Annual Macabre 2005: Haven't I Read This Before?

Edited by Jack Adrian

ISBN: 1-55310-087-5; xxxiv+214pp; Published February 28, 2006

Limited to 400 copies

Original Price: C$50.00 / US$45.00 / £27.00

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The writer faced with a blank sheet of paper has to decide how the story he is going to write will develop: what will be its theme? what will be its outcome? He draws on his experience and talent to produce an original work for his reader's enjoyment. On occasion, however, his mind may be seeded with ideas drawn from something he himself has read.

This year's ANNUAL MACABRE looks at a number of writers whose work appears either to have been influenced, or been an influence upon, the work of others. In some of the stories, well-known writers have drawn on, and improved, earlier work. In others, lesser known writers have attempted their own variations on well-known stories.

In his fascinating introduction—which the reader is strongly urged to consider before reading the stories themselves—Jack Adrian discusses the theme of plagiarism and literary (and musical) theft. But outright plagiarism is not the sole theme of this ANNUAL which, as ever, showcases stories that will, in the main, be unknown, even if certain themes and storylines will be at least vaguely familiar, if not instantly recognizable.

So turn down the light and enjoy twenty stories from the pens of such as W. W. Jacobs, H. R. Wakefield, Edgar Jepson, Douglas Newton, Andrew Lang, and A. M. Burrage (whose story 'The House of His Fathers' is reprinted for the first time since its original magazine publication in 1914).

Contents:
  • Introduction by Jack Adrian
  • I. W. W. JACOBS:
    • The Toll House by W. W. Jacobs
    • Reconstruction by Michael Kent
    • Blind Man's Buff by H. R. Wakefield
    • The Well by W. W. Jacobs
    • The Well in the Garden by Peter Gladwin
  • II. AGATHA CHRISTIE:
    • Mrs Morrel's Last Séance by Edgar Jepson
    • Over the Telephone by A. B. Cox
  • III. DAPHNE DU MAURIER:
    • The Starlings by William Caine
  • IV. BARRY PEROWNE:
    • 'And There's Your Proof' by Douglas Newton
    • The Blind Spot by Barry Perowne
  • V. ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE:
    • The Case of Muelvos y Sagra by David Christie Murray
  • VI. ANDREW LANG:
    • The House of Strange Stories by Andrew Lang
    • A Sentence of Death by Katharine Tynan
    • Mrs Carabay's Curious Dream by Mary E. Mann
    • The Man on the Hearse by Janet Deene
  • VII. KATHARINE TYNAN:
    • The Dream House by Katharine Tynan
    • The House of His Fathers by A. M. Burrage
    • The Garden of Fancy by A. M. Burrage
  • VIII. LAFCADIO HEARN:
    • Mujina by Lafcadio Hearn
    • The Follower by Lady Cynthia Asquith