Jess NevinsRecensioni

A book that covers the history and evolution of the horror genre in literature from the 19th century to the present day. The book examines the various trends, movements, subgenres, and influences that shaped horror fiction in different regions and periods, as well as the major authors and works that defined the genre. The book also explores the social, cultural, and political contexts that influenced horror fiction, and how horror fiction responded to the changing times and events. The book is divided into three parts: the Golden Age of Horror (1901-1939), the Silver Age of Horror (1940-1979), and the Modern Age of Horror. Each part covers the main developments and characteristics of horror fiction in that era, as well as the diversity and innovation of horror writers from various backgrounds, countries, and media. The book is a comprehensive and critical survey of horror fiction that aims to provide a deeper understanding of the genre and its impact on literature and culture.

Lots of new books added to the pile for me, especially things I passed on before form the Golden and Silver age of horror. The coverage of the modern era seemed a bit rushed and his international author spotlight could have used a bit of curation, lots of interesting sounding works but no translations.

FYI REVIEW: This anthology contains the following short stories which have very little to do with WWI except to define the period in which they were written. Each story includes excellent biographies of these largely forgotten writers and provide springboards for seeking out more of their works.
-Introduction: Neglected Masters by Jess Nevins
-The Wings of Horus by Algernon Blackwood
-Laura by Saki
-The Place of Pain by M. P. Shiel
-The Three Sisters by W. W. Jacobs
-An Episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
-The Pavilion by E. Nesbit
-Not on the Passenger List by Barry Pain
-The Liqueur Glass by Phyllis Bottome
-The Pin-Prick by May Sinclair
-Thirteen at Table by Lord Dunsany
-The Bird by Thomas Burke
-Enoch Soames by Max Beerbohm
-The Ghoul by Sir Hugh Clifford
-Powers of the Air by J. D. Beresford
-Old Fags by Stacy Aumonier
-The Separate Room by Ethel Colburn Mayne
-The King Waits by Clemence Dane

For anyone who enjoys the pulp adventures of the first half of the 20th century, such as Doc Savage or the Shadow, this is a must read. Those who love the more modern versions of such stories - like Alan Moore’s “Tom Strong” or “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” - will also be delighted.

Although things took a bit to get going, due to the unique structure of this book, the further you read the more engrossing and fully realized this world and its inhabitants are. I would absolutely love to see more adventures in this playground, either by Nevins or other authors.

For a series which has as many characters as Fables, it is almost perative to have an encyclopedia to keep them all straight. What I enjoyed about this book is that it gives a brief summary of where the characters first appeared in the real world fairytales in comparison to who they are in the Fables Universe. I'll definitely have to go and find some copies of the stories that I'm not familiar with, so this book gives me some good starting places.

I didn't like the layout 100% though, simply because many of the full-page illustrations were not on the facing page of the character descriptions. They would have been better served, I think, with small images for each of the characters alongside their descriptions instead of only providing pictures for the most popular characters.

This is what you get:

An Introduction by Alan Moore in which he explains how he began to include all sorts of fictional worlds into the League stories, mixing them together to create a complicated fictional counterpart to the real world.

A foreword by the author explaining how he started off annotating the series on a website. Also some notes about Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.

Annotations to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 132 pages of these. To utilise them properly you need to have the graphic novel and the Companion open at the same time and read the panels and notes one by one. This is not a good way to enjoy the story but for a second reading, it is informative. The notes are almost insanely detailed. Page 7, panel 2 shows a cigarette case with a harlequin design and the notes tell us the history of harlequins. Panel 5 notes tell us the history of John Bull because of a logo on a matchbox. This is trivia but other notes give details of the characters, major and minor.

'Archetypes' is a 22-page essay describing how the cast of LOEG represent archetypal characters from Victorian literature and giving the characters origins. Allan Quatermain is the archetype of a muscular Christian hero. Mina Murray is an archetypal new woman who appeared in the 1880s, assertive and independent.

