General Fiction – Arthur Edward Waite, Mary Webb, Marianne Wiggins, Charles Williams, Wu Ch’eng-En & W B Yeats

A mishmash of styles and genres seems to be the case for this post. which is also the last for the time being in the General Fiction category.

To start, a curious fiction by Tarot Card designer (Rider-Waite Pack) and occultist, Arthur Edward Waite called The Quest of the Golden Stairs published by Newcastle in 1974, though it was not part of their Forgotten Fantasy series.

Mary Webb’s Precious Bane is a classic rural countryside novel. It is an extraordinarily moody novel, as bleak and lonesome as the landscape in which it is set. Actually, I have always had a fondness for this book, in the same way I appreciate sad songs.

Marianne Wiggins is the ex wife of Salman Rushdie, but is also a fine writer in her own right. Probably her best known novel is John Dollar a female version of Lord of the Flies. I do have a copy of John Dollar somewhere, but the three below are others of her work in my possession, written in the 1980s and ‘90s.

To continue with my Charles Williams collection, here are three more published by Eerdmans 1974, 1979 & 1980, the latter two having surrealistic covers by Jim Lamb.

Monkey or Journey to the West by Wu Ch’eng En is a classic of Chinese Buddhist Literature. The definitive translation is by Arthur Waley. I remember being addicted to the TV series of it back in 1970s, which is no doubt why I have a copy of the book.

And finally Mythologies by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, studies of the supernatural based on Irish country folklore. This edition published by Collier Books in 1974.

Coming up next – Penguin Crime

Faber Books – Part 3 – Garrison Keillor, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sylvia Plath, Wilma Stockenstrom, Charles Williams

The last of the Faber books. From here I will move on to general fiction in a variety of editions.

First though, Garrison Keillor of whom I have two books, Lake Woebegone Days and Radio Romance. Keillor is of course well known as a humorist and broadcaster of Prairie Home Companion.  He also released the charming and funny Songs of the Cat, a must buy for cat lovers.

Below are the books, cover illustrations by Pierre Le Tan

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer. I think when I acquired his War of the End of the World I was very taken with South American literature. These days I can’t even recall whether I actually finished the novel. Anyway, here’s the cover.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was also published by Faber and was something of a bestseller back in the 1970s. Must read it again sometime.

I can’t say I know anything about Wilma Stockenstrom or her book The Expedition to the Baobab Tree, which I find in my collection, but apparently she is an Afrikaans poet and novelist. Ah the wonders of the Internet…

And finally, Charles Williams, who was one of the Inklings along with J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis. His novels are quite distinct from theirs being of a contemporary nature and are classified as supernatural thrillers. They are somewhat weird and most unusual, often featuring demonic possession being overcome by angelic intervention.

Here are three Faber editions of his books. I have others in diverse editions elsewhere.

Next – a diverse range of large size fiction paperbacks (with a few hard covers)

More Fantasy - A Miscellany

This post will show an assortment of individual novels. Some are quite rare these days I should imagine.

The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders by Isidore Hailblum is purported to be the first Yiddish science fantasy, and The Rainbow Annals by Grania Davis is a charming version of the Monkey legend. David Johnston is the cover artist for "Tsaddik"

Next, an unusual and very dark version of Cinderella in The Coachman Rat by David Henry Wilson and E Hoffman Price's Chinese fantasy The Devil Wives of Li Fong.

Cover art by Don Maitz and Rowena Morrill.

Two books from the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult published by Sphere - The Greater Trumps by Charles Williams and The Curse of the Wise Woman by Lord Dunsany.

An omnibus volume containing of Phantastes & Lilith by George MacDonald - two very strange fantasties. Also Jorge Luis Borges Book of Imaginary Beings.

Next John Bellairs Face in the Frost and William Goldman's famous Princess Bride.

And last but not least William Browning Spencer's totally wonderful fantasy Zod Wallop.

Coming next - trilogies and other interrelated fantasy novels.