The October Country is a 1955 collection of nineteen macabre short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. It reprints fifteen of the twenty-seven stories of his 1947 collection Dark Carnival, and adds four more of his stories previously published elsewhere. The collection was published in numerous editions by Ballantine Books. The 1955 hardcover and 1956 and 1962 softcover versions featured artwork by Joseph Mugnaini that was replaced in 1971 by an entirely different Bob Pepper illustration. It was again published in 1996, by Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books; the illustrations within were drawn by Mugnaini. In this edition there was a foreword written by Bradbury himself, called "May I Die Before My Voices" in Los Angeles, California, on April 24, 1996. The October Country was published in the United Kingdom by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. in 1956, and reissued in 1976 by Grafton, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. …
The October Country is a 1955 collection of nineteen macabre short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. It reprints fifteen of the twenty-seven stories of his 1947 collection Dark Carnival, and adds four more of his stories previously published elsewhere. The collection was published in numerous editions by Ballantine Books. The 1955 hardcover and 1956 and 1962 softcover versions featured artwork by Joseph Mugnaini that was replaced in 1971 by an entirely different Bob Pepper illustration. It was again published in 1996, by Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books; the illustrations within were drawn by Mugnaini. In this edition there was a foreword written by Bradbury himself, called "May I Die Before My Voices" in Los Angeles, California, on April 24, 1996. The October Country was published in the United Kingdom by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. in 1956, and reissued in 1976 by Grafton, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The 1976 UK paperback edition includes "The Traveler", originally from the aforementioned Dark Carnival, and omits "The Next In Line", "The Lake", "The Small Assassin", "The Crowd", "Jack-In-The-Box", "The Man Upstairs" and "The Cistern".In 1999, The October Country was published by Avon Books, Inc. with a new cover illustration by Joseph Mugnaini, and a new introduction by Bradbury called “Homesteading the October Country”.
3/5
Some of the stories were alright but this did not really meet my expectations. The last couple of stories were extremely dull.
Many years ago, when my reading tastes were first being formulated, there were two authors that I really connected to: Agatha Christie and Ray Bradbury. These were the first authors I read that felt like "mine". I read everything by them I could get my greasy little hands on.
Although I loved everything Bradbury wrote, two books stood head and shoulders above the rest: Dandelion Wine (still my all-time favorite) and this collection of short stories, The October Country. I have read it so many times that I've lost count...but not for a long, long time.
Reading it again this Halloween season was like welcoming old friends into my home. There were stories here that I had forgotten were stories, stories that have become such a part of my memory that I couldn't remember who told them to me or where I might have heard them.
Bradbury had a beautiful …
Many years ago, when my reading tastes were first being formulated, there were two authors that I really connected to: Agatha Christie and Ray Bradbury. These were the first authors I read that felt like "mine". I read everything by them I could get my greasy little hands on.
Although I loved everything Bradbury wrote, two books stood head and shoulders above the rest: Dandelion Wine (still my all-time favorite) and this collection of short stories, The October Country. I have read it so many times that I've lost count...but not for a long, long time.
Reading it again this Halloween season was like welcoming old friends into my home. There were stories here that I had forgotten were stories, stories that have become such a part of my memory that I couldn't remember who told them to me or where I might have heard them.
Bradbury had a beautiful way with language, a way of writing that only sounds good in your head. Speak the lines out loud and they sound affected, bizarre. Read off the page they are poetic and ravishing. He will always be one of my go-to writers, never to be supplanted.
A wonderful collection of short stories, held together by Bradbury's highly concentrated writing style and the general topic of longing, in the form of obsession or of need.
