Nick RennisonBesprekingen

A mixed bag, enjoyed the Kipling and several others. My favorite was about the haunted baby/toddler. Definitely more on the horror side than on the mystery side fun read

15 short stories, some of which stand the test of time, others of which I can't really say that I cared for.
If you are a fan of horror from a more innocent time, if you recall with fondness watching the old Boris Karloff movies on late night TV these stories may be for you.
I did enjoy "The Sumach" about a mysterious illness and a creepy old tree. "The Vampire of Croglin Grange was also pretty good.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

Thank you NetGalley and OldCastle books for the chance to read and review this book!

1922 is a short but interesting read that really sums up what the year 1922 would have felt like to someone living through it! It's interesting how much racial violence came up in the book.

I don't think a reader will find everything included in this book interesting, that being said I would give it to anyone who likes history because Nick Rennison is a good writer.

Of course, I did feel like the book focused on some countries more than others.

This short book filled with “factoid” anecdotal events from 1922 with a culture heavy Western (UK, Ireland and the USA) bias might be dismissed as trivial, if it were not so educational and fun. This is not at all the type of detail heavy history book that I usually read, but it is wonderfully informative and interesting.
Despite its brevity, there are a few entries that appear to add nothing to our understanding of living in 1922, such as the death of a pope and election of his successor, which is completely unremarkable, and the accidental killing of Vladmir Nabokov’s father in a failed assassination attempt. The article that takes the prize here though is the entry that starts “May. The cricket season begins in England.”
The historical stories are enlivened by humour where appropriate, such as the following about radio and the formation of the BBC: “When (a famous opera singer) arrived at the Marconi works, it soon became clear that Dame Nellie (Melba) had little notion of how radio worked. She was taken on a tour by a proud employee who pointed out the 140-foot tall transmitters, from the top of which her voice would be broadcast to listeners around the world. ‘Young man,’ she boomed in reply, ‘if you think I’m going to climb up there, you are very much mistaken.’”
A useful short bibliography is provided,with an acknowledgment to Robert Grave’s social history of Britain in the inter-war years, The Long Weekend, which perhaps provided an inspiration for the style of this book.
Overall, being easy, fun and informative, this book gives an entertainingly kaleidoscopic impression of 1922, providing the reader with contemporary tabloid sensations and sporting highlights, but also detailing the truly historic political and cultural events of the time, whose importance might only be recognised with hindsight.

I received a Netgalley copy of this book, but this review is my honest opinion.

This book is pretty cool, but it seems to be lacking in some ways. Written in 2006, it contains a list of 100 novels that you must read. So it is a good beginning point for people looking for ideas. It contains lists of the authors alphabetically along with their biggest works and a bit of information on those works. It contains references to other versions of the same story (i.e. movies) if you swing that way and other books to read if you like that book.

I give it 4/5 stars and would probably scour it for ideas in the future.

A broad overview of Roget's life and career, which of course included much more than his work on the thesaurus. Well done.

This book was eh. I didn't hate it but I didn't particularly enjoy it. It was just about getting through it for me. I can't put my finger on what exactly put me off but it was just not my cup of tea. there is one thing that I know put me off and that was the writer's tone and style. I found it a little bit pompous and at times very pretentious and that made the going rough.

*** Alice & Claude Askew - 'Aylmer Vance and the Vampire'
From the brief bio provided about the authors, my first thought was that their lives would make a fantastic historical novel! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Claude_Askew)
However, this 1914 story is wholly by-the-book.
Vance and Dexter are a Holmes and Watson-esque detective pair who specialize in the supernatural. In this story (one of a collection featuring the partners), a young man comes asking for their aid: before he married her, his bride told him her family was afflicted by a vampiric curse. He pooh-poohed the superstitious idea - but now that his health is failing, and his wife refuses to leave her ancestral Scottish castle, he fears that she may have been telling the truth.

