Kersh, Gerald

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NIGHT AND THE CITY
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BO99IY

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Too tough for some.
Great writer, ghastly subject

Night and the City
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: I Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Prelude to a Certain Midnight
The Secret Masters
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket)

ASIN: 0743413040

Book Description

<B>Harry Fabian has a dream to become the top wrestling promoter in London, but he has a problem: he needs money. Not too much -- only one hundred quid -- but it might as well be a million because he needs the money by the end of the week. What's more, it is the height of the 1930s Depression, he lives in London's Soho, he makes money from selling his girlfriend to men, and the police are arresting pimps like him to clean up the streets for the imminent Coronation of George The Sixth. </B>

Hunting for victims to blackmail and con out of money, Fabian moves through the clip joints, jazz clubs, wrestling gyms, bottle bars, and all-night cafés of 1930s London, spiraling further and further into the depths of immorality and depravity. And by the time his quest is over, Harry Fabian will have entered the tenth circle of the Inferno, dragging everybody he knows down with him...

Customer Reviews:

Too tough for some........2004-01-31

He's a guy who'd blackmail a man with a dying wife; sacrifice an aging wrestler in a fight for a meagre profit; sell his prostitute girlfriend, whom he lives off, to white-slavers. He's Harry Fabian, one of London town's low-life, with a humble, street-trader brother that loves him all the same.

Great writer, ghastly subject.......2002-01-20

This is the first book I've ever read by Kersh, and I'll say he verges on being a great writer, who turns a phrase better than any writer I've come across. However, this is strictly a book for adults; bitter, cynical, and cruel. Did Kersh live this life? The whole book is set at night, and deals with the worst possible nightlife--pimps, whores, drunks, criminals, liars, braggarts. This novel was written in the 1940's (which shows human nature doesn't change). Kersh is a wonderful stylist; the way he describes the world in this book can literally make you feel ill. All is not lost, though; there are two people, a sculptor, and a woman trying not to get dragged down into the hellhole the author describes, who are trying their darndest to get away what I can only describe as Dante's Inferno. Even is this worst of worlds, love can redeem. Don't read this book at one sitting, though.

THE POST READER OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: Doctor Hanray's Second Chance; Fallout Island; The Green Hills of Earth; Doomsday Deferred; Test Tube Terror; Island of Fear; Sinister Journey; The Place of the Gods; The Phantom Setter; The Big Wheel

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THE POST READER OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: Doctor Hanray's Second Chance; Fallout Island; The Green Hills of Earth; Doomsday Deferred; Test Tube Terror; Island of Fear; Sinister Journey; The Place of the Gods; The Phantom Setter; The Big Wheel
Anonymous. (editor) (Conrad Richter; Robert Murphy; Robert A. Heinlein; Will F. Jenkins; Robert Standish; William Sambrot; Stephen Vincent Benet; Fred McMorrow; Frank Harvey; Geoffrey Household; Kem Bennett; Gerald Kersh; Wilbur Schramm; Philip Wylie)
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GVSWTE

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The Playboy Book of Crime and Suspense
Anonymous. (editor) (Ian Fleming; Walter Tevis; Charles Beaumont; Fredric Brown; Steve Allen; Gerald Kersh; Michael Shaara; Gilbert Wright; Richard Matheson; Stanley Cooperman; Ray Russell; Ken W. Purdy; Henry Slesar; Charles Mergendahl; Berkely Mather)
Manufacturer: Playboy Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000E4FPC0

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Fowlers End
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FED7KG

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The Secret Masters
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: Blackmask.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Prelude to a Certain Midnight
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Little Miss Sunshine

ASIN: 1596543418

Book Description

Brilliant Suspense Novel--About a few Men who Wanted the World for Themselves!

Book Description

In London under the fog of war, a 10-year-old Jewish girl is murdered. The police have no clues and little interest, so crusader Asta Thundesley takes up the challenge, sifting through clues and gathering up suspects for a dinner party where... nothing is learned. Detective Turpin goes by the book, and finds himself with a stunning set... of dead ends. Fascinating example of life's perils by author Kersh (Night and the City), who reminds for every winner, there can be a ton of losers. First published 1947.

Customer Reviews:

Even deeper into the inferno.......2003-10-17

Night and the City, Kersh's best known novel, is indeed a trip through hell -- but only an upper ring, compared to the depths he enters in Prelude to a Certain Midnight. This book anticipates writers such as Hubert Selby in the examination of evil; its characters are very well drawn, the crime itself is hideous but mostly kept off the page, the society that allows it is dissected with unflinching attention. Kersh does spin incredibly strong sentences, and often touches the bottom of his characters' souls. But no picnics or fairy tales here. Tough stuff.

Karmesin: The World's Greatest Criminal -- Or Most Outrageous Liar (Lost Classics Ser)

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A Genius At Work

Karmesin: The World's Greatest Criminal -- Or Most Outrageous Liar (Lost Classics Ser)
Gerald Kersh , and Paul Duncan
Manufacturer: Crippen and Landru
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Night and the City

ASIN: 1932009035

Book Description

THIEF EXTRAORDINAIRE? Gerald Kersh (1912-1957) wrote amazing novels and hundreds of short stories about the weird and wonderful people he met during his lifetime. The most intriguing was Karmesin, a master thief and self-confessed genius. His robberies, cons and double-crosses involve split-second timing, almost supernatural foresight, and spine-tingling nerve. But is he telling Kersh the truth? For the first time all 17 short stories are collected in a single volume so that you can decide for yourself. This collection is edited and introduced by Paul Duncan, who has been researching Gerald Kersh for over 10 years in preparation for a biography. The cover painting is by Carol Heyer, and the design by Deborah Miller.

