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Post by dem bones on Oct 20, 2007 9:08:31 GMT
Anonymous (Margaret Armour) - The Eerie Book: Tales Of The Macabre And Supernatural (Castle, 1981) Illustrated by W. B. MacDougal Edgar Allan Poe - The Masque Of The Red Death George W. M. Reynolds - The Iron Coffin (extract from Faust, A Romance) Hans Andersen - The Mother And The Dead Child Robert Hunt - Tregeagle (extract) Catherine Crowe - The Dutch Officer's Story Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask Of Amontillado Anon - Earl Beadie's Game At Cards Mary W. Shelley - Frankenstein (Abridged) Catherine Crowe - The Garde Chasse Anon - A Dream Of Death Rev. Bourchier Wrey Saville - The Mysterious Horseman Catherine Crowe - The Blind Beggar Of Odessa Robert Chambers - The Story Of Major Weir Rev. Bourchier Wrey Saville - Marshal Blucher Baron de la Motte Fouque - Sir Hulbrand's Wife (extract from Undine) Thomas de Quincey - Klosterheim, or The Masque (abridged)
Published in the USA in 1981, it's hard to tell if this is a fascimile copy of an authentic Victorian collection or just a modern take on what the editor suspected one would have looked like. Interesting rather than great, with three solid stories from Catherine Crowe (more often than not included in 'factual' ghost story anthologies), and two excellent tasters from de la Motte Fouque and Reynolds, the latter serving up a torture chamber death to Lucrezia Borgia.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 11, 2008 16:36:28 GMT
Since last mentioned on here about 300 years ago, some more information about The Eerie Book has emerged, so now we know it was edited by Margaret Armour and first published by J. Shiells of London in 1898, making it a legit Brit. Anthology! More good news, the collection in its entirety is available to download from HorrorMasters. Alternatively, you may just wish to catch one of the greatest of the Penny Dreadful merchants in action over ten pages, in which case: G. W. M. Reynolds - The Iron Coffin (From Faust, A Romance, 1847): The Saintly Otto Pianalla is captured and thrown into the collapsing prison at the Castle of Solitude. The design of this dungeon is identical to that which deals torture and doom to the brave knight in William Mudford's The Iron Shroud - in fact, it's a complete rip off. With each passing day, as the walls slowly draw together, a bell tolls mournfully and one of the five windows along the wall disappears! Starving, Otto hopelessly awaits the end. But, in those final hours - a visitor! Not only that but a woman! A beautiful, graceful woman with the sweetest voice! Oh, thank you merciful God! Unfortunately, any thoughts of impending deliverance are put on hold when Otto (and we readers) recognises his visitor as a very tricky customer, and one whose advances he rejected in the Castle of Rosenthal that time - she won't be best pleased to be reminded of that! Best play this one very carefully, Otto. Remind her of all the good turns you did her equally, um, "misunderstood" brother - Cesare! “Lucrezia Borgia forgets nothing,” was the calm reply; “not even how Otto Pianalla scorned her love in the Castle of Rosenthal. Proud and obdurate man! didst thou not then see me at thy feet—and didst thou not shrink from me as from a viper? Didst thou not even take upon thyself to reproach me for my crimes? But enough of that: — I am not come to reproach — I am here to save thee, if thou wilt”
“Can you ask me if I wish to escape from this horrible prison?” exclaimed Otto, joyfully. “Oh! release me, madam — restore me to my wife and children—let me embrace them once more — and I will pray for thee — I will even speak of thee with gratitude!”
“It is not gratitude that I seek at the hands of Otto Pianalla,” answered Lucrezia; “it is love!”
“Oh I would you impose conditions upon me as the price of my release?” cried the artist “Then know, bad woman, that sooner shall these walls crush me to a shapeless mass, — sooner shall this roof fall down this instant on the head which it already touches, even as I speak to thee, — yes — sooner will I die the most horrible of deaths than yield to thy desires!”
“Think not, haughty man,” returned Lucrezia, “that your death there will be immediate! Oh no! — that were a mercy too great for those whom the state-vengeance of Ferara or my own private hatred sends to this living tomb! No! — shouldst thou scorn me now, as thou didst sixteen years ago in the Castle of Rosenthal, prepare thyself for a fate the horrors of which no tongue can describe! For when the fifth sound of tomorrow’s bell falls on thine ears, the walls and the roof will move so near each other that they will enclose thee in a space neither a whit larger nor a tittle smaller than thy coffin would be were it duly prepared to receive thy corpse. Therein wilt thou linger for days and days — a prey to starvation — feeding on the flesh of thine hands and arms — and with all the terrific consciousness which can aggravate the hellish torments of thy doom. Otto Pianalla, have I moved thee now?”
