Philip Van Doren SternAnmeldelser

Now, I'd like to start by saying I am not a very smart person and that might be why I struggled so much with this book. It was... quite a chore for me to read this.

I can't remember where I read it, but I really enjoyed the Tell-Tale Heart so I thought I would enjoy the rest of his stories, as well, but I was so very wrong. I'm not saying they are bad, not at all, but they just aren't for me. To me, these tales were very... dull and drawn out. Most of it went over my head and I found myself zoning out and having to reread several paragraphs multiple times before the words would take.

The strangest part is that this book felt almost supernatural. No matter how many pages I read, it never seemed to get shorter and it felt like it took ages to finish it. But maybe that's just because it was such a struggle to force myself to finish it, I don't know. It just felt like no matter how many pages I turned, it took longer than it should to reach the end.

I can’t believe I’d never read the short story that “It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on! Obviously, a lot is different in the movie, but the core theme remains the same. I loved that this edition includes the background of the author coming up with the whole idea in a dream, and the director Frank Capra happening to get a hold of one of 200 copies that was sent out as a Christmas card in 1943. We truly never know how many lives we’ve touched.½

Double Review for "Wonderful Memories of It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Greatest Gift."

A fan of this heartwarming movie that only grows into an even bigger worldwide love every year, I picked up the first as an audio to listen to during this season. It gave me all the information about it that I never knew about. How the first story was written as a Christmas Card, the process of it becoming a movie, behind the scene adorable pieces, and how RKO made the snow we use in movies still today.

During the middle of this listen, I ordered my own copy of "The Greatest Gift," the short story the movie is based on. It did not disappoint and warmed my heart with the reading of its genesis, too.

Husband, father, and small-town bank clerk George Pratt feels that while other men out there are leading exciting lives, his own work is dull and his life is pretty useless. Just when he's contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve, a mysterious stranger comes and stops George in The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale by Philip Van Doren Stern.

It's been years now since I first heard of this short story upon which the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life is based. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before to actually look up and read this original tale. But I do know it can be something of a letdown when you've got a beloved story embedded in your soul and then you check out another version of it, and it isn't the same.

Well. Although I can say that I do prefer the fuller development of the plot and characters in the classic motion picture that's one of my all-time favorite films, I'm pleased that I didn't picture George Pratt here as George Bailey, or the mysterious stranger as Clarence Odbody, George Bailey's guardian angel. For the most part, I enjoyed this short fantasy fiction tale for what it is: a short fantasy fiction tale. Not just a precursor to a movie.

And what George Pratt learns about the life he's been given is truly an uplifting and timeless message.

One of my favorite drugstore paperback collections of horror stories. You get pretty much everything here: from killer plants ("The Garden of Paris" by Eric Williams) to killer avians ("The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier), from vampires (E.F. Benson's excellent "Mrs. Amworth") to ghastly alien life hostile to humanity ("Slime" by Joseph Payne Brennan). Along the way, you'll encounter an assortment of other creepy-crawlies and supernatural beasts (moths, werewolves, et al.). The only questionable selection made by editor Philip Van Doren Stern--and everyone who's read the book seems to feel this way--is "The Elephant Man," Sir Frederick Treves's true account of the tragic life of Joseph Merrick. It deserves to be read, of course, but in a more fitting context than this. Otherwise, Strange Beasts and Unnatural Monsters is a top-notch collection that's worth hunting down at your local used book store...if such a place still exists.

This book was the basis for the movie, It's A Wonderful Life starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. The book was sent as a pamphlet Christmas card by the author to friends. It is very similar but not exactly the same as the plot in the movie.
The short story is wonderful, but I like the expanded version of the movie better. I really enjoyed the afterword by the author's daughter. It really brought the book and the subsequent following due to the movie to life.
This is a perfect holiday read.

Its amazing to think how Capra and the screenwriters were able to build such a full story in the movie while retaining the heart of this original story.

