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Post by dem bones on Mar 13, 2009 22:26:49 GMT
Deborah Shine (ed.) - Haunting Ghost Stories: Illustrations by Reg Gray (Octopus, 1980) A spine-chilling collection of stories by the masters of horror and suspense.Walter De La Mare - The Riddle Stanley W. Fisher - The Sybarite Roger F. Dunkley - Echoes In The Sand Oliver Onions - The Mortal Michelle Maurious - Fame H. Brinsmead-Hungerford - Giovanni Paolo's Land H. G. Wells - The Red Room Paul Dorrell - Lonely Boy Colin Thiele - The Phantom Horses Michael Joseph - The Yellow Cat Stanley W. Fisher - A Little House Of Their Own E. F. Benson - Expiation John Gordon - Kroger's Choice Saki - Laura Paul Dorrell - Tea And Empathy M. R. James - The Haunted Doll's House Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Brown Hand W. W. Jacobs - The Well Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer Walter De La Mare - Bad Company Lucy M. Boston - Many Coloured Glass Ambrose Bierce - The Stranger Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart H. R. Wakefield - The Gorge Of The Churels E. Nesbit - Man-Size In Marble Brian Alderson - The Wooing Of Cherry Basnett Ambrose Bierce - A Tough Tussle W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw Glenn Chandler - The Late Departure H. R. Wakefield - Damp Sheets Sorche Nic Leodhas - The Battle With The Bogles Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - A Pair Of Hands Another anthology aimed at a young audience which can be enjoyed by all ages. Clung onto a copy of this for years, eventually got rid of it along with most of the young adult books I'd acquired, regretted it ever since. Found this copy in a cardboard box full of old plugs, a computer mouse and a moth-eaten dayglo pink fright wig (tempted but didn't have the £3 to stump up) at the local flea market on Sunday for 50p! With all the books and mags flying around just now, it will probably be a while until I get around to a rematch, but with the likes of John Gordon, Lucy Boston and Robert Arthur fighting it out with acknowledged classics and welcome, less obvious selections from Wakefield and Benson you can hardly go wrong. Minus point for the unnecessary childish doodles repeated on the inside covers (would have been just the thing to put me off the book as a kid), 'specially after they'd done so well with the skull photo, but otherwise a dead commendable collection!
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Post by carolinec on Mar 13, 2009 23:31:16 GMT
It's funny reading down that list of contents - how come no respectable anthology is complete without WW Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw? That particular story is one I remember well from my childhood reading - scared me shitless, and I loved it. It's probably one of the reasons why I became such a fan of short horror stories. And I'm sure I've heard other people - including horror writers - say it had a great influence on them too. Anybody else here feel that this particular story must be THE best, most influential, most shocking horror story ever? ;D
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Post by dem bones on Mar 14, 2009 9:45:20 GMT
It's one of a very few stories i swore never to re-read as my memories of being shaken by it as a teen were too precious to risk. Eventually relented when writing up the notes for Pan Horror 7 (bloody board) and, if it didn't quite have the same effect, I still loved it as a very clever, manipulative, proper horror story that knows exactly where to quit for the most powerful impact. But, however good it is, I wouldn't like to curse any story with tags like "best" or "most shocking". It's just asking for people to lecture you on how over-rated it is, how unsound your judgement in such matters is, how much scarier the unpublished trilogy they've written is and would you like to read the first 500 pages on-line .... ?
I also like the far less subtle variations that take it a step further than Jacobs - and open the door. The two that spring immediately to mind are Stephen King's Pet Sematary (he gets an entire novel out of it!) and the Wish You Were Here episode in the Amicus Tales From The Crypt, but i'm sure there are others.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 14, 2009 10:53:02 GMT
I rated the Monkey's Paw as one of the most memorable (an indeed best) horror stories in the Pan editions. I reread it several times as a grown up and it still impresses with a sort of ponderous force. But read it as a young kid and you can hardly open your own door at night
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Post by dem bones on Mar 14, 2009 15:14:24 GMT
The story was probably a bit of a pain to him really, in that it overshadowed his other ghost, horror and, of course, humorous stories until he was "The man who wrote The Monkey's Paw". The Well and The Three Sisters are equally grim in spirit, while Jerry Bundler, His Brother’s Keeper and tense melodrama The Interruption (filmed in 1955 as Footsteps in The Fog starring Stuart Granger and Jean Simmons) are no slouches.
