Subject: Obscure Authors: Jean Ray/John Flanders

From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Dec 93 14:56:49 GMT

Did anyone ever hear about Jean-Raymond De Kremer? He was a Flemish author
and journalist who lived and worked in Ghent (Belgium) in the first half of
this century. Using the pseudonyms 'Jean Ray' and 'John Flanders', he
published a lot of short stories and a couple of novels, of which
"Malpertuis" is his most famous. Most of his writings should  be classified
as 'horror' or 'fantastic' rather than SF, but since I saw Lovecraft being
discussed on this list, that should not be too offending to you.
His stories usually breathe an oppressive, dark atmosphere and are quite ok
IMO. The language is a bit baroque maybe, but that only adds to the general
atmosphere. I recently finished reading "Malpertuis" and liked it a lot. De
Kremer gained some renown with "Malpertuis" in Belgium and in France, but I
have no idea if the novel was ever published in English. I would highly
recommend it though to any Lovecraft freaks.
I also remember having seen a movie once, based on the novel and featuring
Orson Welles. If someone has more information about this movie, please post
it!

Koen Vyverman
Astrophysical Institute
Brussels (Belgium)
[email-masked]