"The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen has been described as one of the last Victorian gentlemen, wearing a cape well into the 1930s.  H.P. Lovecraft pays great respect to him in his seminal work about the history of supernatural horror in literature (a must read starting point for any horror lover).  Apparently this novel, as appreciated and as glorified today for its thematic, narrative and structural value (often imitated) was denounced and the author harshly criticized, condemned, even on the verge of  destroying the author's further career, and all of that because of the "hints" of various sexual activities.  These hints of "activities" would barely cause a modern reader to pause, were apparently enough for the stuck up, pole-up-the-rectum Victorian literary critics to foam from their mouths in anger and bile, condemning and vilifying the author.

The novel starts with a crazy professor, Raymond, calling his rational friend, Clarke to witness a brain surgery on a 17 year old girl Mary which will enable her to see the supernatural world.  It is slightly implied that Mary is having a sexual relationship with Raymond, and that he doesn't care much about her, considering her inferior.  I am sure the modern feminists are getting a fit of blinding rage when reading those pages.  Nevertheless, the operation is successful, kind of; Mary "sees" and goes mad.  Years later there is a girl of 12 or so, Helen, who is sent to live with a rural family by a rich relative, who turns out to be Raymond (we find at the end of the book - don't read this blog if you dislike spoilers), and Helen is the child of Mary and the Great God Pan, which is not like the actual Pan from Greek mythology (if you read the myths), but more like Lucifer or Satan, and the baby is more like the "Rosemary's Baby."

Well, Helen seems to like having sex with Fauns, Satyrs and other forest thingies, even at a tender age, and involves couple of of other country children in her adventure, some of whom go mad, while other disappear in the forest.  Eventually she marries a country gentleman (when she is around 19) and makes him sell all his assets and give her the money which she uses to travel around the world and take part in orgies with humans and others, while her country husband becomes a beggar and dies of hunger and fear, eventually.

Helen becomes Mrs. Beaumont later in life and a great staple in London High Life, with the small detail that everyone she fucks commits a suicide afterwards.  Several "high born" gentlemen (who don't mind fucking around, apparently) end in this way until the hero of the book, Villiers, with another guy, Austin, who is there just to fill empty space it seems, confront Helen with a noose telling her to kill herself or they will expose her to the police.  As improbable as it sounds, she does kill herself, and her body changes forms between female and male, beasts, half-beasts, etc. until finally rests in an amorphous form of black jelly.  Now we see where Lovecraft got his inspiration for the Shoggoth.

It is a well written novella with very frequent uses of "unspeakable", "indescribable" and similar Lovecraftian exaggerations of things that today would be considered very mundane compared to the sick psychological horror that causes mental trauma and pathological conditions in the modern readers.

"Season of Storms" by Andrzej Sapkowski

This is the last book about the Witcher Geralt of Rivia.  It was written in 2013, the previous volume, "The Lady of the Lake" being finished in 1999 (half a decade before the first Witcher game by CD Project RED was released).  Since the plot logically finished in "The Lady of the Lake", Sapkowski went back and wrote this timeline somewhere between the different stories of "The Last Wish", just after Geralt and Yennefer broke up, and a couple of years before they get back together (in another story in "The Last Wish").  Ciri is barely mentioned.

Geralt and Dandelion find themselves in the kingdom of Kerrack, where some political games are being played, and of course there is a sorceress involved, Coral, and her beautiful assistant Mozaik. Geralt is being framed by Coral, and he gets imprisoned, and his Witcher swords stolen.  Eventually she frees him (it was a 'game') and has sex with him for several weeks.

He gets used by a local criminal to fight a beast in the arena for others entertainment and gets sent to a wizards castle where they manufacture different 'inventions' like half-trolls-half-dwarves and different giant lizards and spiders to be used as guards.  Unfortunately the wizards in the castle are mostly crazy psychopaths who kill over 40 people in surrounding villages for their own entertainment, having their dwarf trolls tear 5 year old children in half.

