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Rating: Robert Aickman is one of the great writers of the Anglo-Saxon "weird" tradition from the latter half of the 20th century. His "unsettling" art caught the attention of David Tibet from the music group Current 93. Tibet is a great expert and aficionado of ghost stories and, as highlighted in the introduction of Dark Paths, the first volume published by Edizioni Hypnos of Aickman's stories, he was initially disappointed with his tales. He couldn't understand where they were heading. In reality, his bewilderment is shared by many other readers who, at a first approach, do not understand the value of Aickman's work, as you can also read online in various comments. The late Giuseppe Lippi aptly described his art as follows: “In Robert Aickman… the real is a mosaic composed of strange pieces often fearfully devoid of meaning.”
Perhaps his stories are not ghost stories, at least as David Tibet said, or they belong to the genre only on a formal level. Aickman delves into the unfathomable depths of reality and the unconscious, bringing forth the ghosts that dwell in our minds. The English writer has always placed importance on the visual arts, as we can read in the first story of this collection titled "Ravissante", where Charles Sims, an eccentric English painter who, not surprisingly, also captured the imagination of David Tibet, is mentioned. The English minstrel was keen to use one of his paintings for a Current 93 album, namely Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre. Even the cover of this anthology features a painting by Charles Sims. The protagonist of Ravissante finds himself a guest of a widow of an obscure painter – Madame A. – from whom he eventually flees, gripped by anxiety after seeing she owned a painting he himself had painted but different from how he remembered it. Often, Aickman’s characters end up encountering a quotidian life where the surreal and the absurd lurk just around the corner, as in The Inner Room: here, Lene, the main female character, narrates her story from childhood, where the mystery emerges inside a dollhouse, to adulthood. But the mysteries of her existence seem to finally unfold during a temporary stay, after a journey where she avoided looking at the map by taking a shortcut, in a countryside villa inhabited by quirky sisters who show her an enigmatic photograph depicting her as a child.
Aickman certainly owes something to an author like Walter de la Mare but manages to be original and have a recognizable voice. The irrational that subtly bursts into daily life is certainly one of his themes. The following Never Visit Venice is set in Venice. The protagonist Fern is obsessed with Venice, which he visits in a dream with hazy outlines. He then decides to visit the city in person: the journey is another "Aickmanian" topos, as can be seen in the opening of this story that cites Céline and his Journey to the End of the Night. Here, he will eventually have a disastrous encounter with a Femme Fatale on a gondola.
The Suspended Dust is an homage to Montague Rhodes James' traditional ghost story (not lacking the appearance of a specter), and here perhaps Aickman’s connection to his roots is recognizable. For the English writer, ghost stories should not concern mere apparitions but grasp “the spirit behind the apparitions, the void behind the face of order.” Another masterpiece of this collection is The Cicerones, set in the cathedral of Antwerp, described in detail in all its paintings and architectural elements. The protagonist's ultimate fate, in the crypt where he confronts spectral figures, is chilling. The Houses of the Russians is set in Finland, another land visited by the writer, in a desolate and dark nature, while the beautiful In the Wood unfolds in Sweden. No Stronger Than a Flower is finally another variation on the theme of the femme fatale.
In Sub Rosa, we find Aickman at his best and in full maturity, and I feel inclined to recommend this volume to anyone wishing to approach this writer for the first time.
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