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Horizons, v. 6, issue 2, whole no. 21, December 1944
Page 11
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Horizons 21 Type: Class: Code: Size: (1927) 328 octavo pages Publishers: George H. Doran Company, New York Author: White, Edward Lucas Pseudonym: Title: "Lukundoo" and Other Stories Subtitle: Editions: "Copyright, 1903, 1925, 1927, by Edward Lucas White. Copyright, 1907, by the Bellman Company. Copyright, 1909, by Henry Ridder, publisher." Appeared elsewhere: Further information: Review published, Horizons, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec., 1944, by Harry Warner, Jr. The ten short stories in this volume, according to White, were for the most part dreamed, not composed. Occasionally the strange logic of dreams is apparent, and most of the themes are such as very often present themselves in sleep, but I question the author's claim that they came from dream with almost no changes. The title story of the volume is the most famous. Written after a reading of Wells' "Pollock and the Porroh Man", it is an infinitely better yarn, but not quite the best thing in the book. That honor must go to "The Snout", which presents one of the clearest-cut impressions of reality anywhere in strange fiction and is marred only by White's taking for granted a rather thorough knowledge of certain things about Egyptian mythology. Actually, it may be a merit; I know nothing about "that magnificent, enigmatical blackdiorite tweflth-dynasty statue which represents neither Anubis nor Seth, but some nameless cynocephalus god," and still found the story to be one of the finest fantasies I have ever encountered. The greatest fault in these stories lies in White's habit of delaying the actual business on hand. The conventional sort of beginning and ending to "Lukundoo" is unobjectionable, but when the preliminaries occupy more than the first half of the story, as in "Alfandega 49A" it's definitely detrimental to the work. In only one story is this device really effective: "Anima", whose climax is finished before the first word, and divides its conclusion between the beginning and closing pages. "The Picture Puzzle" has an Unknown Worlds idea that is remarkably effective despite the syruppy kidnapping theme: "Sorcery Island" also is decidedly offtrail. The remainder of the stories are more or less conventional in theme, and of varying literary merit, the best of them perhaps "The Message on the Slate" for the queer way in which the perfectly obvious is delayed by ten thousand words. The author himself seems to have been very fond of "The House of the Nightmare", because he succeeded in continuing an interrupted dream in which it was created, but it is painfully obviously the worst and most conventional story in the book. "The Pig-Skin Belt" and "Floki's Blade" are both painfully long, the latter fantasy only through the courtesy of the introduction of a magic sword near the end. An "afterword" for the author completes the volume. This volume, I understand, is rather hard to obtain, and reprinting of its best stories in FFM would call to attention the fact that White wrote something besides the so often anthologized "Luckundoo". However, as far as I have been able to ascertain, this book contains all of his fantasy shorts. Personal addenda:
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Horizons 21 Type: Class: Code: Size: (1927) 328 octavo pages Publishers: George H. Doran Company, New York Author: White, Edward Lucas Pseudonym: Title: "Lukundoo" and Other Stories Subtitle: Editions: "Copyright, 1903, 1925, 1927, by Edward Lucas White. Copyright, 1907, by the Bellman Company. Copyright, 1909, by Henry Ridder, publisher." Appeared elsewhere: Further information: Review published, Horizons, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec., 1944, by Harry Warner, Jr. The ten short stories in this volume, according to White, were for the most part dreamed, not composed. Occasionally the strange logic of dreams is apparent, and most of the themes are such as very often present themselves in sleep, but I question the author's claim that they came from dream with almost no changes. The title story of the volume is the most famous. Written after a reading of Wells' "Pollock and the Porroh Man", it is an infinitely better yarn, but not quite the best thing in the book. That honor must go to "The Snout", which presents one of the clearest-cut impressions of reality anywhere in strange fiction and is marred only by White's taking for granted a rather thorough knowledge of certain things about Egyptian mythology. Actually, it may be a merit; I know nothing about "that magnificent, enigmatical blackdiorite tweflth-dynasty statue which represents neither Anubis nor Seth, but some nameless cynocephalus god," and still found the story to be one of the finest fantasies I have ever encountered. The greatest fault in these stories lies in White's habit of delaying the actual business on hand. The conventional sort of beginning and ending to "Lukundoo" is unobjectionable, but when the preliminaries occupy more than the first half of the story, as in "Alfandega 49A" it's definitely detrimental to the work. In only one story is this device really effective: "Anima", whose climax is finished before the first word, and divides its conclusion between the beginning and closing pages. "The Picture Puzzle" has an Unknown Worlds idea that is remarkably effective despite the syruppy kidnapping theme: "Sorcery Island" also is decidedly offtrail. The remainder of the stories are more or less conventional in theme, and of varying literary merit, the best of them perhaps "The Message on the Slate" for the queer way in which the perfectly obvious is delayed by ten thousand words. The author himself seems to have been very fond of "The House of the Nightmare", because he succeeded in continuing an interrupted dream in which it was created, but it is painfully obviously the worst and most conventional story in the book. "The Pig-Skin Belt" and "Floki's Blade" are both painfully long, the latter fantasy only through the courtesy of the introduction of a magic sword near the end. An "afterword" for the author completes the volume. This volume, I understand, is rather hard to obtain, and reprinting of its best stories in FFM would call to attention the fact that White wrote something besides the so often anthologized "Luckundoo". However, as far as I have been able to ascertain, this book contains all of his fantasy shorts. Personal addenda:
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