Geralt finds the truth, and kills some of the greatest offenders, but leaves the castle with the rest of them, to go back to Kerrack for the wedding of the old king, because he was blackmailed by the kings younger son, who tries to kill Dandelion.  The king learns about the plots agains him by his sons, and exiles them both, however the third son comes back and kills his father becoming king.

Coral runs away from the kingdom, and Mozaik has about two weeks of sex with Geralt, before he leaves her alone in their bed one morning, never to return.  Yennefer buys Geralt's sword which were auctioned in Novigrad, and Geralt continues on his adventures with Dandelion.  Oh, Nimue is in the book too, 105 years after Geralt's death in 1378, just going on her way to Aretuza to become a sorceress.

"The Lady of the Lake" by Andrzej Sapkowski

Nimue, as the Lady of The Lake says her real name is, appears as a major character in the first Witcher game by CD Projekt Red and you can even bed her if you do the right sequence of actions and dialogue options.  Not, so in the book.  The Lady of the Lake together with a oneiromancer lady, a few centuries in the future, are trying to figure out the exact events that happened around the lodge of sorceresses, Ciri and the wars, as in their time they only exist as archaeological evidence and  in well-censored books.  They are able to discern most of the events as they really happpened, not as the censored books describe them, and pinpoint the exact time that Ciri will pass through their time and space, as Ciri can travel through both.  They both witness Ciri appearing in the sky above their lake for the moment, and then disappearing again in another timespace jump.  Nimue has regular sex with the King Fisher in the book, while in the game that is only vaguely hinted at.  Maybe so Geralt doesn't get offended?  As every man likes to think that the women he's ploughing waited their entire lives just for him, and no other did even come close to qualifying.

In another world Ciri meets Galahad who wants to take her to Camelot to meet King Arthur.  Borrowing much?  Seems like a ploy to increase word count.  Hey Sapkowski, isn't it enough that you lifted a gazzilion things straight out of Tolkien and Moorcock?  And you had the guts to ask CD Project Red for more money, after you declined any profit and merchandise sharing outright and asked to be paid fully in advance?  You didn't think Polish devs could whip out an amazing game?  Better than the books, that's for sure!  And that crappy Polish movie and series (let's hope Netflix doesn't completely screw it up, like with Altered Carbon).

Anyway, I digress.  Everything here is just my personal, non-binding, time-specific opinion, in any case.  So we go back to where we left things in the other book.  Leo Bonhart is now at Vilgefortz' castle, and it seem the two of them are sharing the role of the 'main villain' in this series.  But fear not, our heroes get to the castle eventually, but not before Ciri, who somehow just walks in (???) and surrenders her weapons, so that Vilgefortz can expressly tie her to the "raping chair" and proceed to tell her how he will impregnate her with his own sperm, but through a glass apparatus, as she's not worthy to receive his penis inside, and then cut out her placenta while she is still alive and pregnant.   Bonhart wants to rape her here (he had many chances before), but Vilgefortz shushes him away.

Not to worry, Geralt and company are here, after spending a great time in Touissant (go play Witcher 3, Blood and Wine DLC for a feel), the land of wine, sex and some honey.  Of course, our little fellowship from last time goes head-first into Vilgefortz castle and most of them manage to get themselves killed in the process.  Ciri kills Leo, but it is a bit of anti-climatic, since it doesn't last long, and Ciri is definitely not vengeful (or deranged) enough to make this passage more entertaining.  After all, that animal Leo Bonhart was one of the most vicious, cruel and deranged murderers in the entire series of books, which do not lack deranged murderers, quite on the contrary.  Well, Ciri just slashes his throat and walks away not even watching him die choking on his own blood. 

Neveryoumind.  Geralt eventually reaches Vilgefortz, which is very unimpressive as villains go, and after some mediocre fight, with Yennefer, cuts him in half.  Regis dies unfortunately.  So also do Milva, Cahir and Anguilleme.  Sad.

