A Rival From the Grave is the fourth volume of the Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, the detective who investigates the supernatural. Seabury Quinn wrote over 90 of these tales for Weird Tales from the 1920s to the 1940s. In those times, these stories of ghosts and goblins and all manner of eerie creatures proved to be popular with the readership. I’m fond of these atmospheric stories, but I advise you to read them a few at a time. Seabury Quinn developed a template and used his successful storytelling model in nearly all of these scary stories. My reviews of the previous three Seabury Quinn volumes can be found here, here, and here. The fifth and final volume of the Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin will be published in 2019. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction—George A. Vanderburgh and Robert E. Weinberg
Keeping the Golden Age Alive—Mike Ashley
1933
The Chosen of Vishnu (Weird Tales, August 1933)
Malay Horror (Weird Tales, September 1933)
The Mansion of Unholy Magic (Weird Tales, October 1933)
Red Gauntlets of Czerni (Weird Tales, December 1933*)
1934
The Red Knife of Hassan (Weird Tales, January 1934)
The Jest of Warburg Tantavul (Weird Tales, September 1934)
1935
Hands of the Dead (Weird Tales, January 1935)
The Black Orchid (Weird Tales, August 1935)
The Dead-Alive Mummy (Weird Tales, October 1935)
1936
A Rival from the Grave (Weird Tales, January 1936)
Witch-House (Weird Tales, November 1936)
1937
Children of the Bat (Weird Tales, January 1937)
Satan’s Palimpsest (Weird Tales, September 1937)
Pledged to the Dead (Weird Tales, October 1937)
Living Buddhess (Weird Tales, November 1937)
Flames of Vengeance (Weird Tales, December 1937)
1938
Frozen Beauty (Weird Tales, February 1938)
Incense of Abomination (Weird Tales, March 1938)
All but two of the 93 de Grandin stories are now available on-line. I’ve been dipping into them for a while now and have less than twenty to go. De Grandin is a guilty pleasure and I’m a big fan.
Jerry, like you I’m fond of these stories. I’m glad the entire De Grandin series is being reprinted in these wonderful editions!
As I’m sure I said last time and the time before that, I like these – I had the paperbacks in the 70s – and I bought the first of these but haven’t read more than a couple of the stories.
I need to push it to the front of the Kindle queue so I remember it is there.
Jeff, like you I read the paperback editions of Seabury Quinn’s Tales of Jules de Grandin back in the 1970s. But, I love these new volumes!
I tried a couple of the early stories, but they just weren’t for me. I didn’t much like the characters nor the setting. I’m sure these are perfect for the fan of horror, which I’m not. I’ve heard people say something similar about Victorian England in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but to me it’s completely different than this.
Rick, I think these de Grandin stories are an acquired taste.
I agree with Rick. I know the de Grandin stories are very popular, but they never appealed to me, no matter how many times I’ve sampled them. (I’m not a big fan of supernatural and occult detectives to begin with.) Having them all in a beautiful matched set like this is surely tempting, though!
Steve, there was another edition of the de Grandin stories published a few years ago in three oversized volumes. This 5-volume set is perfect for me.
Seabury: is that a male or female?
Bob, male.