A Hallowe'en Read

I'm about halfway through my first Dennis Wheatley novel, To The Devil--A Daughter (1953), a rather silly (so far) but fun occult thriller. Wheatley was an English writer who lived 1897-1977 and wrote some 50+ novels, mostly thrillers like this, although he wrote crime, espionage, and historical fiction as well. Hammer studios made three of his novels into decent films: the aforementioned title, plus The Devil Rides Out and The Lost Continent (aka Uncharted Seas). The novel, so far, is a bit chatty and full of midcentury English and French stereotypes (the English are tweedy, chivalrous, and full of derring-do; the French are untrustworthy, decadent, and sensual), and everyone, hero and villain alike, is given to speechifying about the perils of socialism. Even so, like I said, it's fun if you don't take it too seriously (how could you?) and just let the story take you away to the French Riviera where, despite the fact that a young demon-possessed girl has just been smuggled aboard a yacht by Satanists determined to overthrow Western Civilisation, there's always time for a pastis, a plate of oysters, and a lecture on occult symbolism.

The book I'm reading was purchased for 30p in a cozy little bookshop in Hastings, England, called Old Town Book Centre (now no longer in existence, I'm afraid), a stone's throw from the famous Mermaid fish & chips shop (now under poor management, I'm afraid). My buying it is connected in my mind with a lovely visit to my dear, dear friends Barry and Jacque, who lived in the nearby town of Denton at the time (about ten years ago). Actually there were two books--the other was The Devil Rides Out--but it has gone missing, probably a casualty from a few months back when I did a little sell-off of unread and unwanted paperbacks from around the house. It's a shame, for according to a website I happened on the other day, they may be from a somewhat collectible series of editions. These were the Heron editions, paperbacks produced in the style of their hardback counterparts--a pseudo Morroco leather soft cover with gilded lettering and framing. (Read about them in as much tedious detail as you could ever want here.) My copy of To the Devil--A Daughter from 1972 is badly abused, unfortunately, (I think Ian had a go at it--the cover's ripped and there are teeth marks), and I believe it was for that reason it survived the purging from some months ago. Here's what it should look like:

But perhaps the most interesting thing about my book is the illustrations by French artist Michel de St. Ouen. There's only three, but they've intrigued me enough to seek him out online. It seems he's a fantasy illustrator/artist whose new-agey pictures--by turns sexy, eerie, ludicrous--have a certain mystical quality, hard to describe, that draws me in. There's some good representative images online if you do a simple Google search. Here's a site he's involved with, the Society for Art of Imagination, which features some of his pictures and those of others like him. As for my book, check these out.. As I said, by turns...

...sexy (not the Tor Johnson look-alike with the man-boobs):

 ...eerie (seriously):

 

 ...and ludicrous (does this not look like something a Twilight nerdette drew on a Pee-chee?):

But they're perfect for this kind of a book, a goofy thrill-ride. As I told K, it's like spending loads of time inside a good, full-blooded Hammer film from c.1965., and perfect for the season.

Happy Hallowe'en!
~CD