Guy de Maupassant – Page 9

Fantastic Imaginings, edited by Stefan Rudnicki

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Just in, this very interesting anthology, edited by Stefan Rudnicki! I couldn’t find a Table of Contents on this package or on the Audible site, so I included it below. Why don’t audio publishers find the Table of Contents important when it comes to anthologies and collections? Because… THEY ARE.

After seeing the contents, I’m eager to dive into this. Oliver Onions, Guy de Maupassant, Harlan Ellison, John Crowley… Harlan Ellison reading John Crowley… this is terrific!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Lofty Ambitions by Harlan Ellison, read by Harlan Ellison

PART 1: THE MYTHS WE LIVE BY
A Youth In Apparel That Glittered by Stephen Crane, read by Stefan Rudnicki (poem)
After the Myths Went Home by Robert Silverberg, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Novelty by John Crowley, read by Harlan Ellison
Pan And The Firebird by Sam M. Steward, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Murderer, The Hope Of All Women by Oskar Kokoschka, performed by cast
The Touch Of Pan by Algernon Blackwood, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Lost Thyrsis by Oliver Onions, read by Roz Landor
The Bacchae (excerpt) by Eurpides, performed by cast

PART 2: MYTHS THAT BITE
A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Mystery Train by Lewis Shiner, read by John Rubenstein
Continued On The Next Rock by R.A. Lafferty, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Diary Of A God by Barry Pain, read by Enn Reitel
The Repairer of Reputations (excerpt) by Robert W. Chambers, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, read by Stefan Rudnicki
An Inhabitant Of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce, read by Danny Campbell
The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, read by Arte Johnson

PART 3: SHOCKING FUTURES
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by Stefan Rudnicki (poem)
City Come A’Walkin (excerpt) by John Shirley, read by Don Leslie
A Pail Of Air by Fritz Leiber, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Machine Stops (excerpt) by E.M. Forster, read by Roz Landor
Looking Backward and Equality (excerpts) by Edward Bellamy, read by David Birney
Gulliver’s Travels (excerpt) by Jonathan Swift read by Scott Brick
Utopia (excerpt) by Sir Thomas More, read byChristopher Cazanove
Monument To Amun by Queen Hatshepsut, read by Judy Young

PART 4: TRAVELING FOOLS
La Bateau Ivre by Arthur Rimbaud, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Inspiration by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Bones Do Lie by Anne McCaffrey, read by Stefan Rudnicki
A Princess Of Mars (excerpt) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, read by John Rubinstein
The Great Stone Of Sardis (excerpt) by Frank R. Stockton, read by David Birney
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (excerpt) by Lewis Carroll, read by Michael York
Diary Of A Madman (excerpt) by Nicolai Gogol, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Inferno (excerpt) by Dante, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Odyssey of Homer (excerpt), read by David Birney

PART 5: TRANSFORMERS
The Stolen Child by William B. Yeats, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Porcelain Salamander by Orson Scott Card, read by Gabrielle de Cuir
Let’s Get Together by Isaac Asimov, read by Arte Johnson
Dracula (excerpt) by Bram Stoker, read by Simon Vance
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (excerpt) by Robert Louis Stevenson, read by John Lee
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, read by Gabrielle de Cuir
Frankenstein (excerpt) by Mary Shelley, read by Stefan Rudnicki0\ *
The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh (Traditional English Fairy Tale), read by Judy Young
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (excerpt) by William Shakespeare, performed by cast
The Ballad of Tam Lin (Celtic ballad), read by Stefan Rudnicki
Metamorphosis (excerpt) by Ovid, read by Cassandra Campbell

PART 6: REST IN PIECES
Hearse Song
The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The New Testament: Revelations (excerpt), read by Stefan Rudnicki
The Colloquy of Monos & Una by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir
From the Crypts of Memory by Clark Ashton Smith, read by Danny Campbell
The Comet by W.E.B. DuBois, read by Mirron Willis
Sand (excerpt) by Stefan Rudnicki, performed by cast
Transience by Arthur C. Clarke, read by Bahni Turpin
The Illusionist by Gareth Owen, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Unchosen Love by Ursula K. LeGuin, read by Stefan Rudnicki
In Lonely Lands by Harlan Ellison, read by Harlan Ellison
News from Nowhere (excerpt) by William Morris, read by Stefan Rudnicki

PART 7: COMMENTARIES
The Special And General Joys of Science Fiction by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki
Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849 by Elliott Engel, read by Gabrielle de Cuir
Adolescence And Adulthood In Science Fiction by Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

LibriVox: The Horla by Guy de Maupassant

SFFaudio Online Audio

If I had to name the one story that’s influenced my reading, and thinking, most in last couple of years I’d name The Horla by Guy de Maupassant. It possesses my mind like a dark and deep tunnel running through my imaginative landscape – if you haven’t heard it yet you should. Below you’ll find my preferred version, but there are more readings, and adaptations HERE – and we did a whole podcast about it, that’s HERE.

