Dark Entries

Though often categorized as horror fiction, Robert Aickman's stories are so distinctive and so great that the only productive analogies people use for him are not the typical horror fiction writers (who often hugely admire him) but such actual literary greats as Poe, Kafka, and Dinesen. You often finish his stories not knowing quite what happened until you re-read them, and even then the strange ambiguities are so deeply unsettling that it's hard to explain the effect Aickman has had on you. For years he has been a well-kept secret among fantasy and horror fans, but Faber Finds's plans to reissue his stories and his one novel (THE LATE BREAKFASTERS) and one novella (THE MODEL) in 2014 in honor of his centenary should make him much more widely known, at least in the UK. DARK ENTRIES, which sports a gorgeously illustrated cover, is a fine place to start with Aickman because it was his first solo collection published in his lifetime (he had published a collection of stories with his one time girlfriend Elizabeth Jane Howard in the 50s), and features some of his finest stories, such as his deepest exploration into gender differences, "Choose Your Weapons," and the most famous (and anthologized) of all his stories, "Ringing the Changes." The latter is a beautiful example of Aickman's mastery of the genre of the "strange tale" (as he preferred to call his work--he didn't care at all for the descriptor "horror fiction"). The story opens with a couple, mismatched in age, making a vacation trip to an out-of-the-way town in East Anglia that had been an important seaport in medieval times, before the harbor had silted up and pushed the town away from the sea. The town is largely deserted, and the few citizens the couple come across make oblique references to the couple being in danger; in the mean time a local old church begins ringing its bell for no apparent reason, and as the day wears on and the mystery of the town deepens, the ringing bell is joined by others, which intensify the overall sense of dread. When the truth about the town's abandonment and the reason for the bells is finally revealed, it is so almost offhandedly, as a kind of throwaway cliche: but then the truth of the statement (and the inability to turn back) digs in for both the couple and for readers. As is typical for Aickman's fiction, no other explanation is overtly given for the horrific event other than that it is happening, and the reader must try to make sense of it based on the circumstances of the story: the city's position almost displaced from time, the couple's age gap, the psychological condition of the husband and wife, etc. Even then you're never sure--and thus Aickman's story lingers longer in the imagination than the basic plot might in the hands of another fantasy writer (even H. P. Lovecraft, who also deals with a visitor stumbling onto the horrific truth about a seemingly nearly-deserted coastal town in his fine story "The Shadow over Innsmouth"). Robert Aickman is one of the finest British writers (and international masters of the strange tale form) in the 20th century: it is terrific seeing him made available to a broader audience.

Aickman is one of those writers who has his counterparts in screenwriters for those indie films that are best described as surreal or "symbolist" -dark-mysteries. There's no what I call fundamentalist horror - with the supernatural grossly imposed on physical reality, such as epitomized in Stephen King (thank god!). On the other hand the trademark British toned-down action woven through the labyrinth of Mystery, whose elements have in turn been transmuted into symbols, amount to each story's requiring a second read. At least a second read. Otherwise, each piece ends with an abrupt fall from the stratosphere of the disturbingly possibly-supernatural, back onto the surface of the mundane with a very anticlimatic bump. "Dark Entries" was my first reading of Aickman; and I can't criticize him down to fewer than 4 Stars: For part of me must have much affinity with the Euro-style of dark, symbol-driven story, inasmuch as I myself have written at least one short story with a texture and paradigm so much like Aickman's that, if not for the "American" tint of greater intensity in the symbolism itself, could pass for one of his. If Euro-subtlety, and an ability to navigate the longitude of Mystery with the depth of symbolism is your thing, Robert Aickman is for you.

I love good horror writing but there isn't much of it out there. A lot of "weird fiction", horror writing etc., like a lot of horror movies, is basically pulp trash, fun though it can occasionally be. Even most of it written by supposed classic authors in the field is merely barely competent college level fiction (Steven King, et. al.) But occasionally you find an author that is a legitimate powerhouse writer - who truly and deeply understands language and can wield it like a rapier. Robert Aickman is such a writer. And these stories are legitimately chilling. I will be buying this entire paperback series, but the first story here "The School Friend" broke my brain for a couple of days and I kept pondering it, hour after hour. "Ringing in the Changes" is outstanding and extremely unsettling, the most Lovecraftian thing I've read that wasn't by HPL himself. Brilliant, scintillating prose that won't leave you any time soon.

I read an article about this author in the WSJ and purchased this book. the stories were good, well written and with good character development, but the endings were confusing. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure them out, but every one of them left me wondering what exactly DID happen?

