Fright Night: Two Bottles of Relish

Friday Fright Night!





What a great blog meme/theme. Suggestion came from the GA blogmaster Curtis Evans at Passing Tramp, while Kate Jackson (Cross-Examining Crime) organizes us all - and calls herself GA Social Secretary, though I am saying ‘Social Queen’. And Bev at My Reader’s Block, of course, did that great logo for us. Look out for posts at other blogfriends' sites... 

I’m not much of a one for horror on the whole, but I do like something spooky and scary, a ghost story, or – best of all – a series of events that might have a rational (but crime-based) explanation, but might not. So - shivers ahoy.

My first choice is not quite any of that, but seems to fit. Two Bottles of Relish by Lord Dunsany (we’re classy & aristocratic here at CiB) is a famous short story, but not one that I’d read till recently: It was in a collection of the same name that I received from my kindly GA Secret Santa. Now was the time to read it.

And it is a splendid story, worth its reputation. It is not supernatural, and it’s not spooky exactly, but it is definitely horror. It was first published in 1932, and Ellery Queen, no less, said it was ‘one of the most unforgettable stories of horror/detection ever written’. In an introduction to my book, he explains how it came to be written, and why the author struggled to find a publisher...

The setup – which carries through into several of the short stories in the collection – is that a travelling salesman, Smethers, shares a flat with a posho called Linley, and they solve crimes together – the era is from the 1930s till post-WW2. This story deals with a cad of a man and missing girl.




Smethers ‘travels’ in Numnumo relish for meat and savouries, and is a very good salesman, and observant. We find out that the villain first came under suspicion because he was a vegetarian, and ‘a vegetarian was something new to the constable.’ Smethers is an excellent character, charming and with a distinctive voice, and makes comments such as ‘you don’t have to quote the whole of the Inferno to show that you’ve read Milton, half a line may do it.’ Smethers was somewhat reminiscent of Dorothy L Sayers’ Montague Egg, also a travelling salesman who appeared in short stories and used his knowledge and observations to solve crimes.




And that’s about all I can say about this story of a man who may or may not have killed his girlfriend. You could well guess part of it. But the story has a brilliantly inexplicable aspect – why did the suspect chop down some trees? – and a superb and zinging last line to explain it. The story is a little gem.

I enjoyed the others in the book too. I particularly loved Linley looking at an almost-completed crossword left behind by a suspect, and working out sufficient attributes of crossword man to track him down. Unlikely but wonderful.... ‘he has a gun, lives near a river, and didn’t go to Eton.’

The other stories in this collection are very varied in style, in tone, in genre and in quality. But they are all of interest, and mostly short – always a point in favour. There is a very good one called ‘The Speech’: A politician is to make an important speech on foreign affairs, and a political group is desperate to stop him. The threats grow more dramatic, the police protection becomes more intense, the tension mounts. The ending is extremely clever.

Kate at Cross-Examining Crime reviewed the collection a few years ago, and gives more detail of the stories.

Lord Dunsany was a fascinating figure of Anglo-Irish literature, well worth a look on Wikipedia, and very successful and well-known in his day, though I think largely forgotten now. Though I realized that he wrote the book on which the very weird but enjoyable 2008 film Dean Spanley was based. The film was described at Rotten Tomatoes as ‘Offbeat, whimsical, period-set shaggy dog story with daffy performances from Sam Neill and Peter O’Toole."


VERY SLIGHTLY SPOILERESQUE


There is a theme to Two Bottles of Relish that pops up elsewhere – I’m going to be vague, but those in the know will know.

A story by Stanley Ellin –one of his most famous stories.

One of the Dover books by Joyce Porter.

Robinson Crusoe

Edgar Allan Poe

Herman Melville

Work by Thomas Harris

And a GA title that I can’t track down in my head, whereby a number of people gather for a specific purpose, hidden to others.


The pictures show Canadian salesmen of the era: they are actually all employed by Kodak cameras: the firm had a regular magazine about sales techniques, and that’s where the pictures come from.

Comments

  1. It sounds like exactly the sort of creepy tale I like, Moira. I'm not much of a one for the supernatural or ghosts, etc. Not sure why, but those sorts of stories just don't do it for me. But this one sounds like a very different sort of 'fright' story, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. And this is a great idea for an October meme, too!

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    1. Isn't it a good idea? And I like the way it's so open - for me (like you) it will never be the all-out horror, and I don't like anything too gruesome. I've read some tales that I've really hated. We all have our own line I think! And that's fair enough. I want to go so far and no farther.

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  2. Thank you for the mention. I had forgotten about this story, but your post has refreshed my memory. Definitely a very good choice for Friday Fright Night. It puts me in mind of some of Christie's shorter work in The Hound of Death story collection. They are equally a bit sinister.

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    1. Yes, I know what you mean - Christie could do it well too. The shock value reminded me of that John Dickson Carr story, The House in Goblin Wood, another real goodie.

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  3. Oh, yes, this is one of those stories that dropped my jaw at the end, that is a fine art indeed
    .

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    1. I loved it because you can absolutely see the big thing coming, but I'm betting almost no-one ever guesses the final line!

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  4. The collection sounds interesting, although I do not like creepy tales. But in short story length, I would be willing to try it.

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    1. Could be worth a look Tracy - they are good short stories, which I know you like, and they are not too creepy! Just interesting and varied.

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  5. Dunsany is still very popular among fantasy readers,
    His poem "An Interview" is grimly funny as well: #

    ‘And were you pleased?’ they asked of Helen in Hell.
    ‘Pleased?’ answered she, ‘when all Troy’s towers fell;
    And dead were Priam’s sons, and lost his throne?
    And such a war was fought as none had known;
    And even the gods took part; and all because
    Of me alone!
    Pleased? I should say I was!’

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    1. Oh thanks for the info, it is always difficult to judge the reputation of someone in a niche area. And that's a great poem...

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    1. I think it's going to prove very memorable in my mind... which is what makes a classic.

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  7. I still need to read that Ellin story. Scout's honour it popped into my mind as you alluded to the possible killing.

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    1. Aha, I believe you. Ellin very much up your street I'd have thought - and what's your attitude to horror generally?

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    2. I thought I had left the horror genre behind years ago, but recently I've been enjoying a lot of Audible books, some in the genre and I'm having a bit of a blast. I kind of park my incredulity at the door and then crack on. There's a lot of thriller, mystery, crime strands in horror fiction, so it's not like it's a million miles away from what I might normally be reading. Bad books are still bad books whatever the genre.

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    3. Oh interesting - I used to have a moderate interest in horror, then read too many really bad books. But now I am venturing back into the genre, so something like yourself. I'll be looking for recommendations. And yes exactly - I particularly like something that is in both genres.

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    4. Robert Aickman preferred the term "strange stories", but he wrote what are very good - and strange - horror stories and edited quite a few anthologies, as well as helping to save the British canal network.

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    5. Well he sounds like an interesting man - I'll have to look him up.

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