The book continues for another 50 pages after the defeat of Vilgefortz and it is mostly about political intrigue, the lodge of sorcerresses, politics, Ciri and Geralt trip of revenge and reward, etc.  Geralt and Yennefer get killed at some peasant uprising (after surviving pretty much the entire world of monster and enemies in the last 7 books).  Ciri maybe revives them.  Maybe not.  At the end Ciri leaves with Lancelot for Camelot.  Or does she???

"The Tower of the Swallow" by Andrzej Sapkowski

The sixth book in the Geralt saga (or fourth, if you count only the novels), this book continues where "Baptism of Fire" left.  Some English editions have the plural "Swallows" in the title, but that's wrong, as the original Polish title is to be translated in singular in English.

Ciri is found by the hermit/professor/exile/philosopher Visygota and nursed back to health while she tells him her story of her band, the Rats, frolicking around doing banditry stuff, until getting murdered by the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart who was introduced by the end of the previous volume.  He is so meticulous that he saws off the heads of all the Rats after murdering them, slowly and neatly.  He captures Ciri and beats her viciously, leading her around on a rope around her neck and eventually forcing her to fight in an arena in Claremont for his and others amusement.

Geralt and his gang continues to search for Ciri.  They find Ciri's double Angulleme, who also joins them, and have a skirmish at some mines, where they barely escape with their lives, but continue to look for the Druids.  Geralt becomes much nicer to Cahir, who is scheduled to die in the next (last) book, together with most others, anyway.

Eventually they find the druids, but all is not peaches, as the druid(esse)s control walking, semi-sentient trees (Ents???) who capture all kinds of brigands but also Geralt and his gang, to be burned alive in a Wicker Man, a respected, age-old Druid tradition. Luckily Regis has some pull with the druidesses and persuades them to free their friends.  The gang then continues to Touissant, where the next book will take place.  Mostly. If you don't count a parallel universe where Elves exterminated humans.

Ciri gets better with Visygota's care and sets of on a quest to revenge herself and her friends, despite Visygota's strong protests. Eventually she finds Leo Bonehead, Stefan Skellen, Rience and the rest of the merry company who enjoy torturing people with white-hot iron and dismembering them while still alive.  Ciri leads the hunting posse on a chase towards a frozen lake, beyond which the Tower of the Swallow lies with its thousand portals to time and space inside.  On the lake Ciri kills much of the group, minus Bonhart and Skellen, including cutting off the fingers of Rience while he clings to the edge of the ice with her ice skates.  Then she disappears in the Tower and teleports to the world of Elves (not intentionally).

"The Monkey's Paw" by William Wymark Jacobs

Jacobs died in 1943, just as his most famous story was included in yet another anthology which he didn't live to see published. It is a bit ironic that in the eight decades of his life, Jacobs produced many novels and short story collections, but only one story, from a relatively early collection (just about when he was getting married), outlived all his other works and became the token for his creative output and his life of creative endeavors. 

Jacobs mostly wrote lighthearted prose about the Sea and Seamen, and the supernatural stories he wrote were never his priority or preoccupation.  And yet "The Monkey's Paw" has come out to be one of the most imitated, replicated, anthologized, remade in various media and resurrected over and over work in literature in general.  Even well into the 21st century the story is still being remade in film, video and online media.

It is a short story, but impactful.  Future versions and remakes have added that the mummified monkey's paw would contract one finger each time a wish is made, and at the count of three wishes, it would extend all fingers again, ready for the next unfortunate person to be punished for wanting to change destiny in such a trivial way. In the original story the paw merely moves and vibrates each time a wish is granted.

And who can forget the terror of the last page when the knocking on the door becomes louder, while the tearful mother is fumbling with the lock, the father exasperatedly pronouncing the last wish for the "thing" outside to be no more.  And only the night and the wind await the mother when she finally manages to unlock the door.  For the best. 