One new thing though is this |PDF| which I made from a scan of an issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries – it features the 1911 George Allan England translation.

The Horla
By Guy de Maupassant; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 11, 2009
First published in Gil Blas; Oct 26, 1886.

The Horla by Guy de Maupassant

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: As It Happens: Moonlight by Guy de Maupassant (as read by Alan Maitland)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a sweet find from the CBC Digital Archives! It’s Alan Maitland, perhaps you know him as “Front Porch Al”, reading Moonlight (aka In The Moonlight) by Guy de Maupassant.

It was first broadcast on CBC Radio’s As It Happens on August 2, 1993.

The tale of a misogynist priest, the Abbé Marignan, who is ruled purely by reason, but whose view of life and love is influenced by the magic and splendour of moonlight.

And, I’m pleased to offer a different translation of the same story in |PDF| form.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Diary Of A Madman by Guy de Maupassant

SFFaudio Online Audio

You think me mad, but how mad can I be?

I have read The Diary Of A Madman and yet you, who so monomaniacally have not, have not!

Barely a short story, more a fragment, The Diary Of A Madman by Guy de Maupassant is a tale arguably more influential, and insightful, than any written since the start of the twenty-first century.

So how come I’m betting you still haven’t not read it?

Maybe it’s because you, living in the world that you do, value the new more than the old.

“The bestseller” is a social phenomenon, not a gauge of quality.

And that’s why you haven’t read it, and why you think me mad.

But I ask you, with all this laid before you …. which of us is truly the madman?

The Diary Of A Madman
By Guy de Maupassant; Read by Tom Hackett
1 |MP3| – Approx. 10 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 11, 2009
First published in 1885.

The Diary Of A Madman
By Guy de Maupassant; Read by Alan Davis Drake
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 31, 2008
First published in 1885.

Here’s a |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The WEIRD TALES of Guy de Maupassant

SFFaudio Commentary

The Weird Tales of Guy de Maupassant After listening to the excellent Who Knows? by Guy de Maupassant, found in H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of The Supernatural, I’ve been looking for a definitive source for all of de Maupassant’s weird tales. I haven’t found one. I read somewhere that about 10% of his stories were tilted towards the weird, supernatural, or horror, but I haven’t seen the breakdown anywhere. The man, it says on Wikipedia, “authored some 300 short stories.” They were, of course, written in French, so there’s also the small matter of matching of various English translations of French titles – so it isn’t all completely straightforward. In the process of looking for it though I’ve learned much that I’ve found interesting.

For instance, did you know that Guy de Maupassant was the nephew of the novelist Gustave Flaubert?

Or, that he knew Henry James?

Or, that while still a youth he was shown a mummified hand by Algernon Swinburne?

I like all those facts!

So, I’m starting a list or a series of lists to track and match the various SFF related Guy de Maupassant stories I find.

Weird or weirdish:
Who Knows? – the narrator experiences strange things with the furniture of his house.
The Diary Of A Madman (aka A Madman) – a murderous judge – it’s SPOOKY, SCARY, but has no supernatural elements.
The Hand (aka The Flayed Hand) – posted about HERE.
The Inn – said to be similar to Stephen King’s The Shining, a BBC audio drama adaptation exists.
A Night in Paris (aka A Queer Night in Paris?)- ‘a paranoid nightmare: the narrator feels compelled to walk the streets’
The Horla (1887) – a diary of a man haunted by an invisible being – podcast HERE, posted about HERE.

Said to be weird:
The Englishman
The Apparition
The Specter
The Ghost
The Story Of A Law Suit
Was It A Dream?
Was He Mad?
The Heritage
The Olive Grove
A Traveller’s Tale
The Grave
Moonlight
The Moribund
The Horrible
The Man With Blue Eyes
Little Louise Roque
Mad
Beside a Dead Man
The Golden Braid
He?
A Dead Woman’s Secret
A Night In Whitechapel
A Widow
After Death
Belhomme’s Beast
Christmas Eve
Countess Satan
Graveyard Sirens
Room No. Eleven
The Blind Man
Coco
The Mannerism
The Dead Girl

From “Contes fantastiques complets“:
La Main d’écorché
Le Docteur Héraclius Gloss
Sur l’eau
Magnétisme
Rêves
La Peur
Le Loup
Menuet
La Légende du mont Saint-Michel
Conte de Noël
La Mère aux monstres
Auprès d’un mort
Apparition
Lui?
La Main (La main)
La Chevelure
Le Tic
La Peur
Un fou?
A vendre
L’Inconnue
Lettre d’un fou
Sur les chats
Un cas de divorce
L’Auberge
Le Horla
Madame Hermet
La Morte
La Nuit
Un portrait
L’Endormeuse
L’Homme de Mars
Qui sait?

