Richard Matheson: A Question

[Amaurote]

Okay, I've been looking for a copy of Hell House for months now, and I finally acquired a casebound volume (Viking Press, 1971 ed) last week. When I opened it up, I discovered that it reads back to front - it literally begins at pages 279 and ends at page 1, with the title and catalogue verso details right at the back. Is this normal, or is my book retarded?


PS: I'm not going to send it back, I'm just a bit puzzled.

[JakeD]

Heh! You must've gotten a Jewish copy. :p

I really don't know, I've never read any of Matheson's stuff. However, I do remember buying a copy of Daniel Quinn's Ishmael brand new from a bookstore, and taking it home only to find that the pages were all jumbled up. :/

Took it back, and got another copy that was more legible. Do the pages run in reverse, or are they just numbered so?

[Amaurote]

Do the pages run in reverse, or are they just numbered so?

It's very strange, Jake, both pagination and narrative order are reversed, with title and bibliographical data as recto and verso of the final pages. As you can see, it has an epistolary/entry-by-12-hr-clock format, which makes it look even more peculiar. I'm not complaining, nor will I send it back if it is a print error, I'm just curious as to whether this is a genuine narrative technique on Matheson's part or just a bizarre cock-up at the printers.

[twistedzipper]

wow that is sweet , im gonna see if i can find a copy around here for me to read... thats so cool thanks for sharing !!

[blue_eyez]

sell it on e-bay you would make a killing

[Amaurote]

Tempting, blue-eyez, but I never sell books.

"After they were gone, Edith saw a typed list on the table and picked it up. It was headed, 'Observed Psychic Phenomena at the Belasco House':

Apparitions; Apports; Asports; Automatic Drawing; Automatic Painting; Automatic Speaking; Automatic Writing; Autoscopy; Bilocation; Biological phenomena; Book tests; Breezes; Catalepsy; Chemical phenomena; Chemicographs; Clairaudience; Clairsentience; Clairvoyance; Communication; Control; Crystal Gazing; Dematerialization; Direct drawing; Direct painting; Divination; Dreams; Dream communications; Dream prophecies; Ectoplasm; Eidolons; Electrical phenomena; Elongation; Emanations; Exteriorization of motricity; Exteriorization of sensation; Extras; Extretemporal perception; Eyeless sight; Facsimile writing; Flower clairsentience; Ghosts; Glossalia; Hypermamnesia; Hyperesthesia; Ideomorphs; Ideoplasm; Impersonation; Imprints; Independent voice; Interpenetration of matter; Knot tying; Levitation; Luminous phenomena; Magnetic phenomena; Materialization; Matter through matter; Metragraphology; Monition; Motor automatism; Newspaper tests; Obsession; Paraffin molds; Parakinesis; Paramnesia; Paresthesia; Percussion; Phatasmata; Poltergeist phenomena; Possession; Precognition; Presentiment; Prevision; Pseudopods; Psychic photography; Psychic rods; Psychic sounds; Psychic touches; Psychic winds; Psychokinesis; Psychometry; Radiesthesia; Radiographs; Raps; Retrocognition; Scriptograph; Sensory automatism; Skin writing; Skotography; Slate writing; Smells; Somnambulism; Stigmata; Telekinesis; Teleplasm; Telescopic vision; Telesthesia; Transcendental music; Transfiguration; Transportation; Typtology; Voices; Water sprinkling; Xenoglossy.

Edith put the list down numbly. My God, she thought.

What kind of week was it going to be?"

[zekkers]

now that sounds like an interesting read

[Amaurote]

It is. I'm 30 now - last night I pulled the covers over my head. I kept hearing noises...you know the score.

[zekkers]

heh, i completely understand. Whenever I read a good suspense thriller (Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, etc) I start having paranoid delusions run through my head.