Book Review: A Shriek In The Midnight Tower

{N.B. - A few minutes ago I received via email a post from 4 years ago. I have no idea what Blogger is doing. Perhaps it was following the instructions my eyeglasses gave when they slid off my nose and landed on my keyboard.}

A Shriek In The Midnight Tower - A Queen-Size Gothic
by Katheryn Kimbrough (aka John Kimbro)
published by The Popular Library

Alright, so generally this is a knitting blog, with additional old-timey stuff on occasion. However, I'm at sixes and sevens right now in regard to my knitting (perhaps it's the warm weather) but getting everything blocked and photographed (much less completing nearly-finished items) is a bit more than I'm inclined to do. Mostly I'm just futzing around with some small crochet projects.

So why am I reviewing a book that has no knitting content and does not meet my criteria of old timey? Well, this book is... a treasure. No, that's not quite right... an oddity. Yes, it's definitely an oddity, a curiosity.

I read my first grown-up novel when I was 9 or 10; it was The Secret Woman by Victoria Holt. It completely warped my sensibilities; in 1970 there was no Goth movement such as came a decade or so later. But Gothic novels were a decent market back then, and Mme Holt opened the door to that market for this young reader. For the next five years I read every Gothic novel I could persuade anyone to buy me. Warped is probably an understatement, now that I think on it.

Anyhow, in recent years I've been revisiting some of the influences of my youth - music, books, films - to see how they've held up, to see what they might have offered me back in the day, whether those things can be of any relevance or significance to me now. The problem is, once in college, I divested myself of all the trashy fiction that I had acquired up to the age of 20. I no longer had any of those Gothic novels that I'd read back in the day.

Never fear, though - old ladies to the rescue. The clinic my mother goes to for her doctor's visits has a book rack - 25 cents for paperbacks. And bless those old ladies that go there (someone, please bless them!), they've been dumping collections of old romances, including some awesome 1970s Gothic novels. $1 gets you four, of course, so I found four and gave them my dollar. Thus A Shriek In The Midnight Tower found its way into my library, and is unlikely to exit it any time soon.

The magic of this book isn't the plot; sure, the plot has a 'shocking' twist like all Gothic mysteries of the time did, and the plot twist is a bit twisted, but the author left us with more than that to discuss. All you need to know is that a murder has taken place at Le Chat Noir, an old bayou chateau built by one of Jean Lafitte's lieutenants. (Yes, the house is named 'The Black Cat'.) The detective assigned to the murder case invites himself to stay there whilst investigating; after all, Le Chat Noir is 35 miles away from the nearest anything, and 70-mile round trips on a south Louisiana road is more than anyone should be expected to make every day, believe me.

More important, and of greater interest, is the list of characters.

• Marietta Ingram - 12-yr-old orphaned heiress, precocious in a Freudian kind of way, in love with her attorney and waiting until she’s of age (this is set in the early 1970s), an “invalid” (she can walk, a little she claims).
• Nora Elias - 20-something companion to Marietta; she’s beautiful, unconsciously very aware of handsome men and ogles them as much as she can. Orphaned in her early teens, she ended up in a convent, running away at 17 to hitch around the country with Jimmy - sex, drugs, artists, occultists and spiritualists. She has secretsssss. 
• Patrick Carruthers - Sheriff investigating the death of Abner. Attractive in a middle-aged redneck kind of way. 
• Abner Grouse - Estate handyman found dead, stabbed in the greenhouse. Actually, stabbed in the heart whilst in the greenhouse.
• Dandelion Snodgrass - Cook, from New Orleans.
• Barrett Young - an artist. Is obsessed with painting clowns & anything circus-themed.
• Lucien Gaspar - Butler/houseman/whatever. Married and has one developmentally disabled son.
• Hortense Gaspar - Not quite a Mrs Danvers-type, but is surly and has her secrets.
• Carlos Gaspar – Son of Lucien & Hortense. He’s likes to watch (he actually says that). But perhaps he didn’t like watching Abner.
• Mark Becker - The playboy attorney. He ended up with Marietta as a client when his boss, Maxwell Sprowl, was killed in a boat explosion. He makes love (in the 19th cent. sense of the word) to Marietta, but can’t keep his eyes off Nora. 

Yes, there is someone named 'Max Sprowl' in the book, as well as someone named 'Fedora Cuddington'.

In spite of all the circus-related content, this novel does not take place in a circus. It takes place in this southern mansion. Where almost everyone involved ends up having some sort of circus connection. It was as if the author were writing a novel based on comedy improv choices - "Kimbro, your fans have chosen 'Southern Gothic Mansion' and 'Circus' as the themes for your next book!"

