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Post by dem bones on Jun 3, 2008 19:11:26 GMT
Peter Haining (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (Robinson, 2007) Joe Roberts Elizabeth Albright & Ray Bradbury - The Haunted House
Peter Haining - Foreword: I Live In A Haunted HouseHaunted Places: Stories Of Fact And FictionE. Bulwer Lytton - The Haunted and the Haunters Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House Algernon Blackwood - A Case of Eavesdropping Virginia Woolf - A Haunted House H. Russell Wakefield - Ghost Hunt William F. Nolan - Dark WinnerAvenging Spirits: Tales Of Dangerous ElementalsCharlotte Riddell - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk Ralph Adams Cram - No. 252 rue M. Le Prince Mary Eleanor Freeman - The Southwest Chamber W. W. Jacobs - The Toll-House L. P. Hartley - Feet Foremost Ian Watson - Happy HourShadowy Corners: Accounts Of Restless SpiritsW. F. Harvey - The Ankardyne Pew Louisa Baldwin - The Real and the Counterfeit Richard Hughes - A Night at a Cottage... Thorp McClusky - The Considerate Hosts Basil Copper - The Grey House Fay Weldon - Watching Me, Watching YouPhantom Lovers: Sex And The SupernaturalRichard Dehan - A Spirit Elopement Herbert de Hamel - The House of Dust A. E. Coppard - The Kisstruck Bogie Norah Lofts - Mr. Edward Robert Bloch - House of the Hatchet Ramsey Campbell - Napier CourtLittle Terrors: Ghosts And ChildrenM. R. James - Lost Hearts Ellen Glasgow - The Shadowy Third Hugh Walpole - A Little Ghost Nigel Kneale - The Patter of Tiny Feet Penelope Lively - Uninvited GhostsPsychic Phenomena: Signs From The Other SideArthur Conan Doyle - Playing with Fire William Hope Hodgson - The Whistling Room E. F. Benson - Bagnell Terrace Joan Aiken - The Companion James Herbert - Ghost Hunter Ruth Rendell - Computer SéanceHouses Of Horror: Terror Visions Of The StarsGaston Leroux - In Letters of Fire Bram Stoker - The Judge's House McKnight Malmar - The Storm A.M. Burrage - The Waxwork H.G. Wells - The Inexperienced Ghost E.M. Delafield - Sophy Mason Comes Back Stephen King - The Boogeyman
Peter Haining - Appendix: Haunted House Novels - A Listing Expanded and with great new stories, this is the biggest and best anthology of ghostly hauntings ever. Over 40 tales of visitation by the undead - from vengeful and violent spirits, set on causing harm to innocent people tucked up in their homes, to rarer and more kindly ghosts, returning from the grave to reach out across the other side. Yet others entertain desires of a more sinister bent, including the erotic. This new edition includes a selection of favourite haunted house tales chosen by famous screen stars Boris Karloff, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Plus a top ranking list of contributors that includes Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Ruth Rendell, and James Herbert - all brought together by an anthologist who himself lives in a haunted house.
Something unspeakable lurks in a Connecticut apartment closet, in Stephen King's 'The Boogeyman'; An Irish castle holds something truly horrifying in wait, in 'The Whistling Room' by William Hope Hodgson; The lecherous old ghost of a Georgian country house eyes up his latest tenant, in Norah Lofts' 'Mr Edward'; An ancient mansion on a shelf of rock previously occupied by a doomed castle, in 'In Letters of Fire' by Gaston Le Roux; The hunter is hunted in James Herbert's tale of nineteenth-century country mansion, 'The Ghost Hunter';
Psychic phenomena and poltergeists, avenging spirits and phantom lovers - curl up and read on, but never imagine you are safe from a visit...The usual mix of the familiar and the rare that served the much missed Peter Haining (and us) so well throughout his career. Although this was originally published in 2000, the inclusion of seven new stories makes it an almost new collection and a strong one at that. It's heartening that he should have had two of his best collections of the 'nineties and noughties - this and The Mammoth Book Of Modern Ghost Stories - published in the last year of his life. Includes (spoilers ahoy): H. R. Wakefield - Ghost Hunt: Brilliant sequel to Wakefield's enduring classic, The Red Lodge. Radio presenter Tony Weldon broadcast's live from a reputedly spectre infested "death trap" of a Georgian mansion. As Psychic Investigator Professor Mignon roots about upstairs, the initially sceptical Weldon is made increasingly uncomfortable by what he takes to be a foul-smelling bat and a stain fast-spreading across the ceiling. Thorp MCClusky - The Considerate Hosts: Marvin's car breaks down at midnight during a dreadful storm as he drives toward Little Rock Falls. He chances upon an isolated house and is ushered in by very odd couple, John and Grace Reed. They are ghosts, John having fried in the electric chair for a murder he did not commit, Grace taking her own life shortly afterward. Now they are intent on destroying Lieutenant Governor Lyons, the evil SOB who framed John. Marvin, sceptical to begin with, talks them out of their revenge - the bloody spoilsport - and the villain immediately succumbs to a heart attack. When Marvin next drives past the house it is a ruin and clearly hasn't been lived in for decades. Very gentle for McClusky but effective. Ramsey Campbell - Napier Court: Alma, recently separated from husband Peter (largely due to parental pressure; her mother resents her marrying "beneath herself") and suffering from flu, begins to experience all manner of ghostly manifestations in her reputedly haunted house. The ghost, that of a previous occupier who gassed himself, feeds on her depression and is finally able to manifest fully ... Algernon Blackwood - A Case Of Eavesdropping: The hapless Jim Shorthouse is an Englishman on hard times in an unspecified US city. He takes a job on the local newspaper to finance his dingy room in a multi-occupied house. The fearsome landlady says the only other tenant on his floor is an elderly German, but the walls are paper thin and Jim soon hears the man in heated conversation with his son, Otto. One night the argument gets out of hand and a trail of blood streams under the partition and across the floor of Shorthouse’s hovel. He barges down the door and enters upon … an empty room. The landlady explains that several previous tenants have experienced the same adventure - it even killed the last one. The haunting is a reenactment of a murder committed twenty years ago when Steinhardt, a senior partner in a collapsing Wall Street company, murdered his son to cover up a theft. Robert Bloch - House Of The Hatchet: "See the Kulva Mansion! Visit the Haunted Chamber - See the axe used by the Mad Killer! DO THE DEAD RETURN? Visit the HOUSE OF TERROR - only genuine attraction of its kind. ADMISSION - 25 cents."He's been arguing constantly with wife Daisy since first they married. Today's their third anniversary so why not drive out to Prentiss Road and book a room in that hotel where they first ... But on their way they pass the Kulva place and Daisy being a horror ghoul she will insist they pay a visit. Only the curator, Homer Keenan, does too good a job of the scary spiel and she faints dead away in the 'haunted chamber'. There's a storm raging outside by now and Keenan offers to put Daisy up in his wife's room until she recovers. Then he, Mrs. Keenan and the narrator settle down to get drunk on brandy .... A scream! An early attempt at the psychological horror story that would eventually spawn Norman Bates. Richard Hughes - A Night At A Cottage: Worcester. An escaped convict breaks into an abandoned cottage to shelter from the storm. Presently he’s joined by a tramp who explains that the property is shunned on account of the ghost of the previous owner who drowned himself in the pond.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 5, 2012 15:36:00 GMT
W. W. Jacobs - The Toll-House: Wapping, East London. After a night's drinking at The Three Feathers', Barnes, Lester, White and Meagle, the pub landlord, set out to explore the local haunted house whose latest victim, a tramp, hung himself from the rafters. Jack Barnes, the sceptic among them, thinks he hears footsteps ascending the staircase. Meagle goads him "I'll dare you to go down to the hall door and back by yourself," but Jack can't bring himself to do so. When his companions inexplicably fall asleep as one, Jack is unable to rouse them. The occupants of the Toll-House come forth to claim another life.
Penelope Lively - Unwanted Ghosts: When the Brown family move into their new home in Oxford, children Simon and Miriam find themselves sharing a room with a century old ghost who lives at the bottom of a chest of drawers. They want rid of him but the ghost, supremely unfazed, carries on knitting. By the end of the week, he's been been joined by his family and even the phantom family dog. How can the kids get rid of them?
Elizabeth Albright & Ray Bradbury - Haunted House: Short and slight. Star guest, the "man upon the stair/ man who wasn't there" from the familiar poem. Elizabeth Albright was eight at the time and she got to work with Ray (R.I.P.) after winning a prize in a Hallowe'en promotion.
Back on track:
Ruth Rendell - Computer Séance: Sopia de Vasco (Sheila Vosper to her parents) has single-handedly dragged fraudulent medium-ship into the computer age, making a tidy pile from the grieving gullible in the process. But her spidy sense is well off when she mistakes a disturbed young street-drinker on the Edgware Road for her dead ne'er-do-well dead brother.
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Post by jayaprakash on Nov 8, 2012 8:42:37 GMT
This, along with The Dark Descent and Dark Forces would make a great starter kit for the new horror fan. I love bumper volumes like this where you can spend years following down each individual author whose story you liked, and this is one of the best of its kind.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 8, 2012 10:31:24 GMT
This, along with The Dark Descent and Dark Forces would make a great starter kit for the new horror fan. I love bumper volumes like this where you can spend years following down each individual author whose story you liked, and this is one of the best of its kind. For me, Peter's late 'eighties anthologies for Kimber and much of what followed in the 'nineties was patchy, but he rediscovered his form with the Mammoth selections and Haunted Houses is the best of them. I also like how he introduces each of the stories with details of 'Address', 'Property', 'Viewing Date', 'Agent'. The posthumously published Mammoth Book Of True Hauntings makes for a wonderful 'non-fiction' companion volume, even if it wasn't conceived as one.
