Robert Aickman - Free Library Land Online - Holiday

Compulsory Games

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 12:13:58 +0200

The best and most interesting stories by Robert Aickman, a master of the supernatural tale, the uncanny, and the truly weird.
Robert Aickman's self-described "strange stories" are confoundingly and uniquely his own. These superbly written tales terrify not with standard thrills and gore but through a radical overturning of the laws of nature and everyday life. His territory of the strange, of the "void behind the face of order," is a surreal region that grotesquely mimics the quotidian: Is that river the Thames, or is it even a river? What does it mean when a prospective lover removes one dress, and then another—and then another? Does a herd of cows in a peaceful churchyard contain the souls of jilted women preparing to trample a cruel lover to death? Published for the first time under one cover, the stories in this collection offer an unequaled introduction to a profoundly original modern master of the uncanny.

The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories

Sat, 19 Nov 2016 12:13:56 +0200

An omnibus collection featuring some of the finest works of a master of weird fiction One of the preeminent writers of weird fiction, Robert Aickman is celebrated for his unsettling and often ambiguous "strange stories," but he once wrote that "those, if any, who wish to know more about me, should plunge beneath the frivolous surface of he Late Breakfasters," his only novel, originally published in 1964. In he Late Breakfasters, young Griselda de Reptonville is invited by Mrs. Hatch to a house party at her country estate, Beams (which, incidentally, is haunted). There, amidst an array of eccentric characters and bizarre happenings, she will meet the love of her life, Louise. But when their short-lived relationship is cruelly cut short, Griselda must embark on a quest to recapture the happiness she has lost. Never before published in the United States and long unobtainable, Aickman's odd and whimsical novel is joined in this omnibus...

The Model

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 18:46:33 +0200

After Robert Aickman's death in 1981 the manuscript of The Model, a wintry rococo fable set in Czarist Russia, was located among his papers. Aickman had told a friend he considered this novella to be 'one of the best things I have ever written, if not the very best.' It was duly published for the first time in 1987.

The Model tells of Elena, a grave girl inclined to losing herself in dreams of becoming a student ballerina orcoryphée. Her dolour darkens further when she learns she is to be sold into marital slavery by her father so as to settle the family's debts. Refusing an unendurable future she sets out to the city of Smorevsk to pursue her dream. First, however, she must traverse a landscape crowded by highly curious characters and creatures.

'A must for Aickman fans... A model of eloquent elegant enchantment.' Robert Bloch (Psycho)

Dark Entries

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 02:46:55 +0200

Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 05:50:07 +0200

«Cold Hand in Mine» was first published in the UK in 1975 and in the US in 1977. The story «Pages from a Young Girl's Journal» won Aickman the World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in «The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction» in 1973 before appearing in this collection. «Cold Hand in Mine» stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a «strange story» writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story («Pages from a Young Girl's Journal») but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing. «Of all the authors of uncanny tales, Aickman is the best ever…His tales literally haunt me; his plots and his turns of phrase run through my head at the most unlikely moments.» — Russell Kirk.

The Collected Short Fiction

Sun, 27 Nov 2016 02:46:56 +0200

The Wine-Dark Sea

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:55:43 +0200

Cold Hand in Mine

Sun, 27 Nov 1988 02:46:58 +0300

Product Description

Cold Hand in Mine was first published in the UK in 1975 and in the US in 1977. The story 'Pages from a Young Girl's Journal' won the Aickman World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1973 before appearing in this collection. Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ('Pages from a Young Girl's Journal') but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing. 'Of all the authors of uncanny tales, Aickman is the best ever . . . His tales literally haunt me; his plots and his turns of phrase run through my head at the most unlikely moments.' Russell Kirk

About the Author

Robert Fordyce Aickman was born in 1914 in London. He was married to Edith Ray Gregorson from 1941 to 1957. In 1946 the couple, along with Tom and Angela Rolt, set up the Inland Waterways Association to preserve the canals of Britain. It was in 1951 that Aickman, along with Elizabeth Jane Howard, published his first ghost stories entitled We are the Dark. Aickman went on to publish eleven more volumes of horror stories as well as two fantasy novels and two volumes of autobiography. He also edited the first eight volumes of The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. He died in February 1981.

Robert Aickman - Free Library Land Online - Holiday

Compulsory Games

The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories

The Model

Dark Entries

Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories

The Collected Short Fiction

The Wine-Dark Sea

Cold Hand in Mine

Product Description

About the Author

Product Description

About the Author

Strange Stories

The Unsettled Dust