Pain, Barry
Entry updated 14 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1864-1928) UK author active from the 1880s, best known for the supernatural tales assembled in volumes like Stories in the Dark (coll 1901) and Stories in Grey (coll 1911), and for humorous fiction in which he uneasily condescended to the lower orders, the best known of these being the nonfantastic Eliza tales. He frequently made slanting use of sf devices and motifs, as in The Octave of Claudius (1897), whose protagonist submits, for a large sum, to a Mad Scientist's mysterious experiment which will kill him in eight days (ie an octave); but who suddenly becomes rich and famous and engaged during the course of that week; it was filmed as A Blind Bargain (1922) directed by Wallace Worsley. The Immortality of the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe's Return (1906; rev vt The Return and Supperizing Reception of Robinson Crusoe of York, Parrot-Tamer 1921) facilitates the making of a number of Satirical points about modern England. The Exiles of Faloo (1910), set on a mysterious Island in the Pacific, hints at a fantastic reading of events. In An Exchange of Souls (1911) a scientific rationale is posited for the said Identity Exchange. The title story of The New Gulliver and Other Stories (coll 1913) takes its hero to a futuristic Utopia in Ultima Thule, where he fails to gain happiness. Despite a voluminous production of humour in the early years of his career, Pain was a writer whose best works ended in frustration and baulked nostalgia. [JC]
see also: Gulliver.
Barry Eric Odell Pain
born Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: 16 September 1864
died Watford, Hertfordshire, 5 May 1928
works (selected)
- The Octave of Claudius (London: Harper and Brothers, 1897) [hb/]
- The One Before (London: Grant Richards, 1902) [illus/hb/Tom Browne]
- The Memoirs of Constantine Dix (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1905) [hb/uncredited]
- Robinson Crusoe's Return (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906) [hb/]
- The Return and Supperizing Reception of Robinson Crusoe of York, Parrot-Tamer (London: T Werner Laurie, 1921) [rev vt of the above: hb/]
- The Diary of a Baby: Being a Free Record of the Unconscious Thought of Rosalys Ysolde Smith Aged One Year (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1907) [chap: first version appeared October 1906 The Delineator: pb/]
- The Diary of a Baby: Being a Free Record of the Unconscious Thought of Rosalys Ysolde Smith Aged One Year (London: T Werner Laurie, 1922) [chap: rev of the above: pb/Mabel Lucie Attwell]
- The Shadow of the Unseen (London: Chapman and Hall, 1907) with James Blyth [hb/uncredited]
- The Exiles of Faloo (London: Methuen, 1910) [hb/]
- An Exchange of Souls (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1911) [hb/uncredited]
- More Stories (London: T Werner Laurie, 1930) [omni of the above plus In a Canadian Canoe, The Octave of Claudius and The Memoirs of Constantine Dix: hb/uncredited]
- The Mountain Apart (London: Heinemann, 1913) as by James Prosper [hb/]
- Going Home: Being the Fantastical Romance of the Girl with Angel Eyes and the Man Who Had Wings (London: T Werner Laurie, 1921) [hb/]
collections
- In a Canadian Canoe, The Nine Muses Minus One, And Other Stories (London: Henry and Co, 1891) [coll: in the publisher's Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour series: hb/uncredited]
- Stories and Interludes (London: Henry and Co, 1892) [coll: illus/C W Furse: hb/]
- Playthings and Parodies (London: Cassell and Company, 1892) [coll: hb/]
- The Kindness of the Celestial and Other Stories (London: Henry and Co, 1894) [coll: hb/]
- The Romantic History of Robin Hood (London: Harper and Brothers, 1898) [coll of linked stories: first appeared 1897-1898 The English Illustrated Magazine: illus/hb/Amédée Forestier]
- Stories in the Dark (London: Grant Richards, 1901) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- Curiosities (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1904) [coll: pb/uncredited]
- Three Fantasies (London: Methuen and Co, 1904) [coll: hb/]
- Proofs Before Pulping (London: Mills and Boon, 1909) [coll: in the publisher's Laughter Library series: pb/uncredited]
- Here and Hereafter (London: Methuen and Co, 1911) [coll: hb/]
- Stories in Grey (London: T Werner Laurie, 1911) [coll: hb/]
- Stories Without Tears (London: Mills and Boon, 1912) [coll: hb/]
- The New Gulliver and Other Stories (London: T Werner Laurie, 1913) [coll: hb/]
- Collected Tales: Volume One (London: Martin Secker, 1916) [Volume Two was announced, but never published: hb/]
- Short Stories of To-day and Yesterday (London: Harrap, 1928) [coll: hb/]
- The Glass of Supreme Moments and Other Tales (New York: Hippocampus, 2003) [coll: pb/]
- The Undying Thing and Others (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2011) [coll: includes The Shadow of the Unseen above plus stories from various sources: edited by S T Joshi: pb/Allen Koszowski]
links
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