Thursday, May 01, 2014

Zombies from the Pulps!: Dead Girl Finotte - H. De Vere Stacpoole

H. De Vere Stacpoole is another author whose name was familiar to me from pulp covers and TOCs, but whose work I'd never read until now. His story "Dead Girl Finotte" appeared in the January 1930 issue of WEIRD TALES, and according to ZOMBIES FROM THE PULPS! editor Jeffrey Shanks, it's the first story to mention THE MAGIC ISLAND, the non-fiction book about Haiti by W.B. Seabrook that established much of the zombie lore that has influenced countless stories, novels, and movies. Because of this, Stacpoole's "Dead Girl Finotte" has a definite air of authenticity about it.

Other than that it's a fairly tame tale about a doomed love affair and the revenge that a grieving lover takes on a sinister plantation owner. Like Henry S. Whitehead's "Jumbee", it takes the form of a story being told by one character to another. It's leisurely but well written, and the ending works quite well. I lean toward the wilder sort of story myself, and I'm sure there's much more of that to come in this anthology.

Stacpoole's best-known novel, by the way, is THE BLUE LAGOON, on which the Brooke Shields movie was based. 

1 comment:

Adventuresfantastic said...

THE BLUE LAGOON could have benefited from some zombies.