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Also in the 1960s, two of his most popular titles, ''The Devil Rides Out'' and ''Uncharted Seas'' (renamed ''The Lost Continent'') were filmed by Hammer and negotiations took place to turn some of his books into a TV series.
to:
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* ValuesDissonance: Several of his novels, though ''Literature/UnchartedSeas'' in particular with its villains being the [[ScaryBlackMan survivors of a wrecked slave ship having [[UnfortunateImplications descended into savagery]], and the PoliticallyIncorrectHero making liberal use of the N-word.
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* ValuesDissonance: Several of his novels, though ''Literature/UnchartedSeas'' in particular with its villains being the [[ScaryBlackMan survivors of a wrecked slave ship having [[UnfortunateImplications descended into savagery]], and the PoliticallyIncorrectHero making liberal use of the N-word.
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dewicking
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* AFormYouAreComfortableWith
* BlackMagic: As used by Them. Repeatedly.
* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''.
* BlackMagic: As used by Them. Repeatedly.
* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''.
to:
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* GreyEyes: The Duc.
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* ManInTheIronMask: ''The Prisoner in the Mask'' (although this particular mask is leather).
* ReligiousHorror: Practically all of his horror novels.
* ReligiousHorror: Practically all of his horror novels.
to:
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from trope pages
* AstralProjection: Features in ''Strange Conflict'', which has battles on the astral plane, and is considered by some an actual proto {{cyberpunk}} novel.
* FictionalizedDeathAccount: ''The Second Seal'' has Dragutin Dimitrijević strangled to death by the dashing but entirely fictional Duc de Richleau in 1914. He was actually shot for treason in 1917.
* {{Ghostapo}}: In ''Strange Conflict'', the Nazis use the services of a Haitian Witch Doctor to get the routes for Allied convoys from the minds of the people who knew about them. The Duke de Richleau and his companions put a stop to it.
* {{Ghostapo}}: In ''Strange Conflict'', the Nazis use the services of a Haitian Witch Doctor to get the routes for Allied convoys from the minds of the people who knew about them. The Duke de Richleau and his companions put a stop to it.
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** The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
to:
** The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.Hell in ''To the Devil--A Daughter''.
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has its own page, and that example is on it
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* LadyOfBlackMagic: Lady Ankharet in ''Literature/TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.
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has its own page
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* ''The Devil Rides Out''
to:
* ''The Devil Rides Out''''Literature/TheDevilRidesOut''
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* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: Death himself, on a white horse too, turns up at the culmination of the occult attack Duc de Richleau and the gang are subjected to ''The Devil Rides Out''.
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Clean-up
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* AffablyEvil: the BigBad in ''Gateway to Hell''.
* AuthorTract: he does this in just about every novel he wrote. His books often lapse into political polemic about the seductive evil of left-wing politics, and the need for Britain to be governed by a strong benevolent dictator according to rules of libertarianism and free-market economics. After all, the working classes are too docile and ill-educated, so people like ''us'' must shoulder the burden of ruling them, for their own good, of course. Alongside the politics, Wheatley also polemics his religion, a kind of cross between Christianity and Buddhism that actually does make sense.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith:
* AuthorTract: he does this in just about every novel he wrote. His books often lapse into political polemic about the seductive evil of left-wing politics, and the need for Britain to be governed by a strong benevolent dictator according to rules of libertarianism and free-market economics. After all, the working classes are too docile and ill-educated, so people like ''us'' must shoulder the burden of ruling them, for their own good, of course. Alongside the politics, Wheatley also polemics his religion, a kind of cross between Christianity and Buddhism that actually does make sense.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith:
to:
* AffablyEvil: the The BigBad in ''Gateway to Hell''.
* AuthorTract:he He does this in just about every novel he wrote. His books often lapse into political polemic about the seductive evil of left-wing politics, and the need for Britain to be governed by a strong benevolent dictator according to rules of libertarianism and free-market economics. After all, the working classes are too docile and ill-educated, so people like ''us'' must shoulder the burden of ruling them, for their own good, of course. Alongside the politics, Wheatley also polemics his religion, a kind of cross between Christianity and Buddhism that actually does make sense.
*AFormYouAreComfortableWith:AFormYouAreComfortableWith
* AuthorTract:
*
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* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
* GreyEyes: The Duc
* GreyEyes: The Duc
to:
* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
Daughter''.
* GreyEyes: TheDucDuc.