What it does have is a shift in narrative that calls full attention to itself, with no attempt to dress it up or even put a robe on; a blatant self-reference to the author; and some of the most entertaining dialog I've ever read in one of these things. I'm not sure if the latter is intentional or not; I'm uncertain about a lot of things regarding this book. I regret that the author is deceased and that I can't just shoot him an email. So for the rest of this review I'm simply going to post some of the better dialog bits from the first part of the book; I'm leaving plenty unquoted so that, if you're curious enough to read this yourself, you won't have all the fun spoiled for you. Here goes:

(Marietta the precocious child to Mark the sleazy attorney) "Even if I did think Mr Carruthers was better looking than you, I would never be so foolish as to entertain thoughts about a cop."

"I should hope not," Mark returned with easy laughter... "Were anyone to know the deep feeling I had for you, they might well consider me some sort of child-molesting pervert, or suggest that I was plagued with some other peculiar fetish... We all have our idiosyncrasies, haven't we?" (pg. 27)

 When I got to this part of the story, I checked the cover to make sure I hadn't mistakenly grabbed some other kind of book, but it still said "A Queen-Size Gothic" on the cover.

"Murder? Murder? Murder?" Mark exclaimed. "Have you actually reached the conclusion that murder was committed and that Abner Grouse didn't meet an accidental death?"

 "No, I can't say that I have established that fact as yet," Carruthers returned patiently, a large smile wreathing his face. His eyes twitched. "But in my humble opinion a man does not accidentally puncture himself in the heart with a dull rusty instrument, stagger some distance and drop dead. Even if such were possible, there is no indication of a murder weapon, no rusty projections of lethal proportions, nothing. What other conclusion could be reached than that Abner Grouse had some sort of assistance in going to his final reward?"  (pg. 41)

 (Nora, speaking to Mark, Carruthers and Marietta) "I was very fond of my father, and I knew his happiness depended a large part on Helen (Nora's stepmother). I wished that I could make him equally as happy, but physically that would have been sinful." She blushed.

"Physically? Did you have such thoughts about your father?" questioned Carruthers, repositioning himself in his chair and picking up interest. (pg. 43)

No comment.

Recovering From Illness at Covet Central

Good grief, kids, whatever you do, Don't Hit 'Return/Enter' after typing the title of your blog entry - it posts directly and immediately! Hopefully I deleted the thing before Feedburner or whoever sent an email to my hapless readers. I'm not a Blogger-hater, but some of the whizbang updates they foist upon us bloggers are a real pain in my ass.

Anyway, here's the post-Xmas post; I say that as if it's a tradition - I have no idea whether I've posted after the holidays or not, and I'm not going to look at previous Decembers to find out. You should know by now I'm not that kind of blogger, the kind that cares.

I was sick over the holiday; unfortunately, my mother's druggist doesn't carry my favorite cold medication:

I really do need a teaspoon full of it every four hours, just as is says on the label. Since I had to do without, not only was I expectorating like a late-stage consumption patient, I was cranky as hell. Lucky for you, I've been home a couple of days now and taking my Pectoral Compound as prescribed, so I'm no longer ranting about the holidays and my relatives.

{Nota Bene: These wonderful olde-timey labels are courtesy of Spookshows.com - you can download a zip file of high-quality versions!}

I treated myself to some fine jewelry from Perfidious Beadworks for the holiday season, and I simply want to say that everyone out there needs to purchase an Edgar Allan Poe pin. Anyway, the proprietor of PB recommended I check out photos of dearly departed folks at The Art of Mourning. I've been avoiding that site, because I knew it would waken lusts best held at bay (unemployed people should only want food, shelter and a job, not old junk about dead people). But I went there, and indeed found much to covet. So if anyone is interested in buying me a fine present for my upcoming birthday (50th - I deserve something fancy for my 50th!), below are the sorts of things I would enjoy and appreciate:

A late 18th century fob (another view below)

 

A late 18th century clock (another view below)

 

A hair chain (for an eyepiece?), circa 1840

I definitely need the latter item - I had to fake a chain for my eyepiece recently with some shredded silk ribbon, and it would be much nicer to have something like this.

A final mention of things related to death, I found another lovely website, Morbid Anatomy. Want to read old broadsides of crimes? Look at photos of medical students and dissections? Look at 19th century photos of albinos? The site covers a lot of territory, but if you are interested in science, medicine, pathology, death, crime, and the history of these things, you will undoubtedly find something there to keep you amused.

