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Fancies and Goodnights
John Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl. With a cast of characters that ranges from man-eating flora to disgruntled devils and suburban salarymen (not that it's always easy to tell one from another), Collier's dazzling stories explore the implacable logic of lunacy, revealing a surreal landscape whose unstable surface is depth-charged with surprise.
418 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1951
About the author
John Collier
301 books78 followersJohn Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which is still in print. Individual stories are frequently anthologized in fantasy collections. John Collier's writing has been praised by authors such as Anthony Burgess, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman and Paul Theroux. He was married to early silent film actress Shirley Palmer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
April 14, 2020
Take a Nightcap and Say Goodnight to Your Fancy…
John Collier is somewhere halfway between E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe but he doesn’t spare his sense of humour and he always wants it painted black.
No? Then these stories are for you – you’ll know many natural and supernatural, normal and paranormal phenomena of this world.
And then you’ll find yourself Halfway to Hell…
John Collier is somewhere halfway between E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe but he doesn’t spare his sense of humour and he always wants it painted black.
Why, for God's sake, don't you read the news? Don't you remember the Pittsburgh cleaver murder?
No? Then these stories are for you – you’ll know many natural and supernatural, normal and paranormal phenomena of this world.
The tablets were not long in taking effect. Our hero closed his eyes. He put on a smile such as a man of taste would wish to wear when found in the morning. He shut off that engine which drives us from one moment to the next, and prepared to glide into the valley of the shadow.
The glide was a long one. He anticipated no landing, and was the more surprised to learn that there is no such thing as nothing, while there is quite definitely such a thing as being dead in the most comfortable bedroom in all Mutton's Hotel.
And then you’ll find yourself Halfway to Hell…
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April 15, 2020
New York Review Books is to be commended on two counts: firstly, for making this overlooked John Collier classic collection of short stories available to a wider audience; secondly, for including an introductory essay by Ray Bradbury where Ray proffers three memorable lines:
"There is no umbilical cord between the characters in Collier’s world and the world we live in. It is a world were anything can happen and always does."
"The stories here are not serious and thank God for that."
"John Collier saw the irony of human encounters and the fun in putting it down."
Reading these fictional poppers is a toot. Before I offer commentary on my two favorites that just so happen to be the weirdest of the bunch, there's one bit of British author bio worth noting - as a joke, Collier penned a review of his own novel, His Monkey Wife, wherein he characterized the book as a half-baked attempt "to combine the qualities of the thriller with those of what might be called the decorative novel." And as something of a grand finale, jokin' John C offered the following concluding remark regarding the novelist's abysmal lack of talent: "From the classical standpoint his consciousness is too crammed for harmony, too neurasthenic for proportion, and his humor is too hysterical, too greedy, and too crude." Thanks, John Collier! Anyway, with stories this good, it's on with the show:
THUS I REFUTE BEELZY
A tale with great depth. We have six-year-old Simon who no longer plays with the other children but spends his days in or near a decaying little summer-house down at the end of the garden. The lad carries a stick, struts up and down, mouthing and gesticulating. Beckoned by a bell to come along and join others for afternoon tea, Simon drifts in. Betty, a visitor, notices Simon’s face is almost a perfect triangle pointed at the chin and the child is as pale as pale can be.
Unexpectedly, Simon’s father, a dentist and man of science, bustles on the scene. The father wastes no time in letting everyone know, especially Simon, that he is the person squarely in charge. When Simon calls his father “Daddy,” his father insists Simon call him “Big Simon” and then goes on to pontificate how in times past little boys called their fathers “sir” or else they got a good spanking on the bottom. To this, Simon turns crimson.
Once seated around the table, the conversation turns to what “Small Simon” has been doing all afternoon. When Simon replies “nothing,” Big Simon states Little Simon should learn from experience and do something amusing tomorrow so as not to be bored. Simon replies, in turn, that he has learned. Father presses son on the details of the imaginative games he’s been playing and who exactly he's been playing with. Unable to contain himself, Simon tells his father in a soft voice, “Mr. Beelzy.”
Big Simon probes more into the nature of this “Mr. Beelzy,” to which Simon answers that Mr. Beelzy isn’t like anything. More back and forth until Big Simon, forever the staunch realist, insists his son acknowledge such beings as Mr. Beelzy are not real but simply a creation of mental fancy. When Simon refuses, Big Simon tells his son to go upstairs to his room and he will soon follow. At this point, Simon’s mother cries, “You are not going to beat the child?” To which Simon informs his father that Mr. Beelzy won’t let him, that Mr. Beelzy will come as a lion with wings and eat up anybody who tries to hurt him. Predictably, his father shouts, “Go on up with you!”
What’s especially fascinating about this tale is the tension between the everyday world, the world of science, and a second, less material, plane of existence. Of course, being English culture and society, it makes perfect sense John Collier would use Mr. Beelzy (short for Beelzebulb) as a representative from another, darker realm. Also worth pointing out, in several other of his tales, the author features the devil as one of the characters. Lastly, let me mention, Thus I Refute Beelzy has one heck of a powerful, unforgettable ending. I'm quite sure Big Simon would wholeheartedly agree!
GREEN THOUGHTS
Poor Mr. Mannering. If he only knew what he and others were in store for when he received an orchid with a certain sinister quality from a friend who perished mysteriously when out on a scientific expedition. What sort of orchid was it? He did not know but he took special care to plant his new acquisition in the section of his hothouse where he could always keep an eye on its health.
Not long thereafter, Mr. Mannering knew he need not worry – the orchid proved to be extraordinarily hardy, its stalks opening out bunches of darkly shinning leaves that quickly took over the space from any of its neighboring plants and flowers. Then after some time, tiny buds popped up here and there among its profuse greenery, buds that looked like the heads of flies. Mr. Mannering was overjoyed – possibly he is now the proud owner of a heretofore unknown variety of orchid, an orchid that might even be named after him and thus secure his rightful place in the world of botany.
But then it happened: Cousin Jane’s cat inexplicably disappeared. Not long thereafter, a strange new bud appeared on the orchid, a bud that continued to grow bigger and bigger until it reached the size of Mr. Mannering’s fist. And again, Mr. Mannering had to deal with strange disappearance number two: Cousin Jane herself.
I suspect nobody reading this will be shocked to know John Collier’s tale features a crossover in lifeforms, from human to plant. The only other such transformation I've come across in all of literature is Argentine writer Santiago Dabove’s Being Dust. As the Latin American author's yarn is harrowing, Collier’s contains light humor and signature British understatement. What a treat for fans of the fabulous. It isn't exactly Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy metamorphosing into Kafka's giant cockroach, but it's close!
I recommend you take the needed steps to put your hands on a copy of this collection and have some fun.