****EF Benson - 'The Room in the Tower'
Previously read, more than once.
(1912) This one has appeared in quite a few anthologies over the years.
A young man has been having a recurring nightmare for over a decade. In the dream, he’s usually a guest at an acquaintance’s home. When the hostess lets him know that he’ll be sleeping in the tower room, he is overcome by an inexplicable feeling of dread.
Then one day, in real life, a friend invites him to a party. Although it’s a different friend, and the details are different, he is overwhelmed by deja vu as he enters the house. Will he finally find out what his dreadful presentiment foreshadowed?

***Mary Cholmondeley - 'Let Loose'
An archaeologist wonders why his colleague always wears high collars. One day, he gets the tale out of him: while investigating a medieval fresco in a remote, small-town crypt, he learns why the local priest was so very reluctant to lend him the keys.

****FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD, 'For the Blood is the Life'
(1905) Previously read; more than once – this is a heavily-anthologized, classic piece!
A classic of vampire fiction; it features a seductive femme fatale whose unrequited love persists beyond the grave. The supernatural elements are mixed in with a story of mundane theft and murder in a small village, with all the expected drama of the Italian setting (as the author puts into his character’s mouth: “Deeds that would be simply brutal and disgusting anywhere else become dramatic and mysterious because this is Italy and we are living in a genuine tower of Charles V built against genuine Barbary pirates.”)
However, I found that the most memorable part of the story was its framing device, with the eerie image of the grave with a body lying on top of it, which is only visible from a distance.

**** Ulric Daubeny - 'The Sumach'
In which it turns out that burying Spot the dog under a certain tree was probably not the best idea. It further turns out that this certain tree may have something to do with why this couple inherited the house and grounds after the previous owner's unexpected and untimely death. Will the new owners escape her fate?

*** Augustus Hare - 'The Vampire of Croglin Grange'
Apparently, this is an excerpt from the author's memoirs, and is presented as "a true story told to me." It definitely has the ring of fiction to it, however! Late on a summer's night, a woman hears a scratching at her window... and sees a horrific creature trying to get in!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croglin_Grange

*****Julian Hawthorne - 'Ken's Mystery'
Did you know that Nathaniel Hawthorne's son was a writer of pulp fiction? I did not! Although, calling this story pulp fiction is significantly underselling it. It's one of the most beautiful depictions of an encounter with a femme fatale I've read, and is a credit to the Irish folklore that inspired it.
Two friends meet after one returns from a sojourn abroad. The banjo that one gifted to the other in now inexplicably aged and worn - looking more like something from the Middle Ages than a newly-crafted instrument. In explanation, the friend tells a strange tale of being lost in the Irish countryside, and of an encounter with a friendly and welcoming young woman whom he meets by the grave of a lady who died tragically two hundred years ago.

*** E and H Heron (Kate Prichard and Hesketh Prichard) - 'The Story of Baelbrow'
Another in the 'supernatural investigator' genre. The old manor house of Baelbrow has long been known to be haunted - but for generations, the resident spirit has never bothered anyone. But when the owners rent the place out for the summer to a visiting professor, something changes - and a maidservant ends up dead. The professor calls in Detective Flaxman Low to see what could've happened with Baelbrow's ghost.
Det. Low is awfully good at drawing a great many conclusions from a very few clues...

*** MR James - 'Count Magnus'
A re-read...
(1904) The ‘Dracula’ influence is strong in this one… A definite must-read for fans of classic vampire fiction.
Some papers found in a long-empty house reveal the story of one would-be travel writer’s experience with the titular Count, whose locked sarcophagus lies in a remote Scandinavian church. The writer uncovers local stories of men who walk when they should be lying dead… and the reader can assume that there’ll be no good end to this investigation.

*** Vernon Lee (Violet Paget) - 'Marsyas in Flanders'
At an old church, renowned for its old and reputedly miraculous crucifix, a guard is posted. They say the guard is there to protect the relic - but is the worry really thieves?
The local antiquarian tells an interested visitor this tale of the crucifix's history, and the disturbing rumors that have surrounded it over the centuries.

