After reading Patti Abbott's post featuring "Black Country" by Charles Beaumont, I was motivated to read some of Beaumont's stories in the collection, Perchance to Dream: Selected Stories. From reading articles on his work, it seems he wrote mostly short stories in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction subgenres.
I initially bought the book more for the cover than its contents. In 2017, I bought several classics in the Penguin Classics series, and this was one I came upon by chance. The cover illustration is by William Sweeney.
The book starts with a very enthusiastic and complimentary Foreward by Ray Bradbury. There are 23 of Beaumont's short stories included and an Afterward by William Shatner. At this point I have only read the Foreward and the first six stories.
The title story, "Perchance to Dream", is about a man having the same dream over and over. There is a twist ending and it did surprise me. This one was made into a Twilight Zone episode.
In "The Jungle", a man roams the city he lives in and has designed, looking for the solution to a disease that is killing people. It has themes of development taking over cultures and the assumption that technology always improves things. An interesting story, but not one I enjoyed reading. Also adapted for a Twilight Zone episode, with significant changes in the story.
"Sorcerer's Moon" was a very short story about two warlocks trying to kill each other. Entertaining, with an interesting ending. It was first published in Playboy.
In "You Can't Have Them All", a doctor visits a man who is wasting away. The man's goal in life is to have sex with every woman within his chosen parameters before he dies. It is a long story and goes on and on. I liked the ending, but the premise was so disgusting that I could not enjoy the story. The story was written in 1956, and maybe it was written for its shock effect?
"Fritzchen" was also not a favorite. It was about a man who owns a pet store, and a very unusual animal that his son finds. Not appealing and I did not like the ending.
The story I liked the best, so far, was was "Father, Dear Father". This very short story (about 5 pages) was panned in another review, at Greenwich Library, saying that the ending was obvious. I guess so, but I enjoyed it anyway. Maybe because I like time travel.
It may be that Beaumont's stories are too weird for me. The stories with horror elements did not appeal at all. But, I still have seventeen more to go in the collection, and I am sure I will find more that I like. So far I like the shorter stories more than the longer ones.
As noted above, some of Beaumont's short stories were later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes. Although I did watch that show when I was younger, I don't remember having seen the episodes mentioned here.