British author John Collier, 1901-1980
May 25, 2020
Collier's 30 fanciful "fables" make Aesop's seem like
Disney creations. Discomforting, disturbing, his
looney tunes encompassing murder, love, death,
delusion and gender-bending can leave you feeling
like you just banged your head -- badly -- and you
aren't sure of anything. To quote Collier (1901-1980): "How
interesting life is when things get like that!"
"Bottle Party" -- A lonely fella buys a bottle with a full-rigged ship inside. With intense effort, he flows himself into the bottle and the stopper is thrust in. "Let me out. I'll do anything," he begs. And then...
"Youth from Vienna" -- A beautiful celeb married couple are stunned when they drink a potion for Eternal Youth. And then...
"If Youth Knew If Age Could" -- Deeply romantic, a young man falls for the girl of his dreams. She's delicious. But then he sees her with "a colossal ruin of a man" near 80. She assures our hero that she and the rich coot she married are just "friends" ; why, the man is deaf and almost blind and he's lost the use of all his senses. "All his senses??" ~~ All, all, all, she replies. And then--.
Several friends tell me this story happened to them, in one way or another. Because, you see, and then...
Another favorite, four pages in length, "The Chaser," reveals the bumpy road of that 4-letter word: Love. A lovesick youth seeks a love potion. Ah yes, he's told, it will make his beloved adore him, worship him, never want to leave his side, she'll get jealous easily and want to know what he's thinking about always. Why, she'll even refuse to divorce him. "That is love," exults the youth...who must have it. The kindly wizard says it only costs $1. He earns his income when customers return some years later to buy an undetectable poison (which sells for $5,000). "I like to oblige," says the wizard.
Many of Collier's ironic fables were published in The New Yorker in the 30s - 50s, when that magazine actually published memorable fiction. (Today, it's rubbish). Osbert Sitwell wrote that the lethal gentleness of Collier's pen "is a delight that only genius can afford us."
Disney creations. Discomforting, disturbing, his
looney tunes encompassing murder, love, death,
delusion and gender-bending can leave you feeling
like you just banged your head -- badly -- and you
aren't sure of anything. To quote Collier (1901-1980): "How
interesting life is when things get like that!"
"Bottle Party" -- A lonely fella buys a bottle with a full-rigged ship inside. With intense effort, he flows himself into the bottle and the stopper is thrust in. "Let me out. I'll do anything," he begs. And then...
"Youth from Vienna" -- A beautiful celeb married couple are stunned when they drink a potion for Eternal Youth. And then...
"If Youth Knew If Age Could" -- Deeply romantic, a young man falls for the girl of his dreams. She's delicious. But then he sees her with "a colossal ruin of a man" near 80. She assures our hero that she and the rich coot she married are just "friends" ; why, the man is deaf and almost blind and he's lost the use of all his senses. "All his senses??" ~~ All, all, all, she replies. And then--.
Several friends tell me this story happened to them, in one way or another. Because, you see, and then...
Another favorite, four pages in length, "The Chaser," reveals the bumpy road of that 4-letter word: Love. A lovesick youth seeks a love potion. Ah yes, he's told, it will make his beloved adore him, worship him, never want to leave his side, she'll get jealous easily and want to know what he's thinking about always. Why, she'll even refuse to divorce him. "That is love," exults the youth...who must have it. The kindly wizard says it only costs $1. He earns his income when customers return some years later to buy an undetectable poison (which sells for $5,000). "I like to oblige," says the wizard.
Many of Collier's ironic fables were published in The New Yorker in the 30s - 50s, when that magazine actually published memorable fiction. (Today, it's rubbish). Osbert Sitwell wrote that the lethal gentleness of Collier's pen "is a delight that only genius can afford us."
May 23, 2020
3.45 stars…
If you are looking for a short story collection that contain tales that are bizarre and weird then this book is for you. Several about devils, at least two about genies, a number about murders or soon-to-be committed murders. Some of it dark material but I knew it was so weird, often fantastical, it did not trouble my soul to read the stories. It is a NYRB edition which means it has that imprimatur going for it. They brought a writer I guess long forgotten and out of print (1951, Doubleday) back into life. There are 50 stories. My recommendation is to read another book while you are reading these stories, and to read only a few stories each time you crack open this book. I read the whole collection over the course of 5 days without opening another book and I was going stir crazy, because at times it was reaching the threshold of a do-not-finish book. I think that was in large part due to its length (418 pages) and having to reset one’s mind over and over again when moving from story to story (given there were 50 of ‘em).
Ray Bradbury the master science fiction writer wrote an enthusiastic Introduction, so that says something. Stories that I gave 4 or 5 stars to were as follow…after I post this review I’ll be anxious to see if other GR reviewers liked any of the stories I did. 😊
Oh yeah, I did not read the book starting with story #1 and finishing up with the last story of the collection, I bounced around. I thought the whole book was going to be a thumping good read because the first four stories I just picked by chance were excellent.
They were:
• The Touch of Nutmeg — 5 stars
• Three Bears Cottage — I rated it as 5+ stars (if I could have given it a higher rating I would have!)
• Bottle Party — 5 stars (I made a note to myself of ‘OMFG’ after reading it…and I shan’t tell you what that acronym means ☹)
• De Mortuis — 5 stars
And then the other notables:
Evening Primrose (4); Over Insurance (4); Another American Tragedy (5); If Youth Knew If Age Could (4); Thus I Refute Beezy (3.5);Rope Enough (5); Little Memento (4); Green Thoughts (4); Romance Lingers Adventure Lives (4); Bird of Prey (4); Interpretation of a Dream (5); Mary (4); Youth From Vienna (35); The Chaser (3.5)
The painting on the book cover matched that of the short stories — bizarro (but interesting). A painting done by the German artist Neo Rauch, titled Hatz (The Hunt). Several men in overcoats playing hockey with huge ice cubes and there is one man’s dead body encased in one of the cubes (well his head is sticking out). If you like it you can’t have it — it is owned by a private collector in Pennsylvania.
Words I had to look up:
Supercilious: behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others
Incarnidine: a bright crimson or pinkish-red color
Reviews: This is from a blogsite and he echoes my concern about reading a couple of stories and then taking a break…and warning about reading all 50 of them while looking at no other books in the interim: https://www.rossblampert.com/2018/03/...
If you are looking for a short story collection that contain tales that are bizarre and weird then this book is for you. Several about devils, at least two about genies, a number about murders or soon-to-be committed murders. Some of it dark material but I knew it was so weird, often fantastical, it did not trouble my soul to read the stories. It is a NYRB edition which means it has that imprimatur going for it. They brought a writer I guess long forgotten and out of print (1951, Doubleday) back into life. There are 50 stories. My recommendation is to read another book while you are reading these stories, and to read only a few stories each time you crack open this book. I read the whole collection over the course of 5 days without opening another book and I was going stir crazy, because at times it was reaching the threshold of a do-not-finish book. I think that was in large part due to its length (418 pages) and having to reset one’s mind over and over again when moving from story to story (given there were 50 of ‘em).