*** Richard Marsh - 'The Mask'
A protagonist who is remarkably dense and unable to pick up on incredibly obvious clues is victimized by an escaped lunatic with a remarkable gift for disguise.
After being robbed on a train, he describes the befuddling incident to a police detective, who basically says, "Well, duh, that 'nice young gentleman' clearly drugged and robbed you." But there is more to the crime than even the detective - at first - guesses.

*** Hume Nisbet - 'The Vampire Maid'
Seeking a break from city life, a young artist rents a room in a pleasant rural cottage. The presence of the alluring daughter of his new landlady seems to be nothing but an unexpected plus! But will he learn in time that he's made a dangerous mistake?

**** Frank Norris - 'Grettir at Thorhall-stead'
Excellent vampire story set in Iceland, on a remote farmstead. The landowner needs to hire a shepherd, and selects a man who seems capable, if not terribly personable... As it turns out, however, the hired hand's social skills are the least thing this small community will need to worry about.
Very reminiscent of 'Beowulf,' the story is inspired by the Icelandic saga of "Grettir the Strong," (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629993.The_Saga_of_Grettir_the_Strong) but with a few good, original twists. The writing is a cut above the average.

**** Phil Robinson - 'Medusa'
Confirmed bachelor finds himself unexpectedly smitten by a beautiful widow. Although he's never felt the desire to commit to any woman before, he finds himself unable to keep his mind off her. Even when another man shows up, full of warnings about what happened to him - and the worse things that happened to her previous beaux, he's unable to think anything ill of her... it's almost as if he's under a spell.
A very well-crafted horror tale.

**** HB Marriott Watson - 'The Stone Chamber'
Wonderfully classic haunted-house story. In advance of bringing his bride to the old manse he's renovating, a man invites his friend to come check out the place. However, after he sleeps in the small, damp room (complete with a bat flitting about the place), his behavior starts changing drastically. From congeniality and enthusiasm for the future, he snaps to strange fits of temper, and an uncharacteristic tendency toward intemperate drinking and gambling.
When the friend researches the house's past - and why it was left empty so long - he discovers the history of a disturbing tragedy - which seems like it may be mirrored by the events happening now.

Many thanks to Trafalgar Square Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this collection of classic gothic tales. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I didn't know what to expect from this book when I first requested it, other than it contained stories which were contemporary with Bram Stoker's "Dracula". I found the stories interesting and the facts about each author were quite interesting. Compared to today's stories these tales are fairly tame, but seen in a historical context they bring a sense of what literature consisted of around the time of " Dracula's" publishing.

This is a detailed (obviously fictionalised) biography, following in a tradition established by W S Baring Gould back in the 1960s. However, unlike its predecessor, this book goes well beyond the clues contained in Conan Doyle's stories by inventing a whole backdrop to Holmes's family going back centuries and depicting Holmes involved in combating Fenian nationalism in the 1880s and being in at the inception of MI5 and MI6, among many other key events. Needless to say, the cases of Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen also feature. Rennison takes the literary conceit that Arthur Conan Doyle was merely Dr Watson's literary agent and populariser of Holmes's cases to extremes, and shows all kinds of encounters between them, including Holmes assisting Conan Doyle in investigating the real life cases of injustice of George Edalji and Oscar Slater. It all makes for an engrossing read for anyone very familiar with the Sherlock Holmes's stories and their cultural and political background, but I couldn't help feeling the invention of large amounts of material not based on anything in the original stories was a bit of a cheat. On the plus side, Holmes doesn't here survive to an extreme old age and fight Nazis in his 80s as he did in Baring Gould's works (attempting to make the Basil Rathbone films canonical). Overall, worth a read if you're a big fan of the original stories.

Just finished today Nick Rennison's Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography, which is a slightly tongue in cheek take on the famous detective that states he was in no way fictional. The author has done a fair bit of research on the political and historical goings on that the illustrious detective could have had a hand in and does a nice job of picking out supposed clues (obsfuscated, of course, by Dr. Watson) to determine what really went on.