“No — no — fiend, and not woman, as thou art!” was the agonising reply. “Avaunt — leave me! I will not yield to thee — go!”
“Then perish in thine obstinacy!” replied Lucrezia; and the trap was immediately closed in the door. Is this the end for Otto? Will Lucrezia receive her just desserts?
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Post by lobolover on Nov 15, 2008 22:13:09 GMT
I see why people liked theese.
Hmm,Im wondering about Wagner myself.
Also,realy liked Undine,but im not a fan of "condensed" or abridged version of anything,except a new version by the author,may be,but not this.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2017 16:11:42 GMT
Anonymous (Margaret Armour) - The Eerie Book (Castle, 1981: originally J. Shiells & Co, 1898) W. B. MacDougall Edgar Allen Poe - The Masque Of The Red Death G. W. M. Reynolds - The Iron Coffin (From Faust: A Romance) Hans Anderson - The Mother And The Dead Child Robert Hunt - Tregeagle Catherine Crowe - The Dutch Officer's Story Edgar Allen Poe - The Cask of Amontillado Anonymous - Earl Beadie's Card Game Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Frankenstein (abridged) Catherine Crowe - The Garde Chasse Anonymous - A Dream Of Death Rev. Bourchier Wrey Savile - The Mysterious Horseman Catherine Crowe - The Blind Beggar Of Odessa Robert Chambers - The Story Of Major Weir Rev. Bourchier Wrey Savile - Marshall Blucher Baron de la Motte Fouque - Sir Hulbrande's Wife Thomas De Quincey - The Masque (extract from Klosterheim: or, The Masque) Blurb: Gothic horror at its best! Spanning the mood and style of authors from Hans Christian Anderson to Edgar Allen Poe, The Eerie Book presents 16 terrifying tales of the macabre and supernatural. This reproduction of a turn-of-the-century classic offers to the reader some of the most engrossing stories of menace ever written.From back in the day (circa 199-) when every other shop along the Charing X Road seemed to be a remaindered bookshop (and the bulk of those that weren't were simply book shops, second hand bookshops, music emporiums, arts & crafts shops, Sports Pages and a Millets). This one came from a place a few doors down from the fountain. They were stacked high alongside a similar towering edifice of Best Horror & Supernatural Of The 19th Century and it's 'Fantasy' counterpart plus even The Penguin Encyclopaedia Of Horror & The Supernatural. An instant education for a couple of quid. The Eerie Book facsimile is a thing of beauty. The G. W. M. Reynold's story is insane. Evidently he'd read William Mudford's supremely grim torture classic The Iron Shroud, decided it wasn't exciting enough, and roped in Lucrezia Borgia to spice things up.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 26, 2021 17:19:22 GMT
Couldn't face Night Side of Nature (my undated modern edition is hideous, most likely printed direct from an archive-org pdf or similar) so revisited these from her Ghosts & Family Legends, 1859.
The Dutch Officer's Story: Over fifty-plus years, the ghost of Mungo, a black Newfoundland with distinctive white streak along his flank, has patrolled the camp each night, awakening any dozy sentry fallen asleep at his post, thus sparing the man Court Martial. But the Major is not a man for superstitious tommy-rot and he loathes idlers. The next man caught napping on the job will face execution by firing squad! To make matters worse, in defiance of camp legend, he takes a shot at the phantom dog, thereby inviting misfortune on his family.
The Blind Beggar of Odessa: A peasant girl adopted by the mystery beggar maintains a psychic link with her guardian beyond the grave. When the beggar is murdered, he visits her nightly in dreams, denouncing his killers as the same couple responsible for burning out his eyes all those years ago! The police are skeptical - until his ex-wife and her second husband duly confess to the crimes.
The Garde Chase: Benoit the forester is onto a good thing. His employer, Prince de M ——— allows him to gather and sell all the dead wood on the estate, fetching him a handsome second income. But Benoit gets used to the good life and avarice gets the better of him. Chancing upon a suicide's grave in the woods, he steals the cross to add to today's bundle. The occupant takes umbrage, duly haunts the Benoit to his doom.