Ray Bradbury the master science fiction writer wrote an enthusiastic Introduction, so that says something. Stories that I gave 4 or 5 stars to were as follow…after I post this review I’ll be anxious to see if other GR reviewers liked any of the stories I did. 😊
Oh yeah, I did not read the book starting with story #1 and finishing up with the last story of the collection, I bounced around. I thought the whole book was going to be a thumping good read because the first four stories I just picked by chance were excellent.
They were:
• The Touch of Nutmeg — 5 stars
• Three Bears Cottage — I rated it as 5+ stars (if I could have given it a higher rating I would have!)
• Bottle Party — 5 stars (I made a note to myself of ‘OMFG’ after reading it…and I shan’t tell you what that acronym means ☹)
• De Mortuis — 5 stars
And then the other notables:
Evening Primrose (4); Over Insurance (4); Another American Tragedy (5); If Youth Knew If Age Could (4); Thus I Refute Beezy (3.5);Rope Enough (5); Little Memento (4); Green Thoughts (4); Romance Lingers Adventure Lives (4); Bird of Prey (4); Interpretation of a Dream (5); Mary (4); Youth From Vienna (35); The Chaser (3.5)
The painting on the book cover matched that of the short stories — bizarro (but interesting). A painting done by the German artist Neo Rauch, titled Hatz (The Hunt). Several men in overcoats playing hockey with huge ice cubes and there is one man’s dead body encased in one of the cubes (well his head is sticking out). If you like it you can’t have it — it is owned by a private collector in Pennsylvania.
Words I had to look up:
Supercilious: behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others
Incarnidine: a bright crimson or pinkish-red color
Reviews: This is from a blogsite and he echoes my concern about reading a couple of stories and then taking a break…and warning about reading all 50 of them while looking at no other books in the interim: https://www.rossblampert.com/2018/03/...
July 17, 2007
This man is a genius. He can write a story about a man falling in love with a department store mannequin and make it more touching than any romance novel. He's clever to the point of hilarity. His wit makes it feel like he's winking at you between the pages.
The opening to one of my favourite stories, Hell Hath No Fury, goes like this: "As soon as Einstein declared that space was finite, the price of building sites, both in Heaven and Hell, soared outrageously."
The opening to one of my favourite stories, Hell Hath No Fury, goes like this: "As soon as Einstein declared that space was finite, the price of building sites, both in Heaven and Hell, soared outrageously."
January 2, 2018
Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGgit...
Featured in my Top 20 Books I Read in 2017
Reading Collier is like using a jewel-encrusted onyx knife to slice up a wheel of Camembert. Decadent, rewarding, sinister and wonderful. (Man look who's turning all fancy poetsy!)
Featured in my Top 20 Books I Read in 2017
Reading Collier is like using a jewel-encrusted onyx knife to slice up a wheel of Camembert. Decadent, rewarding, sinister and wonderful. (Man look who's turning all fancy poetsy!)
February 10, 2016
In a world filled with unread stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Jorge Luis Borges, and Raymond Carver, one does not have the time to read John Collier. I was hoping this Collier collection was one of those forgotten classics, as I was led to believe by the introduction of the book and by all these 5-star reviews on Goodreads. But don't be fooled - these are slight, inconsequential tales, cute, worth a smirk (occasionally), but otherwise formulaic, predictable, and dull. There's a reason his name is not mentioned alongside those others. He's just not in the same ballpark.
The stories were kind of cool at first. A guy who treats a genie badly.....gets stuck in the bottle himself! A man who is mistakenly believed to have murdered his wife.....gets the idea from the mistake and decides to murder her! A couple who seem incredibly happy together....end up killing each other! Gosh wow, I thought, what kind of wild twist is Collier going to come up with next?!?
But this collection contains something like 32 stories. And they're all surprising in precisely the same way, with the exact same narrative structure. And even the subjects tend to repeat. These stories cover the entire gamut of ironic situations regarding husbands who kill their wives. A small handful of the stories have supernatural elements, but the rest are mundane, and the supernatural ones are told with the same level of ironic detachment and arrogance so that it is impossible to feel any sense of estrangement or awe or wonder at any of the supernatural elements. They're just sort of mundane too.
The tone also started to drive me crazy. The stories are arch and whimsical and smug. There is no truth to be found in any of them, no guts. In each one, the narrator stands in safe and certain judgment over his measly and pathetic creations, and moves them about like checker pieces so they can act foolishly and march straight to their ironic demise, thus making the point the author intends to make. In that respect, I suppose they are like little Twilight Zone episodes, except they're less weird and philosophical. Some naive villagers mistakenly believe a man to be wealthy.....and they end up murdering him! A man who intends to poison his wife....gets poisoned by his wife first! It goes on and on and on like that, story after story, with dead wives and husbands and wives piling up, all in the same oh-so-clever, amused, and detached voice. At the end of every story, BAM! Twist of the knife! Gosh wow!
Would these things have worked better if they were read one at a time, a week or two apart? Maybe. But that's not the format they're in now, and in this collection, the reading experience just became unbearable.
I gave up after about half the collection. In that group of 14, there were two stories I found clever and engaging enough to have been worth reading: "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" and "Squirrels Have Bright Eyes" (no complaints about Collier's titles here.) Both these stories stood out because they were different, evoking different emotions from the reader than all the others (the first is genuinely suspenseful, and the second is actually funny). But 2/14 is just not good enough, and while I may be missing a small handful of worthy stories in the second half, it's just not worth the schlep to get through them.
The stories were kind of cool at first. A guy who treats a genie badly.....gets stuck in the bottle himself! A man who is mistakenly believed to have murdered his wife.....gets the idea from the mistake and decides to murder her! A couple who seem incredibly happy together....end up killing each other! Gosh wow, I thought, what kind of wild twist is Collier going to come up with next?!?
But this collection contains something like 32 stories. And they're all surprising in precisely the same way, with the exact same narrative structure. And even the subjects tend to repeat. These stories cover the entire gamut of ironic situations regarding husbands who kill their wives. A small handful of the stories have supernatural elements, but the rest are mundane, and the supernatural ones are told with the same level of ironic detachment and arrogance so that it is impossible to feel any sense of estrangement or awe or wonder at any of the supernatural elements. They're just sort of mundane too.
The tone also started to drive me crazy. The stories are arch and whimsical and smug. There is no truth to be found in any of them, no guts. In each one, the narrator stands in safe and certain judgment over his measly and pathetic creations, and moves them about like checker pieces so they can act foolishly and march straight to their ironic demise, thus making the point the author intends to make. In that respect, I suppose they are like little Twilight Zone episodes, except they're less weird and philosophical. Some naive villagers mistakenly believe a man to be wealthy.....and they end up murdering him! A man who intends to poison his wife....gets poisoned by his wife first! It goes on and on and on like that, story after story, with dead wives and husbands and wives piling up, all in the same oh-so-clever, amused, and detached voice. At the end of every story, BAM! Twist of the knife! Gosh wow!