I'll be doing a post on knitting stuff soon - and to stay on the theme of old and dead, I'll make sure I post something written by some long-dead housewife trying to feed her family by writing knitting patterns. But right now, I've got to take another dose of my Pectoral Compound (cough! cough!).

Kool & Kicky

If you're a vintage pattern collector, you've probably noticed that Spinnerin yarns, in the 1960's, tried some rather unusual motifs and photo spreads for their patterns. Nothing too bizarre - no photos of Vampira modeling sweaters, for example. But I think their "Kool & Kicky" volume comes pretty close with the models they chose. Behold, The Return of the The Wicker Man:

Yes, the Daughters of The Wicker Man have decided to avenge their father's death (a theme common to kung fu films and horror movie sequels). Here they are, in all their beauty. If you suspect they are in your area, carry lighter fluid and one of those bbq fire starters - burning is the only death these creatures know!

This is some of the more pathetic yarn hair I've seen.

This one with her black lace veil is obviously the evil leader among them.

The pink pigtails are effective on this one. This would be the good Wicker Sister, the one who thinks they should give up their pointless plan for vengeance and move on...she loved their father as much as the rest of them, but that doesn't mean he was right in everything...perhaps she's befriended or fallen in love with a human male...anyway, we all know that she will die, too, but her death will be less gruesome than her sisters', perhaps even accidental.

I know, I've seen too many horror movies... (Are you kidding? I just wrote a treatment for 'The Return of the Wicker Man' - a sequel loosely based on the first one, or to be exact, the title of the first one. Hey, in the first Friday the 13th, Jason wasn't the killer - that series didn't suffer much from the change in focus. Killer wicker mannequins - no wonder Hollywood won't hire me to write movie scripts.) But I digress. I was surprised to find that the patterns in this book go up to finished measurements of 44 inches. Shockingly generous in 1967. The designs are all sleeveless; I'll have to hunt down some appropriate yarns and try whipping one of these up. I don't care for the colors, but fortunately there are no pattern police to come around and enforce compliance. I may try knitting them up in the round, too. Surely somewhere in the world wide webz there are some excellent hints for converting flat knitting to round. When I have time to follow up on this, I will report back.

Last Night I Dreamt I Went to Manderley Again

I spent yesterday with my mother; we had our usual celebration of Mother's Day that doesn't take place Mother's Day weekend. I'm hermit enough to hate competing with 20 families worth of three or four generations (the youngest one of which is screaming infants) at local restaurants. I'd rather do it the weekend before or after, and have a relaxing time. So that's what we did; on the way there we stopped at a local bookstore, and I found some lovely things on their 25 cent cart, including an early printing of "Rebecca". Sure the jacket is beat up, but it still has the jacket. And the book itself has this lovely silver band around it. Here are some crappy photos of it:
The photo of the silver band doesn't show how nice and shiny it still is; I have a photo that does, but the image is pretty much obliterated by shine. 25 cents. I tells ya, I'd have paid ten times that for this copy of the book. I'm very pleased with it! (I also picked up a scary knitting book, but that will be another blog entry.)

"Rebecca" is one of my favorite gothic novels (sure, it's set in the 20th cent., but by its nature it is very gothic); and this is certainly not my first copy of it. I think the others are in storage. However, this is one of those books that is always a good, juicy read and as such, is worth having more than one copy of (especially at these prices). There are a few books in my library that are like that for me - "Jane Eyre" (I've at least two copies), "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (again, at least two copies), anything by Jane Austen (I've a few of her books in multiple copies).

Jane, of course, is the anti-gothic - read "Northanger Abbey" if you've any question on the specifics. A world that is nothing but gothic novels would be very boring, and I'm glad that Jane was an early poker-of-fun at the movement. The first wave of gothic novels certainly left something to be desired; if you've ever read "The Castle of Otranto" you'll know what I mean. And I've never been able to make it through an Mrs Radcliffe novel. There are a couple of that era that I haven't tried that I certainly will make an effort to complete, like "Vathek" and "The Monk".

The Brontes did gothic quite well, and each with their own spin. For example, Anne's reflected her more extensive existence in the real world, and her views of women and their abilities is not the least that of helplessness and frailty. Her women are intelligent, not afraid to act, and of strong morals in the face of a world that does not reward such morality very often.

Of her two novels I've read, "Agnes Grey" is less gothic in tone, but rather grim. Agnes is a governess and the book relates her experiences of serving in horrible families with offspring who are, at best, shallow, self-centered and cruel in their thoughtlessness and, at worst, monsters (no point in pussyfooting). I mean, I consider a lad who enjoys crushing baby birds with rocks to be a monster. "Agnes Grey" had critics' knickers all in a bunch; after all, upper class children would never behave in such a fashion, right? Right?

