Customer Reviews

The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

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This book is part of the Bison Frontiers of Imagination series. The entire line aims to bring early fantasy and science fiction stories, from the very beginning of the genres, to a mass audience. I absolutely love this series. I own about a dozen of them now, even though this is only my second review.

The foreword to this book, titled "The Woman Who Invented Dark Fantasy", gives a quick overview of Frances Steven's works, as well as their place in the history pulp magazines. Since I didn't know anything about the author before I picked up the book, it was a very good introduction to her and her importance to the genre.

The title story, "The Nightmare", is about a man who washes up on a tropical island with no memory of who he is. He gets caught up between two rival expeditions searching for a fabulous treasure, and along the way encounters the strange land's monstrous inhabitants.

"The Labyrinth" is a strange amalgam of romance and mystery, with a dash of horror mixed in. It starts out with a kidnapping that eventually devolves into a love triangle between a beautiful secretary, her egomaniacal boss, and her estranged boyfriend. While the first half of the book is very maudlin, the second half (when they accidentally get lost in a sinister maze) is extremely well done.

"Friend Island" is set in the near-future where gender roles have somehow been reversed. Women are now the ruling class, and the men are seen as the weaker sex. It tells the story of two very different shipwrecked sailors and the mysterious island they share.

"Behind the Curtain" is a very short but atmospheric piece about a husband daydreaming of revenge on his cheating wife. There's also a mummy thrown in to increase the weirdness.

In "Unseen-Unfeared" a man stumbles across a mad scientist who shows off his latest discovery of a microscopic world of horror. The description of the invisible creatures floating all around is very creepy.

"The Elf Trap" is about a no-nonsense professor suffering from overwork who goes on a holiday in a small rural town. While staying there he has a strange encounter with a band of gypsies living in the nearby wood. This story closely echoes traditional tales of fairies from Ireland.

"Serapion" follows a young man who is possessed by the spirit of his ancestor after an encounter with a spirit medium. The spirit constantly tempts and cajoles him into ever darker deeds, eventually leading the man to his own damnation. This is a very unique psychological take on the standard ghostly possession story.

"Sunfire" is a standard adventure story about a misfit group of explorers who find a lost temple in South America, and are enchanted by its lovely guardian. There's nothing spectacular about this one, but all the arguing and bumbling around within the group is entertaining.


The only major complaint I have with these stories, is that all too often Stevens' pulls the rug out from under the reader at the end of them. She does a wonderful job of building an atmosphere of suspense and mystery, and then wraps everything up with convoluted but perfectly rational explanation thus negating the fantasy elements she introduces.

Overall, however, this collection was a very enjoyable read. Stevens' stories are populated by lovable dilettantes, mostly unsuited for the role of hero. She loves to mix genres, mostly adding romance to mysteries or adventures. While some of the prose is dated, her style is much more easily read than even H.P. Lovecraft. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes the writings Abraham Merritt or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Francis Stevens was the pen name of Gertrude Bennett, an American writer of uncommon imagination whose work appeared in Argosy, Thrill Book and other early pulp magazines of the late teens and early twenties of the last century. Described as "the greatest woman writer of science fantasy" in the 100-plus years between Mary Shelley and Catherine Moore by science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz, Stevens is best known today for her longer works, The Heads of Cerberus, The Citadel of Fear, and Claimed, all of which have been reprinted within the past couple of decades. The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy is the first collection of her shorter work, most of which has not been reprinted in over 50 years.

A young widow and a single mother, Francis Stevens earned very little as a pulp writer and eventually gave up her writing career to earn a more reliable living as a secretary. She was a writer of genuine verve and spirit who deserves to be better known today.

Francis Stevens came out of the Golden Age of the short story. It seemed that for a while near every magazine of almost any sort ran at a couple of short stories in their contents, and even newspapers would run (intentional) fiction. Stevens attempted to make a living (1917-1923) in the grindhouse that was the arena of the popular fiction magazines. She wrote at least six novels, with two being lost forever when the magazine she submitted them to folded. Still, she persevered, publishing four novels, three novellas, one novelette, and three short stories, before giving up and seeking respectable employment. At least this is what she is known to have published under the Stevens name, her real name being Gertrude M. "Myrtle" Barrows Bennett (1883-1948).