Would these things have worked better if they were read one at a time, a week or two apart? Maybe. But that's not the format they're in now, and in this collection, the reading experience just became unbearable.
I gave up after about half the collection. In that group of 14, there were two stories I found clever and engaging enough to have been worth reading: "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" and "Squirrels Have Bright Eyes" (no complaints about Collier's titles here.) Both these stories stood out because they were different, evoking different emotions from the reader than all the others (the first is genuinely suspenseful, and the second is actually funny). But 2/14 is just not good enough, and while I may be missing a small handful of worthy stories in the second half, it's just not worth the schlep to get through them.
December 27, 2007
These stories by John Collier--who spent most of his career in Hollywood, where he was instrumental in the tone and style of such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone--are marvelous examples of a sort of short story that hardly exists anymore: sharp, satirical, and mordant flights of fantasy where every O. Henry twist is a twist of the knife. The introduction to this NYRB edition (bless the NYRB for all of the out-of-print authors they've been bringing back to light in recent years) is by Ray Bradbury, who claims Collier as a formative influence. The stories involving various demons are particularly rich: in one, a psychoanalyst cures a devil of his propensity for evil (turns out it was all a poor self-image), and in another a demon who wants to become a film producer forgets to renew the option on the soul of the screenwriter he hoodwinks into helping him. Collier's style is dated (in a good way) but never less than brisk, crisp and utterly suited to the ideas at hand.
Ah for the days when you could write stories about shops that sell djinns in a bottle or humorously murderous husbands and wives--and sell them to magazines that actually paid.
Ah for the days when you could write stories about shops that sell djinns in a bottle or humorously murderous husbands and wives--and sell them to magazines that actually paid.
March 11, 2021
This book had something of everything, and I will say that this author writes in one of those ways that made me enjoy almost every single story – even the ones that should be boring. I can’t really explain what in the writing was so good, but I loved it, it felt homely and somehow safe.
Overall I loved the book, the whole thing gets 4 stars. However, I will do a review/rating of each of these stories so others can see (if they want) which one I did and did not like, but also so that I can look back upon this review later and see which one I want to possibly reread. But I’m not going to write more than the actual rating on most of them because I can’t bother writing something for each of the 50 stories. So here goes…
Bottle party: 9/10
De mortius: 5/10
Evening primrose: 7/10
Witch's money: 5/10, I will say it's a good story with a funny ending, but unfortunately very forgettable
Are you too late or am I too early: 9/10
Fallen star: 10/10, this was amazing. I loved everything from the words to the sceneries and the characters, the story was great.
The touch of nutmeg makes it: 9/10, good story but I didn’t understand the ending
Three bears cottage: 5/10
Pictures in the fire: 7/10
Wet Saturday: 3/10
Squirrels have bright eyes: 5/10
Halfway to hell: 7/10
The lady on the grey: 7/10
Incident on a lake: 6/10
Over insurance: 6/10
Old acquaintance: 8/10
The frog prince: 2/10
Season of mist: 5/10
Great responsibilities: 7/10
Without benefit of Galsworthy: 6/10
The Devil Georgy and Rosie: 9/10
Ah the university: 8/10
Back for Christmas: 6/10
Another American tragedy: 9/10
Collaboration: 7/10
Midnight blue: 10/10
Gavin O’Leary: 2/10
If youth knew if age could: 5/10
Thus I refuse Beelzy: 9/10
Special delivery: 10/10
Rope enough: 7/10
Little memento: 7/10
Green thoughts: 9/10
Romance lingers adventures lives: 4/10
Bird of prey: 10/10, This was one of those stories that really stuck with me. But an unimportant side note; I don’t understand why they had their parrot outside? Maybe that’s something people did back in the day, or in warmer countries. But coming from a cold country, it just felt weird.
Variation on a theme: ?/10, would give an 8 but I don't know if I want to ignore the very much racist part where everyone just believed that a Gorilla was some random colored man.
Night youth Paris and the moon: 10/10, I have no idea if the main character here is a man or woman, it doesn’t really matter, but to be writing a story with LGBTQ-people back in the day would have been shocking. I like it no matter what.
The steel cat: 6/10
Sleeping beauty: 4/10
Interpretation of a dream: 7/10
Mary: 9/10
Hell hath no fury: 9/10
In the cards: 7/10
The invisible dove dancer of Strathpheen island: 9/10
The right side: 8/10
Spring fever: 7/10
Youth from Vienna: 9/10
Possession of Angela Bradshaw: 5/10
Cancel all I said: 7/10
The chaser: 5/10
Overall I loved the book, the whole thing gets 4 stars. However, I will do a review/rating of each of these stories so others can see (if they want) which one I did and did not like, but also so that I can look back upon this review later and see which one I want to possibly reread. But I’m not going to write more than the actual rating on most of them because I can’t bother writing something for each of the 50 stories. So here goes…
Bottle party: 9/10
De mortius: 5/10
Evening primrose: 7/10
Witch's money: 5/10, I will say it's a good story with a funny ending, but unfortunately very forgettable
Are you too late or am I too early: 9/10
Fallen star: 10/10, this was amazing. I loved everything from the words to the sceneries and the characters, the story was great.
The touch of nutmeg makes it: 9/10, good story but I didn’t understand the ending
Three bears cottage: 5/10
Pictures in the fire: 7/10
Wet Saturday: 3/10
Squirrels have bright eyes: 5/10
Halfway to hell: 7/10
The lady on the grey: 7/10
Incident on a lake: 6/10
Over insurance: 6/10
Old acquaintance: 8/10
The frog prince: 2/10
Season of mist: 5/10
Great responsibilities: 7/10
Without benefit of Galsworthy: 6/10
The Devil Georgy and Rosie: 9/10
Ah the university: 8/10
Back for Christmas: 6/10
Another American tragedy: 9/10
Collaboration: 7/10
Midnight blue: 10/10
Gavin O’Leary: 2/10
If youth knew if age could: 5/10
Thus I refuse Beelzy: 9/10
Special delivery: 10/10
Rope enough: 7/10
Little memento: 7/10
Green thoughts: 9/10
Romance lingers adventures lives: 4/10
Bird of prey: 10/10, This was one of those stories that really stuck with me. But an unimportant side note; I don’t understand why they had their parrot outside? Maybe that’s something people did back in the day, or in warmer countries. But coming from a cold country, it just felt weird.
Variation on a theme: ?/10, would give an 8 but I don't know if I want to ignore the very much racist part where everyone just believed that a Gorilla was some random colored man.
Night youth Paris and the moon: 10/10, I have no idea if the main character here is a man or woman, it doesn’t really matter, but to be writing a story with LGBTQ-people back in the day would have been shocking. I like it no matter what.