* GreyEyes: The
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* MagicallyBindingContract: The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
to:
* MagicallyBindingContract: MagicallyBindingContract:
** The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
** The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
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* ReligiousHorror: Practically all his horror novels.
* WeirdMoon: so much of the supernatural weirdness is governed by phases of the moon, i.e. Hecate the goddess of insanity may only manifest at the gibbous moon.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: some of the creatures of EldritchAbomination called up to vex and torment. (''Gateway to Hell'')
* WeirdMoon: so much of the supernatural weirdness is governed by phases of the moon, i.e. Hecate the goddess of insanity may only manifest at the gibbous moon.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: some of the creatures of EldritchAbomination called up to vex and torment. (''Gateway to Hell'')
to:
* ReligiousHorror: Practically all of his horror novels.
* WeirdMoon:so So much of the supernatural weirdness is governed by phases of the moon, i.e. Hecate the goddess of insanity may only manifest at the gibbous moon.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm:some Some of the creatures of EldritchAbomination called up to vex and torment. (''Gateway torment in ''Gateway to Hell'')
Hell''.
* WeirdMoon:
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm:
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dennis_wheatly.jpg]]
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Dennis Wheatley was born in London in January 1897, inheriting a family wine business. He began writing novels after UsefulNotes/WW1 service and a decline in the fortunes of the family business.
to:
Dennis Yeats Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was born in London in January 1897, London, inheriting a family wine business. He began writing novels after UsefulNotes/WW1 service and a decline in the fortunes of the family business.
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During the 1960s and 1970s Wheatley's work had phenomenal sales. However, forty years on, his books have all but disappeared from bookshops and public libraries. Where, W.H. Smith once displayed shelves of his titles, now there are none. Wheatley's work is firmly fixed within the white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant imperialism of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. He is adamant about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race above all others and was sympathetic to [[TheApartheidEra the old South Africa]]. Sadism is depicted in his work, primarily directed at women (albeit not by the heroes). Satanism (the left hand path) equates in Wheatley's mind with socialism (the political left) and un-natural homosexuality.
to:
During the 1960s and 1970s Wheatley's work had phenomenal sales. However, forty years on, his books have all but disappeared from bookshops and public libraries. Where, W.H. Smith once displayed shelves of his titles, now there are none. Wheatley's work is firmly fixed within the white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant imperialism of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. He is adamant about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race above all others and was sympathetic to [[TheApartheidEra [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra the old South Africa]]. Sadism is depicted in his work, primarily directed at women (albeit not by the heroes). Satanism (the left hand path) equates in Wheatley's mind with socialism (the political left) and un-natural homosexuality.
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* ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''
to:
* ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''''Literature/TheKaOfGiffordHillary''
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* LadyOfBlackMagic: Lady Ankharet in ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.
to:
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Lady Ankharet in ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.''Literature/TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.
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Dennis Wheatley was born in London in January 1897, inheriting a family wine business. He began writing novels after UsefulNotes/WW1 service and a decline in the fortunes of the family business.
His most enduring characters were those of the Duc de Richleau and his friends, who were to become Wheatley's most popular inventions. His work in the thirties seemed to be perfectly in tune with the spirit of the age, enforcing the virtues of imperialism in which he totally believed, and countering the rising threat of communism.
He worked in counter-intelligence and "black operations" during UsefulNotes/WW2. He continued writing prolifically after the war and his sales rocketed. In the UK alone he sold over 1,000,000 copies of his books a year during the 1960s.
Also in the 1960s, two of his most popular titles, ''The Devil Rides Out'' and ''Uncharted Seas'' (renamed ''The Lost Continent'') were filmed by Hammer and negotiations took place to turn some of his books into a TV series.
Wheatley's literary legacy falls into a number of distinct categories. There are the series novels, books that involve the same central character or characters more than twice. These series novels are: Duc de Richleau; Gregory Sallust; Roger Brook; and Julian Day. There are ten non-fiction titles; two collections of short stories; four crime-dossiers; and ‘out of series’ titles of which there are eighteen. Wheatley also edited two major collections of short stories for Hutchinson as well as the series of paperbacks, ‘The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult’, and wrote innumerable articles.
During the 1960s and 1970s Wheatley's work had phenomenal sales. However, forty years on, his books have all but disappeared from bookshops and public libraries. Where, W.H. Smith once displayed shelves of his titles, now there are none. Wheatley's work is firmly fixed within the white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant imperialism of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. He is adamant about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race above all others and was sympathetic to [[TheApartheidEra the old South Africa]]. Sadism is depicted in his work, primarily directed at women (albeit not by the heroes). Satanism (the left hand path) equates in Wheatley's mind with socialism (the political left) and un-natural homosexuality.
