BOOK DETAILS
Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-1934555576 List Price: $17.99 U.S. Pages: 252 Published: 2012 |
The Burnaby Experiments (1952)
Stephen Gilbert With a preface by Patricia Craig Book Description
Marcus Brownlow was a strange and imaginative young schoolboy whose dreams sometimes foretold the future. Now he's nineteen, unemployed, directionless, and not ready to grow up. An unexpected invitation from a school friend to visit him at the house of his eccentric millionaire uncle Mr. Burnaby seems to hint at adventure and a change of fortune. But what Marcus doesn't know is that Mr. Burnaby wants his help in a series of strange experiments whose ultimate goal is to discover what happens to the soul after death. What begins as harmless fun as Mr. Burnaby teaches Marcus how to project his spirit out from his body quickly becomes more sinister, and may lead to a horrible fate even more terrifying than death. . . . Stephen Gilbert (1912-2010) is best remembered for his novel Ratman's Notebooks (1968), twice filmed as Willard, and for his friendship as a young man with the much older novelist Forrest Reid. The Burnaby Experiments (1952) is a brilliant and unclassifiable novel, part fantasy, part science fiction, part horror, and partly a thinly veiled and blackly humorous fictionalization of Gilbert's difficult relationship with Reid. This first-ever reprinting of Gilbert's scarce novel coincides with its 60th anniversary and features the original jacket art by legendary book designer Berthold Wolpe. |
reviews
“[O]ne of those stories in which the occult is made to seem credible by the skilfully realistic treatment of the setting. . . . Not a pleasant book, but oddly readable.” – Manchester Guardian
"A writer of distinction." - E. M. Forster
"[A]n unusual, talented book with many good things in it. [...] Stephen Gilbert is an interesting writer, whose material is out of the ordinary run of things." - Anthony Powell, Times Literary Supplement
"A writer of distinction." - E. M. Forster
"[A]n unusual, talented book with many good things in it. [...] Stephen Gilbert is an interesting writer, whose material is out of the ordinary run of things." - Anthony Powell, Times Literary Supplement
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Gilbert (1912-2010) was born in Newcastle, Co. Down in 1912. He was sent to England for boarding school from age 10 to 13 and afterwards to a Scottish public school, which he left without passing any exams or obtaining a leaving certificate. He returned to Belfast, where he worked briefly as a journalist before joining his father’s tea and seed business. In 1931, just before his nineteenth birthday, Gilbert met novelist Forrest Reid, by that time in his mid-fifties. Reid’s numerous novels reflect his lifelong fascination with teenage boys, and he was quickly drawn to Gilbert; the two commenced a sometimes turbulent friendship that lasted until Reid’s death in 1947. Reid acted as mentor to Gilbert, who had literary aspirations, and ultimately depicted an idealized version of their relationship in the novel Brian Westby (1934).
Gilbert’s first novel, The Landslide (1943), a fantasy involving prehistoric creatures which appear in a remote part of Ireland after being uncovered by a landslide, appeared to generally positive reviews and was dedicated to Reid. A realistic novel, Bombardier (1944), followed, based on Gilbert’s experiences in the Second World War. Gilbert’s third novel, Monkeyface (1948), concerns what seems to be an ape, called “Bimbo,” discovered in South America and brought back to Belfast, where it learns to talk. The Burnaby Experiments appeared in 1952, five years after Reid’s death, and is a thinly disguised portrayal of their relationship from Gilbert’s point of view and a belated response to Brian Westby. His final novel, Ratman’s Notebooks (1968), the story of a loner who learns he can train rats to kill, would become his most famous, being twice filmed as Willard (1971; 2003).
Gilbert married his wife Kathleen Stevenson in 1945; the two had four children, and Gilbert devoted most of his time from the 1950s onward to family life and his seed business. He died in Northern Ireland in 2010 at age 97.
Gilbert’s first novel, The Landslide (1943), a fantasy involving prehistoric creatures which appear in a remote part of Ireland after being uncovered by a landslide, appeared to generally positive reviews and was dedicated to Reid. A realistic novel, Bombardier (1944), followed, based on Gilbert’s experiences in the Second World War. Gilbert’s third novel, Monkeyface (1948), concerns what seems to be an ape, called “Bimbo,” discovered in South America and brought back to Belfast, where it learns to talk. The Burnaby Experiments appeared in 1952, five years after Reid’s death, and is a thinly disguised portrayal of their relationship from Gilbert’s point of view and a belated response to Brian Westby. His final novel, Ratman’s Notebooks (1968), the story of a loner who learns he can train rats to kill, would become his most famous, being twice filmed as Willard (1971; 2003).
Gilbert married his wife Kathleen Stevenson in 1945; the two had four children, and Gilbert devoted most of his time from the 1950s onward to family life and his seed business. He died in Northern Ireland in 2010 at age 97.