sophisticated, than the Conan or Tarl Cabot sagas I devoured when I was 12; Fafhrd and the Mouser were themselves street-smart and cunning, dispatching mortal and demonic foes with a style and alacrity usually lacking in other Sword & Sorcery epics.

Leiber brought that same sense of style and airiness of prose to his terror tales as well, and "Dark Ladies" is a fine example of his literary wizardry over the span of three decades: the book contains two superlative tales of sorcery and the malevolently supernatural intruding into modern life, "Conjure Wife" (written in 1943) and "Our Lady of Darkness" (1978). Both tales are linked by the thread of sorcery, to be sure, but are also reflective of Leiber's tremendous debt to both H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James: they are heavily atmospheric, pulse with ghostly malevolence, and have at their center unassuming, mild-mannered scholarly protagonists who are unwittingly and reluctantly drawn into dark adventures.

I must confess that I read "Conjure Wife" last, anticipating that it wouldn't be very interesting. It deals with Norman Saylor, a senior professor of Sociology at a small university in rural New Jersey who discovers his wife is a witch. As a rational thinker, Saylor is appalled, and orders his wife to give up her sorcery immediately; she does so, and the fun begins. From the premise, I wasn't very excited; the story seemed a little too "Bewitched" to be scary.

I'm happy to report that I was wrong, and "Conjure Wife" is one of the nastiest, most riveting, and frightening little gems of pure horror ever written. The kind of tale that has you glancing nervously at dark corners, "Conjure Wife" was a pleasure to read, though the ending came far too quickly and left me wanting more.

"Our Lady of Darkness", surprisingly, is the weaker tale of the two, though it was equally atmospheric. San Francisco horror writer Franz Westen, looking at the ragged hilltop of Corona Heights through binoculars, spies a pale, lean, brownish figure cavorting on the hill, which appears to wave at him. The next day he hikes up to the hill; finding no one there, he turns the binoculars on his apartment, two miles away; to his horror the figure appears in his own window, waving back at him!

This tale is erudite and exciting, and plunges Westen into the occult theories of Thibaut de Castries, who lived in San Francisco at the turn of the century and was at the center of a secret society of famous writers, including Jack London and Clark Ashton Smith. More interesting, the story delves into de Castries' notions of megapolisomancy, the theory that cities conjure up unhealthy and malignant energies of their own. Poor Westen has drawn the attention of such a creature, and the tale becomes a kind of scholarly cat and mouse.

Like "Conjure Wife", "Our Lady of Darkness" ends far too swiftly, and leaves the reader wanting more. I would imagine that's a fairly insignificant criticism, and it's certainly better to leave a reader wanting more than the reverse. "Our Lady of Darkness" is also a studied homage to the works of both M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft, though his tale fails to achieve the soul-curdling terror of either of those masters.

That said, if you're looking for the perfect spooky book to curl up with beside a roaring fire (preferably with a sleeping cat on the other sofa, and lightning flashing outside), then "Dark Ladies" is for you.

The two stories in this book despite being over forty years apart are closely linked by a common theme.

CONJURE WIFE : Being of a scientific inclination Norman Saylor is unconvinced by his wife, Tansy, that her secret conjurings are in any way pertinent to their lives within a small-town college environment, and that his success to date, has been due to his academic endeavours. So Tansy being the good wife she is, and in a moment of self doubt, disposes of her hoard of graveyard dirt, pieces of hair, scraps of metal, and dried herbs, etc. At first nothing seems to change, as Norman had insisted it wouldn't, but as Tansy had hitherto believed, the Saylors become the target of the other wives' ambitions - especially Mrs Carr's.

To begin with, Norman's moral conduct is questioned by some his colleagues in an attempt to discredit him, then the family cat, Totem, is brutally killed. But Norman, the unbeliever, ignores the get-out-of-town advice, and has his life threatened by Tansy whose soul has been taken over by the other wives.

By this time Norman begins to consider the notion of witchcraft more seriously, and applies himself to a steep learning curve in order to outsmart the other wives and so get Tansy's soul back to where it belongs.