Like many members of the British establishment in the 1930's, he leaned towards totalitarianism, praising both Mussolini and Franco and referring to Hitler as ''His Excellency'' in his pre-war book ''Red Eagle''. In the Gregory Sallust war stories he makes Hermann Göring a largely sympathetic character. In Göring he saw an upper middle-class epicure and hero of the First World War with a strong sense of duty and nationhood, yet a man who could still share a dirty joke. These are the qualities that Wheatley possessed and admired in others.
Accusations of having fascist sympathies were levelled at Wheatley in the 1930s with some justification, but he never allied himself to the fascist cause in Britain. His political views were essentially Conservative, albeit to the right of that party. From a distance, however, he admired the tough stance of Italian and Spanish fascism, its patriotism and its pro-active anti-communism.
Proof exists that in the immediate post-war era (after 1918), Wheatley was closely associated with occultist, mountebank and self-styled Great Beast Creator/AleisterCrowley, as well as the showman occultist Montague Summers. Initiation and association with Crowley's school of ritual magic would explain the detail he was able to pack into his occult novels. Later, he tried to downplay and even deny his association with Crowley, though it is telling that an illustration in the copiously illustrated ''The Devil and All His Works'' clearly shows the frontispiece of an occult book signed by Crowley "To my great friend, Denis".
Wheatley's novels are capable of creating a strikingly cinematic world of luxury and excitement. (Indeed, several of his books, especially ''The Devil Rides Out'', have been adapted for film.) His characters all live life to the full, defeating evil at every turn, unfettered by financial concerns.
Dennis Wheatley died in November 1977.
'''Wheatley's Black Magic horror novels:'''
* ''The Devil Rides Out''
* ''Strange Conflict''
* ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''
* ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
* ''Literature/TheHauntingOfTobyJugg''
* ''The Satanist''
* ''They Used Dark Forces''
* ''Gateway to Hell''
* Non-fiction:
* ''The Devil And all His Works", an exploration of black magic in history, mythology and literature.
----
!! This author's works provide examples of:
* AffablyEvil: the BigBad in ''Gateway to Hell''.
* AuthorTract: he does this in just about every novel he wrote. His books often lapse into political polemic about the seductive evil of left-wing politics, and the need for Britain to be governed by a strong benevolent dictator according to rules of libertarianism and free-market economics. After all, the working classes are too docile and ill-educated, so people like ''us'' must shoulder the burden of ruling them, for their own good, of course. Alongside the politics, Wheatley also polemics his religion, a kind of cross between Christianity and Buddhism that actually does make sense.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith:
* BlackMagic: As used by Them. Repeatedly.
* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
* GreyEyes: The Duc
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: Death himself, on a white horse too, turns up at the culmination of the occult attack Duc de Richleau and the gang are subjected to ''The Devil Rides Out''.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Lady Ankharet in ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.
* MagicallyBindingContract: The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
** Also the idea of ''karma'' that informs Wheatley's books: ''ye reap what ye sow'', defined as one of the primal laws of all being. What you say or do comes back to you.
* ManInTheIronMask: ''The Prisoner in the Mask'' (although this particular mask is leather).
* ReligiousHorror: Practically all his horror novels.
* WeirdMoon: so much of the supernatural weirdness is governed by phases of the moon, i.e. Hecate the goddess of insanity may only manifest at the gibbous moon.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: some of the creatures of EldritchAbomination called up to vex and torment. (''Gateway to Hell'')
----
His most enduring characters were those of the Duc de Richleau and his friends, who were to become Wheatley's most popular inventions. His work in the thirties seemed to be perfectly in tune with the spirit of the age, enforcing the virtues of imperialism in which he totally believed, and countering the rising threat of communism.
He worked in counter-intelligence and "black operations" during UsefulNotes/WW2. He continued writing prolifically after the war and his sales rocketed. In the UK alone he sold over 1,000,000 copies of his books a year during the 1960s.
Also in the 1960s, two of his most popular titles, ''The Devil Rides Out'' and ''Uncharted Seas'' (renamed ''The Lost Continent'') were filmed by Hammer and negotiations took place to turn some of his books into a TV series.
