Elinor Mordaunt (1872–1942)
Autor von The villa and the vortex : selected supernatural stories, 1914-1934
Über den Autor
Werke von Elinor Mordaunt
The family, by Elinor Mordaunt 3 Exemplare
Rich tapestry 2 Exemplare
A ship of solace 2 Exemplare
To sea! To sea! 2 Exemplare
Blitz kids 2 Exemplare
Here too is valour 2 Exemplare
The rose of youth, by Elinor Mordaunt 2 Exemplare
The park wall, by Elinor Mordaunt 2 Exemplare
Laura Creichton 2 Exemplare
Reputation 2 Exemplare
Traveler's pack 1 Exemplar
While there's life 1 Exemplar
Rosemary, that's for rememberance 1 Exemplar
The Villa and The Vortex: Selected Supernatural Stories, 1914-1924 (Handheld Weirds Book 4) 1 Exemplar
People, houses & ships 1 Exemplar
Before midnight, by Elinor Mordaunt 1 Exemplar
Old wine in new bottles, by Elinor Mordaunt 1 Exemplar
The little soul 1 Exemplar
The garden of contentment 1 Exemplar
Hobby horse 1 Exemplar
Tropic heat 1 Exemplar
The cost of it, by Eleanor Mordaunt 1 Exemplar
Lu of the ranges, by Eleanor Mordaunt 1 Exemplar
The processionals, by Elinor Mordaunt 1 Exemplar
This was our life 1 Exemplar
The pendulum 1 Exemplar
Mrs. Van Kleek 1 Exemplar
The dark fire 1 Exemplar
And then --- ? : tales of land and sea 1 Exemplar
Father and daughter 1 Exemplar
These generations 1 Exemplar
Cross winds 1 Exemplar
Purely for pleasure 1 Exemplar
Prelude to death 1 Exemplar
The real Sally : a novel 1 Exemplar
Royals free 1 Exemplar
Sinabada 1 Exemplar
Roses in December 1 Exemplar
Death it is : and other stories 1 Exemplar
Short shipment 1 Exemplar
Judge not 1 Exemplar
Pity of the world 1 Exemplar
Zugehörige Werke
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century, Volume 2 (1991) — Mitwirkender — 97 Exemplare
Women's Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940 (Handheld Classics) (2019) — Mitwirkender — 68 Exemplare
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Mordaunt, Evelyn May
- Andere Namen
- Riposte, A.
Clowes, E. M. - Geburtstag
- 1872-05-07
- Todestag
- 1942-06-25
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- UK
- Geburtsort
- Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
- Sterbeort
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Wohnorte
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Mauritius
Mitglieder
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- Werke
- 49
- Auch von
- 7
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- Beliebtheit
- #202,476
- Bewertung
- 3.8
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 4
… a life that would have fitted well into the plot of one of her many novels. She was an independent, free-spirited woman, travelling the world, and visiting North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. She lost a fiancé early in life, escaped from one abusive husband [who once offered her as a stake during a card game], separated from another, and raised a son entirely on her own. She survived malaria, the zeppelin attacks on London during the First World War, and the 1918-19 Spanish flu. Amidst this life of adventure, Mordaunt was constantly gathering material for her writing.
Reading this collection of supernatural tales, I was surprised that Mordaunt, admired by Virginia Woolf amongst others, is not a better known writer. Certainly, her stories reflect themes and repeat tropes which were common in the supernatural fiction of the period, but none of them feels derivative, and most have an original slant which distinguishes them from similar tales by other authors. The writing style is atmospheric and rich, perhaps slightly overwrought at times, but even then, quite in keeping with the aura of decadence expressed in the stories.
During her lifetime, Mordaunt’s works were favourably compared to those of Algernon Blackwood and H.G. Wells. The references to these two authors give a good indication of Mordaunt’s brand of supernatural fiction which, rather than ghost stories in the traditional vein, venture more into the realm of horror and the weird. Creations like the village witch in The Country-side, and the eponymous prehistoric revenant in Hodge, have a strong basis in folklore and folk horror. A sense of mysticism a-là Machen pervades The Fountain, whose female protagonist is at once “physical” and “elemental” – a woman ethereal as mist… not altogether a woman, nor altogether water. Of all the stories in this collection, I felt that Mordaunt came closest to Wells in the urban Gothic Luz, set in a foggy London which disorientates the vulnerable female narrator.
Most of the stories are, in essence, psychological studies. That is certainly true of the two title pieces, despite their being very different in nature. Playwright Lawrence Kestervon, the protagonist of The Vortex, becomes obsessed with the success of his latest play but things go awry when the actors are possessed by the characters their play. The Villa – inspired by a house which Mordaunt actually visited on a trip to Ragusa (in present-day Croatia) – has elements of the haunted house sub-genre but, tellingly, what prompts the curse which lies on the house is a young couple wishing ill of its original owner. Their guilt following the owner’s death seems to project itself onto the house which, in return, avenges itself on subsequent inhabitants.
In her well-researched and erudite introduction, Melissa Edmundson examines each story in detail and makes a compelling case for including Mordaunt in the canon of great supernatural writers of the 20th Century. This collection is certainly a promising step in that direction.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/12/The-Villa-The-Vortex-Elinor-Mordaunt-...… (mehr)