魔鬼玩偶(Burn Witch Burn)简介：
"Burn Witch Burn" is a very unusual book for Abraham Merritt, who's best known for his gloriously weird, surreal adventure stories (think Jules Verne/H. Rider Haggard on acid). But in this book, he took a brilliant left turn into the earliest days of urban fantasy -- a harrowing, horrific tale of curs, illusion and dolls that will literally stab you to death.中国科教创新导刊
Dr. Lowell is summoned on a strange medical ca for the underworld boss Julian Ricori -- one of his men is afflicted with a bizarre limp paralysis, along with an inward-directed expression of pure terror.
The man eventually dies, and Lowell is completely mystified about what killed him. But he soon learns that ven other people have died with the same bizarre symptoms, and soon the nur ends up dying the same way. Ricori claims that it's witchcraft, and though Lowell insists that can't be the ca, his only lead is to a (dramatic drumroll) doll shop.
But after Ricori visits the doll shop, he's suddenly stabbed (non-fatally) in the heart by a pin..
. and the chauffeur insists that the attacker was a doll. Though Lowell wants to stick to his scientific principles, he slowly learns that the dolls are infud with a magical force, put there by the malevolent dollmaker -- and he's being drawn into her demonic web. Can a doctor and an underworld mobster defeat someone with such horrible powers?
People count urban fantasy as starting in the 1970s or 1980s, but "Burn Witch Burn" could probably be considered one of the earliest examples of the genre. Sure, it doesn't have werewolves, vampires, faeries or a leather-wearing heroine who insists she's the toughest thing since petrified leather -- but it does have a very ordinary, sleek modern tting that is slowly infud with horror and death.
Merritt's pro here is lean and nimble with a hint of noir, but also little moments his usual florid style ("eyes ared he long white hands clutching at her torn throat, and no longer white but crimson with her blood"). And though it starts off pretty staid and steady, Merritt slowly dribbles more and more of a n of horror into the story -- and the only problem is that the idea of evil dolls OPENLY menacing you with tiny knives is kind of unintentionally silly.
正定小吃
Lowell is an unlikely hero for this sort of story -- he's very stuffy, prissy and uptight at the beginning, and he clings to his scientific principles like a curity blanket. But as the book unwinds he's forced to loon up and accept that there are things outside the realm of science.
迷失丛林And Ricori makes a good counterpart for Lowell -- we never forget that he's basically a mob boss, but he has his own code of honor and decency, knowing the difference between mere criminality and true evil. And he knows from the beginning that it's "la strega" who is causing all this trouble. As for the dollmaker, she crouches over the entire story like a leering bloated spider overeing her web.
Not only is it one of the earliest urban fantasy stories I know of, but "Burn Witch Burn" is a harrowing, eerie tale just soaked with atmosphere. Definitely give it a read.
魔鬼玩偶（Burn Witch Burn）简介：
专升本招生
对于亚伯拉罕·梅里特（Abraham Merritt）来说，《燃烧的女巫燃烧》是一本非常不寻常的
书，他最出名的是他的光荣怪异、超现实的冒险故事（想想朱尔斯·凡尔纳/H. Rider Haggard 的酸）。但在这本书中，他将精彩的左转带入了城市幻想的早期——一个令人痛心的、可怕的诅咒、幻觉和娃娃的故事，真的会把你刺死。
洛厄尔医生被传唤为黑社会老大朱利安·里科里（Julian Ricori）处理一个奇怪的医疗案例——他的一个手下患有一种奇怪的瘫痪，以及一种向内表达的纯粹恐惧。
这个人最终死了，洛厄尔完全不知道是什么杀死了他。但他很快得知另外七人死于同样的奇怪症状，很快护士也以同样的方式死去。里科里声称这是巫术，尽管洛厄尔坚持认为不可能，但他唯一的线索是去一家（戏剧性的鼓声）娃娃店。
创意书签
但在 Ricori 参观娃娃店后，他的心脏突然被一根针刺（非致命）……而司机坚持认为袭击者是一个娃娃。尽管洛厄尔想要坚持他的科学原则，但他慢慢地了解到，这些玩偶被注入了一种魔法力量，是由恶毒的玩偶制造商放置在那里的——他被卷入了她的恶魔之网。一个医生和一个黑道流氓能打败一个拥有如此可怕力量的人吗？
蚩尤是哪个民族的祖先
信息化教学人们认为都市奇幻始于 1970 年代或 1980 年代，但《燃烧女巫》可能被认为是该类型最早
的例子之一。当然，它没有狼人、吸血鬼、仙女或穿着皮革的女主角，她坚持认为她是自石化皮革以来最坚韧的东西——但它确实有一个非常普通、时尚的现代环境，慢慢地注入了恐怖和死亡。
梅里特在这里的散文精干而灵活，带有一丝黑色，但也有他一贯的华丽风格（“眼睛灼热而盲目……长长的白手抓住她撕裂的喉咙，不再是白色而是因为她的鲜血而变得深红色” ）。尽管开始时相当沉稳，梅里特慢慢地在故事中注入了越来越多的恐怖感——唯一的问题是邪恶娃娃公开用小刀威胁你的想法是无意中愚蠢的。
洛厄尔不太可能成为这类故事的英雄——他一开始就非常闷闷不乐、拘谨和紧张，他像安全毯一样坚持自己的科学原理。但随着书的展开，他被迫放松并接受科学领域之外的事物。李夫人赋
里科里是洛厄尔的好搭档——我们永远不会忘记他基本上是一个黑帮老大，但他有自己的荣誉和正派准则，知道单纯的犯罪和真正的邪恶之间的区别。而且他从一开始就知道造成这一切麻烦的是“la strega”。至于玩偶制造商，她蹲在整个故事中，就像一只盯着她的网的臃肿蜘蛛。
它不仅是我所知道的最早的城市奇幻故事之一，而且“燃烧女巫”是一个充满气氛的令人痛心、怪诞的故事。一定要读一读。