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Post by jayaprakash on Nov 9, 2012 2:06:05 GMT
The real estate listing-styled introductions are a very nice touch, I agree. Maybe when I have the book at hand I'll type a few in, some of them are quite clever.
Haining did have a return to form with the Mammoth books. It was nice seeing his name resurface on some really excellent collections.
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Post by ripper on Nov 20, 2012 14:34:24 GMT
This is one of my favourite anthologies, and I agree with what previous members have said about the selection of stories and the very neat estate agent-style introductions. Also, a nice addition, I thought, was the appendix of ghost novels with brief descriptions of plots. All in all a really good volume, and great to dip into on these dark winter nights.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 20, 2012 17:10:16 GMT
Also, a nice addition, I thought, was the appendix of ghost novels with brief descriptions of plots. Not all of them are novels. Or about haunted houses. Or ghosts. And some of the plot desciptions are somewhat odd. Consider Mr Haining's summary of William Peter Blatty's THE EXORCIST: Horror story inspired by a haunted plot in Washington and focusing on a young girl whose personality and actions are drastically affected by the weird sensations occurring in the family home. Or how about this one, about Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE: Acclaimed as the most famous haunted house story in literature, it recounts how a psychic researcher invites a group of people to help solve the mystery which seems to lie in the character of the original builder of Hill House. It seems to fit Richard Matheson's HELL HOUSE much better, but that one gets a different description.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 21, 2012 9:42:22 GMT
Not all of them are novels. Or about haunted houses. Or ghosts. And some of the plot desciptions are somewhat odd. You're right, JoJo, but personally, I was delighted he includes so many titles that are a complete mystery to me. For educational purposes, Peter's Haunted House Novels: A Listing, rearranged into chronicle order. Mrs. Henry Wood - The Shadow Of Ashlydyat (1863) Charlotte Riddell - The Haunted House At Latchford (1872) Charlotte Riddell - The Uninhabited House (1875) Charlotte Riddell - The Haunted River (1877) Oscar Wilde - The Canterville Ghost (1887) Lanoe Falconer - Cecilia de Noël (1891) Margaret Peeke - Born Of Flame (1892) John Kendrick Bangs - Toppleton's Client, or A Spirit In Exile (1893) Mary Stone - A Riddle Of Luck (1893) Paul Heyse - The House Of The Disbelieving Thomas (1894) Frank Norton - The Malachite Cross (1894) Henry James - The Turn of The Screw (1898) Richard Marsh - Tom Ossington's Ghost (1898) Weyner Jay Mills - The Ghosts Of Their Ancestors (1906) William de Morgan - Alice For Short (1907) Algernon Blackwood - Jimbo (1909) Amelia Rives - The Ghost Garden (1918) Leland Hall - Sinister House (1919) Lucas Malet - The Tall Villa (1919) Nina Toye - The Shadow Of Fear (1921) David Lindsay - The Haunted Woman (1922) Forrest Reid - Pender Among The Residents (1922) Francis Brett Young - Cold Harbour (1924) Richmal Crompton - The House (1926) H. P. Lovecraft - The Shunned House (1928) J. B. Priestley - Night Sequences (1932) John Urban Nicholson - Fingers Of Fear (1937) Edith Pargeter - The City Lies Four-Square (1939) Horace Horsenell - Castle Cottage (1940) Ashley Sergeant - The Ghost Of Mr. Brown (1941) Dorothy Macardle - Uneasy Freehold (1941) R. A. Dick - The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1945) Andrew Lytle - A Name For Evil (1947) Russell Thorndyke - The Master Of The Macabre (1947) Pierre Bessand-Massenet - Amorous Ghost (1957) Shirley Jackson - The Haunting Of Hill House (1959) William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist (1971) Richard Matheson - Hell House (1971) Stephen King - The Shining (1977) Jay Anson - The Amityville Horror (1978) James Herbert - Haunted (1988) James Herbert - The Ghosts Of Sleath (1994) Patrick McGrath - Asylum (1996) Richard Peck - The Ghost Belonged To Me (1997) Mark Z. Danielewski - House Of Leaves (2000) Ray Bradbury - From The Dust Returned (2001) Clive Barker - Coldheart Canyon (2002) Can you think of any he overlooked?
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 21, 2012 10:34:16 GMT
Can you think of any he overlooked? I am surprised not to see Anne Rivers Siddons's THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR on the list. Not that I think it is good or anything. And how about Robert Marasco's BURNT OFFERINGS? At least they are actually about houses.