Wheatley's literary legacy falls into a number of distinct categories. There are the series novels, books that involve the same central character or characters more than twice. These series novels are: Duc de Richleau; Gregory Sallust; Roger Brook; and Julian Day. There are ten non-fiction titles; two collections of short stories; four crime-dossiers; and ‘out of series’ titles of which there are eighteen. Wheatley also edited two major collections of short stories for Hutchinson as well as the series of paperbacks, ‘The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult’, and wrote innumerable articles.
During the 1960s and 1970s Wheatley's work had phenomenal sales. However, forty years on, his books have all but disappeared from bookshops and public libraries. Where, W.H. Smith once displayed shelves of his titles, now there are none. Wheatley's work is firmly fixed within the white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant imperialism of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. He is adamant about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race above all others and was sympathetic to [[TheApartheidEra the old South Africa]]. Sadism is depicted in his work, primarily directed at women (albeit not by the heroes). Satanism (the left hand path) equates in Wheatley's mind with socialism (the political left) and un-natural homosexuality.
Like many members of the British establishment in the 1930's, he leaned towards totalitarianism, praising both Mussolini and Franco and referring to Hitler as ''His Excellency'' in his pre-war book ''Red Eagle''. In the Gregory Sallust war stories he makes Hermann Göring a largely sympathetic character. In Göring he saw an upper middle-class epicure and hero of the First World War with a strong sense of duty and nationhood, yet a man who could still share a dirty joke. These are the qualities that Wheatley possessed and admired in others.
Accusations of having fascist sympathies were levelled at Wheatley in the 1930s with some justification, but he never allied himself to the fascist cause in Britain. His political views were essentially Conservative, albeit to the right of that party. From a distance, however, he admired the tough stance of Italian and Spanish fascism, its patriotism and its pro-active anti-communism.
Proof exists that in the immediate post-war era (after 1918), Wheatley was closely associated with occultist, mountebank and self-styled Great Beast Creator/AleisterCrowley, as well as the showman occultist Montague Summers. Initiation and association with Crowley's school of ritual magic would explain the detail he was able to pack into his occult novels. Later, he tried to downplay and even deny his association with Crowley, though it is telling that an illustration in the copiously illustrated ''The Devil and All His Works'' clearly shows the frontispiece of an occult book signed by Crowley "To my great friend, Denis".
Wheatley's novels are capable of creating a strikingly cinematic world of luxury and excitement. (Indeed, several of his books, especially ''The Devil Rides Out'', have been adapted for film.) His characters all live life to the full, defeating evil at every turn, unfettered by financial concerns.
Dennis Wheatley died in November 1977.
'''Wheatley's Black Magic horror novels:'''
* ''The Devil Rides Out''
* ''Strange Conflict''
* ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''
* ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
* ''Literature/TheHauntingOfTobyJugg''
* ''The Satanist''
* ''They Used Dark Forces''
* ''Gateway to Hell''
* Non-fiction:
* ''The Devil And all His Works", an exploration of black magic in history, mythology and literature.
----
!! This author's works provide examples of:
* AffablyEvil: the BigBad in ''Gateway to Hell''.
* AuthorTract: he does this in just about every novel he wrote. His books often lapse into political polemic about the seductive evil of left-wing politics, and the need for Britain to be governed by a strong benevolent dictator according to rules of libertarianism and free-market economics. After all, the working classes are too docile and ill-educated, so people like ''us'' must shoulder the burden of ruling them, for their own good, of course. Alongside the politics, Wheatley also polemics his religion, a kind of cross between Christianity and Buddhism that actually does make sense.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith:
* BlackMagic: As used by Them. Repeatedly.
* FetusTerrible: ''To the Devil—A Daughter''
* GreyEyes: The Duc
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: Death himself, on a white horse too, turns up at the culmination of the occult attack Duc de Richleau and the gang are subjected to ''The Devil Rides Out''.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Lady Ankharet in ''TheKaOfGiffordHillary''.
* MagicallyBindingContract: The Faustian contract that has to be stolen from Satanists and burnt in order to liberate a sincerely sorry person from going to Hell.
** Also the idea of ''karma'' that informs Wheatley's books: ''ye reap what ye sow'', defined as one of the primal laws of all being. What you say or do comes back to you.
* ManInTheIronMask: ''The Prisoner in the Mask'' (although this particular mask is leather).
* ReligiousHorror: Practically all his horror novels.
* WeirdMoon: so much of the supernatural weirdness is governed by phases of the moon, i.e. Hecate the goddess of insanity may only manifest at the gibbous moon.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: some of the creatures of EldritchAbomination called up to vex and torment. (''Gateway to Hell'')
----