The Morbid, Mysterious and Macabre in the Tales of Guy de Maupassant: |PDF|

The Flayed Hand (1875; a.k.a. The Hand; The Englishman)
On the River (1881)
Graveyard Sirens (1881; a.k.a. Tombstones; Grave-Walkers)
Am I Insane? (1882)
Magnetism (1882)
The Blind Man (1882)
Fear (1883; a.k.a. The Traveler’s Story)
At Sea (1883)
Beside a Dead Man (1883; a.k.a. Beside Schopenhauer’s Corpse; The Smile of Shopenhauer)
The Mad Woman (1883)
The Spectre (1883; a.k.a. The Apparition; A Ghost; The Story of the Law-Suit)
The White Wolf (1883; a.k.a. The Wolf)
A Miracle (1883)
Revenge (1883; a.k.a. Moiron)
The Orphan (1883)
The Terror (1884; a.k.a. He?)
Denis (1884)
From the Tomb (1884; a.k.a. The Spasm)
Suicides (1884)
The Grave (1884)
Letter Found On A Corpse (1884; a.k.a. Found On A Drowned Man; The Drowned Man)
The Golden Braid (1885; a.k.a. A Tress of Hair; The Head of Hair; One Phase of Love)
Coco (1885)
A Mother of Monsters (1885; a.k.a. A Strange Traffic)
After Death (1885; a.k.a. A Father’s Confession)
Room No. Eleven (1885)
A Vendetta (1885; a.k.a. Semillante)
Little Louise Roque (1886; a.k.a. The Case of Louise Roque)
The Diary of a Madman (1886; a.k.a. The Madman)
The Horla (1886)
On Cats (1886)
Solitude (1886)
The Inn (1887; a.k.a. The Hostelry)
The Devil (1887)
Was it a Dream? (1889)
The Magic Couch (1889)
The Drowned Man (1890; a.k.a. The Parrot)
Who Knows? (1890)

Not weird, but still good:
The Necklace (aka The Diamond Necklace, aka La Parure) – a beautiful woman has a great fall – posted about HERE, and HERE, and there’s a play |PDF| and here’s a |PDF| of the story too.
The Piece Of String (aka A Piece Of Yarn) – Normandy farmers are all alike, and that’s the problem for one of them. |PDF|

More resources:
The Entire Original Maupassant Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant (translated by Albert M.C. Mcmaster, A.E. Hnderson, Mme. Quesada and others) |ETEXT|

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBSRMT: The Guy de Maupassant Murders by Sam Dann [RADIO DRAMA]

Aural Noir: Online Audio

CBS Radio Mystery Theater ran an astounding 1,399 original episodes. Unlike early radio drama series, in which popular episodes were re-staged, sometimes with the exact same script, not one of the nearly 1,400 episodes of CBSRMT episodes was re-done.

And yet, they came pretty damn close once. Episode #0715, which first aired in 1977, is called The Guy de Maupassant Murders. It takes direct inspiration in plot and structure from a short story by Guy de Maupassant called The Diary Of A Madman.

And yet The Diary Of A Madman was itself adapted as episode three years earlier!

Having heard them both I prefer The Guy de Maupassant Murders. I think that’s because I heard it first. But the performance is more interesting too, perhaps because it stars Fred Gwynne, best known for his role as Herman Munster.

When I first heard Gwynne’s performance I thought he was off – that he had just been unprofessional that day – it sounded as if he was just reading the script for the first time while they were recording – but upon a second listening I noticed that the way he delivers the lines completely fits the character and his psychology.

Judge for yourself.

CBS Radio Mystery Theater CBSRMT #0715 – The Guy de Maupassant Murders
By Sam Dann; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: September 26, 1977
Provider: CBSRMT.com
The polymathic houskeeper for an aging bachelor judge follows the reports of a serial killer’s flagitious crimes with interest. The only clue is a note left on on each of the victims. It always reads “THOU SHALT KILL.”