Jean Ray
What a fantastic drawing on the cover. 
I may have had some serious problems with small press of the moment Ex Occidente Press, but it is beyond dispute that they are publishing some of the best works of strange fiction being produced today. If one manages to navigate the many obstacles that stand in the way of acquiring their books, the reading experience is usually a very rewarding one. The Horrifying Presence and Other Tales, a collection of twenty-seven weird tales by Belgian author Jean Ray, is the second Ex Occidente book to be reviewed here at SFJ. The first was the excellent Bloody Baudelaire by R.B. Russell (review here), an absolutely beautiful book that made it onto our Top 5 Reads of 2009 list.
Jean Ray (1887-1964) is often called the Belgian Poe and comparisons of his work to that of Lovecraft also abound. A journalist, novelist, short story writer, and translator, he wrote profusely. Curiously, some of his most famous tales were written while he was serving a prison term for embezzlement.
His work is notoriously difficult to find in English. Aside from The Horrifying Presence, I am aware of only two other collections of his short stories in English: Ghouls in My Grave, an unassuming paperback published in 1965, and My Own Private Spectres, published in 1999 by another small press I have yet to investigate: Midnight House. Both of these two volumes are virtually impossible to find today. The Horrifying Presence is therefore the best and only opportunity to read Mr. Ray's short fiction in English that has come along in some years.
Having just finished reading The Horrifying Presence, I am stunned--stunned and saddened--that Mr. Ray's work isn't more widely available in English. His tales are some of the best and most effectively eerie I've ever come across.
There is not a single disappointing story in this collection, a considerable accomplishment for a book that contains so many tales. If I were forced to whittle it down to, say, five favorites, I would include:
"The Graveyard Guardian," in which the narrator takes a job as one of three guardians of an old cemetery purchased from the impoverished town it borders by the recently deceased duchess Opoltchenska. Presumably hired to guard the riches he suspects reside in her newly constructed mausoleum, he eventually discovers that his role is far different from what he initially thought.
"Cousin Passeroux," an unforgettable tale of revenge in which a man on the run shows up on his cousin's doorstep looking for a place to hide. His flight is a result of his less than polite treatment of the inhabitants of a remote island. One of the characters in this story utters a haunting refrain every time he makes an appearance and the way this story progresses stays with the reader long after the story is finished.
From an imaginative audacity standpoint, "The Formidable Secret of the Pole" is unquestionably the most standout piece. In it, a Professor and one of his students respond to a summons to a remote island that they found in a container floating in the sea. What they find when they get there is mind blowing. This one is just as accomplished of an adventure tale as it is a weird tale.
"The Choucroute" reminded me of Ligotti a bit , in its setting at least. It is the story of a man who decides to spice up his life by taking the train to nowhere in particular and getting off at a random stop. The town this leads him to is not what it seems.
"The Moustiers Plate" was another story that feels almost as much like an adventure tale as it does a weird tale. In it, a man falls asleep on a docked ship after finding an old plate in a cabinet and awakens to find that some unwelcome guests have commandeered the ship. He soon finds himself on an island with a very peculiar resident. As the reader soon discovers, everything that subsequently happens to him is directly connected to the plate.
Mr. Ray is a good writer, but his real strength is his top notch, unrestrained imagination. His world is largely water-covered and feels vast and forbiddingly perilous; a gray, storm-chased globe of seemingly perennial autumn, peppered here and there by small, often remote, outposts of humanity. His characters frequently discover that the darkness of the outer world dwells even in these places, the villages and taverns, and sometimes it is they themselves who have brought the darkness with them.
While it is difficult to find anything negative to say about this book, there were a few instances of oddly worded sentences. Perhaps these are minor translation problems or perhaps Mr. Ray's prose is just a bit antiquated. In any event, these do not significantly detract from the reading experience. Mr. Ray also has a habit of making characters expressly state what's happening at a given moment when other authors would simply tell the reader; a character might utter an exclamation like "He was throttling me!" rather than Ray simply telling us that one character throttled another.
The Horrifying Presence was a complete surprise. I didn't think it was possible for writers of this quality to languish in relative obscurity for so long. Why are all of this man's works not widely available in the English speaking world? As soon as I finished reading this book and found to my dismay that the few works of his available in English are out of my price range, I searched libraries across the Southeastern United States for them. I found only one copy of one of his works in English two states over and hundreds of miles away. Infuriating!
Rating: 10/10
The True First
The Horrifying Presence and Other Tales was first published by Ex Occidente Press in March 2009 and was limited to 300 copies. There are still a few copies floating around on the secondary market but they are getting expensive quickly.
[This review was not based on a review copy]
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20 comments:
Good luck finding those other Jean Ray books, especially the Midnight House volume. Demand is through the roof.
You might also want to track down the Ray novel, Malpertuis, which should still be available... or at least available inexpensively.
I guess they really are in high demand. I have found one copy only of each of his other short story collections: "Ghouls in My Grave" for a whopping $200+ USD, and "My Own Private Spectres" for $150. Wow.
Thanks for the tip about "Malpertuis." It does look like it's much more ubiquitous and is available for the cost of a normal book. It's going toward the top of my reading list. Are you a fan of his work, if you don't mind me asking?