In hindsight it seems that Norman was being used as a way to get at Tansy so that he would convince her to shed herself of her protections and so become vulnerable to the other wives' combined attack. For it turns out that they knew, though Tansy didn't, that Tansy was the most powerful of them all. OUR LADY OF DARKNESS: Franz Westen, a writer who converts `Weird Underground' television episodes into novels, falls prey to a curse put upon another - Clark Ashton Smith - by the long dead founder of Megapolisomancy, Thibaut de Castries. This is a consequence of three chance happenings: the buying of a book in a second-hand shop inside which Thibaut de Castries has secreted the curse* between lightly gummed together pages; the taking up of residence at 607 Rhodes, a room in an apartment building that had been lived in by Thibaut de Castries and frequented by Clark Ashton Smith, and concealed within the walls of which is hidden another text -`The Fifty Cipher'; and the viewing of a brown robed figure on the peak of Corona heights - a hilltop directly in front of Franz Westen's living room window.

In today's terms this is horror in the style of The Blair Witch Project. A story permeated by a sense of menacing creepiness, instead of a graphic gorefest.

Our Lady of Darkness continues one of the, forty years earlier, themes of Conjure Wife; that women are possessed of the power of witchcraft to a greater or lesser degree, so creating the linkage for this pairing. As is usual for Fritz Leiber, the writing is tremendously slick; so much so, that I can't think of anyone in the horror field at present who could pull off what has been done here. It would take a writer capable of good literary prose such as Ian Banks, Nicholson Baker, or C.J. Cherryh to match it. And since that isn't likely to happen any time soon, I would recommend that anyone interested in what can be done with the horror genre, should get their hands on these stories before they go out of print.

And to the publishers, TOR: I prefer the previous design; the Wayne Barlowe cover. Its more sophisticated artwork compliments the stories better. Maybe it could be made available as a hardback like the `Dealings of Daniel Kesserich'. It'd be worth the price, if not more so. * `A CURSE upon Master Clark Ashton Smith and all his heirs, who thought to pick my brain and slip away, false fleeting agent of my old enemies. Upon him the Long Death, the paramental agony! When he strays back as all men do. The fulcrum (0) and the Cipher (A) shall be here, at his beloved 607 Rhodes. I'll be at rest in my appointed spot (1) under the Bishop's seat, the heaviest ashes that he ever felt. Then when the weights are on at Sutro Mount (4) and Monkey Clay(5) [(4) + (1) = (5)] BE his Life squeezed Away. Committed to Cipher in my 50- book (A). Go out, my little book (B) into the world, and lie in wait in stalls and lurk on shelves for the unwary purchaser. Go out, my little book, and break some necks!' TdC

Beat that, Stephen - the master spellbinder; the Bard of Bangor - King!

Fritz Leiber's Dark Ladies collects his two best novels: Conjure Wife (1943) and Our Lady of Darkness (1978).

In Conjure wife, Professor Norman Saylor's career is going well and things just seem to be getting better. When he discovers that his wife, Tansy, is in fact a witch (not a mean one, but a witch nonetheless), his career and life will plummet in a downward spiral. Upon confronting her with the situation, she tells him that she was doing it for him, to protect him from the other professors' wives that also happened to be conjurors. After destroying all the charms she had to protect him, Norman soon wishes he'd listened to his wife.

Conjure Wife is a great tale of witchcraft with very interesting and weird characters. Leiber's writing here isn't dated a bit (keep in mind that this novel was written over 60 years ago!). Norman's wife, Tansy, is a good witch and as the story progresses, it becomes obvious that she only did what she did with the best intentions. Everybody's a suspect in this one; and when the bewildering climax comes, you'll be left in awe at Leiber's skills for pulling a one-two punch at you.

Our Lady of Darkness has a very eerie premise: A horror writer, Franz Westen, happens to peer outside his apartment window with his binoculars and sees a lanky figure dancing atop a hill, waving at him a few miles from where he lives. Curious, Franz decides to walk over to the hill and find out more about this strange character. Once there, by looking through his binoculars in the distance, he sees the same figure--this time waving at him from his apartment window! Franz will embark on a search for answers to find out who--or what--this bizarre figure is.

