(hb; 1998: story anthology)
From the inside flap
“This volume of Robert Bloch’s macabre stories is an unexpected treasure for several reasons. It is the first posthumous collection since the author’s death in 1994, and it brings together many of his early stories from the legendary pages of Weird Tales and Strange Stories, which have never been anthologized before.
“The stories display Bloch’s easy narrative command, his sparkling humor and imagination—and his unerring sense of the horrifying!
“In them you will discover the dark secrets of voodoo and vampirism, pagan altars and the alter egos, shades of meaning and devouring shadows, including four stories of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft.
“From horror to heroic fantasy
to science fiction, these long lost classics from Bloch’s early pulp fiction
writing days are guaranteed to thrill and chill you at every turn of the page.”
Overall review
The twenty stories in this collection, many of them born of Bloch’s missive-exchanges (and resulting friendship) with H.P. Lovecraft, show the darkly clever Bloch’s publishing roots as well as Lovecraft’s huge early influence on him. Bloch’s familiar, black wit is ever-present, as is the (usually) compact writing, making Flowers an anthology worth owning—even Bloch’s solid-but-not-great tales (e.g., “The Druidic Doom,” “Fangs of Vengeance”) entertain, are works worth checking out. It’s like watching a great artist produce something that’s not their best work, but it’s still interesting, worth checking out.
Readers sensitive to racial epithets should be warned that one of the stories (“Wine of the Sabbat”) has an obvious-from-the-get-go racist villain who has a hate-on for black people and, at least once, utilizes what some people call “the n-word.” Also: those concerned with Bloch’s association with Lovecraft, a well-known racist, needn’t work themselves up about Bloch, who doesn’t show racism to be a good thing.
One of the many things I like
about the works in Flowers is that there are no doom-for-doom’s-sake elements
or endings (a corporatized staple of many today’s multi-genre media works). And
not all of the stories are Lovecraftian dread-ponderings; a good number of the
works, especially the later ones show the evolution of the creative force that
later penned one of my all-time favorite books, Psycho (1959). Worth owning,
this, especially if you’re fan of Bloch.
Review, story by story
[* = published under the name
of Nathan Hindin]
[** = published under the name Tarleton Fisk]
“The Druidic Doom” (originally published in Weird Tales magazine, 1936): An arrogant baronet (Sir Charles Hovoco) moves onto an estate which includes a strange, darkly storied altar on an isolated hill. Hovoco, further ignoring the nearby villagers’ advice, tries to dismantle a shunned altar—an act which results in eerie tragedy.
This Lovecraftian tale is at once economic and spookily atmospheric in description and tone, with a relatively, for a Lovecraft-adjacent work, storyline and denouement.
“Fangs of Vengeance”* (Weird
Tales, April 1937): Life in a traveling circus (Stellar Brothers Circus) turns
darker for its performers after a beast-cruel animal trainer, Captain Zaroff,
joins it with his exotic, deadly African cats, with whom he seems to speak.
Readers familiar with the Lovecraftian/horror genre are likely to spot where “Fangs”
is headed, but it’s a well-written, short and swiftly plotted. Solid,
worth-publishing work.
“Death is an Elephant”* (Weird Tales, February 1939): Fall 1936. Post-“Fangs of Vengeance,” Stellar Brothers Circus has further troubles when Leelah, priestess-keeper of a sacred elephant (Ganesha, the White Elephant of Jadhore), takes an intense dislike toward members of the troupe, and they begin dying in grisly “accidents.” “Death,” like “Druidic” and “Fangs,” sports a Lovecraftian vibe (with its attendant doom-laden ending), a sharply penned work with some truly effective horrific, hair-raising moments. Standout story.
“A Question of Identity”**
(Strange Stories, April 1939): An amnesiac wakes in a coffin and, after
clawing, kicking and digging his way out of his earthen grave, tries to
remember who he was and how he got in this macabre Poe-esque/Premature
Burial (name-checked) situation. The twist at the end is masterful
(especially for its publication period) and effective in an admirably simple/organic
way, another winning read.
“Death Has Five Guesses” (Strange Stories, April 1939): Harry Clinton, a college student, at Western Tech, becomes the subject of The Rhine Experiments (involving psychic ability and flashcards). As the experiments intensify, so do his reactions to them. This being a Bloch tale, this isn’t a good thing. Solid story.
“The Bottomless Pool” (Strange Stories, April 1939 with Ralph Milne Farley, by-lined as Ralph Milne Farley): “In the swamp south of Pritchard’s Woods,” “near Mill Brook, just outside of Concord” (in “the New England countryside”), a young man, Martin Aylethorp, disappears, leading the police to suspect murder. Their only suspect: Aylethorp’s thought-insane friend, currently in a psych ward.
This unnamed friend, who
narrates “Bottomless,” tells what he believes—saw—happen: that an
unnatural and terrifying creature (the Fisherman) is dragging swamp-dwelling
people to their doom in the titular watery pit—and that it will continue to do
so, if nothing is done by the authorities about it!
“Bottomless” is another Lovecraftian-construct/bookend tale, with a simple, standout-in-a-good-way wrinkle in its supernatural cloth. Good read.
“The Dark Isle” (Weird Tales, May 1939): A Roman soldier (Vincius the Reaper) with his fellow soldiers, is sent to battle Druid priests in a forest teeming with dangers, natural and supernatural, only to discover it’s a deathtrap beyond his scariest imaginings.