It's a nice review of my favorite fictional detective's life and adventures, and was much more interesting to read than the biography I recently attempted on Conan Doyle (here relegated to literary agent for Watson). While revealing nothing of great surprise about the character and sticking fairly close to the canon/popular view of him while proclaiming not to, it was still an interesting game of speculation and "connect the dots".

This book contains some fascinating facts about London's past, its geography, transport, references in film and literature, famous people... it has all the bases covered! I think it will appeal to Londoners and non-Londoners, as this book has so many odd facts. When I nest go to London, I will have a look at this book, and make a point of trying to imagine London when it was a collection of villages, or how is was before the Great Fires or how it was during the blitz. A lot is packed into this shortish work.

Dull, which a fictional biography shouldn't be, if it can possibly avoid it. I was surprised by how quickly I got tired of Rennison's approach: "the historically documented case Watson hid behind pseudonyms was...." followed by a capsule account of an Edwardian event.

The very effort of writing a 'factual' biography of Holmes says to me that Rennison and I share the unaccountable feeling that there is a reality to Holmes. Somehow, nothing seems more natural to us than that Doyle's melodramatic tales hide and reveal the life of the great detective. I love 'the game' where fans suspend disbelief entirely and write and speak of Holmes as a real man. It gives dignity to the odd feeling we all share - that somehow a mediocre early-20th-ce writer created a fascinating man.

However, I wish Rennison had been bolder at introducing new material into his canon. I agree with him that there's no evidence in the stories that Holmes was gay, in love with Irene Adler, or, indeed, had any sex life at all. I don't mind when people come up with alternate views (in fact, I was rather hoping they'd pursue the gay-Holmes train of thought in the new BBC series Sherlock), but I usually prefer fidelity to the original material.

On the other hand, I'm very familiar with the Holmes stories, and I have a passing familiarity with the contemporary history, so Rennison's re-presentation of both is a bit... tame.

For example, a brief outline of Dr. Crippin's crimes followed by a brief mention that Holmes first had a major theory about the crime (which originated with Crippin's barrister) is too superficial on both sides. Either give me enough Crippin to raise my hackles, bring Holmes' involvement to life, or, even better, give me both.

I wish Rennison had splashed out a bit more - given us some more quotations from letters, firsthand accounts from people who knew him, or more vivid details of his life outside the stories. As it is, I don't think I'll reread this, though it does shed some light on potentially interesting corners of history.½

Substance: Rennison weaves a credible tale, mixing actual events from the relevant years with fictitious "family history".

Książka Nicka Rennisona "Sherlock Holmes. Biografia nieautoryzowana", zapalonego holmesologa, pełna jest szczegółów dotyczących rodziny, pochodzenia, wykształcenia i działań pozazawodowych tej niezwykłej postaci. Książka Nicka Rennisona "Sherlock Holmes. Biografia nieautoryzowana" to wyjątkowa okazja, aby poznać Sherlocka Holmesa od strony, która nie koniecznie jest znana współczesnemu czytelnikowi.
Puszczając do czytelnika oko, biografista opisuje dom rodzinny Holmesa, zagubiony pośród ponurych wrzosowisk północnego Yorkshire, wyjaśnia, co łączyło detektywa z piękną Irene Adler, zdradza, ile jest prawdy w pogłoskach o jego homoseksualizmie, i rozstrzyga, czy był on uzależniony od opium.
Wszystko to podszyte jest humorem i opisane na tle panoramy wiktoriańskiej Anglii - jej mody, polityki, nauki, burzliwego okresu w historii, kulturze i obyczajowości.Miarą sukcesu Arthura Conan Doyle'a jest to, jak jego historyjki pisane do gazety osiągnęły z czasem miano świetnej literatury. Miarą sukcesu Rennisona jest fakt, że tchnął on w tę literaturę tyle życia, abyśmy uwierzyli, iż Sherlock Holmes istniał naprawdę. Świetna intelektualna rozrywka nie tylko dla fanów detektywa wszech czasów.

Fictional biography can be a quite an amusing concept but the constant strain of separating the genuine historical imput from the author's flights of fancy ends in premature fatigue.

