Everil Worrell VS August Derleth
As shocking as this may seem coming from the keepers of a blog partly dedicated to Weird Fiction, we haven’t read many Weird Fiction authors. Worse, we haven’t even reviewed all the ones we have read; for starters, there should be a lot more than 1 post on Clark Ashton Smith by now. In addition to that, it feels kinda awkward to just focus on male authors. Yes, we’ve already reviewed 3 stories by Greye La Spina, but much like with Smith, there should be more than 1 measly post. So, we started googling about female Weird Fiction authors and found Everil Worrell, who had several stories published on Weird Tales and was a contemporary of Lovecraft, Smith, et al.
We’ve read 2 stories by Worrell - Leonora and The Canal - and we found they have 2 things in common: they both feature humans being drawn to mysterious strangers who are not as they seem; and they were both subjected to revisions decades after their original publication with very dubious results. Thankfully, Worrell’s versions are available at archive.org, where we found 4 more stories by her. So, if everything goes well, we’ll have some more posts for the blog. As for this post, we’re going to start with The Canal. Ironically, we sought it out because we wanted to read a Worrell original with no later additions, only to then find out that the version we had was August Derleth’s.
THE CANAL BY EVERIL WORRELL
During one of his nightly walks, Morton becomes smitten with a mysterious woman. However, he slowly realizes that there’s something very dark about this alluring stranger, but by then it may already be too late…
The horror I had invoked was in my arms, clinging to me, burying its head upon my shoulder. So increasingly dreadful had my pale-faced companion become to me, that I hardly thought of her now as a woman at all - only as a demon of the night.
This is pretty good. Worrell maintains an ominous and spooky atmosphere throughout. Also, the vampire’s influence made it easier to accept Morton not being suspicious of this strange woman living in an old boat stuck in the middle of the canal who only comes out at night. Really, there were a lot of red flags. Some reviews called the ending rushed, but we didn’t have a problem with it, as that was Morton merely outlining his plans. Yes, it’s clear that that’s what going to happen, but it’s different than him doing it right then and there.
THE CANAL AS REVISED BY AUGUST DERLETH
20 years after The Canal was published in Weird Tales, August Derleth decided to revise it for a short story collection. He radically changed the original ending, making it much milder than the vampire bats invasion + projected dynamiting of the vampire colony. The basic premise - Morton plans to kill himself after destroying the evil he unleashed - is still the same, but it’s a much more intimate affair, with just him and the vampire from the boat. Much like in Worrell’s original, the revised version ends with Morton outlining his plans, though the ending is incredibly abrupt and left us wondering if there was a page missing. Derleth also cut the bit where Morton finds the rotten corpse of the vampire woman’s human father in the boat. Considering all the stereotypes unfairly associated with woman authors even today, it’s ironic that Derleth’s revised version ended up being less dark and having more romantic undertones than Worrell’s original tale.
AND THE WINNER IS…
Everil Worrell, of course. Derleth’s revision resulted in a surprisingly duller story, making the vampire woman less of a menace and Morton somewhat more passive. It’s not badly written - it just lacks spark. Also, it made us wonder if it’s worth reading Derleth’s original works.