The Island of Lost Pulp Classics

[Xmmm]

This thread is a little bit inspired by Speakeasy's hobby of collecting language courses that no one uses anymore. It's also a bit inspired by the list reineke posted of the best novels of all time, as determined by some rather dubious "experts".

I personally am a devotee of the suspense novel. The golden age of the suspense novel lasted from roughly 1940 to 1980 and it has sadly been in decline ever since then. During the golden age, the emphasis was on non-stop action, interesting characters, and excellent style. In addition, the plots involved tended to be realistic in the sense that the scale of action was reasonable. A secret agent has to stop a small gang of spies or criminals -- maybe five or seven at the most. He never has to fight all of them at the same time. And the action doesn't zoom around all over the world--it happens in one controlled setting.

Of course, there were bad writers even then but the bar was set high and to some extent it was enforced by editors. These days, suspense writers compensate for their boring characters and paint-by-numbers plots with huge heaps of sex and graphic violence, plus raising the stakes to "the whole world is going to be destroyed". That cheat obviously works, judging by sales. I think James Patterson has like a dozen ghost writers working for him cranking out bilge on demand. But, please.

Anyone who wants to, please feel free to contribute and it doesn't have to be suspense. It just has to be top notch genre fiction that would not normally be considered literary, and which never really got the credit it deserved. Bonus points if it's out of print.

I'll start the ball rolling ...

When Eight Bells Toll (Alistair MacLean)

It's very unusual for suspense novels to be written in the first person, but this one was and it's a huge plus. We get to see the character's motivation, his sharp sense of humor, and the regrets he has for the mistakes he makes along the way. Other huge pluses are the fact that it's set in the Scottish highlands and islands (MacLean's back yard) and that it mostly takes place on boats (which he was very familiar with).

MacLean is famous for any number of books (Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra, Breakheart Pass, etc.) that got turned into successful films. When Eight Bells Toll was turned into a film also, starring Anthony Hopkins and Robert Morley. But that film was unsuccessful. It's hard to put a finger on why, exactly, but I'd probably have to blame the direction. The film takes scenes that are gripping in the book, and renders them flat. The film is a let down.

But the book is absolutely top notch pulp and my personal favorite by MacLean. I must have read it a dozen times when I was younger.

[DaveBee]

A Gentleman of France by Stanley Weyman

Successful in his day, but he doesn't seem to have lasted.

I think this is a super book. It's an adventure story, more two books bolted together. Impoverished french noble given a chance to both serve his cause (he's a Huguenot), and repair his fortunes.

You get a chase across France with a powerful enemy and a looming deadline, then a court intrigue story. Lots of fun, for the longest time I thought it was an Alexandre Dumas story!

[Xenops]

Well, since you have "pulp" in the title, I must mention horror short-story writers from the mid 1800's to the 1930's.

H.P. Lovecraft has already gotten much praise in recent years, so I won't continue writing on him.

Algernon Blackwood's works, however, are sorely underrated: in all of my bookstore shopping, both in new and used bookstores, I have only seen one collection of his stores in one bookstore. He's also a hard find in libraries. I just have to accept the fact that if I want to own his works, I have to order online (gasp!) I would argue that his stuff is better than Lovecraft's.

And of course, if we want to read the original vampire story, we go not to Bram Stoker's work, but Sheridan Le Fanu's Through a Glass Darkly collection, which includes the before mentioned story. I also like his stuff better than Lovecraft's (I don't know what this says about me).

[Xmmm]

Running Blind (Desmond Bagley)

Hands down, Desmond Bagley's best novel.

The backdrop is Iceland. Action flies across geyser fields, lava fields, and giant waterfalls as the hero is relentlessly pursued by an old enemy with a very, very personal motive for revenge. There's just enough local color that I think Bagley must have visited there and not just relied on travel books. Very tight throughout, with a strong ending.

By the way, the hero is complimented early on for his skill in the Icelandic language and for being one of the few non-natives to be truly conversant in it. Since there's no mention of language schools but he does have a part-time Icelandic girlfriend, we have to assume his learning method was "making the ultimate sacrifice."

[Xmmm]

Dance of the Dwarfs (Geoffrey Household)

Geoffrey Household was interested in hunting, the great outdoors, the occult, and weird, secretive cults. If you read a lot of his books, you will get the impression that virtually every person in England belongs to some kind of secretive druidical or occult organization, headquartered in a cave, an abandoned mine, an old ruin, etc.

But this book is different. It takes place in South America and has no cults. If I gave you a plot summary, you would say it was the dumbest-sounding story you ever heard. But it's actually riveting, and disturbing ...

I won't give anything away (the purpose of the thread is to promote the reading of lost pulp classics and not modern trash, after all). Suffice to say that Household was an expert on hunting and the hunting scenes in this book are the scariest I've ever read.

Fair Warning: If you're the kind of person to get outraged by sexism in a book written in 1968, this is one you want to avoid.

[DaveBee]

Dance of the Dwarfs (Geoffrey Household)

Geoffrey Household was interested in hunting, the great outdoors, the occult, and weird, secretive cults. If you read a lot of his books, you will get the impression that virtually every person in England belongs to some kind of secretive druidical or occult organization, headquartered in a cave, an abandoned mine, an old ruin, etc.

But this book is different. It takes place in South America and has no cults. If I gave you a plot summary, you would say it was the dumbest-sounding story you ever heard. But it's actually riveting, and disturbing ...

I won't give anything away (the purpose of the thread is to promote the reading of lost pulp classics and not modern trash, after all). Suffice to say that Household was an expert on hunting and the hunting scenes in this book are the scariest I've ever read.

Fair Warning: If you're the kind of person to get outraged by sexism in a book written in 1968, this is one you want to avoid.

Rogue Male used to be a set book in UK schools. There was a nice Radio 4 adaption too, narrated by Michael Jayston.

EDIT
Looking for french language versions of Mr Household's books, I only found Rogue Male (Le Solitaire), this was published by Editions Bourgois in a collection called 'Serie B'.

The punchline here is that within that collection there is a book by someone called William Irish who apparantly published >350 short stories! I shall have find one.

William Irish - pseudonyme de Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968) - est un écrivain américain. Issu d'un milieu aisé, il suit des études à l'Université de Columbia à New York. Il écrit son premier roman, Chef d'accusation, en 1935, très influencé par l'œuvre de Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Il travaille aussi comme scénariste à Hollywood. Entre 1934 et 1940, il publie près de 350 nouvelles dans des pulps et connaît enfin le succès avec La Mariée était en noir. En 1954, il reçoit le Grand prix de littérature policière en France pour Un Pied dans la tombe. Certains de ses ouvrages sont adaptés au cinéma par Alfred Hitchcock (Fenêtre sur cour) ou encore François Truffaut (La Sirène du Mississipi). Surnommé l'Edgar Allan Poe du XXe siècle, on le considère comme le créateur du roman à suspense.