----This collection is bookended by two lost world novellas that are very much like Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912). 'The Nightmare' (All-Story Weekly, 1918), starts out with a whimsical bit of humor as airheaded socialite Roland C. Jones is getting ready for his trip to see his cousin Percy Merridale on the Lusitania with his irrelevant manservant Philip, when things turn serious as Jones suddenly finds himself floundering to stay afloat in the big salty. He finds his way to shore, trucks down it a way only to find a gun drawn on him. Yes, it sounds like my old neighborhood. It seems that he is being mistaken for Richard Holloway by Prince Sergius Petrofsky and his shifty henchmen, and Petrofsky is willing to torture Jones to get what he wants, and he isn't going to take no for an answer, even if he has the wrong man. However, one of Petrofsky's men is an American and he helps Jones escape. Jones then escapes one Petrofsky only to be captured by another. Yes, there are two brothers marooned here, and both hate each other, although this one (Paul) has got the girl (Annie Weston) that both wooed, and who has, along with their divergent political philosophies, driven a wedge between the two. The much talked about Holloway is also with Paul.

And so the adventure continues as Jones continues to be ping-ponged about the island. He is dragged into an expedition into the volcanic caverns that honeycomb the island, gets lost, gets found, by Sergius, becomes friends with Sergius, and takes a trip with him in his aeroplane.

They land, almost get ate, get guns drawn on them (It IS my old neighborhood), get captured, and so on and so forth. 'The Nightmare' is a relatively fast moving, if at times redundant, adventure that was obviously meant to be serialized. The characters are all pretty standard stuff, and if Jones lacks much in the way of personality, it may because he is the story's narrator, and being the story's centerpiece, he has to keep getting captured and escaping to tell the tale.

Stevens' knack for strong descriptive phrasing such as ". . .hung a thousand icicle points, which reflected the electric rays as if they had been encrusted with diamonds. From the floor, also, rose points and mounds of brilliant crystals," keeps the story interesting. 'The Nightmare' is good story, but a little long, with a narrator that is a little too wishy-washy.

----Next up is the even longer 'The Labyrinth' (All-Story Weekly, 1918). Hildreth Wyndham is woken from a sound sleep by Rex Tolliver and told that Veronica "Ronnie" Wyndham, Hildreth's cousin and only surviving family member, and Rex's fiancé, is missing. And off go the two amateur sleuths, whose deductive skills will leave much to be desired. Sadly, their investigation is hampered by Stevens keeping the investigation and pacing too meandering for too long to keep my interest. The story picks up some steam however when they find out who has Ronnie, and why. Stalking and abduction is nothing new it seems. Everybody, Rex, Ronnie, Hilly, and the stalker all get lost in a huge maze in the act of "rescuing" Ronnie. They finally reach the pagoda in it's center, and this too is a trap, and they find themselves in an even worse maze. The story's main failings is in its characters, none are very memorable, although it is interesting to see Hilly's naivety gradually deconstructed, and replaced with a mild cynicism. The ending is also rather rank and offensive as we get both a deus ex machina, and Ronnie doing something that will offend all victims of stalking and abduction. Still, it's obvious that this story may have had an influence on the story 'In The Walls Of Eryx' (1939) by H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1938) and Kenneth Sterling (1921-1995). The labyrinth itself is five star material, but the story's ending and wishy-washy characters bring it down some. Might make a good movie.

----After reading the almost 120 page 'The Labyrinth' it was a relief to get to Stevens' short stories. 'Friend Island' (All-Story Weekly, 1918) is set in an alternate universe where women rule, and is a forerunner to the modern steam-punk, and ecology based sf sub-genres, while also belonging to the "tall-tales" genre of fiction that is told in bars. This story is told as a reminiscence, through an interview, of a salty old female sailor in a non-alcoholic tavern (this was published during Prohibition). Published years before Amelia Earhart's fame, a story about a independent female adventurer like this must have been a strange read for "All-Story"'s readers. But, it is an amiable short-story of the sailor being shipwrecked on an empathically sentient island with an emotional man who spoils things for the two of them. Drolly humorous, this pro-feminist fantasy's unnamed sailor was a wonderful character that I wish Stevens had written more stories about. This is easy five star story.

----Next is 'Behind The Curtain' (All-Story Weekly, 1918), and it is a mummy story that seems to have been influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, and has elements of necrophilia that would have made Poe proud. A gimmick story with a dream sequence, and whose central figure is a totally self-absorbed compulsive collector. An interesting story, but minor, to tell the one thing that makes it unique would be a huge spoiler. This story would have fit in neatly in the pages of the later "Weird Tales" magazine.

----'Unseen--Unfeared' (People's Favorite Magazine, 1919) is a mad-scientist story that revolves, ultimately around two things, a dreamy atmosphere that will seem like a gaslight version of Thomas Loggotti, with a lead haunted by an progressively hallucinatory sense of evil. The other thing is the mad-scientist's mad discoveries, some of which are described as ". . .like a huge repulsive starfish, an immense, armed, legged thing, that twisted convulsively. It was smooth, as if made of rubber, was whitish-green in color. . .". A paranoid little fantasy that has a too easy ending, and again, I can see that story may have had an influence on Lovecraft, although he would have given the story a better ending.