Sporting a Lovecraftian and a
Robert E. Howard-action influence and tone, “Dark” is an entertaining
and engrossing tale, with its eerie atmosphere and creatures, hard and twisty violence,
adept and bold protagonist and its optimistic finish.
“Flowers from the Moon”**
(Strange Stories, August 1939): Blooms aboard a returning-to-Earth
spaceship with a sickly astronaut (Charles DeVeaux) threaten to infect,
devastate humanity at large—this “terror from space” genre-work has a standout
horror element, making it a strong story, twist-wise. In other ways, it’s a an
entertaining, good tale.
“He Who Waits Beneath the Sea”** (Strange Stories, October 1939): A marine biologist (David Ames) and girlfriend (Jean Banning) are drawn into a 2,000-year-old, ocean-floor civilization, where the dead walk and their king dreams of escaping his oceanic domain—using freshly available flesh. Good underwater-action story, again a blend of Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Alex Raymond (creator of the 1934 Flash Gordon comic strip).
“Power of the Druid” (Strange
Stories, June 1940): Twisty, excellent tale about notorious Roman emperor
Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar who,
aging, gets renewed life via The Druid—a pagan priest whose supernatural
connection with the gods (especially “Mabon, the white bull of the sun”).
Nero’s increasingly mass-murderous behavior, however, may prove to be even more
horrible than recorded history later recounts. One of my favorite entries in
this collection, memorable.
“Be Yourself” (Strange Stories, October 1940): Eddie Thompson, a successful and canny pulp author, is threatened by his now-enfleshed, literary-minded pseudonym (F. Thatcher Van Archer), who means to take everything from Thompson.
Fortunately for Thompson, he’s
the matrix in this relationship, a truth borne out with what follows. Above-average
writing makes “Yourself” better and more exciting than its description:
a memorable, excellent take on the split-protagonist theme.
“A Sorcerer Runs for Sheriff” (Weird Tales, September 1941): A corrupt and relentless businessman (Allan Waldo) uses witchcraft and church-wax poppets to eliminate his political foes. Will he succeed, or will one of his potential victims (a speech writer) be able to stop Waldo’s ruthless designs?
The end-twist, while inevitable and familiar—it’s baked into “Sorcerer”’s moralistic theme/elements) has a cleverness woven into it that lesser authors might not have used. Superb, simple-solution read.
“Black Bargain” (Weird
Tales, May 1942): In this fun, solid work, a pharmacist—tired of dealing
with those who’ve little interest in buying healing medicine—meets a dealing-with-darkness
occult practitioner (Fritz Gulther), and is fascinated and terrified by the
mood-erratic Gulther, who draws the pharmacist into his shadowy, dangerous
world.
“A Bottle of Gin” (Weird Tales, March 1943): In the darkly hilarious “Gin,” an alcoholic (Tom Collins, ha ha), desperate for a drink, takes what might be a fatal swig of a bottle. Thing is, he should’ve paid more attention to how the owner of that bottle (Dr. Sweet) described it. . . this is an especially inspired (especially with its wordplay) work, one that’s excellent and memorable throughout. Easily one of the best works in this collected lot.
“Wine of the Sabbat” (Weird Tales, November 1944): In Hollywood, on April 30th, a writer (Bob) attends a party thrown from the eccentric and influential Mabel Fiske, where—even for one of her gatherings—three strange guests show up: the cadaverous Dr. Voidin; a menacing “giantic black,” Dubois; and the “fat little bald-headed” and “fish-eyed” Orsac. Their appearance, immediately sinister, transform Fiske’s party into a bacchanal of animality and supernatural terror. Fun, good work.
As I wrote earlier, those sensitive to racial stereotypes—those who lack understanding of the mindset of the author and the context of the time—might take issue with this story, due to its boiled-down descriptions of certain characters. If you’re one of those readers/immediate-reaction types, bear in mind that the sinister trio in this story are based on cinematic, iconic characters (which, while based on certain stereotypes, don’t reflect Bloch’s outlook. . . or what you imagine it to be). Case in point: based on Bloch’s character-sketching, I’m guessing Orsac, described unfavorably, is a mix of actor/filmmaker Peter Lorre and the fictional vampire Nosferatu.
“Soul Proprietor” (Weird
Tales, November 1945): A “soul for sale” want advertisement leads an
“investigator in occultism” (Pete Ryan) into the seemingly fortuitous meeting
with a pretty woman (Lucille Cabot). Fun story, with a solid twist.
“Satan’s Phonograph” (Weird Tales, January 1946): After a concert pianist’s mentor (Gustav Frye) reappears in his former pupil’s life, a strange phonograph-recorder in hand, the pupil-pianist (Roger) finds his rosy life turned awry. Solid, fun.
“The Man Who Told the Truth”
(Weird Tales, July 1946, by-lined as Jim Kjelgaard): A low-level
employee (Hartwood) at a firm suddenly gets everything he wants—if he speaks
his desires aloud—but therein lies danger. Excellent read, laugh-out-loud funny
ending.
“The Night They Crashed the
Party” (Weird Tales, November 1951): During a drunken, brawling
party filled with military big-wigs, war merchants and their people, a strange
thunder storm and alarming television broadcast draw the attention of the
debauched celebrants. Is it the end of humankind? Fun, solid story.
“Philtre Tip” (Rogue, March 1961): A regent of a university (Mark Thornwald), obsessed with the wife of a colleague, tries to trick his way into her bed. This being a Bloch story, things don’t work out the way he expects.
The end-twist is simple, not
as clever as other Blochian corkscrews (which may disappoint some readers), but
it’s still an effective twist in this entertaining and curiously gripping tale.