'On Crossovers' is a 12-page essay. Nevins cites Jason and the Argonauts as the first crossover tale, bringing heroes who had their own legends together for one great adventure. Later Balzac, the French writer, created a consistent imaginary world with characters from one novel appearing in others. Stan Lee did the same thing with the Marvel Universe.

'Yellow Peril', a 20-page essay, tells us there are two kinds of danger so labelled. First is the individual Asian genius, second the peril en masse, a faceless horde of decadent, sexually deviant barbarians who threaten western civilisation. Nevins focuses on the individual Peril of which Fu Manchu is the ultimate incarnation.

Lastly, there is an interview with Alan Moore. This is 32 pages for like any good craftsmen the bearded one likes chatting about his work. Love him or hate him you can’t ignore the influence of this crazy genius on modern comics. I found it interesting that he has firm roots in literature and is very pleased that League sometimes directs comic readers to the ’old masters’ of adventure fiction who worked with prose alone, as well as to cult writers like Flann O’Brien.

Is this worth buying? For 1,299 pennies you get 132 pages of detailed annotations and 93 pages of interesting supplementary material which will give you a long list of books to read to increase your knowledge of Victorian pulp literature and your appreciation of the League. I enjoyed the essays but, for me, ploughing laboriously through the annotations is not fun. However one might just dip into them if something in a panel aroused one’s curiosity. Not a book for everyone but dedicated fans will love it.

I might as well get the mean bits of the review over with first. I enjoyed 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2' even more than Volume 1 but I cannot say the same, alas, for the companion book. Jess Nevins first volume, 'Heroes and Monsters', had detailed annotations about the graphic novel but also contained several informative essays. This second companion has no such essays and the annotations are unbalanced. They are unbalanced because Alan Moore wrote a long joke on his annotator and included it in the novel. ’I felt sure that The New Travellers Almanac would finish him off,’ says the bearded one in his introduction. In a way it did. There are 54 pages of notes on the 145-page story. There are 152 pages of notes about the jokey bits at the end, mostly on 'The New Travellers Almanac' which, Moore says ‘is sort of dense prose and I’m expecting that the readers aren’t gonna get through it, to tell the truth.’ In my case he was right. Nor will I read the detailed notes about his detailed prose joke. I doubt if many people will. Perhaps Jess Nevins should have ignored it as well.

There are nice things to say about this companion. First, respect is due to Nevins for the colossal amount of work he must have put into it. Second, the annotations for the actual graphic novel are as excellent as ever. The chap on the flying carpet at the start of the story is identified and there are interesting notes on the various sources for Moore’s fictional Martian history. Truly dedicated fans will enjoy working their way through the panels with the companion open alongside.

While the annotations are the raison d’etre for both companions I found the supplementary material more fun so was disappointed by the lack of it in Volume 2. For consolation, there are interviews with both Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Artists are not wordy people but O’Neill talks interestingly of his work on the project. He calls Alan ’the greatest architect of sequential graphic storytelling in the world’ and opines that though the master allows it he would be a fool to deviate from those precise gigantic incredibly detailed scripts. I believe O’Neill got started in the field with 2000AD and that comic magazine is worth a plug here. It’s a curates egg of a thing and too violent sometimes but it is a seedbed for new talent in the British comic industry, many of whom make it in America too. Our culture, as well as our balance of trade, is the richer for its existence. Subscribe now and tell Tharg I sent you.

Writers are wordy people so Moore’s interview is three times as long. Fans will be pleased to know there are more League tales to come, though not on any definite schedule. He is scathing about the film industry, respectful of literature. He is a fluent and provocative interviewee but to be taken with a pinch of salt perhaps. English people will know how to do this. Americans might not.

Conclusion: Don’t get this unless you really want the annotations as they comprise the vast bulk of it.

