{"id":6636,"date":"2026-04-30T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/?p=6636"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:52:05","slug":"sub-rosa-by-robert-aickman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/2026\/04\/30\/sub-rosa-by-robert-aickman\/","title":{"rendered":"Sub Rosa<\/em> by Robert Aickman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, the late 1960s, with the eight stories from Aickman\u2019s original collection Sub Rosa<\/em> published in 1968. <\/p>\n

The ones I don\u2019t care for very much are \u201cRavissante\u201d and \u201cThe Houses of the Russians.\u201d The former is even more opaque than usual, which wouldn\u2019t be a problem at all if the story went anywhere beyond its numerous hints at, and traces of, psychoanalytic phenomena in the artistic imagination and the life of the artist. \u201cThe House of the Russians,\u201d its efforts at dramatizing the stains in the final reveal notwithstanding, promises more than it eventually delivers and is bogged down by strings of events that would have to be more tightly connected to work, or be interesting.<\/p>\n

The ones I like better are \u201cThe Inner Room,\u201d \u201cThe Unsettled Dust,\u201d and, from 1967, \u201cCicerones.\u201d \u201cThe Inner Room\u201d builds up a lot of suspense but strikes me as having more potential than what the dramatic arc ultimately presents, the more so as literary\u2014not to speak of cinematographic\u2014dollhouses are intrinsically eerie and already put a good wad of terror up-front on the table. Likewise, \u201cThe Unsettled Dust.\u201d It\u2019s a collection of imaginative motifs that peter out at the end in ways that are not ambiguous, which would be fine, but merely inconclusive. In \u201cCicerones,\u201d the story lets the visitor of a cathedral fall through the thin fabric of reality into a place without time but plenty of ghosts to whom, presumably, something similar happened; and here the ending is well foreshadowed, conclusive, and satisfying (and somewhat reminiscent of M. R. James<\/a> in good ways). <\/p>\n

My favorites are \u201cNever Visit Venice,\u201d \u201cNo Stronger than a Flower\u201d from 1966, and \u201cInto the Wood,\u201d all three for completely different reasons. \u201cNever Visit Venice\u201d not for its rather predictable ending but for its terrific atmosphere that is highly imaginative and superbly written and connects to my memories of the place in ways that ring true (I\u2019ve been to Venice three times, for various purposes). Then, while I have some reservations about how Aickman handles the narrative perspective here, \u201cNo Stronger than a Flower\u201d is a perfect horror story, all the way from its mundane premise to its alarming development to its surprising conclusion that still remains mysterious and open to all kinds of interpretations but in ways that perfectly fit the story. Finally, while \u201cInto the Wood\u201d does have its servings of horror (but not as many as the later \u201cThe Hospice\u201d from the 1970s), it really shines as a terrific awakening story, so to speak, where the ending\u2014and the protagonist\u2014reaches out into the mysterious unknown in such compelling ways one would love to be able to follow.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Aickman, Robert. Sub Rosa<\/em>. Gollancz, 1968. Reprint Tartarus Press<\/a>, 2010<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\udcda Again, mild spoilers that you will soon forget.<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-archive","h-entry","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6636"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6674,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}