Randolph C. Bull - Perturbed Spirits

[dem bones]

Randolph C. Bull (ed.) - Perturbed Spirits (Arthur Baker, 1954)

Thanks to Marijke Van Duyn for the wonderful cover scans

Grant Allen - Wolverden Tower
Rhoda Broughton - The Man With The Nose
R. W. Chambers - The Demoiselle D’y’s
Ralph Adams Cram - The Dead Valley
Dick Donovan - The Corpse Light
William Hope Hodgson - The Derelict
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Invisible Eye
H. B. Marriott Watson - The Devil On The Marsh
John Metcalfe - Mortmain
Pamela Hansford Johnson - Ghost Of Honour
Hume Nisbet - The Haunted Station
Fitz-James O’Brien - The Lost Room
Villiers De L’Isle Adam - Vera
Henry S. Whitehead - The Fireplace
Mrs H. D. Everett - The Death Mask
F. M. Mayor - The Unquiet Grave

A major influence on the Victorian ghost and horror collections of the excellent Hugh Lamb.

[alansjf]

I can't include a scan of the dust jacket for this one, because my copy doesn't have one, but here's the TOC for Bull's Upon the Midnight: An Anthology of Ghost and Horror Stories (Macdonald, 1957):

William Hope Hodgson: The Voice in the Night
Sir Gilbert Campbell, Bart.: The White Wolf of Kostopchin
J.B. Priestley: The Demon King
"A Lady": The Parlour Car Ghost
H. de Vere Stacpoole: The Middle Bedroom
Theo Gift: Dog or Demon
Graham Greene: A Little Place Off the Edgware Road
Arnold Bennett: The Murder of the Mandarin
Amelia B. Edwards: The Four-Fifteen Express
Georgina C. Clark: A Life-Watch
John Moore: Decay
J.J. Curle: Awake - Asleep - Awake
Norman Edwards: The Flagstone
Robert W. Chambers: The Messenger
Clemence Dane: Nightly She Sings
Elizabeth Gaskell: The Squire's Story

It's nowhere near as strong a selection as Perturbed Spirits, but there are a few recognized classics, and the Stacpoole is another of the relatively obscure stories John Pelan selected for his Century's Best Horror Stories.

[dem bones]

Thanks for this and all the other info, Alan. If and when you nip across to the Vault site, you'll see that, for once, i've not been idle updating it!

vaultofevil.wordpress.com/

[alansjf]

So I see !

And there's still all the Jones & Campbell Best New Horrors to come...

[dem bones]

R. C. Bull (ed.) - Perturbed Spirits: A Book of Ghost & Terror Stories (Arthur Barker/ Dragon Books, 1958).

Herbert Van Thal - Introduction

R. W. Chambers – The Demoiselle D’y’s
Grant Allen – Wolverden Tower
Ralph Adams Cram – The Dead Valley
Dick Donovan – The Corpse Light
Mrs H. D. Everett – The Death Mask
Erckmann-Chatrian – The Invisible Eye
Rhoda Broughton – The Man With The Nose
Pamela Hansford Johnson – Ghost Of Honour
William Hope Hodgson – The Derelict
Villiers De L’Isle Adam – Vera
H. B. Marriott Watson – The Devil On The Marsh
F. M. Mayor – The Unquiet Grave
Fitz-James O’Brien – The Lost Room
Henry S. Whitehead – The Fireplace

Blurb:
Although innumerable anthologies and a vast library of ghost and strange stories exist, the demand for such books is such that they soon go out of print and become scarce. For many years Mr. Bull has been collecting books of this nature, and not only collecting but avidly reading them, and the result is that the selection in this book is both unusual and full of stories that are rarely found. This is certainly not only a book for the connoisseur of the supernatural, ghost or strange story, but an admirable book for the winter fireside.

Contents are relatively familiar now, but they were less so on publication. Had been after a copy of this edition for an age - can anyone identify the cover artist?

[dem bones]

Thanks to Andreas for reminding me of:

Villiers De L’Isle Adam - Vera: Count d'Athol mourns his beautiful wife, whose heart gave out during a night of passion. But what if his love were strong enough to return her from beyond the family vault? He summons his faithful retainer.

"Raymond ... we are worn out with fatigue this evening, the Countess and I. You will serve supper about ten o'clock. And, by the way, we have made up our minds that from tomorrow we shall isolate ourselves here more completely than ever. None of my servants, except yourself. must pass the night under this roof. You will send them three years wages, and they must go. Then you will close the bar of the gateway, and light the torches downstairs in the dining-room; you will be enough for our needs. For the future we shall receive nobody."

Raymond plays along. Surely it is only a matter of time before the master comes to his senses, accepts that his beloved is dead? But gradually, he too comes to accept that the master is quite correct - how could he have doubted his word?. The Countess has not left them.

For a while there, I thought we were in for the full works - grave-robbing, necrophilia, etc - but author keeps just the right side of .... tasteful. It's still great!

[dem bones]

F. M. Mayor - The Unquiet Grave: (The Room Opposite: And Other Tales of Mystery & Imagination, 1935). When a local lad attempts to molest Ellen Braithwaite, official village beauty, a fellow named Thorny intervenes and, in the ensuing struggle, kills the would-be rapist stone dead. Rather than take his chances with the law, Thorny enlists in the Navy, but not before he and Ellen have exchanged vows. It is agreed that Thorny will return for her when it is safe to do so, otherwise she will leave behind her family to join him. But the Fell country is rife with consumption, and Ellen dies two years afterward, having had no word from her love - this on account of her shameless father intercepting her mail. Thorny, alerted by Ellen's anguished ghost, arrives in the village and demands the sexton disinter his lover so he may gaze upon her one last time. The old man very reluctantly risks career and reputation to do so.

R. W. Chambers – The Demoiselle D’y’s: (The King in Yellow, 1895). Philip, lost on the Breton Moors, is offered shelter by a beautiful young woman. Save for four falconers and a nurse, Jeanne D’y’s is good as isolated from the world. She speaks - and dresses - like a remnant of the age of chivalry. Philip, needless to say, falls madly in love with her and his passion is reciprocated. How sad that he should be bitten by a viper just as they approach a woodland gravestone.

Such a shame RCB has only the two ghost anthologies to his name as he most assuredly knew a decent story when he read one.