Marilyn Ross novels

[Willie Loomis]

Just purchased the first ten novels in the series.  I seem to remember they followed no particular order, but if i am correct the first five or so are actually a continuing story about the Collins family before Barnabas.  My question comes after reading the final novella regarding Victoria Winters and her lineiage (sp?) and the actually storyline that was originally envisioned in the late '50s (which seemed very interesting and a shame that the show couldn't follow that particular storyline).  Are the first few novels the story that Ross envisioned before the show came to be?

Also, this seems like its going to be quite an expensive endeavor -- between the prices of the books and shipping, it coste me roughly $100.00.  I've got 22 more to order.  I had the whole collection as a kid but they burned in a fire.

Any replys are appreciate as well as your feelings on the novel series.   thanks.

[Gothick]

Hey Willie, I think Dan "Marilyn" Ross who wrote the books had the script for episode 1 plus some notes from Art Wallace's original story bible.  The latter was published as a Pomegranate Press book, Shadows on the Wall, and does include the projected outline for the first year or so of DS as Art Wallace originally envisioned it.  I don't have the book but a friend recently got hold of a copy (it is unfortunately out of print).  The first main storyline ended with Roger being even more explicitly villainous than was the case in the aired episodes from 1966.  Laura was set to come back but she wasn't a Phoenix; she was simply a troubled alcoholic.  I think even in the first five books Ross added a number of characters who were not in the original material he was given.  From what I remember of those first five books, apart from the opening couple chapters of book one, there was very little resemblance to what aired on the series.  Even the first novel about Barnabas was  to all intents and purposes a different story and the character very different from how he appeared in the series.

A man named Jeff Thompson wrote an entire MA thesis on the Ross books.  I don't know if it was ever published.  Some here are huge fans of the books.  I read them back in the day.  I find the covers the most interesting aspect of the novels now.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I read them back in the day.  I find the covers the most interesting aspect of the novels now.

I read them back in the day as well, but after a while I really only bought them for the covers because the stories were just so different from the show. And Barnabas would pop into Collinwood in all different time periods, so seemingly he was never chained in his coffin. Or am I forgetting something? But then, truthfully, I don't recall details of the actual plot of even one of them...

[Gothick]

You remember correctly MB--in the books, Barnabas was never chained in his coffin, but traveled the world and even lived in London, for reals, at one point.  The character was really quite different from how he was portrayed in the series, from what I recall.  I think he also had a different servant for awhile other than Willie but I can't recall the particulars now.

It's too bad Dorothy Daniels didn't get the DS contract--a much better writer than Ross, IMO.  Her Strange Paradise novels hold up much better than do the Ross DS tomes.

But others feel differently, of course...  My favorite Ross story is the time he was sitting in the back of his station wagon with the typewriter on his lap in front of the post office frantically banging out the final few pages of one of his books so he could get the MS in the post in time to meet his deadline.

G.

[Willie Loomis]

I will soon find out.  I do remember reading them and like the others, plots?  who knows.  but i was an avid reader of them, sometimes buying the book and then putting my nose in them until page 160 the same day as i bought them.

Some of the later ones are priced ridiculously, I've read these books are the least of value in the Dark Shadows memorabilia.   but, i've seen one for 60.00 and 70.00.  reason being i have also read is that the later books only had one printing.   

I hope I don't put out all this money only to have them published once the movie comes out.

I would like to write one, and I have a great idea for a story.  If only I could just hamper down and start typing! 

[Uncle Roger]

Wow! The Ross books. I bought them all at the time, still have them around someplace. The first five focus on Victoria Winters' search for her true origin. She never quite gets answers, manages to get herself killed numerous times and attracts  enough male attention to make Carolyn Stoddard look like Doris Day.

Ross also gives the Collins family several new additions. There is Ernest Collins, a concert violinist who is killed in a plane crash, kind of like Burke Devlin. He also gives Roger and Elizabeth a brother, for one book anyway. Brother Mark is a professional hypnotist and chooses to go by the name of Mark Veno. This might have been away to explain the background of the 1991 Daphne Collins but Mark's daughter is named Linda.

In most of the books Barnabas' servant is named Hare. Deaf, mute and kind of nasty, he spends a lot of time snarling at the various ingenues. Willie, Julia and Eliot don't appear until after HODS. The one time that Angelique appears in the flesh, her appearance is nothing like Lara Parker. Kind of a low budget version of Sophia Loren.

For a small town, collinsport is overrun with gothic mansions. There seems to be a new one in every book.

Good luck completing your collection. But you shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for them. Used bookstores usually have a couple