A wonderful addition to all my books on London, and stuffed full of the random information I love.

Is it possible to write a "biography" of a fictional character? Apparently it is, for Nick Rennison has done it, and done a lovely job of it to boot. His Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography (just out from Atlantic Monthly Press) is a full-length, scholarly treatment of the life and times of the world's greatest detective: the fact that Holmes never really existed is really of little matter at all.

Rennison has culled every available biographical fact from the Holmes canon and used them to full advantage, while filling in around the edges with entirely plausible additional details. We learn of Holmes' childhood on the Yorkshire moors, his whereabouts and business during the "Great Hiatus" when the world thought him dead at the foot of Reichenbach Falls (he was traveling, Rennison suggests, on assignment for the British government in Tibet, Mecca, and the Sudan). We learn about the extent of Holmes' involvement in the Jack the Ripper case, his pursuit of Irish terrorists, and of other great unrecorded achievements.

In this book, we also learn much about Holmes' erstwhile Boswell, Dr. Watson, and about the detective's great enemies Moriarty and Moran. The relationship between Holmes, Watson and the "literary agent" Arthur Conan Doyle are also outlined in some detail; Holmes, we come to find, was rather picky about his portrayal in print, and did not hesitate in sharing his concerns with the man with whom his name has become inextricably linked.

Skillfully utilizing the Holmes stories as well as an extensive knowledge of the later Victorian period, Rennison has fashioned a readable, interesting and wonderfully detailed biography of Holmes - from the bibliography (read the whole thing) to the footnotes and beyond. If you are a Holmes fan - casual or otherwise - I cannot recommend this new volume highly enough.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2006/11/book-review-sherlock-holmes.html

A Categorization of Authors OR: a String of Cans Clattering Behind the Bandwagon

Gods
William Faulkner
Marguerite Yourcenar
Gustav Flaubert
David Foster Wallace
Don DeLillo
William T. Vollmann
Leo Tolstoy
Jorge Luis Borges
Herman Melville

Demigods
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Margaret Atwood
Saul Bellow
Thomas Mann
Mario Vargas Llosa
Kenzaburo Oe

Titans, above even the Gods
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Baruch Spinoza
Marcus Aurelius
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
John Milton
Dante Alighieri
William Shakespeare (of course)

Prophets
Philip K. Dick
Miguel de Cervantes
Kurt Vonnegut
George Orwell
Aldous Huxley
Franz Kafka
Hannah Arendt
Soren Kierkegaard
Plato
Joseph Heller

Bards
Vladimir Nabokov
Adrienne Rich
T. S. Eliot
Sylvia Plath
Flann O'Brien
Salman Rushdie
Alexander Pushkin
Anna Akhmatova
Yasunari Kawabata
John Donne
Hart Crane
Nikos Kazantzakis

Chroniclers
Emile Zola
Johnathan Franzen
Gore Vidal
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Robert Graves
Jaroslav Hasek
Sinclair Lewis
Nikolai Gogol
Vasily Grossman
Fernando Pessoa
Sherwood Anderson
Flannery O'Connor
Graham Greene
Joseph Heller
Julian Barnes

Seers and Mystics
Joseph Campbell
Herman Hesse
Friedrich Nietzsche
Carl Jung

Far-Rightists who are Inexplicably Fascinating (and in the Latter's case, sexy)
Ezra Pound
Yukio Mishima

Being a Teenager is Hard, Really.
Chuck Palahniuk
Bret Easton Ellis

Black Steel Monoliths with Soundtrack by Ligeti
William Gaddis
William Gass
Marcel Proust
Joseph McElroy
James Joyce
Thomas Pynchon
Robert Musil

Hey There, Handsome. Tell Me More About Yourself.
Samuel Beckett
Guy de Maupassant
J. M. Coetzee
David Mitchell
Iain Banks
Paul Auster
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Ursula K. LeGuin
Hubert J. Selby
Georges Perec
Martin Amis
G. I. Gurdjieff
Bertolt Brecht
Gilbert Sorrentino
Raymond Queneau
Anais Nin
Christopher Isherwood
Ivan Bunin
Richard Brautigan
David Barthelme
John Dos Passos

