STEFAN GRABÍNSKI (1887-1936)
ESSAYS ON GRABINSKI’S WORKS
“Horror on the Train Tracks: ‘The Motion Demon’ Turns 100” (Culture.pl)
“7 Master Short Stories by Stefan Grabiński” (Culture.pl)
COLLECTIONS
The Dark Domain, translated by Miroslaw Lipinski (Dedalus Limited, 1993).
Stories include: “Fumes” (1919), “The Motion Demon” (1919), “The Area” (1918), “A Tale of the Gravedigger” (?), “Szamota’s Mistress” (1919), “The Wandering Train” (1919), “Strabismus” (1918), “Vengeance of the Elementals” (1922), “In the Compartment” (1919), “Saturnin Sektor” (1920), “The Glance” (1921)
“Dedalus have unearthed a series of aptly decadent titles where elements erotic and grotesque combine. The Dark Domain is a collection of psycho-fantasies, doom-saturated tales of lonely men lost in hostile terrain, but the East European melancholy lifts to provide wonderful odd scenes, like the watchmaker whose death stops all the town clocks and the phantom train that always turns up unannounced, surprising the station staff.”– review by Chris Fowler
The Motion Demon, translated by Miroslaw Lipinski (Ash-Tree Press, 2005).
Stories include: “Engine Driver Grot,” “The Wandering Train,” “The Motion Demon,” “The Sloven,” “The Perpetual Passenger,” “In the Compartment,” “Signals,” “The Siding,” “Ultima Thule”
“A wandering train that appears, seemingly at will; an engine driver who is inseparable from his machine; a passenger who waits for trains but never travels on them; obsession with speed and motion; a harbinger of disaster; a daring liaison: these are the themes of The Motion Demon, Stefan Grabinski’s collection of nine stories, first published in Poland in 1919.”– publisher’s copy
In Sarah’s House, translated by Wiesiek Powaga (CB Editions, 2007).
Stories include: “White Virak,” “The Grey Room” (included in The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy,” “The Dead Run,” “Szatera’s Engrams”
The stories in this collection continue the author’s exploration of where horror and sexuality meet. In the title story, a noblewoman absorbs the life out of each of her lovers; “White Virak” depicts a creature who lives in a chimney and preys on chimney sweeps; while stories like “The Grey Room” and “The Dead Run” offer readers the kind of psychological horror that authors like Poe and Walpole explored before.
On the Hill of Roses, translated by Miroslaw Lipinski (Hieroglyphic Press, 2012).
Stories included: “On the Hill of Roses,” “The Frenzied Farmhouse,” “On a Tangent,” “Strabismus,” “Shadow,” “At the Villa by the Sea,” “Projections”
“Originally published in 1919 it was Grabinski’s first collection under his own name and served as the official start of his arduous search for artistic recognition. Nearly a hundred years later these pieces stand as testament to their author’s talent and on-going literary quest for the bizarre: in The Frenzied Farmhouse we witness the effect of a malignant anima mundi, Strabismus explores the conflict of beings over corporal identity while in the title story, “On the Hill of Roses,” the Decadents’ fascination with synthesia is used to unveil a tragic history.”- publishers’ copy
from The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy
“The Grey Room” by Stefan Grabiński, translated by Wiesiek Powaga
“The Black Hamlet” by Stefan Grabiński, translated by Wiesiek Powaga
