Book Review: "Dead Drunk" ed. by Pam Lock

Full Title: Dead Drunk: Tales of Intoxication and Demon Drinks edited by Pam Lock

As we all know, under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, people turn into something else entirely. Some become happy, some become sad, some become loud, some go quiet and some turn into monsters. In this book edited by Pam Lock, we look at the interpretation of that from the Victorian Age primarily and see through the eyes of the past, the horrors that went wrong under the influence. From spectral stories to guilt trips of the worst kind, from Robert Louis Stevenson to Anthony Trollope, from simple drinking down to bawdy drunkeness. This book explores some of those stories that we tell amongst the horrors of ingesting the world's most acceptable toxic liquid.

One of the stories I really enjoyed re-reading in this anthology was The Body Snatchers by Robert Louis Stevenson. I first read this story when I was at school and reading The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde whilst exploring the gothic genre of the late Victorian Era. The Body Snatchers is a gruesome tale about the immoral Victorian practice of exhuming dead bodies from their graves in order to sell them on to medical schools or other places and thus, making a killing from the dead. As the main character becomes more and more entangled in the business, he also feels more and more guilt about it and questions the powers of others who are even more involved than he is. The exploration of guilt, immorality and the strange atmosphere gives way to some of Stevenson's best writing. I feel like it is clearly the strongest story in this anthology by a mile.

Another story I enjoyed was The Ostler by Wilkie Collins. I have always loved Wilkie Collins' writing, especially the book The Moonstone, which as a teenager, I found a great and exciting read. Collins has always been known for his supernatural auras and atmospheres amongst the characters in the stories he writes and The Ostler is no exception. It tells the story of a man called Isaac who works as an ostler and becomes plagued by horrific nightmares all the time. These nightmares involve a woman in a room and as the story goes on, Isaac descends further and further into his own paranoia whilst refusing to confront what this night terror might mean. The exploration of psychological breakdowns long before its time is one of the things that makes this story so great - it feels very realistic and yet, at the same time it has a terrifying air of the supernatural. By the end of the story, we recieve a weird shock twist as to what has actually happened and, in Wilkie Collins fashion - the close doesn't really mean it's all over forever, does it?

Other stories in this anthology that hold up quite well include Kitty's Dream and its Results by E.E.L, The Spotted Dog by Anthony Trollope, An Engineer's Story by Amelia B Edwards and many more. Each with their own personality but each of them fending the reader away from drink. One of the ones that fascinated me the most was probably The Bottle and the Drunkard's Children by George Cruikshanks which is a series of illustrations depicting what happens when one is pulled towards drink and then, in the second volume of images, what happens to the children involved in the family when this happens. A truly horrifying story of sadness, grief and loss - the Victorian era seemed to have very strict attitudes towards alcoholics and didn't have much sorrow for them. In fact, they are seen to be the objects of ridicule.

Obviously, I enjoyed the work by Lord Byron in this book entitled Lines Inscribed on a Cupe Formed from a Skull, in typically Byronic fashion, it is verbose and charming whilst also being quite dark and intense. All in all, I really enjoyed how creative this anthology felt: some stories by well known authors and others are just periodicals from Blackwood's Magazine. It felt like the person who put this together was trying to get us to experience every bit of writing on the topic possible. A great read for a three-dimensional view of the public opinion on drinking culture in the Victorian Era. But it is also a great read for those who want to pick their poison.