The high demand for Ray's work makes the lack of its availability from republishers puzzling to me. I guess it might be lost in a nether world in which there's high demand but not high enough demand to get a lot of interest in republishing from those who have the resources.
Sheesh, getting one's hand on a copy of Ray's earlier works is almost as difficult as getting a copy of the first collection by Simon Strantzas :)
Great review; after close to a year's wait, I finally received and read this last week. Beautiful book, although I was disappointed it didn't contain more of his cosmic horror tales like 'Shadowy Street' and 'St. Judas of the Night', which can be found in 'Spectres', probably the definitive collection to get; it and this one contain all but a couple of the stories from 'Ghouls'. Also, I heartily recommend Malpertuis; probably Ray's best, and a masterpiece of weird fiction comparable only to the likes of Machen, Hodgson, Lovecraft and Ligotti.
Well, let's not go crazy and use my name and Ray's in the same breath. That's a tall stick to leap.
I haven't read a lot of Ray's work, but what I have read I've enjoyed... at least, as far as the clunky translations would let me.
@MayorWhitebelly: knowing that "Spectres" is the definitive collection of Ray's short stories makes me lament the impossibility of finding it (at a reasonable price) even more! I'm particularly interested in reading his story called "The Mainz Psalter" but I guess that will have to wait too
@strantzas: I don't know...you and Ray were the last two 10/10s on this site...
Another excellent find Ben and thanks for the illuminating review. Looks like you won't be having any spare cash for a while.
Ha! Right you are Colin. I actually managed to pick up a few Ex Occidente titles together and so paid considerably less for them than I would have otherwise. I still wont' be purchasing too many books for a while...
Unfortunately, Spectres has become ludicrously rare; I paid about the price listed (if not a bit more) when I got my copy couple years, I'd been looking so long that I just bit the bullet and forked over. But then, I'm impatient and impulsive, especially where weird fiction's concerned. However, if you want to read more Ray without breaking the bank, 'Mainz Psalter' 's in a Marvin Kaye anthology called Witches & Warlocks, and 'Shadowy Street' is in Hartwell's Foundations of Fear.
Great! Thanks for the tip Mayor!
My pleasure, thank you for this site, especially for the review of Golaski's book. I'd read and enjoyed 'Man in the Peak' - but your review sold me on his collection, which I loved from the opening story. That girl on the ceiling - wonderfully chilling!
Thanks for the kind words, Mayor! It's always nice to hear that at least a few appreciate SFJ! And I agree re: the girl on the ceiling! Golaski's collection is likely to appear in my Top 5 Reads of 2010...
I would've written something like this sooner, if I ever got my goddamned book. How I wish I saw the other entry pertaining to Ex Occidente sooner... Over half a year, and still absolutely nothing. Not even a reply to tell why. Great fiction, but some shifty motherfuckers pushing it.
Yikes Anonymous! Let's hope my poor mother doesn't read your salty language :)
I hope you manage to find a copy of this book somewhere. It's definitely worth it (sorry, that probably doesn't help you right now).
Hi, Ben. I'm new to your site but it's really right up my alley. I'm a writer and translator of spec fic of all stripes, and recently returned from a Fulbright year in Brussels spent researching Belgian fantastical fiction. It's sort of scuttlebutt, but from what I understand, Ray's agent drives too hard a bargain for most interested Anglophone publishers, though... we're working on it. Meanwhile, I've a previously untranslated Thomas Owen story up at Pseudopod, if you have time to stop by for a listen. Love to hear what you think!
There's also a single Ray story in a Lowell Bair translation (so, from the Ghouls in my Grave collection) in the Foundations of Fear anthology edited by David Hartwell. "The Shadowy Alley" -- it's one of Ray's best. Last Christmas I did a few guest posts at the Small Beer Press blog on some Belgian fantasists, including Ray, though frankly the wealth of info online (some of which I link to) outclasses what I have to offer.
@Edward: welcome and thanks for your comments!
I envy you for your study of Belgian fantastical fiction. You've probably noticed that my two most sought offer books are both by Belgians: one by Jean Ray and the other by Thomas Owen.
Thanks for pointing me to your translation of one of Mr. Owen's stories. I'll definitely check it out sometime this week.
I've actually read the "Shadowy Alley" and enjoyed it thoroughly. And I actually came across your post on Ray over at the Small Beer Press website some time ago. It was very informative. After all, there may be a wealth of other info on Ray out there but I can't read most of it (je peux lire un peu de Francais mais pas vraiment).
Whatever the hold up is, I hope that Ray's work becomes more widely available sometime soon. It is really an injustice that it isn't yet.
@Edward: I really enjoyed your translation of "Kavar the Rat." Why isn't someone reprinting more of Mr. Owen's work in English!?
Hi Ben: thanks! I don't really know why. I mean, if you look at William Kimber's list, Owen's kind of horror sticks out like a sore thumb. He doesn't fit in there, and then Kimber went bankrupt anyway. Owen's a huge name in Belgium, but... probably only there. I mean, who cares about Belgium? Anyway, I'm working on trying to find him a home. There's some potential but no solid news yet. Slip me an email and I'll drop you some samizdat.
@Edward: I don't have your email address...
edward@edwardgauvin.com
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