The steel cat: 6/10
Sleeping beauty: 4/10
Interpretation of a dream: 7/10
Mary: 9/10
Hell hath no fury: 9/10
In the cards: 7/10
The invisible dove dancer of Strathpheen island: 9/10
The right side: 8/10
Spring fever: 7/10
Youth from Vienna: 9/10
Possession of Angela Bradshaw: 5/10
Cancel all I said: 7/10
The chaser: 5/10
August 7, 2014
I started off really enjoying this collection of stories. They are mostly very short tales, many of which have an ordinary setting but contain some element of the fantastical or macabre; others are more explicitly fantasy, but somehow the style is too traditional and matter-of-fact for the book to really feel like it belongs within the fantasy genre. The main problem that it is simply too long, consisting of 50 stories, and after a while they begin to feel very repetitive. The themes frequently repeat themselves and stop being quite so funny, shocking or original. There is also an unpleasantly sexist edge to many of them which, at the beginning, I was able to ignore, but after encountering the same thing repeatedly story after story, it became exhausting and the whole book started to seem offensive. I think the author's work would have been better served by a compilation of perhaps 10-15 of the longer stories.
January 22, 2013
A handful of these stories are truly amazing, the rest are merely good reads. And I mean "good reads" as a high compliment. The best, I think, are "Evening Primrose," "Witch Money," and "Thus, I Refute Beelzy." It's remarkable that such dark but smart and witty stories were such a staple of magazines like The New Yorker once. Bring 'em back!
November 12, 2012
John Collier wrote short stories like no one else. They are formulaic, always with a twist, usually a husband realizing he's been cuckolded and then killing his wife, mostly violent. I would say more misanthropic than misogynist, though there's a bit of that too.
What makes them great is his objective, clear style than calmly watches as people's lives fall apart within the space of three pages. The Devil arrives and behaves like any young man with lots of confidence, experience, and money. You have to at least listen to such a suave and normal young gentleman. People lie, claiming that money isn't important to them and love is but then plotting the murder of spouses for insurance claims. And the cool narrator always has a gem of a sentence to nicely round off the absurdity and cruelty of human behavior. We should hardly be surprised that it happens. He's surprised that we're surprised.
The problem with large collections like this is that it's hard to read through all of them. As I said the stories are a formulaic and so we come to expect crazy twists after awhile which dulls the whole effect, in a similar way to Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley, but one of his stories by itself is totally amazing. Really unlike anything else out there. But be warned, you may start seeing fiends in the office, the train, or your bedroom.
What makes them great is his objective, clear style than calmly watches as people's lives fall apart within the space of three pages. The Devil arrives and behaves like any young man with lots of confidence, experience, and money. You have to at least listen to such a suave and normal young gentleman. People lie, claiming that money isn't important to them and love is but then plotting the murder of spouses for insurance claims. And the cool narrator always has a gem of a sentence to nicely round off the absurdity and cruelty of human behavior. We should hardly be surprised that it happens. He's surprised that we're surprised.
The problem with large collections like this is that it's hard to read through all of them. As I said the stories are a formulaic and so we come to expect crazy twists after awhile which dulls the whole effect, in a similar way to Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley, but one of his stories by itself is totally amazing. Really unlike anything else out there. But be warned, you may start seeing fiends in the office, the train, or your bedroom.
February 12, 2015
Stories where characters get their comeuppance in odd and clever ways. Reminds me of Roald Dahl's short stories for adults, but to my mind Dahl is the better writer. Dahl's stories tend to be a little longer, as he spends more time on character and on creating suspense. But a fun read. "Youth from Vienna," may be my favorite of the collection.
(Didn't read the NYRB edition, don't know if that has more or other/better stories).
(Didn't read the NYRB edition, don't know if that has more or other/better stories).
December 18, 2007
A pass-along from my mom some time ago, I finally took a look at this collection of short stories.
The reviews on Amazon compare Collier's short stories to Saki or Roald Dahl, but I got more of an early Theodore Sturgeon feel, with perhaps a touch of Flannery O'Connor. The copyrights on the stories run from the early 30's to the early 50's; so the material does feel a little dated at times. However, the dark humour and twist endings make for some entertaining reading.
At least one of the stories ("Another American Tragedy") seemed familiar to me - perhaps I read it in a back issue of my grandmother's Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Some of the stories carry a touch of the fantastic or supernatural, but for the most part they examine the foibles and dark corners of the human psyche. Not too many happy endings, just appropriate ones.
Examples of the dryly clever writing:
Alice and Irwin were as simple and happy as any young couple in a family-style motion picture. In fact, they were even happier, for people were not looking at them all the time and their joys were not restricted by the censorship code.
"She's altogether beyond our class. She lives with people with the names of buildings and breakfast foods."
Recommended to fans of short stories of the genteel mystery/suspense genre who enjoy a laugh as well as a (mild) shock. Unfortunately, I seem to have the shorter version of the two books with this title - only 32 stories instead of 50.
Note to self: IU Library system has longer version of F&G, also The John Collier reader & lots of other Collier SS collections.
The reviews on Amazon compare Collier's short stories to Saki or Roald Dahl, but I got more of an early Theodore Sturgeon feel, with perhaps a touch of Flannery O'Connor. The copyrights on the stories run from the early 30's to the early 50's; so the material does feel a little dated at times. However, the dark humour and twist endings make for some entertaining reading.
At least one of the stories ("Another American Tragedy") seemed familiar to me - perhaps I read it in a back issue of my grandmother's Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Some of the stories carry a touch of the fantastic or supernatural, but for the most part they examine the foibles and dark corners of the human psyche. Not too many happy endings, just appropriate ones.
Examples of the dryly clever writing:
Alice and Irwin were as simple and happy as any young couple in a family-style motion picture. In fact, they were even happier, for people were not looking at them all the time and their joys were not restricted by the censorship code.
"She's altogether beyond our class. She lives with people with the names of buildings and breakfast foods."
Recommended to fans of short stories of the genteel mystery/suspense genre who enjoy a laugh as well as a (mild) shock. Unfortunately, I seem to have the shorter version of the two books with this title - only 32 stories instead of 50.
Note to self: IU Library system has longer version of F&G, also The John Collier reader & lots of other Collier SS collections.
May 23, 2020
A classic collection of Collier's fantasies
This is an excellent collection, which has stayed in print since 1951 for good reasons. These are amazingly good stories from the 1930s and 40s, and most haven't dated a bit.
There are a number of partial reprints of this book. The current New York Review Books is a full reprint, but you can currently (2014) get the 1951 hardback for about the price of the ebook. Worth seriously considering, in my opinion. And, of course, watch the library/charity bookshop shelves!
My copy is a battered 1953 Bantam GIANT reprint, cover price 35c.[!], lurid cover art by Charles Binger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
Binger SF/F cover art gallery: http://yunchtime.net/ARTS/science-fic...