Customer Reviews:

A Genius At Work.......2004-03-23

Gerald Kersh was a prolific author during the 1930s through until the 1960s, particularly when it came to short stories. Like so many authors of his era, he produced an enormous number of short stories that were published in newspapers and magazines of the day and then later picked up by pulp magazines such as Black Mask, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Argosy.

One publisher is now performing the wonderful task of gathering together many authors' short stories and compiling books containing a single author's works. That publisher is Crippen and Landru. Although Kersh's Karmesin stories have been reprinted individually over the years in various publications, they have never been put together in the one book...until now.

As all of the Crippen and Landru books do, Karmesin begins with a very informative introduction providing tremendous insight into the author. An explanation is given into how the stories came about including anecdotes from Kersh himself, as well as the real life person upon whom Karmesin is based. I found the introduction in this book to be a wonderful lead in to the stories themselves, and then found myself referring back to it as I finished each story.

The book contains 17 short stories and they range in length from 5 to 13 pages; just ideal to finish a single story if you have 10 minutes to spare or for settling in and reading the lot in one sitting.

Each story unfolds in much the same way. They open with Karmesin admonishing Kersh (who acts as Karmesin's disbelieving audience) for doubting his stories. At the same time he scoffs at the crimes that are committed nowadays, claiming that not only could he pull off a better burglary, blackmail or robbery but that he already has. He then proceeds to tell a tale of fantastic achievement that is hugely entertaining and brilliant in its simplicity and success. For, as Karmesin keeps reminding Kersh, he is a genius and a master-criminal.

The contradiction to Karmesin, and the reason for the title to the book, is that, while he claims to be the most successful criminal the world has ever seen, and while he claims to have easily pulled off crimes that have netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars, pounds and francs, he invariably finishes his story by cadging a cigarette or the money for a cup of tea off Kersh. As he explains when questioned as to where the money went, he can't remember every penny he ever spent.

Karmesin is a curmudgeonly old cuss, but an entertaining character who I would best describe as a lovable old rogue. Many of his stories rely on perfect timing and as he explains in The Conscience of Karmesin: "mediocrity chooses an hour where genius picks its instant!" No story is too tall to be passed off as an exploit. And how tall are the tales that he tells? Among the 17 stories, he uses a ghost named Henry as an accomplice (twice) and in another describes how he stole the crown jewels. Of course, not all of the stories are this fantastic, but in each Karmesin highlights the brilliance of his plan and the success in which he carried it out.

At the end of the book, a Karmesin bibliography is included detailing where and when each of the stories was published. To finish the book off, a reading list that details Kersh's novels and a couple websites containing more information about the author are added.

The Secret Masters
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The Secret Masters
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: NY Ballantine Books 1953.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GXPUUG

ON AN ODD NOTE: Seed of Destruction; Frozen Beauty; Reflections in a Tablespoon; The Crewel Needle; The Sympathetic Souse; The Queen of Pig Island; Prophet Without Honor; The Beggars' Stone; The Brighton Monster; The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy
Average customer rating:

Certainly odd, definitely entertaining, very well written

ON AN ODD NOTE: Seed of Destruction; Frozen Beauty; Reflections in a Tablespoon; The Crewel Needle; The Sympathetic Souse; The Queen of Pig Island; Prophet Without Honor; The Beggars' Stone; The Brighton Monster; The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy
Gerald Kersh
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000AQEDXY

Customer Reviews:

Certainly odd, definitely entertaining, very well written.......2007-04-03

This little treasure from 1945 is still fresh today with its well spun yarns of the peculiar and the strange. Reading this slim volume is like sitting down with a stranger and hearing one odd yard after another: it's a story-telling fest with intimate detail and surreal suggestion. Tale-spinning shop owners, shipwrecked circus freaks, a young murderess, racial implications and early surgery techniques.

It's witty, charming, morbid at times, freakish, and most certainly eye-opening. I read the entire book in less than a day; I couldn't get enough of the tale-telling. The author writes, "Here is food for thought, but I do not like the thought it feeds." Some of the tales will make you uncomfortable, but squirming in your easy chair while sipping that comforting cocoa is part of the charm of the book.

Table Of Contents:
· Seed Of Destruction
· Frozen Beauty
· Reflections In A Tablespoon
· The Crewel Needle
· The Sympathetic Souse
· The Queen Of Pig Island
· Prophet Without Honor
· The Beggar's Stone
· The Brighton Monster
· The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy
· Fantasy Of A Hunted Man
· The Gentleman All In Black
· The Eye

My favorite was The Queen Of Pig Island, a classic tale of shipwrecked circus freaks and how they survived ... and then interacted. The Sympathetic Souse has a little surprise at the end, The Crewel Needle finds horror in an unlikely source, followed by ruin. I loved Prophet Without Honor not just for the unusual aspect but for the yarn itself. There isn't one bad tale in this book. It's also surprising how forward thinking Mr. Kersh was, exploring events that hadn't happened yet and turning out fairly accurate in today's world (though with that edgy twist).

My copy was old and frail, and I found myself handling the book like a newborn, careful and gentle, while just wanting to bury myself into it and absorb all the good qualities, not unlike blowing on a baby's belly.

The blurbs on the back of the book use such words as 'provocative', 'titillating', 'enthralling', 'brilliant', 'wildly funny', and 'sinister'. All these proclamations hold true, this is really a book that is not to be missed by any fan of Horror, SciFi, or Fantasy. My word to describe 'On An Odd Note' would be 'absorbing'. It's a book you won't be able to put down. Enjoy!

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