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Post by Dr Strange on Apr 26, 2021 17:50:43 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Apr 27, 2021 3:40:59 GMT
That's really rather wonderful, Dr Strange. Thanks!
cheers, Helrunar
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Post by dem bones on Jan 15, 2022 10:58:44 GMT
Catherine Crowe - Ghosts and Family Legends ([no details of publisher] Sept. 2021, originally 1858) First part.
Preface
ROUND THE FIRE First Evening The Lover's Farewell The Appointment Kept
Second Evening The White Cat Passing Spirits The Garde Chasse
Third Evening The Carrier
Fourth Evening Rehearsals, etc. Prophetic Dreams
Fifth Evening The Vigil The Strange Dog The Scotch Minister
Sixth Evening The Radiant Boy The Prediction Haunted Houses. The Justification
Seventh Evening The German Inn The Benighted Traveller
Eighth Evening My Own Visit to a Haunted House Mr. G.'s Adventure Conclusion to First Part
Appendix
Autograph Letters Communicating Personal Experiences Addressed to the Author
Second Part
Legends of the Earthbound
The Italian's Story The Dutch Officer's Story The Old Frenchman's Story The Swiss Lady's Story The Sheep Farmer's Story My Friend's StoryPreface: An English country mansion, location withheld, December 1857. Guests exchange friend of a friend and it-happened-to-me ghost stories at the Christmas fireside. Early indications are this is very much the The People's Ghost Stories of its day. First Evening: Captain Henry S_____ is called away to the West Indies before he can wed his fiancee, Miss P. One night his ghost materialises in her room. Confirmation duly arrives from his regiment that the captain has perished. Dr. W_____ relates true, well authenticated story of John Robertson of Skye, whose cold, saturated ghost rose from Davy Jones' Locker to briefly return home, so as not to break a promise. Second Evening: Mrs. M_____ on her encounter with a spectral white cat on a Yorkshire gatepost, and that night in Brussels when her maid, Rachel, received a visit from the ghost of her sister. Lady A. chimes in with several instances of similar one-off hauntings. Madam Von B. rounds off the session with story of an avaricious French wood-gatherer who dared steal a cross from a grave in a forest. Third Evening: Colonel Fred C_____ recalls a strange affair from forty years ago in the south of England. Gould, a prosperous farmer met with death in the woods. Initially, he was believed to have suffered the fatal injury in a carriage accident, but a coroner revealed he'd been battered about the head with a cricket bat. The mugger made off with £70. When Healy, a local tradesman of ill repute, was charged with the murder, he proclaims his innocence and, tempting fate; "May this right arm wither if I murdered the man." My Friend's Story: The Bellfry and surrounding fields are haunted by sorrowful spectre of a woman in seventeenth century attire. Reputedly the victim of a philandering, gold-digging husband who spent their marriage having it off with her treacherous sister. Ghost initially returned from grave to disrupt their wedding day and has moped about ever since. Lunacy, premature death, abject misery; it's a shame few of Crowe's stories are quite as downcast.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jan 15, 2022 12:00:54 GMT
The editions on my ebook site are universally cheap knock up jobs, probably using a free text from Gutenberg. This looks the best of the printed editions mentioned on goodreads. Hardcover 115 pages Published 2005 by Sarob Press (first published 1859) ISBN 1902309561
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jan 15, 2022 12:05:44 GMT
That edition looks very similar to this one:
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Post by dem bones on Jan 16, 2022 12:29:32 GMT
The editions on my ebook site are universally cheap knock up jobs, probably using a free text from Gutenberg. This print version was blatantly printed direct from Gutenberg. My copy of The Grim 13 is scanned from a/ the copy in the University of California. It even duplicates the date-stamped library ticket at back. Fourth Evening: Euro interlude. Portents of ill tidings, precognition,etc. A ghostly state funeral heralds imminent death of the Grand Duke, Charles Frederick; a Danish huntsman re-enacts his suicide in a St. Petersberg boudoir; a vivid dream alerts Mr. S. to presence of a bandit gang in the Black Forest. Fifth Evening: More of same. Dr. S_____ on the night he, Dr. W_____, and a terrier spent at a haunted house in Dublin, previous occupant, a misanthropic miser. Ghost is that of a woman in white. The adventurers find the skeletons of a woman and new born child in the cellar; An uncanny black hound takes violent exception to Mrs. X's son and drowns him at first opportunity; The ghost of a Paisley minister instructs his son against the abolition of the cutty stool (the church seat of shame); "Don't do any such thing, David ... morality is loose enough; don't make it looser."