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is much more what one expects of the Brontes. Still, the heroine, Helen Huntingdon, is bolder in her actions than even Jane Eyre; she exhibits a sense of self-worth wonderful to see in a 19th cent. novel. I think this novel also got some folks' knickers in a bunch; after all, once Helen realizes what scum her spouse is, she denies him, er, sexual congress by slamming her bedroom door in his face. Shocking, you are no doubt thinking. If you're not, then you are perhaps unaware that women were expected to submit to their husbands - in all ways.

Along these lines, there is an edition of "Jane Eyre" (yes, I know that's Charlotte and not Anne) illustrated by Dame Darcy; one of the nice things is that it contains the forward to the second edition. The second edition is dedicated to W.M. Thackeray, but is also a bit of a nice feminist rant. It's a nice trade paper edition and worth owning.

I look forward to reading "Rebecca" again; I think the book does a little better by the second Mrs de Winter than the film does. At least, in the first couple of pages she seems to have a little more going for her than Joan Fontaine did.

I've pretty much finished with my rambling about novels, but let me add my recommendation of just a couple other novels along these lines: "Behind A Mask" by Louisa May Alcott and "Lady Audley's Secret" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (similar stories, but both rousing good fun if you rather like bad women), "A Long, Fatal Love Chase" by Louisa May Alcott (stalking old school style), and "Dragonwyck" by Anya Seton, another 20th cent. novel, but set in the 19th cent. and effectively demonstrating gothic sensibilities in upstate New York. There's a new edition of this one out with an introduction by Phillipa Gregory. Haven't gotten a copy yet, but since my only copy of this book is 60 years old, I'll be looking for one used somewhere.

Well, Nertz!

Prior to the advent of Ravelry, my little blog got almost no traffic. However, in the last couple of months, a few daring folks have wandered over here. Which means I need to be less of a slacker these days when it comes to updating the blog.

I recently contracted a stomach plague of some sort, horrible and vile. I've been living off invalid food for over a week. How boring! And over my birthday, too. I was so sick I didn't even get any knitting done while I was home sick. I did read a book about Jack the Ripper; illness makes me feel a bit gothic, which is why I ordered the 1991 series Dark Shadows (derived/inspired by the soap opera of the 1960's/'70's). I actually enjoyed it when it was first aired, thought it had nice production values, decent acting - I liked Ben Cross as Barnabas. No one could be Jonathan Frid, so it was just as well that they went in a different direction. I'm not one of these people who likes their remakes to be just like the original, except newer. If you can't bring something new to the original, then don't expect me to watch it. Having said that, making arbitrary changes to the original doesn't cut it either. That's just jerking the audience around, and I'm not interested in that, either. If you can retell the story with new insights, perspectives, you'll have my interest.

I've drifted from my discussion a bit, which was about things victorian and gothic. The nice thing about Dark Shadows is it has plenty of thunderstorms, roaring fires in fireplaces, fogs, cemeteries, atmospheric music - not to mention vampires. Which reminds me that I need to order some lovely laceweight from the Plucky Knitter in the Wuthering Heights colorway. I want to knit up Sharon Miller's Bronte stole in those colors. Perfectly dark!

Back to Dark Shadows one more time...last time I saw Ben Cross in anything, it was some horrible, low-budget syndicated sci-fi/horror show, and he honestly looked like he'd been drinking non-stop for half a dozen years. I don't know what he was actually doing during those years, I just know he didn't look very good.

Project Updates:

Dracula's Bride - Slow but steady, making regular progress. It's a lot of knitting, an hour to do two rows.

Swan Lake - Dropped a stitch, figured it would take me just as long to fix it as it would to re-knit it, so I chose the latter. However, It left me bummed out - I'm rather mad at it, and I don't want to see it. It will probably be another couple of weeks before I want to look at it again.

Saigon Scarf - Onto second clue (link will take you to the designer's blog).

Dainty Bess - Made some real progress, right up until the plague struck.

I've also begun Nautical Knitter's "Guinevere" stole. I'm using Alpaca Cloud Tide Pool for that one. I'm not using beads, so the going is pretty straightforward. My goal is to finish the first clue this week (NB - the KAL was weeks or months ago; I'm just very, very slow at getting started on these things.)

Shortly before I got sick, I started to write some stuff to post on the blog; I'll post them now, but they're about 10 days older than today's writing.