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Post by ripper on Nov 21, 2012 10:49:49 GMT
For me, the appendix in Haining's anthology listed many novels and authors that I had never heard of. I would agree that some of the plot descriptions appear a tad puzzling, but I found the list to be a fair starting point from which to track down novels of interest and investigate writers of whom I was not familiar. I would like to see more such lists appended to suitable anthologies. I seem to remember that there was a list of vampire novels given in a vampire anthology, possibly edited by Alan Ryan...Penguin Book of Vampire Stories maybe?
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Post by andydecker on Nov 21, 2012 10:56:56 GMT
Can you think of any he overlooked? Well,regardless of taste and/or quality there comes to mind: Edward Lee: Flesh Gothic (2004) Michael McDowell: Elementals (1981) Tamara Thorne: Haunted (2000) Douglas Clegg: Breeder (1990) William Schoell: Late at Night (1986) - this is more a haunted island, but there is a house
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Post by dem bones on Nov 21, 2012 11:44:21 GMT
I seem to remember that there was a list of vampire novels given in a vampire anthology, possibly edited by Alan Ryan...Penguin Book of Vampire Stories maybe? Alan Ryan's The Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories it is, Rip. Just found the list on our old board and it still strikes me as pretty thin. Appendix I: Vampire Novels
Suzy McKee Charnas - The Vampire Tapestry Les Daniels - The Black Castle, The Silver Skull, Citizen Vampire Charles L. Grant - The Soft Whisper Of The Dead Stephen King - Salem's Lot Tanith Lee - Sabella, or The Blood Stone George R. R. Martin - Fevre Dream Richard Matheson - I Am Legend Robert R. McCammon - They Thirst Meredith Ann Pierce - The Dark Angel Anne Rice - Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat S. P. Somtow - Vampire Junction Whitley Strieber - The Hunger Theodore Sturgeon - Some Of Your Blood Peter Tremayne - Bloodright, The Revenge Of Dracula, Dracula My Love F. Paul Wilson - The Keep Chelsea Quinn Yarbo - Hotel Transylvania, The Palace, Blood Games, Path Of The Eclipse, Tempting Fate, The Saint-Germain Chronicles.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 21, 2012 12:19:00 GMT
Can you think of any he overlooked? Evangeline Walton's Witch House and, arguably, Jack Mann's Nightmare Farm. Has anyone here read Sinister House or Cold Harbour (both of which are on Haining's list)? If so, what did you think? Hippocampus Press has a two-for-one edition of them that I've often thought about purchasing.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 21, 2012 13:04:52 GMT
They're two of several i'd never heard of. If Mr. Haining is to be believed, Cold Harbour concerns an investigation into a Worcestershire haunting dating from Roman times, and Sinister House, set in Boston, pits a long dead couple versus the family who've moved in at their old address. I like the sound of Russell Thorndyke's Master Of The Macabre. "The ghost of a lewd and wicked monk who haunts an old palace is laid to rest by a visitor forced to spend the night in the old man's cell." This looks like it could well be a contender; been putting it off until i can find me a copy of Gads Hall. Nora Lofts - Haunted House (The Book Club, 1979: originally Hodder & Stoughton , 1978) Jacket design by Henry Legg Blurb A remarkable woman was how the world described Mrs Thorley of Gad's Hall. She had withstood fortune's buffets and made her way in a man's world. Add to that, the daughters of the house had all been married off respectably – all except Lavinia who had died, it was said, in India. At Gad's an attic remained locked in her memory even when the rest of the house was full of visitors, as it was when Mrs Thorley's old cattle-breeding friend from Holland came over to join a family reunion. Mr van Haagen spent the night in the room next door to the locked attic and was filled with such an overwhelming sense of absolute evil that he vowed never to stay the house again. But Mr van Haagen had an awareness denied to most. Seven years ago he had used it, half in jest, to read the cards for Mrs Thorley's girls.
For each of the three survivors marriage presented difficulties which each chose to overcome in her own way. And there was young George Thorley, whom everybody liked, and on whom his mother doted. For George life was simply for living. It was on the strong that life bore hard, as Jill Spender was to find out when in the next century she wrestled with unspeakable terror and crushing despair to make Gad's Hall a family home again.
In her earlier novel, Gad's Hall, Norah Lofts presented an unforgettable picture of the Thorley family and the events that transformed their old Suffolk home into a place of evil. Haunted House returns to face that evil and Norah Loft's wonderful story‑telling makes this an unputdownable read.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 21, 2012 19:15:04 GMT
Has anyone here read Sinister House or Cold Harbour (both of which are on Haining's list)? If so, what did you think? Hippocampus Press has a two-for-one edition of them that I've often thought about purchasing. I've got the Hippocampus edition - well worth getting with intros by ST Joshi. Both are praised in Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature.
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