"The Screaming Skull" by Francis Marion Crawford

This story is intriguing because it is written as a monologue in a play, both the past-narrative part, and the happening-right-now part.  It ends with a purported clip from a newspaper about the death of the Captain from human-teeth biting wounds on his neck.  The style and voice of the story separate it from the ocean of mediocre ghost stories from the Victorian period, which all seem to follow the same pattern and style.

The old English legend of a Screaming Scull is the topic of the story, and there's a footnote at the end that it is based on real events.  How real, we can only imagine, in that age of superstition and primitive beliefs, although less than century-and-a-half distant from present time.  Pretty much even the most refined Victorian gentleman would be considered superstition-obsessed, women-oppressing, racist, chauvinist, patriarchal bigot by today's standards.

The story also uses as a literary device killing people by pouring molten led in their ears.  This was a common torture used by states and churches around Europe, and even native american Indians, up to the end of the 1890s.  The Captain tells a story of a woman who killed three husbands by pouring just a drop of lead in their ears while drugged and sleeping in a stupor.  The led could not be traced as a murder weapon because of the small amount, but the bead would travel to the brain and kill the person instantaneously.  The only way the woman was caught was by exhuming the bodies of her three late husbands and finding a bead of led rattling in each skull.

When the Doctor hears the Captain's story, his hated wife mysteriously dies a short while after.  The Doctor however acquires a strange, polished white skull at the same time, which drives all the servants out of the house with it's incessant shrieking at night.  The Doctor dies in the same way as the Captain, and the story hints throughout that the Captain might not have been just an innocent observer in the whole matter.

A great example of a somewhat-different Victorian Ghost Story.  Francis Marion Crawford was an interesting person himself.  American by citizenship, but born in Italy and spent most of his life outside the US.  Initially he was going to be an opera singer, but the Boston Opera principal told him he will never be able to follow a tune.  Since his father was a sculptor and his aunt a well-known poet, he made contacts with publishers in New York who were more than glad to publish his novels set in India and Italy, which were considered exotic locales at the time.  A self-called Romantic-Realist, Crawford rejected all suggestions that novels, and fiction in general, should teach something and be didactic, but saw them mostly as amusement, but intellectual and elevated amusement.

"Green Tea" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

This is a well known story by a well known Irish writer.  Or he was well known until a few decades ago.  You've probably heard of Sheridan Le Fanu if you're over 40.  Probably not, if you're a millennial.

Neveryoumind, Le Fanu was an Irish writer in the mid-1800s and his specialty was ghost stories.  Not anything like the deeply disturbing, mind-shriveling, insomnia-inducing, psychological assassination material that nowadays passes for horror, but good, old, cozy ghost stories intertwined with 19th century metaphysics (which was still a science then), some theosophy, mesmerism and misunderstood Hinduism thrown in.

Le Fanu created a hero, the German doctor Martin Hesselius, who is more into metaphysics and the bad theories of Paracelzus (the good one are actually valid until today, like vaccination) and cures people with cooled cologne and positive affirmations.  One of his theories is that drinking large quantities of Green Tea creates neural fluids that allow the drinker to see the spiritual world around us, that is usually invisible (and inaudible).  The catch is that this invisible world is inherently malicious and evil and tries hard to drive every person who can perceive it into a gruesome suicide.

In this case the possessed is Reverend Jennings - priest who owns surprisingly large amounts of real estate in and around London, and the demon is a a pitch-black spectral monkey with glowing red eyes and a diabolical grin.  Even though Hesselius claims to have cured 57 (exactly) other people with a similar affliction, Jennings, after long suffering, cuts his own throat with an old fashioned straight razor.  This kind of result is why Gillette made a fortune when inventing the safety razor.  You definitely can't cut your throat from side to side with that one.

Hesselius chugs his failure to cure Jennings to his hereditary suicidal mania, since such theories were still a thing in the 1850s.  And recommends against drinking green tea. (But the antioxidants!!)