Dedalus Books
 

There's been a lot of conversation lately about high-end books and their publishers. I wanted to point out that not all great books need be expensive. For example, Dedalus Books offers an affordable option and publishes authors who may interest TLO members.

To be fair, years ago they had had some problems with weak bindings and pages coming loose (paperbacks), but that problem seems to have been fixed.

A year ago they were at risk of going out of business; however, I just read some good news from their website:

[h2]Dedalus reinstated by Arts Council England[/h2]
It has been confirmed on 6 July 2010 that Dedalus has been reinstated as a Regularly Funded Organisation by the Regional Council, on 29 June 2010. Dedalus has been given a grant of £26,900 for 2010/2011. Further details to follow.

http://www.dedalusbooks.com/index.html

Re: Dedalus Books
 

This is great news, and, yes, the marvelous thing about Dedalus was always the way that they have made fabulously esoteric texts available in affordable paperback editions. They were never just a reprint operation either - they commissioned new translations, notably the complete run of Meyrink novels from Mike Mitchell, and every book comes with absorbing critical commentary. Dedalus gave me an education in the shadowy corners of world literature, I owe them for that, and I'm happy to see my taxes going towards future projects. I want to post favorite Dedalus titles, but I reckon that's going to take a few hours reflection - love to hear other people's thoughts, though.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

The only Dedalus title I own is The Dark Domain by Stefan Grabinski. Many thanks to yellowish haze for sending me a copy of this wonderful collection of stories a few years ago!

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I own 3. There is another book by Dedalus that you may like: "The Angels of Perversity" by Remy de Gourmont. The first part, "Studies in Fascination" has excellent macabre stories.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I have a shelf full of Dedalus - here are are the first five that came to mind:

The Dedalus Book of Decadence - a superb sampler of poetry and prose, one book that lead to many others.
The Dedalus/Ariadne Book of Austrian Fantasy and The Dedalus Book of German Decadence
All the Dedalus anthologies are worth a look, but these two are outstanding, luxurious boxes of drugged candy.
Les Diaboliques - Barbey D'Aurevilly - perverse and nightmarish tales of femmes fatales from the arch-decadent.
The Angels of Perversity - Remy de Gourmont - surprised to be beaten to this one, but delighted to know that it has other fans. Macabre, yes, but sensual too.

I could go on and on. . had forgotten that Dedalus introduced Grabinski to the English speaking world. Mario de Sa-Carneiro is another Dedalus writer I can imagine appealing to many here.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I've quite a few Dedalus volumes too and one that doesn't seem to get mentioned much, which I think is definitely worth a read, is Marcel Bealu's 'The Experience of the Night'

Re: Dedalus Books
 

The Experience of the Night is excellent. I also have the Grabinski and The Dedalus Book of French Horror: The 19th Century. I read a copy of Alfred Kubin's The Other Side I got from the library. Used copies of the Dedalus edition, and all other english editions, seem to be scarce and priced high, but I highly recommend it to anyone who can borrow or afford it.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I read the Dedalus/Ariadne Book of Austrian Fantasy a number of years ago, but have never picked up any of the other fantasy anthologies. The Life of J.-K. Huysmans by Robert Baldick is on my to buy list, and I'll definitely check into some of the other titles recommended here.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I find it rather fortuitous that this thread has been started, as I have recently been making my way through quite a few Dedalus titles! I am actually quite surprised that Dedalus Books has not been given a dedicated thread on TLO before.

I discovered Dedalus at the beginning of this year when I ordered Grabinski's The Dark Domain. I was instantly intrigued by the other texts they had to offer. I have slowly been making my way through the Meyrink translations, and their various books of decadence, which I have found excellent, and a great introduction to writers I probably would not have discovered elsewhere. Like Gray House, I have also managed to find a copy of Kubin's The Other Side at a nearby university library. I cannot believe how scarce this seems to have become! This library has several Dedalus titles in their collection, and I think that I will try to read as many of them as possible, as their selection of published titles I have thus far found to be impeccable! I will most likely slowly be ordering my favourites for my personal collection.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Dedalus are truly excellent, and I have quite a few of their books (by Grabinski, the European anthologies and the cultural studies by Lachman). But, when it comes to this publisher, they're no more likely to pursue the idea of continuing the dissemination of contemporary weird fiction than any other publisher. That's really what matters to me, in the long run.

Sure, they've turned out Satan Wants You (which is actually well worth reading), but that's because, I suspect, it's written by the head honcho of Dedalus himself; Robert Irwin. Beyond that, in terms of other new contemporary authors outside of the inside: absolutely zilch.

Mark S.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I bought The Other Side new from Amazon in 2005, and have it somewhere around my house.