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancies...
John Collier at Encyclopedia of Fantasy: http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/fe.php?n...
This is an excellent collection, which has stayed in print since 1951 for good reasons. These are amazingly good stories from the 1930s and 40s, and most haven't dated a bit.
There are a number of partial reprints of this book. The current New York Review Books is a full reprint, but you can currently (2014) get the 1951 hardback for about the price of the ebook. Worth seriously considering, in my opinion. And, of course, watch the library/charity bookshop shelves!
My copy is a battered 1953 Bantam GIANT reprint, cover price 35c.[!], lurid cover art by Charles Binger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
Binger SF/F cover art gallery: http://yunchtime.net/ARTS/science-fic...
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancies...
John Collier at Encyclopedia of Fantasy: http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/fe.php?n...
January 11, 2018
Clever, I guess in odd bits. But why all the pretensions of Literary merit? For the most part these are simple SF zingers, even more anecdotal and less narratively rich than episodes of "Twilight Zone." Is it because somehow the macabre is awarded esteem solely on account of the cynical sardonic effect it has on the pseudo-intellectual (I'm thinking of Edward Gorey...)?
Eh, not that it matters. I really cannot recommend this in any case. Not only is it appallingly sexist, it's trivial. And *two* pieces about department store mannequins? Really?
Eh, not that it matters. I really cannot recommend this in any case. Not only is it appallingly sexist, it's trivial. And *two* pieces about department store mannequins? Really?
Currently reading
March 7, 2010Knowing these were once acclaimed as models of the genre says a lot about the transient nature of taste, and reassures anyone at odds with the time that fashions may seem monolithic, even hegemonic--but aren't.
Still, I am at least somewhat a creature of my time, susceptible for better or for worse to its tastes... The best these stories might hope for is being resurrected not as a revolutionary alternative to today's dominant ideas of the short story genre, but as simply an alternative, a predilection: you might like this kind of thing if you also like...
These go down quick and easy (arsenic-laced bonbons is a good description) and keep you (the reader) at a distance from the precisely nasty goings-on; I have yet to find one with the sort of greater thematic resonance that justifies the claims to Symbolism imputed to the work in general.
Still, I am at least somewhat a creature of my time, susceptible for better or for worse to its tastes... The best these stories might hope for is being resurrected not as a revolutionary alternative to today's dominant ideas of the short story genre, but as simply an alternative, a predilection: you might like this kind of thing if you also like...
These go down quick and easy (arsenic-laced bonbons is a good description) and keep you (the reader) at a distance from the precisely nasty goings-on; I have yet to find one with the sort of greater thematic resonance that justifies the claims to Symbolism imputed to the work in general.
January 30, 2008
Collier writes short, very intense stories, often making blithe and skillful use of all sorts of fairy tale and fantasy tropes such as angels, devils, demons, mannequins, and anthropomorphised fleas. His best stories are on par with Roald Dahl's short fiction, although a handful of the stories in the "Fancies and Goodnights" collections seem to be random and under-cooked to my taste, almost as if they were exquisite corpse excercises concocted during happy hour with fellow Twilight Zone screenwriters.
For a quick taste of Collier at his best, a short passage from the story "Old Acquaintance":
"Madame Dupres lay dying of a frugal pneumonia. Her husband sat beside the bed, unfolding his handkerchief in hopeful expectation of a tear, and craving damnably for a smoke."
For a quick taste of Collier at his best, a short passage from the story "Old Acquaintance":
"Madame Dupres lay dying of a frugal pneumonia. Her husband sat beside the bed, unfolding his handkerchief in hopeful expectation of a tear, and craving damnably for a smoke."
September 9, 2007
I grew up reading the stories of E.T.A Hoffmann, and Collier's stories are a more modern version of Hoffmann's romantic masterpieces: fantastic and fantastical, whimsy and witty, comical and terrifying at the same time. Collier has a flair for language, and it is a simple pleasure reading his stories. Most are not more than a few pages in length, but he conveys a lot in a few well chosen sentences. I cannot help but chuckle as I picture his stories in my mind, who knew that the drudgery life of fiends could be so entertaining.
January 13, 2008
Collier has just entered my personal pantheon of great gripping/uncanny story authors, with Roald Dahl, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson and Patricia Highsmith. Got a nice old used copy of this the other day, and am loving it, and plan to read his 'Evening Primrose' for my Thriling Tales Adult Storytime at the library.
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July 27, 2017Yeah. Uhhh…I can’t really remember if I had so much trouble finishing this because I’m a lazy, miserable person or because they weren’t the most riveting collection of stories. It certainly should have fit the bill, forgotten mid-century American magical realism (or whatever), and there were some strong ones now that I pull them out of my memory…I was reading these when I was in Utah, I was faculty at this beautiful resort in the mountains there, I had like a cabin, in the morning I would drink coffee and write some of a book I will never publish and listen to the silence (it is not silent in New York, this is part of the reason I am going to leave, not that I hear LA is so quiet neither) and sometimes I would hold this up and peek at the mountains over top of it. And then I guess I carried it with me when I drove to Denver unexpectedly, God there’s some beauty out West, and I hadn’t known I was going to do it and that’s the main thing really, not to know, to remind yourself that you don’t know, you can never know, there are things waiting around the corner for you. Will I Keep It: Yeah, I guess so.
May 28, 2020
Contents
▪️"Bottle Party" (Presenting Moonshine 1939)
▪️"De Mortuis" (The New Yorker 1942)
▪️"Evening Primrose" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Witch's Money" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Are You Too Late or Was I Too Early?" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Fallen Star" (original)
▪️"The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" (The New Yorker 1941)
▪️"Three Bears Cottage" (original)
▪️"Pictures in the Fire" (original)
▪️"Wet Saturday" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Squirrels Have Bright Eyes" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Halfway to Hell" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"The Lady on the Grey" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Incident on a Lake" (The New Yorker 1941)
▪️"Over Insurance" (original)
▪️"Old Acquaintance" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"The Frog Prince" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Season of Mists" (original)
▪️"Great Possibilities" (original)
▪️"Without Benefit of Galsworthy" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"The Devil, George, and Rosie" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Ah the University" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Back for Christmas" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Another American Tragedy" (The New Yorker 1940)
▪️"Collaboration" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Midnight Blue" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Gavin O'Leary" (chapbook, 1945)
▪️"If Youth Knew, If Age Could" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Thus I Refute Beelzy" (Atlantic Monthly 1940)
▪️"Special Delivery" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Rope Enough" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Little Memento" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Green Thoughts" (Harper's Magazine 1931)
▪️"Romance Lingers Adventure Lives" (original)
▪️"Bird of Prey" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Variation on a Theme" (chapbook 1935)
▪️"Night! Youth! Paris! and the Moon!" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"The Steel Cat" (Lilliput 1941)
▪️"Sleeping Beauty" (Harper’s Bazaar (UK edition) 1938)
▪️"Interpretation of a Dream" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Mary" (Harper’s Bazaar 1939)
▪️"Hell Hath No Fury" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"In the Cards" (original)
▪️"The Invisible Dove Dancer of Strathpheen Island" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"The Right Side" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Spring Fever" (original)
▪️"Youth from Vienna" (original)
▪️"Possession of Angela Bradshaw" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Cancel All I Said" (original)
▪️"The Chaser" (The New Yorker 1940)
[The Contents information is copied from Wikipedia.]