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Post by dem bones on Jan 17, 2022 11:21:13 GMT
Sixth Evening: Lost in foul weather after a hard day's game hunting, Captain S_____ (later Lord C_____) seeks shelter at the first house he comes to. Pushed for an available room, the butler allocates him the chamber reputedly haunted by a radiant boy and hopes for the best ....; a family curse in the North of England; appearance of a white hare heralds impending death; two houses plagued by ghostly screams in the night; a whip-cracking boy poltergeist in a Lake District mansion; and Sir A_____ C_____ on a S_____shire property haunted by a suicide's ghost.
Seventh Evening: The anthologists choice; Montague Summers, Bryan A. Netherwood, Richard Dalby and Chetwynd-Hayes are among those to have revived this entry, sometimes in abridged form. Travelling from Leipsic to Dresden with her maid, Mrs M_____ puts up for the night at an ancient inn. Her room is haunted by the terrifyingly hideous spectre of an old woman in antique dress; a man who died in the local quarry treads the path just beyond Mrs W_____C_____'s garden wall; the Chevalier de La C_____ G_____ . relates the tale told him by Count P_____ , whose insistence on spending the night in the 'haunted room' of a Polish castle almost cost he and Dido the bulldog their sanity.
Eighth Evening: The author participates in a ghost hunt at house said to have seen two murders; a young man is waylaid by a woman who requests that he see her safely home. On arrival, she locks him in with a corpse, obliging him to escape through a window. Mrs. Crowe concludes that, while she is yet to see a ghost, it would be rash to dismiss them as figments of weak and credulous minds.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jan 17, 2022 12:43:46 GMT
I started this book, but I prefer the Penny Dreadful I'm reading at the moment, so I put it to one side.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 27, 2022 16:08:27 GMT
The Swiss Lady's Story: Geneva at close of the eighteenth century. Disinherited by his uncle for laughing when he took a fall in the street, grasping Alfred Zwengler, chemist, nonetheless lands the old man's fortune on account of the continued absence of the rightful heir, his brother; Louis Zwengler, who threw in his lot with the Revolutionaries in France, is missing, presumed killed in battle, although nobody can swear to seeing him dead. Fearful that his life of luxury might not last, Alfred lives in constant fear of his elder sibling's return, growing increasingly sullen and withdrawn, until, eventually, he sells l'Hôtel Dupont for a pittance, his home having become unbearable to him. The new occupants find it impossible to keep servants, as the property is haunted by a forlorn ghost in military uniform, forever pointing toward a particular wall .....
The stories in the second half of the book at least have some sparkle to them, or so it seems to me. The readers' letters washed over me on first reading.
JHH - Letter dated Aug. 18, 1854: A large, old fashioned house in the country where a spectre in "grave clothes" frequently emerges from a wall. Reputedly, the ghost of a suicide. Also, JHH meets a gentleman late of the army who has recently entered the church. Favourably impressed by his amiable nature, that night she hears a commotion in the next room and dreams her new acquaintance is guilty of "a deadly sin which could never be pardoned." She doesn't fancy him quite so much after that.
RIO, Gloucestershire - Letter dated June 10, 1854: While living in cheap digs, an aspiring Minister by an apparition in red nightcap, flannel jacket and breeches. A year later, a dying man moves into the same lodging house. The correspondent recognises him.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 28, 2022 11:31:37 GMT
RIO, Gloucestershire - Letter dated June 21, 1854: Same correspondent as above, back to relate a prophetic dream of the minister referred to in previous letter. A friendly voice in his sleep directed the fellow to a pile of stones on the beach beneath which, as promised, he found the sum he required to undertake an urgent journey. Also includes grandfather of R.I.O.'s account of his run-in with a club-footed evil spirit in black during his wife's pregnancy. Said visitant informed him: "I am not too late for the remnant," and so it proved. The child was stillborn. Finally, R.I.O. relates how he or she dreamt of an acquaintance nonchalantly gazing down upon his own corpse. The subject of this vision, a Doctor, is still hale and hearty at time of writing. HA, Edinburgh - Letter dated Aug. 10, 18 --: A house in Edinburgh prodigiously haunted by an old man in a nightdress, a woman on the stairs clutching a large bunch of keys, a "dusky form," and a furniture-disturbing poltergeist. Correspondent believes their dreams to be singularly allegorical. As mentioned, these accounts read very much like the day's equivalent of readers' true life experiences in such contemporary magazines as Take A Break, Chat: It's Fate & Co.
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