I could be very wrong about this, but I think the only effort to collect his darker work to date is the 17 story The Monkey's Paw & Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre (1997) from Chicago based Academy Press (never seen a copy). Jacobs will be 70 years dead in 2113, so maybe Wordsworth might consider a 'Mystery & The Supernatural' edition to commemorate his anniversary?
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 14, 2009 19:55:16 GMT
I've just ordered a different anthology (1p from Amazon) to get hold of that Lucy Boston story, as the only other story of hers I've read, "Curfew", is a great favourite of mine.
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Post by pulphack on Mar 15, 2009 11:33:26 GMT
just to get back to ww jacobs for a moment - looking back, it seems that although this is his one great moment, he was actually more popular for his naval and humorous stories and novels during his life. certainly, it seems that way when you pick up some contemporary anthology that he appeared in and read the short biographical entires. the bulk of his output seems to be angled towards humour and the sea, too. it just goes to show - as with ef benson to a degree - that you never know what you'll be rememberd for, if at all!
to be honst, i think it has such an impact because it was the first story of that type (i think - anyone know of any before that i've missed?), and it was also so beautifully written. it has everything: unique idea, a tug to the heartstrings as it's a mother's love gone wrong, and a wonderful use of technique. perhaps, also, it was because his writing mostly veered towards non-horror that the application of such technique was fresh?
there have been some great variants since - i'm not a big stephen king fan but i really like pet semetary, for instance - but nothing that has quite that breath-drawn-in sense of apprehension.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 15, 2009 23:12:27 GMT
I've not seen any of his collections, pulps, but a helpful article by Chris Lamerton in All Hallows 1 (Ghost Story Society, 1989), certainly bears you out. The collections are predominantly taken up with humorous tales concerning the doings of sailors, but he always saw fit to include a macabre yarn or two - in 1902's The Lady Of The Barge, which includes both The Monkey's Paw and The Well - it's four of twelve, but that's an exception. I'm not sure i've read any of his non-supernatural stories, but coming up against that pair must have been fairly jarring for the reader if they were expecting laughs.
As to King, I've fond memories of his early novels but Pet Sematary is the only one I ever wanted to re-read, and I liked it even more second time around. One book of his i keep meaning to give a thread to is the non-fiction Danse Macabre (Futura, 1982), his idiosyncratic ramble through the history of "horror, terror and the supernatural in films, television and books."
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Post by dem bones on Apr 3, 2009 14:21:52 GMT
Stanley W. Fisher - The Sybarite: The pompous, insufferably snobbish Dr. Gerald Gordon alienates three of Harley Street's most eminent surgeons over dinner by dismissing their profession as glorified carpentry. Two years later, when he requires a life-saving operation, he learns just how despicable they found his remarks. A surprisingly nasty little medical horror story which commendably refuses to pull its punch.
Lucy Boston - Many Coloured Glass: Sir Joshua Waters, the local mayor, throws a Jane Austen-themed ball in the costume wing of the museum as a tribute to his son, Philip, who has just won a gold medal at the Olympics. Philip's girlfriend, Ann, is uneasy with his new-found celebrity status, even more so when she has to be led into the museum through a ring of scruffy student protesters ("Down with heroes! Down with snobs!"). One of these unwashed oiks takes an instant shine to her and, she has to admit, the attraction is mutual. The handsome scruff blags his way past the doorman by explaining he's a guest in tramp's costume and he and Ann are soon enjoying a spirited dance, much to the fury of Philip. Realising she no longer loves the local 'hero', Ann slips from the hall, finds herself in a room containing a battered and somewhat sinister musical box. As she sets the jerky figures in motion, the malfunctioning machine sets three of their number on collision course to play out a brutal murder.
Stanley W. Fisher - A Little House Of Their Own: Twenty-somethings James and Jessie Boone purchase a patch of land and set about building their dream home which, as it turns out, is anything but. Jessie is unaccountably terrified of the place and Jim, while keeping a stiff upper lip and berating her for imagining things, has to admit that he's not comfortable with it either. A ghostly re-enactment of an episode from the Great Plague, with "eager ghouls" arriving in the night to remove his dead wife, convinces Jim it's time to sell up - but has he left it too late?
