THE OTHER NINETEETH CENTURY

By: Chris Wyatt
Review Date: Monday, January 13, 2003

A trade paperback collection from TOR features 23 short stories (some of them very short) from Avram Davidson, a lesser-known but very skilled author who did work that flirted with the boundaries of SF. The collection has the stated intention of once again making available Davidson stories that have long been out of print. It's called THE OTHER NINETEENTH CENTURY in reference Davidson's choice of subject matter, which always seems linked in someway to the 1800's.

Davidson, a Hugo winner, was born in 1923 (and died in 1993), but his intense interest in history caused him, as represented in the present anthology, to turn his literary attentions to subjects like American colonialism, the Mormon settlement of Utah, and gaslit Victorian England...seemingly unusual topics for a science fiction author. But, far from being a strict historian, Davidson's stories use a strong sense of imagination to envision interesting alternatives.

Themes exhibited in CENTURY include possible ulterior explanations for actual historical events (like the death of the poet Shelley), and instances of technology being invented earlier than thought possible (like one tale that describes the invention and subsequent loss of wireless radio technology in Antebellum America).

The stories in the volume are literary gems, featuring a beautifully baroque (if sometimes hard to follow) style of writing. Davidson wrote his fiction with the clear intention of mimicking the syntax and composition of the time in which his tales were set; and to this reviewer, who is admittedly a little undereducated on the subject of nineteenth century fiction, Davidson's work seems to achieve an admirable level of authenticity.


Davidson's writing can be most clearly compared with that of Arthur Conan Doyle, which is appropriate since one of the included tales (called "The Singular Incident of the Dog on the Beach") is a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, written from the point of view of the criminal.

The works in CENTURY are enjoyable and enchanting. They deal with exotic magic, they play with bizarre points of view, and they marvel at anachronistic science. More than just the interesting SF ideas, Davidson also features a very human sensibility, especially in regards to marginalized populations. Whether they be Chinese immigrants, persecuted pioneers, or freed slaves, Davidson handles his characters with gentle respect.

Nonetheless some modern readers might find CENTURY difficult to fully appreciate. This reviewer, for example, spent several long minutes trying to puzzle out the meaning of a story, learning only from the endnotes (by editor Henry Wessells) that the tale was an alternative explanation of a crime attributed to nineteenth century murderess Lizzie Borden.

A hint to any future CENTURY readers who weren't history majors: sometimes it's best to read the endnotes before the story.

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