A large (50 stories!) collection of witty, sardonic, frequently rather cruel short stories. I have not read this in well over twenty years but I recall liking it very much. Many of the comments by others posting here refer to the sexist attitude of many of the stories, and I suspect that would bother me much more now than it did when I last read this.
Fancies and Goodnights won the International Fantasy Award and an Edgar Award (for Best Mystery Short Story, even though it was actually a collection of stories).
I note that Wikipedia states:
Everett F. Bleiler characterized Collier as "One of the modern masters of the short story . . . [a] fine stylist, remarkable wit and ironist, obviously influenced by 18th century models," but noted that Collier's "extensive" rewriting and revision of his earlier stories "tend to tone down the language, with some loss of exuberance and zest."
I will add as an example of this that there are at least three versions of the ending of the fine story "Thus I Refute Beelzy," the later ones each getting slightly longer and significantly less good. Collier made things progressively more explicit, as if he thought that readers would not understand the earlier, better ending. I am not aware of what other changes were made in the stories.
This is by no means a complete collection of Collier's short fiction. Fancies and Goodnights was originally published in 1951. Collier lived until 1980; he was still publishing stories in the 1970s.
I can't claim that I remember all these stories in detail so long after reading this book. Ones that I particularly enjoyed and remember well include "Evening Primrose" (later adapted as a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It," "The Lady on the Grey," "Thus I Refute Beelzy" (despite my cavils), and, especially, "Witch's Money."
Because it has been so long since I read this and because so many other readers have such strong reservations about it, I will give this only a four star rating.
▪️"Bottle Party" (Presenting Moonshine 1939)
▪️"De Mortuis" (The New Yorker 1942)
▪️"Evening Primrose" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Witch's Money" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Are You Too Late or Was I Too Early?" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Fallen Star" (original)
▪️"The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" (The New Yorker 1941)
▪️"Three Bears Cottage" (original)
▪️"Pictures in the Fire" (original)
▪️"Wet Saturday" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Squirrels Have Bright Eyes" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Halfway to Hell" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"The Lady on the Grey" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Incident on a Lake" (The New Yorker 1941)
▪️"Over Insurance" (original)
▪️"Old Acquaintance" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"The Frog Prince" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Season of Mists" (original)
▪️"Great Possibilities" (original)
▪️"Without Benefit of Galsworthy" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"The Devil, George, and Rosie" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Ah the University" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Back for Christmas" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Another American Tragedy" (The New Yorker 1940)
▪️"Collaboration" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Midnight Blue" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Gavin O'Leary" (chapbook, 1945)
▪️"If Youth Knew, If Age Could" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Thus I Refute Beelzy" (Atlantic Monthly 1940)
▪️"Special Delivery" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Rope Enough" (The New Yorker 1939)
▪️"Little Memento" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"Green Thoughts" (Harper's Magazine 1931)
▪️"Romance Lingers Adventure Lives" (original)
▪️"Bird of Prey" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"Variation on a Theme" (chapbook 1935)
▪️"Night! Youth! Paris! and the Moon!" (The New Yorker 1938)
▪️"The Steel Cat" (Lilliput 1941)
▪️"Sleeping Beauty" (Harper’s Bazaar (UK edition) 1938)
▪️"Interpretation of a Dream" (The New Yorker 1951)
▪️"Mary" (Harper’s Bazaar 1939)
▪️"Hell Hath No Fury" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"In the Cards" (original)
▪️"The Invisible Dove Dancer of Strathpheen Island" (Presenting Moonshine 1941)
▪️"The Right Side" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Spring Fever" (original)
▪️"Youth from Vienna" (original)
▪️"Possession of Angela Bradshaw" (The Devil and All 1934)
▪️"Cancel All I Said" (original)
▪️"The Chaser" (The New Yorker 1940)
[The Contents information is copied from Wikipedia.]
A large (50 stories!) collection of witty, sardonic, frequently rather cruel short stories. I have not read this in well over twenty years but I recall liking it very much. Many of the comments by others posting here refer to the sexist attitude of many of the stories, and I suspect that would bother me much more now than it did when I last read this.
Fancies and Goodnights won the International Fantasy Award and an Edgar Award (for Best Mystery Short Story, even though it was actually a collection of stories).
I note that Wikipedia states:
Everett F. Bleiler characterized Collier as "One of the modern masters of the short story . . . [a] fine stylist, remarkable wit and ironist, obviously influenced by 18th century models," but noted that Collier's "extensive" rewriting and revision of his earlier stories "tend to tone down the language, with some loss of exuberance and zest."
I will add as an example of this that there are at least three versions of the ending of the fine story "Thus I Refute Beelzy," the later ones each getting slightly longer and significantly less good. Collier made things progressively more explicit, as if he thought that readers would not understand the earlier, better ending. I am not aware of what other changes were made in the stories.
This is by no means a complete collection of Collier's short fiction. Fancies and Goodnights was originally published in 1951. Collier lived until 1980; he was still publishing stories in the 1970s.
I can't claim that I remember all these stories in detail so long after reading this book. Ones that I particularly enjoyed and remember well include "Evening Primrose" (later adapted as a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It," "The Lady on the Grey," "Thus I Refute Beelzy" (despite my cavils), and, especially, "Witch's Money."
Because it has been so long since I read this and because so many other readers have such strong reservations about it, I will give this only a four star rating.
September 7, 2022
For a book of weird and fantastic stories about devils, monsters and supernatural occurrences, there’s a lot of talk about plot and style in writing. Both are in ample supply and a good deal of humor. His stories were adapted into episodes of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
May 6, 2020
These stories are full of dark humor and wit. With some creepy thrown in. A nice mental vacation at present. His stories have a slightly Twilight Zoney vibe. And they stay with you. I absolutely love the one about the couple with their own “ Groundhog Day”, constantly reliving a nightmarish but hilarious scenario.
March 3, 2018
I had been looking forward to reading this collection of short stories for literally over ten years. I was first introduced to it via one of its stories, “Are You Too Late or Was I Too Early,” while taking classes for my Master’s Degree in the mid-2000s. That brief story, with its never-saw-it-coming twist ending, enchanted me. And Ray Bradbury, my all-time favorite author, wrote the introduction. How could I not enjoy the other 49 stories?
