Walter de la Mare Strangers and Pilgrims

[Druidic]

I'm not familiar with that book but I suspect--and I could be wrong--that it's a poetry anthology. I doubt if it possesses any of his ghostly tales but that's just a guess.

[In A Dark Light]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

I'm not familiar with that book but I suspect--and I could be wrong--that it's a poetry anthology. I doubt if it possesses any of his ghostly tales but that's just a guess.

Seems to be well over 700 pages long, which seems a bit excessive for a poetry anthology. I've tried searching for information regarding the book, which caught my eye with its attractive cover art, but it seems what little information there is isn't all that clear. It may be that it is some kind of anthology of sorts, which has been selected and edited by De La Mare, while I've also heard that it contains a length essay written by De La Mare.

[In A Dark Light]

I just found this blurb, which apparently accompanied the 2009 reprint of 'Behold, This Dreamer'. It was the copy from 1984 which interested me, though came with zero information.

Blurb is as follows:

Walter de la Mare's anthologies are in a category of their own, indeed, they are of such excellence as to make the description belittling. Walter de la Mare compiled five of them, with commentaries, using poems and passages of prose. All are being reissued in Faber Finds, and to each he brought such a range of reading, wisdom and intelligence as to make them cornucopias of delight and entertainment. Behold, This Dreamer was first published in 1939 and Faber Finds is proud to reissue it seventy years on. Walter de la Mare provides a long introduction which leads to, in his own words, '. . . a Survey - a panorama - of a wide theme, endlessly inviting, in much obscure, viewed from many different angles, by many diverse minds.' To quote from the original blurb, 'Mr de la Mare is concerned not merely with dreaming, whether by night or day, with fantasies, hallucinations, explanations and interpretations of dreams, and the whole business (so to speak) of getting into (as well as out of) the dreamstate. His net is thrown over death as well as sleep, Nature as well as Man: and he takes his soundings in those unconscious and unreasoning depths out of which human personality and art so mysteriously spring.'

That's a strong blurb. One could argue that All Hallows, Seaton's Aunt, Mr. Kempe and Out of the Deep are all more focused on the unknown parts of the imagination than anything truly supernatural. They feature the human heart in conflict with its own strangeness amidst silence spaces.

[In A Dark Light]

I've ordered the book anyway. As I wanted the 1984 edition, I thought it best to jump in and get it while a copy was available for under £10. I do intend to pick up 'Out of the Deep' as well, though that's more likely to be available for some time.

[Druidic]

Go for it! Let us know how it turned out.

[In A Dark Light]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Go for it! Let us know how it turned out.

Will do.

[In A Dark Light]

My copy of 'Behold, This Dreamer' arrived today, and what a very nice volume it is. Over 700 pages of musings on dreams and fantasies, hallucinations and their explanations (including a 100 page introduction by De La Mare).

The book is chock full with poetry and passages of prose, including the likes of Shakespeare, De Quincey, and Sassoon. I have a feeling this is likely to be a book to be dipped in and out of, whenever the mood takes the reader, rather than to be read in one concerted effort.

[In A Dark Light]

The very first sentence of De La Mare's introduction confirms as much:

'The collections of poems and passages in prose that follows may be opened at random, browsed in, and then laid aside, until (as I hope) it is returned to again.'

Quote Originally Posted by James

A reminder to people that Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales is now available. It's fantastic to finally have a cheap Amazon paperback of Walter's supernatural fiction to point to people.

I finally got round to reading this because I wanted a light de la Mare book and one I could read without worrying about damage and also because it included A Game at Cards, which is the final de la Mare supernatural tale I had left to read and was inexplicably missing from my three volume set of his complete short stories.

I recommend this to people because it's a cheap and concise de la Mare, who with his best darker tales was as good as Aickman, but as I stated in my brief Goodreads review I do think it is marred by including a few somewhat lesser and sentimental stories. Enjoyable as they are, I would have replaced A Game at Cards and The Guardian with The Tree and Mr. Kempe. I think these better represent de la Mare's unique qualities as a writer, though of course even lesser de la Mare is somewhat of a delight to read. If a pleasant sentimental ghostly tale were required in order to showcase the breadth of de la Mare's range, I would rather they included The House, which is a superb eerie and comforting tale in which the sentimentality landed gently and managed to move me.

The more balanced collections regrettably missing some of his mature horror stories, and the collections which feature more of his horror stories tend to contain too many sentimental fantasies for my taste. One day I'm going to edit my own edition of his fiction, and until then this will be the go-to thread for fans of this obscure author complaining about new editions of his work.