One-Trick Ponies
Mark Z. Danielewski
Daniel Quinn

Good Grandpa
Mark Twain
G. K. Chesterton
Italo Calvino
Umberto Eco
Ambrose Bierce

Bad Grandpa
Philip Roth
John Updike

Grandpa with Good War Stories But Also Kinda Creepy
Norman Mailer

What Happened. You're Not the Man I Used to Know
Haruki Murakami

Childhood Friends, Most of Whom are Initialed
J. K. Rowling
C. S. Forster
Roald Dahl
C. S. Lewis
J. R. R. Tolkien
Franklin W. Dixon
Robert Heinlein
Lewis Carroll
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Isaac Asimov

Childhood Ex-Friend, Now Expunged
Orson Scott Card

No Words. Just the Sound of Profuse Vomiting
Tao Lin
Johnathan Safran Foer
Robert Pirsig
Johnathan Littell
Tucker Max
Mitch Albom

The Dark Lord Satan
Ayn Rand

Oh look, a bandwagon. Must...not...oh why not.

Stand The Test Of Time
J.R.R. Tolkien
Philip Pullman
Michael Ende
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Gone Our Separate Ways
Neil Gaiman
Anne Rice
Stephen King
Carol Goodman

Prose Prose Prose
Virginia Wolf
Vladimir Nabokov
Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
Pearl S. Buck
Gregory Maguire
Cormac McCarthy

Ah Ha Ha Screw You
J.D. Salinger

Don't Get It
Haruki Murakami
John Banville
Jodi Picoult
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Harper Lee

I Got It The First Time, Jeez
Charles Dickens

Hmm...
Ernest Hemingway
Jonathan Swift
Shusaku Endo
Barbara Kingsolver

Thinking Pleases Me
Thomas Mann
W. Somerset Maugham
Aldous Huxley
Simone de Beuvoir
Jean-Paul Sartre
William Shakespeare
Hermann Hesse
Victor Pelevin
Milan Kundera
Fernando Pessoa
George Orwell
Ray Bradbury

Tell Me A Story
David Mitchell
Kazuo Ishiguro
John Steinbeck
Raymond Chandler

Guilty Pleasures
Jacqueline Carey
Robin McKinley

Soon My Pretties, Soon
Evelyn Waugh
Stefan Zweig
Yasunari Kawabata
Neal Stephenson
Alan Hollinghurst
Italo Calvino
China Miéville
Mark Z. Danielewski
Junichiro Tanizaki
Sarah Waters
Jeanette Winterson

Hurts So Good
James Joyce
William T. Vollmann
Yevegny Zamyatin

Bring It On
David Foster Wallace
Thomas Pynchon
Douglas R. Hofstadter
William Faulkner
William Gaddis
Alexander Theroux

Disturb The Comfortable And Comfort The Disturbed
Margaret Atwood
Dubravka Ugrešić
Jonathan Littell

Talk To Me, Like Lovers Do
Arundhati Roy
Victor Hugo
Tatyana Tolstaya

It Might Not Be You, But I'm Doubtful It's Me
Leo Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Albert Camus
Henry James
Emily Brontë
Salman Rushdie
José Saramago
Douglas Adams

So Far, So Good
Herman Melville
Jane Austen
Roberto Bolaño
Charlotte Brontë
Joseph Conrad
Umberto Eco
E.M. Forster
John Irving
Ian McEwan
Stendhal
Alexandre Dumas

Heard The Talk, Now Can You Walk
Franz Kafka
Toni Morrison
Flann O'Brien
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Sylvia Plath
Philip Roth
Isaac Asimov
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
H.P. Lovecraft
Friedrich Nietzsche
Marquis de Sade

To Read Or Not To Read
Don DeLillo

Whew. Note, I did not read this book.

100 Must-Read Classic Novels (Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide S.) by Nick Rennison (2007)