''Our Lady of Darkness'' (1977) is an

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which places imaginary and unreal elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with quixotic plot-drivers, unusual character traits, and a platform for cl ...

novel by American author

Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert ...

. The novel is distinguished for three elements: the heavily autobiographical elements in the story, the use of

Jungian psychology Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

that informs the narrative, and its detailed description of "Megapolisomancy", a fictional occult science. It was originally published in shorter form as "The Pale Brown Thing" (''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', January/February 1977).

Autobiographical elements

Like the protagonist Franz Westen, Leiber was recovering from his wife's death a number of years previously and descending into alcoholism. Like the author, Westen is an amateur astronomer who is looking for ways to re-engage with the life around him, and who lives at the address (811 Geary St) where Leiber lived at the time. The novel is set in actual San Francisco locations, including

Corona Heights Corona Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, just north of Market Street and Eureka Valley. Corona Heights is often considered part of the Castro and Upper Market areas. Location The Corona Heights neighborhood stretches betwe ...

and the

Sutro Tower Sutro Tower is a unique three-legged tall TV and radio lattice tower located in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Clarendon Heights, it is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a landma ...

behind it. As late as 2012, fantasy fans could take a walking tour of the city that included all the novel's main locations. Several of the other characters are thinly disguised versions of people active in Bay Area fandom in the mid-1970s. The novel mentions authors like

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

, and the baroque poet

Clark Ashton Smith Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Algernon Charles Swinburne ...

, who lived part of their lives in San Francisco. The title is taken from

Thomas De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quince ...

's ''

Suspiria de Profundis ''Suspiria de profundis'' (a Latin phrase meaning "sighs from the depths") is a collection of essays in the form of prose poems by English writer Thomas De Quincey, first published in 1845. An examination of the process of memory as influenced by ...

'', and references are also made to

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, Medieval studies, medievalist scholar and provost (education), provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was List of ...

's ghost stories, and to the work of fantasy/horror writers such as H.P. Lovecraft. These allusions add an element of

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

to the story, making it almost as much an examination and description of horror and the imagination.

Jungian elements

Adding to the metafiction elements of the story are Leiber's frequent references to Jung's descriptions of the

Anima Anima may refer to: Animation * Ánima (company), a Mexican animation studio founded in 2002 * Córdoba International Animation Festival – ANIMA, in Argentina Religion and philosophy * Animism, the belief that objects, places, and creatures ...

(female self) and

Shadow A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...

(hidden self). These are elements that existed in Leiber's work nearly since the start of his career in the late 1930s, according to Bruce Byfield's ''Witches of the Mind: A Critical Study of Fritz Leiber''. The main difference in ''Our Lady of Darkness'' is that, unlike much of his earlier works, the references to these figures are explicit, rather than implied, and at times supported by direct quotes.

''The Pale Brown Thing''

''Our Lady of Darkness'' was originally serialised, in shorter form, and with the title ''The Pale Brown Thing'', over two issues of the ''

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'' (January/February 1977). The story was featured on the cover of the January issue with a painting by

Ron Walotsky Ron Walotsky (21 August 1943 – July 29, 2002) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist who studied at the School of Visual Arts. Born in Brooklyn, he began a long and prolific career painting book and magazine covers starting with t ...

. Fritz Leiber maintained that the two texts "should be regarded as the same story told at different times." ''The Pale Brown Thing'' was reissued by

Swan River Press Swan River Press is an independent Irish publishing company dedicated to gothic, supernatural, and fantastic literature. It was founded in Rathmines, Dublin in October 2003 by Brian J. Showers. Swan River publishes contemporary fiction from around ...

in 2016 as a limited edition hardback. The cover by Jason Zerrillo is an homage to Walotsky's original artwork for ''F&SF''. The volume includes an introduction by Leiber's friend, the San Francisco poet

Donald Sidney-Fryer Donald Sidney-Fryer (born September 8, 1934) is a poet and entertainer principally influenced by Edmund Spenser and Clark Ashton Smith. Born and raised in the Atlantic coastal community of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Sidney-Fryer enlisted in ...

, who was the basis for the character of Jaime Donaldus Byers. It also includes a reprint of an essay by John Howard, "Story-telling Wonder-questing, Mortal Me: The Transformation of ''The Pale Brown Thing'' into ''Our Lady of Darkness''", which examines the differences between ''The Pale Brown Thing'' and its later, lengthier incarnation.

Reception

Fritz Leiber won the

World Fantasy Award for Best Novel In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

in 1978 for ''Our Lady of Darkness''.

Richard A. Lupoff Richard Allen Lupoff (February 21, 1935 – October 22, 2020) was an American science-fiction and mystery author, who also wrote humor, satire, nonfiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he a ...

praised ''Our Lady of Darkness'' as "one of the scariest, most original, and most damnably ''convincing'' fantasy notions I've ever come across.""Lupoff's Book Week", ''Algol'' 28, 1977, p.53.

References

External links