Jess Nevins’ mammoth survey of Victorian popular fiction is a hugely entertaining and handy tome for anyone with more than a passing interest in the era and its bewildering array of literary heroes and villains. As the title suggests this is in fact a straightforward encyclopedia, featuring listings and write-ups summarizing background, explaining character traits, etc…for hundreds of characters, ranging from the obvious to the obscure. Perhaps a bit less objective than I’d like, with Nevins’ injecting a strongly personal bias to some listings, it still proves to be highly useful and vastly entertaining. Sherlock Holmes is, of course, given a fair bit of coverage, roughly three plus pages, with further separate entries for other Arthur Conan Doyle characters including Irene Adler, Edward Bellingham, Jack Brocket, Micah Clarke, Brigadier Gerard, Sir Nigel Loring, Professor Moriarty, Professor Van Baumgarten and Duncan Warner. Well worth the expense and perfect for either extended reading or to dip into here and there as time and interest require. Highly recommended to Sherlockians and students of the Victorian pop literature scene alike!

Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman reprints all of the information from Nevin’s popular website plus biographies and analyses of all the major players, commentary by Kevin O’Neill, introduction by Alan Moore, and an interview with Moore. All this wrapped in a gorgeous John Picacio cover. Nevins’ book is not needed to enjoy League, but it will greatly enhance your reading pleasure.

Amazing reference & study of the superhero as it exists over time. Almost worth it just for the bibliography & references of sources I now want to read as well.

Amazing book by Jess Nevins that provides a great pulp-infused world history, scores of characters & concepts, & a great resource for pulp games, stories, or any wild and wooly adventure in any medium. This ties to Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century games & novels but could be a great read for anyone who likes Indiana Jones or other pulp-inspired stories. Highly recommended!!

The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana is a marvel: a comprehensive reference guide to authors, characters, and works of the fantastic in Victorian times, stuffed to bursting with tidbits and nuggets of information about those folks who laid much of the groundwork for today’s literature of the fantastic. 1200 pages, people! And did I mention it’s pretty? So very, very pretty.

This is for someone who is a fan of the Fables series. I've enjoyed the comic series and some of the spin offs and this was a great index to all the characters that have been brought to life in the pages of the comic. You find out which ones came whole cloth out of the writer's mind and what was based off of a fairy tale. As I was reading this I could see someone using it for writing a paper on fairy tales and needing a good cross reference for some of the lesser known characters.


Digital copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.

A thick, beautiful, well-researched comprehensive look at British and European sci-fi, pulp and fantasy in the Victorian era. If you're the least bit interested in any of those, pick it up.

Anyone who's more than remotely interested in the above genres needs to have this book on their shelf: it is a voluminous and addictive tome citing all the usual suspects (the major "scientific romances" of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne; Sherlock Holmes; Dracula; Alan Quatermain) as well as several who are off the beaten path (Baron Metzengerstein, Barbara Lovel, Karl Von Moor) and many whom you've likely never even heard of (Professor Parkins, Richard of the Raven's Crest, Edith Tarleton). The book naturally focuses on the fiction of the UK, France, Germany and the U.S., although some sidetrips are not out of the question: Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio gets an entry, as does Eduardo Ladislao Holmberg's Señor Nic-Nac (and who'd've thought that Argentina had a science fiction literature going back to 1875?). If the author casts his net a goodly bit wider than a strict definition of the Victorian era would permit, for the most part I didn't regret the presence of the extra information. My main disappointments with Fantastic Victoriana lie with the lack of an index (a lack that the author has corrected by posting an index on-line: http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Fantastic_Victoriana_author_index.html) and a certain languidness about the editing, from niggling errors in punctuation (no tilde in "Señor Nic-Nac," for example) and tense (the entry for "New York Nell" is one example), to occasional stylistic infelicities and repetition, to out-and-out wrong information, as when Jules Verne is credited as the author of The First Men in the Moon (p. 585) and the creator of Professor Cavor (p. 660; thankfully, neither instance is the entry for Professor Cavor). There's nothing that can't be cleaned up with relative ease in a second edition, though, and despite such bobbles, Fant Vic remains a fascinating and enticing read.½