----The paranormal romance genre isn't something new, it has been around in one form or another for a very long time. 'The Elf Trap' (Argosy, 1919) is an early example of this genre. The story starts out with a mystery. A professor walks into a classroom and drops dead in front of his students. The mystery is WHAT caused his death, and where had he been for a missing two weeks. The answer can be found in a red diary that was found on his desk. Theron Tademus is a cold, anti-social, socially retarded workaholic genius who cannot see the forest because the trees get in his way. He takes some time off from his researches at an isolated resort, and during one his walks he comes across a camp of gypsies. Yes, they are dirty and nasty, but, beyond them is a village of exquisite beauty. Gradually, reality and dreams braid together as we begin to suspect that both villages may be the same place, and Tademus' cold personality undergoes a total deconstruction. Once you are touched by the elven, you can never go back, but Tademus does, but will they let him go? The ending can be read several ways, is this a romance or is it a hallucinatory horror story? Written before the Disneyfication of pre-civilizations myths, this story has an edge to it. This really was the best story in the book and deserves perpetual reprintings.

----'Serapion' (Argosy, 1920) is considered by Hoppenstand to be Stevens best story. He's entitled to his opinion, and while this story is clearly influenced by such things as the faddish Mesmerism and earlier fiction like Trilby: A Novel (1894) by George du Maurier (1934-1896) and The Parasite (1894) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Socialite Clay Serapion Barbour meets his old friend Nils Berquist who warns him against getting involved with psychic reseacher James Moore and Alice, Moore's wis wife and medium. A séance goes badly, and Clay's dead uncle Serapion, a name clearly derived from the term Seraphim (or Seraph), a higher form of angel, starts appearing to Clay. As Clay's figure and influence becomes stronger, so chaos starts to enter his and his acquaintances lives. The possession becomes stronger, and people will die. It's clear that Stevens wasn't playing around here, she was dead serious, and this story will end well for nobody, including Uncle Serapion. By the story's end the Serapion/Seraphim connection becomes clear in two ways. The first is the borderline insanity of Clay's mother who hero-worships her dead brother, and in Stevens caustic attitude towards the naivety of the spiritualist movement, as Serapion does not act like a Seraphim, but more like a Nephilim. The basic trouble is that this story seems to take forever to get started. You could almost condense the first twenty pages down to a mere couple and lose very little. It's these first twenty pages that bring down 'Serapion' somewhat, although in the end though, this story blows Doyle's better known "The Parasite" clear out of the water.

----As has been previously mentioned, this collection begins and ends with a lost race/world story. Stevens just manages to become a "Weird Tales" author with 'Starfire' (Weird Tales , 1923), which appeared in this influential magazines first formative year. Too bad the story couldn't have been more impressive, especially after the promise of 'Serapion'. Here a quintet of adventurers travel to the Amazon to explore the lost "pyramid of red flame", which is surrounded by a expansive lake. Right away they perceive that there is something suspicious about the place, as it is surrounded by abandoned new-to-rotting native dug-outs; there is even an abandoned "hydro-airplane". As they investigate they hear a mysterious piping coming from it, and upon its ascension, find a white woman playing a lute that a giant centipede is dancing to. Unfortunately the storyline meanders, the characters are cliché, including ANOTHER naively bone-headed young man. This was an inauspicious swan song to Stevens writing career. This last story by Stevens is notable for only a few things. The mysterious piping, and the pyramid's reliefs and hieroglyphics clearly were an influence on Lovecraft when he wrote At the Mountains of Madness and other tales of terror (The Arkham edition of H. P. Lovecraft) (written,1931, published, 1936). The other thing worth mentioning is that an aviatrix influenced by Amelia Earhart shows up. Still, this is minor league stuff.

For fans and historians of fantastic fiction this collection may be an essential read, but modern readers should beware several things. All the characters are lifted from templates, and do little to distinguish themselves. The extremely mannered writing style and the often meandering plotting will throw many off. But the most grating flaw are the story's often casual racism, terms like Chinks, Darkies, and the like keep popping up, along with sentences like "Negroes in the average run are diffuse in their statements and easily muddled into self-contradiction". (p 329)

All eight stories have an excellent illustration by Thomas L. Floyd whose influences seem to range from Frank Frazetta to Berni Wrightson. We also get a well-researched seventeen page essay by editor Gary Hoppenstand looking at Stevens life and writing career, and an ominously eerie cover by R. W. Boeche featuring a young woman (a young Francis Stevens?) about to be attacked from behind by a ghostly hand.

This lady occasionally writes some great stuff, but you won't that in this book. Not all of the tales in this book are fantasy, some are cheap serials. None are really great, and some are downright boring. Better to try The Citadel of Fear, which is a great book of hers that Lovecraft himself was a big fan of.