Book Review: "I Am Stone" ed. by Daniel Pietersen

Full Title: I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist edited by Daniel Pietersen

As it states in the introduction to this book, there is remarkably little known about the life of R (Robert) Murray Gilchrist and though this might be the case, we have a good amount of his writings. Here's what we do actually know about him though. Though he was actually from Sheffield, he lived in the Peak District for some time. It would be these years in the Peak District that would serve as some inspiration for his stories. He is known as part of the fin-de-siècle era alongside writers such as: Vernon Lee, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Arthur Machen. Be that as it may, Gilchrist's stories would fall into obscurity until being reprinted in the 1970s.

I am not going to lie when I say this was not my first choice of reads on my TBR. Instead, it was just at the top of the list at the time. However, the writing style of R Murray Gilchrist seems to be more like Oscar Wilde than I would like to admit. I ended up enjoying the anthology a lot more than I thought I would.

Everywhere we saw half-ruined fountains satyrs, vomiting senilely, nymphs emptying wine upon the lambent flames of dying phoenixes, creatures that were neither satyrs nor nymphs, nor gryphins, but grotesque adminglings of all, slain by one another with water gushing from wounds in belly and thigh...

In the first part entitled Dead Yet Living, there is a story called The Crimson Weaver which I thought was a little strange but also really well written. The ending to the story is abrupt but not in a rushed or unfinished way. And though The Crimson Weaver and others are more like gothic romances than horror stories, they still cannot be faulted in their atmospheric writing. With another story called The Return making a great successor for The Crimson Weaver. I think though that out of the whole section that the story Dame Inowslad is not just the best of the lot, but has the best ending.

The thing was lying prone on the floor, the presentment of a sleeping horror. Vivid scarlet and sable feathers covered its gold-crowned cock's head and its leathern dragon wings were folded. Its sinuous tail, capped with a snake's eyes and mouth, was curved in luxurious and delighted satiety. A prodigious evil leaped in its atmosphere.

In the second part called Useless Heroes, there are some more stories that I felt were fairly effective maybe more in description than storyline. For example, The Basilisk may not have the best plot but probably has some of the best physical description and atmosphere in the whole book.

The only downside to this book is that there's a lot of archaic language that usually makes the stories sound older than they actually are and in a small number of cases, such as in Witch In-Grain, it does not really add much to the story except for the difficulty of understanding. All in all though, the stories of this section are not very strong in their horrors.

John Ravil himself was grotesque even to ugliness. Of scarcely the middle height, ill shapen in body, and husky voiced, his peculiarities were so marked that it was impossible to walk in the streets without exciting unfavourable comment. His complexion was neither light nor dark; and an odd look was given by a bushy copper-coloured moustache whose ends had never known training.

The third part is called Of Passion and of Death and is far more about doomed romance than any of the other sections (though that seems what they are about too). I also feel like because of stories within this part like The Writings of Althea Swarthmoor and The Noble Courtesan, that this is the most archaic written of them all.

With only really the final part called Peak Weird reflecting the Peak District strange stories based on the author's home for some time - this anthology is better written than its stories are 'horrors'. The verdant atmospheres and characters of witches, this one is possibly the one that's most inspired by folklore.

All in all, I thought that this anthology was better than average and though none of the stories were a stand out from the rest, there were a couple that you could tell were included to draw the reader into the text which were stronger or more atmospheric than others. A well-curated anthology, it does well at presenting us with an author that until 50 years' ago, had been forgotten.