This is the first in a series of reprints of Aickman's work by Faber and Faber. Which, I must say, is quite fortunate! These are dark and subtle tales by a true master of the craft! While I can't say this is something I'd suggest for someone who typically likes the usual fare of more explicit horror, if you enjoy M.R. James or Arthur Machen then this should be up your alley. These tales typically slide between definitions, leaving the reader with a few more questions than answers when they're through. At first, this might be frustrating. Sometimes we're left without a definitive ending, or all the pieces we need to reach a decisive conclusion... But, what is suggested is often far more horrific than what is seen. There are no duds among Aickman's work. Only those that resonant more powerfully depending on one's inclination. A master amongst masters.

Aickman may not be not a household name, but his weird stories, mainly written in the 1960s-70s, are very effective: enigmatic, disturbing, inexplicable, and they stick in the memory. Fans of the M.R. James tradition will not be disappointed. The emphasis is not generally on horror or the macabre, per se, but on the psychologically unsettling. One reviewer here dismissed Aickman as full of 'Olde English' clichés, but I can't say that's the first comment I would make about his carefully constructed stories. The intense mood they generate is palpable, and strangely uplifting rather than depressing. "Ringing the Changes" is the standout and probably most famous story in this particular collection -- undeniably creepy!

Dark Entries est le premier recueil en solo de Robert Aickman. En effet, à cette époque il a déjà publié We Are For The Dark, avec Elizabeth Jane Howard. Voici donc 6 nouvelles formidables, dont quelques classiques d'Aickman comme Ringing the Changes, The View, ou encore Bind your Hair. Un livre incroyable, qui retentit encore aujourd'hui fortement. Merci Mr. Aickman!

Robert Aickman is an author perhaps known more for his influence upon other writers than for his own work. His stories - dark, disturbing, elusive and brilliant - have for many years been difficult to obtain. In the past if you wanted to read Aickman you had a choice between raiding the second-hand bookstores and hoping for the best or else shelling out for a deluxe edition of his tales. Hopefully this new series of publications by Faber and Faber will return his work to the limelight it so richly deserves. Dark Entries contains six short stories, each one different to the last but all equally strange and dazzling. What I love about Aickman's tales is the way he sets up an intriguing situation and then adds layer upon layer of rustling unease. In 'The School Friend' for example, Mel finds herself looking after the house of an enigmatic friend, Sally, and wondering why all the rooms are kept locked and why the library appears to have been bizarrely reinforced to keep something out. Or is that rather to keep something in? Other stories are similarly odd. In 'Choice of Weapons' a man goes to dinner with his girlfriend only to become besotted with a young woman at another table - so much so that he dashes after her when she leaves and, upon visiting her house, finds himself strangely expected. In 'The View' a weary civil servant finds himself in a strange house, painting the landscape he sees from the grounds which, oddly, appears to alter every time he looks up from his canvas. 'Bind Your Hair' has an air of pagan mystery and the creepiest pair of children since Henry James's 'The Turn of the Screw' while 'Ringing the Changes' tells of newlywed visitors to an off-season seaside town where the church bells ring loudly enough to wake the dead. Possibly literally. Aickman was a great stylist, his prose elegant, clipped and measured. The stories abound with striking images - my favourite being in 'The School Friend' where heavy rain running down a window is described as having the appearance of melted wax. The characters are enigmatic and the settings endlessly intriguing. Occasionally I was reminded of Daphne du Maurier's short stories - Aickman and du Maurier both had a gift for portraying the commonplace suddenly wrong-footed by the surreal and the macabre.Also both were blessed with a prose style that positively purred. In conclusion if you were interested enough to read this review I really would recommend you pick up a copy of Dark Entries straight away. If you like the delicious thrill of the supernatural, the haunting and the unexpected Aickman is most definitely for you. As this collection demonstrates he really was one of the very best when it came to disturbing, macabre, brilliant tales.

Robert Aickman wurde erst vor ein paar Jahren "wiederentdeckt", da Autoren wie Neil Gaiman seine unheimlichen, rätselhaften Erzählungen lobten und als Inspiration nannten. Der Vergleich ist erstaunlich, aber ähnlich wie Kafka schafft Aickman sowohl einprägsame wie auch kryptische Gedankenbilder, lässt die Leser mit vielen Geheimnissen am Ende der Geschichten zurück, bei denen man immer irgendwie sehr genau ahnt, was die Lösung sein könnte - und diese ist schaurig. Gediegener Schreibstil mit großem Vokabular, das jedoch nie ins Pompöse abdriftet. Ein Geheimtipp für lange Herbst- und Winterabende.

My first Aickman, and purchased following an Amazon recommendation as I'd been browsing Ray Bradbury. These stories are chilling and unnerving, and will haunt you when you've finished reading. As another reviewer commented, these do not have 'neat' or 'tidy' endings - frequently you are left wondering just what would happen next. For me, at times this felt as if the story simply 'tailed off' without any proper resolution, hence 4 stars not 5.