Category Archives: retro book reviews

Dear Edgar #12 King Pest

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mark Hayes

King Pest is also a bit of an odd ball, even amongst other Poe stories. It reveals in description and the grotesque to a far greater extent than even Poe’s usual work. While the story is something akin to a nightmarish romp through a plague ridden London. Think of it as the literary equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #6 MS Found in a Bottle

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Poe scholars are apt to say it was this story that truly launched Poe’s career. Certainly its is the first tale to read the way you expect Poe to read, with an ominous intensity wrapped in poetic language, creeping with ever more intensity towards a dark grim conclusion. In this tale then, you can see all that is to come late in Poe’s career. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #5 Bon-Bon

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Look too long in to the abyss and the abyss will make you an offer on your immortal aspect… Apparently. Continue reading →

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What is Steampunk? A Guest post by Matt McCall

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Mat McCall, a bulldozer of joyous exuberance and invested enthusiasm who manages to drag unsuspecting people into a whirlwind of frivolity. I love this man… He has some thoughts on ‘What is Steampunk’ he is something of an expert on the matter, though he would never claim to be. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #4 Loss of Breath

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Mark Hayes

I shall not explain how he proposed to treated women in whom he diagnosed as afflicted with similar afflictions, including ‘nymphomania’ which is to say any woman who enjoyed any kind of sexual agency in her own right outside of the marriage bed, because frankly you don’t want to know. Just let me state it was horrendous. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, Dear Edgar, fiction, goodreads, horror, Lovecraft, Poe, quotes, reads, retro book reviews | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, Poe, reads, writer, writerslife, writing | 6 Comments

Dear Edgar #2 The Duc de L’Omelette

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Mark Hayes

I find it hard to sympathise with anyone who puts a towel on their head to eat a bird that’s been force feed and drown in brandy. Continue reading →

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Dandelions on Mars

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Mark Hayes

I had a moment of genuine glee while reading last night as a spaceship from the planet mars crashed into Surrey’s Horsell common in 1857… The astute and well read among you may be able to guess why, but to … Continue reading →

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The Thing On The Doorstep : TCL 64

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Mark Hayes

It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to shew by this statement that I am not his murderer. At first I shall be called a madman—madder than … Continue reading →

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Awesome and unexpected connections

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Mark Hayes

I’ll let you in on a secret here, some authors are occasionally known to partake of a nip or two of rum. Also, sometimes these same authors will engage in late-night chats with another author who may or may not … Continue reading →

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The Shadow over Innsmouth / TCL #61

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Mark Hayes

While many of Lovecraft’s stories were published in periodical magazines like Weird Tales in his lifetime, only one was ever published as a book, even then the whole print run was only 200 copies each priced at a dollar. It … Continue reading →