A beautiful story. It's really short, and full of Christmas charm. Read it to feel Christmassy.

To be honest, I only read about a third of this - all that was required for class. Spooky! But a little repetitive to read all in one sitting.

First published in 1944, this story was originally sent out as a family Christmas card. Frank Capra got wind of it when he returned from WWII, and the movie he made from it -- It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart -- was not a box office hit. Yet it's become a Christmas classic and is beloved by millions.

Totally worth a quick read to remember what's truly worthwhile.

In April 1943, Philip Van Doren Stern wrote this Christmas tale that will become the famous “It’s a Wonderful Life” movie. Originally deemed as a fantasy, it was rejected by multiple magazines. By Christmas time, Stern decided to print 200 of these 24-pages pamphlet and send them out as Christmas cards. As luck would have it, Frank Capra read this little uplifting tale and spent the most money ever on a Christmas card - $50K for the movie rights. :) With both Capra and Jimmy Stewart returning from the War, it was just the kind of project that the world needed. By December 1946, a new Christmas classic was born.

This is a high quality gift book published at the 50th year anniversary with illustrations inspired by the original artwork and the bonus “Afterword” provided by Stern’s daughter, Marguerite Stern Robinson. Not surprisingly, this book has a simpler tale than the movie – same theme, more concise, with the same heart and the same message that all lives matter. I’d be lying if I don’t admit I like the movie better – a richer, more velvety tale. With the added materials, this is a pleasant little read, just what I needed after the previous book.

This is a short story that no publisher wanted. So, it was privately printed in 1943 and distributed as a Christmas card to a select group of friends. Somehow a copy found its way into the hands of a Hollywood producer and the author was stunned to get a telegram saying the movie rights had been sold! It took three screenwriters and a director and lead actor who believed in the story to eventually produce It’s a Wonderful Life (directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart).

To mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the movie, Stern’s daughter had the story published in a deluxe edition, complete with wonderful illustrations by Scott McKowen. The Afterword, wherein Marguerite Stern Robinson explains how her father’s short story became the iconic movie, is a great companion to the familiar story of one man’s realization that his life really does matter.

Loved having some stories I've never heard before! Many of these were underrated, and they made for a good October read.

To be honest, I only read about a third of this - all that was required for class. Spooky! But a little repetitive to read all in one sitting.

To be honest, I only read about a third of this - all that was required for class. Spooky! But a little repetitive to read all in one sitting.

To be honest, I only read about a third of this - all that was required for class. Spooky! But a little repetitive to read all in one sitting.

Glad to have discovered The Greatest Gift. George learns Life is The Greatest Gift.

Glad to have discovered The Greatest Gift. George learns Life is The Greatest Gift.

646. The Pocket Book of Ghost Stories, edited by Philip Van Doren Stern (read 29 Mar 1961) I found this to be a good collection

Edgar Allan Poe was a depressive indolent drunk failure who married his 13-year-old cousin and spent his life composing purposefully obnoxious, repellant stories because "To be appreciated, you must be read," and he felt that the controversy would get him read. Which was astute of him.

His Dupin stories are interesting if you're a Holmes fan, since Conan Doyle's debt to them is obvious, but they're nowhere near as good as the Holmes stories. Fucking orangutans, man. His horror is hit or miss. Pit and the Pendulum is truly disturbing; Fall of the House of Usher is a little boring.

And he was just obsessed with being buried alive. Man, like all his stories are about that. Loss of Breath is my favorite, I think.

I loved this book. I so enjoyed the editor's comments before each story, they brought so much information into the reading. The stories are wonderfully more imaginative than the "ghost" stories that are around today and the horror is that much more horrific if you have an imagination! I loved the time period of the stories too.

George Pratt is contemplating suicide, when a stranger appears and starts to talk him out of it. When George lets slip that he wishes he'd never been born, getting his wish may just change his perspective on how great a gift life is.