Brian Alderson - The Wooing Of Cherry Basnett: Yorkshire Dales. Some centuries back, Alice Michaelson stabbed her unfaithful lover and duly hung at the Assizes for her crime. Rather than seek repentance, she went to the gallows cursing those who had brought about her doom. In the present day, young Cherry Basnett, a regular at The Rams Head and a bit of a lad, falls for young Nan Michaelson, much to the fury of her father who hates everyone because he comes from Yorkshire or something. Cherry and Nan get to meeting in secret in the fields, he plans their elopement and .... then she spitefully turns from the most beautiful girl in the village to a centuries old corpse decomposing before his eyes!
Paul Dorrell - Lonely Boy: World War II. Thirteen year old Jimmie Edmonds is relentlessly bullied by the other boys at Cawley School on account of his being a bit of a gurly swot and teachers pet. Then he meets Tom Nicholson, a strangely dressed kid with a withered arm. The pair immediately becomes pals but there's just one snag: Jimmie is convinced that Tom is a ghost ....
Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer: Melvin Mason's impending marriage to his beloved Monica is scuppered by the ghosts of five tramp's who commandeer his trailer. The five, led by Spike Higgins and Slippery Samuels, pick up where they left off in life and embark on a crime spree and Mason's nuptials looked doomed - until he learns that Monica's dying uncle happens to be their old nemesis, "Dan Bracer, the toughest Bull that ever kicked a poor 'bo off a freight." Dan contentedly drops dead, his spectre rises to take on his old enemies, so now all Melvin has to do is not blow it with Monica .....
H. R. Wakefield - The Gorge Of The Churels: The poor primitive Indians cherish fearful ideas about women who pass over in giving birth to their young. They fondly imagine that the spirits or ghosts of such unfortunate females continue to haunt the earth, with a view of seizing the soul of some living child and carrying it off into the void to comfort them. Then, if they are successful in this morbid ambition, they are content and roam their favourite places no more. Such ghosts are called 'Churels' and this gorge we are visiting is one of their favoured places. It is all very absurd, of course."
Reverend Aloysius Prinkle and his wife Nancy are on Missionary work in India, an occupation both are clearly unsuited for though try telling them. The pompous, super-smug Reverend's one smart move is that he's taken on Mr. Sen, a young and very savvy native to act as their guide, secretary and general dogsbody. Mr. Sen's conversion to Christianity isn't quite as sincere as it might be, but this is as well for little Nikky Prinkle when his father stupidly insists they spend a day at the locally shunned Gorge.
H. R. Wakefield - Damp Sheets: Cardew House, Hallocks, Sussex: Free-spending Robert stands to gain a fortune on his uncle Samuel's death but the old bastard still keeps clinging on. So Agatha decides to assist him on his way with a fatal dose of pneumonia. The dead man takes this very badly. Apparently, the misogynist streak that suddenly took to poisoning Wakefield's work coincided with his bitter divorce, so clearly Mrs. W must have been really getting on his tits when it came to writing this one.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Apr 3, 2009 15:30:48 GMT
Dem, it looks like this is the anthology with the Oliver Onions story, that I got rid of (as mentioned in the other thread). Obviously, it's not the exact one (or maybe it is, these books get about ;D ). So that settles the title of the Onions story I think, going to have to search for a copy now, you've made me want to get it again with this thread, you fiend
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Post by dem bones on Apr 3, 2009 18:00:33 GMT
You could do a lot worse. It's a nicely balanced collection of rotting old chestnuts and tidy contemporary stuff. I think the only reason i got rid of it first time was because of the doodles on the inside covers - still think they're unsuitable, even if it was aimed at the young adult market. A couple of the stories err toward the mawkish, and it sure ain't Ramsey Campbell's The Gruesome Book, but Deborah Shine doesn't patronise her target audience and The Sybarite, The Well and Damp Sheets are really quite nasty.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 15, 2010 14:56:43 GMT
