An Arabian Night-mare & Others; The Diamond Lens & Others; What Was It and Others
Fitz-James O’Brien
Swan River Press (2025)
Reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Fitz-James O’Brien (1828-1862) was an Irish author, emigrated first to London and then to America, where he died during the Civil War while fighting in the Union Army.
As a writer of speculative fiction, today he’s especially remembered for his tales “The Diamond Lens” and “What Was It?”, but his literary output was huge, including both prose and poetry.
Editor John P Irish has edited and introduced the three volumes, collecting for the first time the entire material authored by O’Brien.
Commenting upon such an immense material is not easy for any reviewer and choosing if buying all three books or just one is a real challenge for any reader, because each volume includes quite interesting treats.
“An Arabian Night-mare” collects both a fair amount of poetry( that I’m not qualified to discuss) and some notable tales. “The King of Nodland and His Dwarf” is, to me, the best story, a delightful novelette set in a kingdom where even sleep gets taxed, until things are made right thanks to the intervention of a leopard who gets rid of the king’s counselor, a malevolent dwarf.
“The Diamond Lens” includes the title story, one of O’Brien’s most famous, where a microscope reveals a full world hidden inside a water drop, as well as other notable tales such as “A Terrible Night,” a nightmarish piece where two tired travelers find shelter in a secluded cottage in the woods where a tragedy will take place, and “The Crystal Bell,” a cute little story about the ability of a small crystal bell to identify lies and deception.
“What Was It?” features O’Brien’s arguably most quoted tale, featuring an invisible yet physically concrete strange creature. Another great story is “Mother of Pearl,” a very dark ,deeply unsettling piece about the transformation of a young mother into a murderous being.
All in all a great set of three books, each one collecting some fascinating, elegantly written, quite enjoyable stuff.