This is a short story that won't take you long to read, but if you slow yourself down may make you think about some of the ways in which your live has touched others', making the world a different place than it would be without you. Knowing that it inspired "It's a Wonderful Life" made me have rather different expectations for the story - I expected it to be longer and more fleshed out. But this is truly a short story, a compacted scene from the movie that is powerful in its own way for being more focused.

Unfortunately, we did not spend a lot of time reading Poe in class. We only read a few of his short stories and, honestly, not enough to truly get a taste of his writings. What we did read I absolutely loved! I am renting this text from the bookstore and just *might* spend the extra few dollars to purchase it. I have really enjoyed his writings! Him, on the other hand, I have no care for. He creeps me out!

Adrianne

I picked this up at a yard sale because I felt guilty about never having read Grant's Memoirs. The more I read of it the more I regretted having gotten hold of an abridgment, because I need to read the whole thing and now that will be harder. But once having started, I couldn't stop. I don't know what percentage of the original is in this volume, but there are ellipses on almost every page, so the cuts are obviously substantial.

Lots has been written about this book and I will not add to it, except to say that one of the things that shines through is Grant's liking and admiration for Lincoln.

An excellent collection of the eerie Edgar Allen Poe's works. Poe was a tortured, haunted genius who, as the introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern states, was "the most often read of all his contemporaries, but this is no accident, for this neurotic and unhappy artist is strangely modern, oddly in keeping with our unhappy and neurotic age. He knew what the death wish was long before Freud defined it. He was in love with violence half a century before Hemingway was born; he knew how to create suspense before the psycho-thriller was thought of; he used the theme of the double self before the term 'split personality' was invented. And, most important of all, he was endlessly concerned with inner conflict - the major theme of present-day literature."

There are many classics here that are truly great, including The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, and the poem The Raven.

I also loved several of his lesser known works: William Wilson, Berenice, Ligeia, and the Gold-Bug.

Quotes:

On terror, from William Wilson:
"...when the bright rays fell vividly upon the sleeper, and my eyes, at the same moment, upon his countenance. I looked; - and a numbness, an iciness of feeling instantly pervaded my frame. My breast heaved, my knees tottered, my whole spirit became possessed with an objectless yet intolerable horror."

from Berenice:
"...his tones grew thrillingly distinct as he whispered me of a violated grave - of a disfigured body enshrouded, yet still breathing, still palpitating, still alive!"

On insanity, from Eleonora:
"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence - whether much that is glorious - whether all that is profound - does not spring from disease of thought - from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

On reality, from A Dream Within a Dream:
"Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"

On death, from The Pit and the Pendulum:
"And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave. The thought came gently and stealthily, and it seemed long before it attained full appreciation; but just as my spirit came at length properly to feel and entertain it, the figures of the judges vanished, as if magically, from before me; the tall candles sank into nothingness; their flames went out utterly; the blackness of darkness supervened; all sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, and night were the Universe."

Of fear, from The Premature Burial:
"It may be asserted, without hesitation, that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and of mental distress, as is burial before death. The unendurable oppression of the lungs - the stifling fumes from the damp earth - the clinging of the death garments - the rigid embrace of the narrow house - the blackness of absolute Night - the silence like a sea that overwhelms - the unseen but palpable presence of the Conqueror Worm - these things, with thoughts of the air and grass above, with memory of dear friends who would fly to save us if but informed of our fate, and with consciousness that of this fate they can never be informed..."

On sorrow, from Berenice:
"...out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been."

On obsessive madness, from The Tell-Tale Heart:
"It was impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture - a pale, blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever."

On sin from The Black Cat; what an awful and terrifying passage this is:
"One morning, in cold blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; - hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; - hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin - a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it - if such a thing were possible - even beyond the reach of the most infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God."

Lastly from the Gold-Bug:
"Why taint noffin but a skull - somebody bin lef him head up de tree, and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off."