Well, it turns out that the book in total, and the individual stories, were less than I had hoped. To be clear, John Collier was a very skilled writer. Even though the stories were all written in the 1930s and 1940s (the book was first published in 1951), each one is tight and clean, not a word wasted. But they are uniformly dark, which became tiring. Virtually all of the characters are scoundrels, and if the protagonists were not done in by their own weaknesses and failings, they were defeated by antagonists who were even worse scoundrels than the protagonists.
Almost all of the stories have a twist ending, and not an O. Henry kind of twist. It became a kind of game to try to guess the actual ending. Once I realized that virtually every story was going to have that twist, I started picking out the clues Collier would leave that presaged the end. But there was little satisfaction in guessing right, or nearly so. Few endings provided a real surprise.
Oddly, there was one set of stories that did not have twist endings, and even showed a wry sense of humor missing from the others. These stories all included the Devil, and in each case, the protagonist triumphed, unlike the other stories, and Old Scratch got his comeuppance.
The stories reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time when they were written. Racism is casual and common. Women are either harpies and dangerous, or stereotypical housewives, naïve and ignorant servants of their husbands.
And then there’s the cover (not Collier’s fault), a bizarre, bilious green dreamscape of men wearing ice skates, overcoats, and fedoras, and carrying overlong hockey sticks, that has nothing to do with any of the stories behind it. I got really tired of looking at it. What was the publisher thinking in selecting it?
I imagine that if I’d read just one or two of these stories, then had a long break from them, as if I was reading them in some magazine, I would have enjoyed them more, but 50 in a row became wearing, even when spread out over the course of several months.
John Collier was no doubt a skilled story-teller, but his work is also an acquired taste, and one that, after this full multi-course meal of it, I am not inclined to acquire.
Well, it turns out that the book in total, and the individual stories, were less than I had hoped. To be clear, John Collier was a very skilled writer. Even though the stories were all written in the 1930s and 1940s (the book was first published in 1951), each one is tight and clean, not a word wasted. But they are uniformly dark, which became tiring. Virtually all of the characters are scoundrels, and if the protagonists were not done in by their own weaknesses and failings, they were defeated by antagonists who were even worse scoundrels than the protagonists.
Almost all of the stories have a twist ending, and not an O. Henry kind of twist. It became a kind of game to try to guess the actual ending. Once I realized that virtually every story was going to have that twist, I started picking out the clues Collier would leave that presaged the end. But there was little satisfaction in guessing right, or nearly so. Few endings provided a real surprise.
Oddly, there was one set of stories that did not have twist endings, and even showed a wry sense of humor missing from the others. These stories all included the Devil, and in each case, the protagonist triumphed, unlike the other stories, and Old Scratch got his comeuppance.
The stories reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time when they were written. Racism is casual and common. Women are either harpies and dangerous, or stereotypical housewives, naïve and ignorant servants of their husbands.
And then there’s the cover (not Collier’s fault), a bizarre, bilious green dreamscape of men wearing ice skates, overcoats, and fedoras, and carrying overlong hockey sticks, that has nothing to do with any of the stories behind it. I got really tired of looking at it. What was the publisher thinking in selecting it?
I imagine that if I’d read just one or two of these stories, then had a long break from them, as if I was reading them in some magazine, I would have enjoyed them more, but 50 in a row became wearing, even when spread out over the course of several months.
John Collier was no doubt a skilled story-teller, but his work is also an acquired taste, and one that, after this full multi-course meal of it, I am not inclined to acquire.
June 6, 2018
I enjoyed John Collier’s sardonic tales. They’re imaginative and strange, and we can cleary see its influence on many authors after him (like Ray Bradbury and Roald Dahl), but many of the stories are a bit dated and one can easily predict where they’re heading.
I also felt that it is a huge book of short stories not to be read on one take. I believe these stories will better be appreciated if read with some other books in between.
Nevertheless, I appreciated his writing and imagination, and would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys strange stories and quick reads.
Favorite ones:
- Evening Primrose
- Another American Tragedy
- If Youth Knew, If Age Could
- Interpretation of a Dream
- Old Acquaintance
- In the Cards
I also felt that it is a huge book of short stories not to be read on one take. I believe these stories will better be appreciated if read with some other books in between.
Nevertheless, I appreciated his writing and imagination, and would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys strange stories and quick reads.
Favorite ones:
- Evening Primrose
- Another American Tragedy
- If Youth Knew, If Age Could
- Interpretation of a Dream
- Old Acquaintance
- In the Cards
September 24, 2010
I read an earlier edition, which for a while was my favorite gift to give to friends and family. I also used to keep extra copies on hand in case I was invited along to a friend-of-a-friend's birthday at the last minute.
Full of imagination, humanity, and plot twists befitting a writer for The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (as Collier was), this collection of short stories comes off as one part Evelyn Waugh, two parts Roald Dahl. There are some perfect stories in here, and they will stay with you.
Full of imagination, humanity, and plot twists befitting a writer for The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (as Collier was), this collection of short stories comes off as one part Evelyn Waugh, two parts Roald Dahl. There are some perfect stories in here, and they will stay with you.
April 7, 2017
Urban Fantasy - Short Stories
What a fun, quirky and gem of a book! Originally published in 1931, John Collier's stories feature black humor, wild twists, "the bizarre, the weird and the surrealistic ".
Preface: " ... what if ... a hothouse orchid suddenly developed a bud that looked curiously like the face of Cousin Jane's missing cat?" "in the story "Green Thoughts", it also strikes him even more forcefully ... that Cousin Jane herself has mysteriously disappeared."
An excellent choice for readers who love the bizarre and unexpected in fantasy/urban fiction.
What a fun, quirky and gem of a book! Originally published in 1931, John Collier's stories feature black humor, wild twists, "the bizarre, the weird and the surrealistic ".
Preface: " ... what if ... a hothouse orchid suddenly developed a bud that looked curiously like the face of Cousin Jane's missing cat?" "in the story "Green Thoughts", it also strikes him even more forcefully ... that Cousin Jane herself has mysteriously disappeared."
An excellent choice for readers who love the bizarre and unexpected in fantasy/urban fiction.
September 30, 2009
This almost gets a five star. The fifty (FIFTY!) stories in this book are just about uniformly concise and excellent. The whole book has a fantastic-realistic tone, in which midcentury characters might either meet up with a demon or discover their lover's secret, and often both in conjunction. The dry approach works very well here. It's a great book to read in fits and starts on the subway, since you're always only about two pages from the end of a given story.
December 22, 2010
John Collier's short stories are a potent cocktail of fantasy, horror, and black humor: a seemingly whimsical trifle may nevertheless end with a bone-chilling twist, while a story of cold-blooded murder may be told with a twinkle in the eye. Fans of Saki or Roald Dahl, who both mined similar territory, owe it to themselves to read them if they haven't already.
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