I'm kind of shocked at the prices it's going for, new and used.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Not really true at all as, along with other Irwin novels (including the stunning Arabian Nightmare and the pretty good, Exquisite Corpse) they've also published a few by David Madson (The Confessions of a Flesh-eater, Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf, A Box Of Dreams), Andrew Crumey (D'Alembert's Principle, Music, in a Foreign Language, Pfitz) and Andy Oakes along with quite a few more. Looking at their website i see they've also got at least five novels by contemporary authors planned for the rest of the year and early 2011.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I've not been able to get through Kubin's The Other Side, although I appreciate the illustrations. It seems, to me rather like Beardsley's Under the Hill, in as much as it's a novel by someone whose true talent lay elsewhere; i.e. in illustration & not in prose narrative.

Mark S.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Ghadis

In that case, I hold my hands up, surrender, stand corrected and apologise. I have my grumpy boots on tonight. :drunk:

Mark S.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Well, to be fair, apart from the aforementioned Irwin novels i don't think their contemporary releases have been much good at all really. It would be great to see writers such as yourself, Ligotti, Simon Strantzas, Joel Lane or others published there in the future.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Ghadis

You're very kind. I wasn't really angling for that response but you've made me feel :)

I really should familiarise myself with the up-to-date stuff from Dedalus and I'm genuinely glad you've pointed that list out to me.

All best
Mark S.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Ooops. Point of order. That should read Satan Wants Me & not Satan Wants You.

But "well worth reading" stands unchanged. I enjoyed the book a great deal.

Mark S.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

As a prose stylist I thought Kubin was perhaps only adequate. I thought the concept of the city and the general story outline were very good, but what really made this book memorable to me were in the strange imagery (here I'm not speaking of the illustrations, but of the imagery conveyed by the prose) and events. I think it's a very visual book. I read it a year or so ago, and some of the images and scenes this book created in my head I can still easily bring back. I'm a fan of surrealism (in a broad sense) in literature. I think in this respect The Other Side certainly does not disappoint, but if a reader is looking for polished prose the reader might be disappointed.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Yes, I found The Other Side to be very much a visual book - I imagine it as a 60's-70's 'head trip' movie, down to the apocalyptic finale. Jodorowsky would have made a fine job of it.

Anyone else read either of the Dedalus Sa-Carneiro titles? Fascinating stuff, deeply neurotic and hallucinatory, on the cusp between Decadence and modernism. The author was a friend and literary colleague of Pessoa, but committed suicide at 26.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

The Dedalus Book of Portuguese Fantasy has two stories by Sá-Carneiro: "Mystery" and "Myself the Other". Probably you already know this.

I love reading anthologies of short stories. The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy is excellent too. To be honest, save for one or two stories, most of these writers were not translated yet, or if some were, the books are out of print, and not available anywhere.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Actually, no, I hadn't got to that one yet! ;) Finnish Fantasy is another one I've still to read - a particularly glaring omission, as I have family in Finland. Thanks for the tips! Interesting to see from the website that Flemish Fantasy is finally out - been waiting for that one for a long time. Hubert Lampo!

I can also recommend 'French Horror', mentioned upthread, which left me hungering for more of the Frenetique school and Petrus 'Lycanthrope' Borel in particular, a writer barely translated in English and long out-of-print. That's the only problem with these collections - they leave you wanting more of texts that just can't be had.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

There is also a book of Fantasy and Science Fiction of Dutch and Flemish writers, "New Worlds From the Lowlands". Edited by Manuel Van Loggem, with a preface by Isaac Asimov. 1982. Pages 73 to 81, contain a story by Lampo, "Mr. Davidson's Son". I bought the book a long time ago but didn't read it. I can also recommend another book: "The Belgian School of the Bizarre", translated by Kim Connell. 1998. The book has 16 short stories. I read it and it's interesting literature. Flemish fiction is hard to find, but there are a few more books around.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Yes, Dedalus is one of the best out there.
I've been eagerly awaiting the forthcoming "Dedalus Meyrink Reader" for some time now- hoping it will finally come out this Fall. More deeply appreciated work from Mike Mitchell and Dedalus.
This volume is supposed to feature some non-fiction as well as more short stories. I for one can't get enough of Meyrink's short fiction, which really formed my (very high) opinion of him- shame to say I still haven't read The Golem, but I have read and re-read everything in the collection "The Opal" and tracked down a few other stray shorts in anthologies.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

Without for a moment wishing to run down Meyrink's short fiction, if you've enjoyed that, the novels will blow your mind.

If you can afford the Tartarus edition of Der Golem, it's a fabulous book which includes all the Hugo Steiner-Prag illustrations from the original edition, and then some! They add as much to the feel of the story as Peake's illustrations do to Titus Groan. If not, the Dedalus edition uses the same Mitchell translation.

Re: Dedalus Books
 

I really adore Dedalus' literary standards, but I think the inside layout of their books tends to be rather on the ugly and less reader-friendly side. Still, that too has improved over the years. And still, for me as a reader, when a book is published by Dedalus it usually means that the text(s) included are of the highest calibre.