What a uniquely creepy idea; I was hooked with the four-line synopsis alone! Leiber's writing has matured considerably since Conjure Wife, 35 years earlier, and it shows. His skill at reeling you in and leaving you hanging on his every word is astonishing. At first, you're wondering why he's going off in the direction he chose to go, thinking he's losing his momentum, but as the story unfolds, you'll see that he's planned every detail with the meticulousness of a master storyteller. With references to Aleister Crowley and a multitude of mentions of the great H.P. Lovecraft, this tale of Dark Fantasy is a true classic.

Overall, you can't miss with this book. These two short novels are a fast and suspenseful read. The book is worth its price for Our Lady of Darkness alone. If you like enthralling stories, tales of witchcraft or clever Dark Fantasy; then you've come to the right place.

I finally got around to reading this horror classic. Conjure Wife is a very literate horror story. It is not needlessly lurid - there is no gore or sex. Like all great horror, most of the nasty things are implied rather than directly described. The premise is that witchcraft is all around us. Over the eons, men - repressed louts that we are - have completely lost touch with magic, leaving it the exclusive domain of women... all women. Professor Saylor is especially slow to believe, considering that he's a sociologist who has written extensively on the "truth" behind myths and superstitions. When he finds conjuring materials among his wife's possessions, it is the cause of a heavy family discussion.

This is a book that has endured over the years and deserves its place in the horror pantheon. Lieber was clearly a gifted writer who could make the outlandish seem believable. If I had a bone to pick, it would be that the action stops occasionally for some kind of explanation of the abnormal goings-on. That, however, is a flaw common to most horror literature (even the movie Psycho did it!). Conjure Wife still holds up and is a good read for any aspiring horror-writer to show how the job should be done.

I just finished reading the first novel in Fritz Leiber `s Dark Ladies compilation which includes two novels of witchcraft, Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness, the latter winning the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Conjure Wife was a lot of fun to read and includes a great twist at the end. This is the first novel I've read by Leiber and I'm looking forward to reading some of his other works.

This supernatural yarn is about a man and his wife, Tansy, who has a secret life as a practicing witch. Tansy's husband, Norman, a professor of ancient religions and superstition at a prestigious conservative university, discovers her hobby and forces her to stop. He adamantly believes that magic and superstition is all in one's head and has no place in a modern society. The events that follow show the folly of Norman's disbelief in magic. He slowly comes to the realization that his wife's charms were the only thing protecting him from the vicious magical attacks by the wives of the other professors, whose purpose was to advance their husbands careers and, of course, eventually dominate the world.

Although this horror story was written in 1943, the only time it ever seems dated is when Leiber uses the occasional 1940's colloquialism in the dialog. This doesn't take anything away from the story which truly stands the test of time.

Leiber's writing skill really comes through as he describes Norman's intellectual journey from an unbeliever to a believer in the mystic arts and he introduces some great concepts. Our Lady of Darkness, on the other hand, is a different story entirely.

Based on the story synopsis, I thought that the award winning second story of this compilation would be the best, but I was wrong. Our Lady of Darkness starts slow and never really gets moving. Although well written, the story never captures me and I never grow to care about the characters, none of whom are very likable. The story slowly builds up to the climax in the last chapter that ends up falling flat. Leiber introduces some interesting ideas, the concept of megapolisomancy is very Lovecraftian, but in the end the best word to describe the story is "boring". I had to force myself to finish it. It wasn't a terrible story, but it certainly was disappointing after finishing the fantastic Conjure Wife that preceded it.

In spite of the mediocre Our Lady of Darkness, I still recommend Dark Ladies to anyone who is interested in witches or stories of the occult.

Conjure Wife was a riveting story of the dire consequences that follow when a very rational professor at a small college finds his wife is practicing witchcraft. The pace is fast and the characters are well drawn. It held my attention to the end, and I can understand why it's described as a classic.

The second novel, Our Lady of Darkness, starts well but the premise behind the paramentals seemed silly, and by the middle of the book it had gotten almost boring. The climax was perhaps even more idiotic than the 'paramentals'. Overall this modern spin on the supernatural just seemed too half-baked.

I don't know, I was really excited to read both Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness, but after finishing both stories I felt that there was something missing from them. Mr. Leiber definitely knows how to create scenes of "atmosphere" and "dread." And I really enjoyed his descriptions of witchcraft and the paramentals. Maybe it was the slighly abrupt endings, the quick way of wrapping things up that put me off...All I can say is that i've read scarier books.