Deborah Shine (ed.) - Haunting Ghost Stories - 20p Glad to have this one again, after stupidly getting rid of it, some years back. same thing, 'cept it cost me 50p to get another copy. bleeder saw me coming. had a dip into this last night because the print is nice and big and i'd completely forgotten what happened in this pair. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Brown Hand: Wiltshire. Dr. Hardcastle is invited to meet with his wealthy uncle, Sir Dominick Holden, recently returned from India to take up residence on a gloomy estate on the edge of Salisbury Plain. He's shocked at the terrified look in the old man's eyes: even the Sepoy mutiny couldn't faze Sir Dominick but some wretched business has put him in a right royal blue funk! When Handcastle volunteers that he is a member of the Society for Psychical Research, the relief in Sir Dominick and Lady Holden is near palpable. Holden is being haunted by the ghost of an Afghan hill-man whose life he saved by amputating a gangrenous hand. Sir Dominick explains that when the patient - who was little more than a beggar - asked him his fee, he jokingly requested to keep the hand for his collection of pathological specimens. The Afghan explained that this was impossible as according to his religious beliefs, he'd not be allowed into Paradise without it. A compromise was reached. Sir Dominick would pickle the hand and keep it until such times as the fellow needed it back. But six years ago Sir Dominick's Bombay residence was burned down and with it, most of his specimens. Dr. Hardcastle ends the haunting when he fobs off the spook with a substitute severed hand, acquired from the Seaman's Mission in sunny Shadwell! Saki - Laura: Laura views her impending death with the same indifference she has everything else in her life. Not having been a particularly good person - she has taken too much joy in persecuting her oafish brother, Egbert Quayne - she suspects she will be reincarnated as a lower organism, most likely an otter and then perhaps a naked Nubian boy, and confides as much to her sister-in-law Amanda. Even as her funeral is in progress an otter attacks and kills four of Egbert's prize hens and trashes his equally beloved flower bed. The culprit is eventually torn apart by hounds, which drives Amanda to the brink of nervous collapse. By way of convalescence, Egbert takes her on a trip to the Nile valley.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 25, 2010 7:17:00 GMT
Dem, it looks like this is the anthology with the Oliver Onions story, that I got rid of (as mentioned in the other thread). Obviously, it's not the exact one (or maybe it is, these books get about ;D ). So that settles the title of the Onions story I think, going to have to search for a copy now, you've made me want to get it again with this thread, you fiend Anonymous - Tales Of Horror & Mystery (Dean, 1993) Luis Rey Horror Stories Roald Dahl - The Landlady Walter De La Mare - The Riddle W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw Ruth Ainsworth - Through The Door E. Nesbit - Man-Size In Marble Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart Helen Cresswell - A Kind Of Swan Song Gene Kemp - The Clock Tower Ghost Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer Ambrose Bierce - The Stranger Walter De La Mare - Bad Company Michael Joseph - The Yellow Cat W. W. Jacobs - The Well Saki - Laura Joan Aiken - The Swan Child Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Brown Hand H. G. Wells - The Red RoomMystery StoriesJoan Aiken - The Blade M. R. James - Lost Hearts Charles Dickens - The Signalman Oscar Wilde - The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Extract) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Silver Mirror Bret Harte - The Stolen Cigar Case Honore De Balzac - The Mysterious Mansion Nicholas Fisk - Sweets From A Stranger Roald Dahl - The Hitch-Hiker Wilkie Collins - The Dream Woman Edgar Allan Poe - The Masque Of The Red Death Karen Blixen - The Sailor Boy's Tale Guy de Maupassant - The Horla Theophile Gautier - The Mummy's FootBlurb: "It is very seldom that one encounters what would appear to be sheer unadulterated evil in a human face; an evil, I mean, active, deliberate, deadly, dangerous."
This anthology contains more than thirty spine-chilling stories by contemporary and classic writers, drawing us into a world of ghosts, demons and horrific happenings.
In Walter de la Mare's Bad Company who is the evil-looking stranger on the Underground who leads us to a frightening discovery? And in Roald Dahl's The Landlady what sinister secret is the mysterious proprietress of the guesthouse witholding from her unsuspecting guest?
These startling and compelling stories by some of the world's greatest writers will enthrall readers to the very last page. Dave, glad you found another copy! i reckon this one duplicates too many of the oldies from Haunting Ghost Stories for it to be a coincidence, although The Mortal doesn't make the cut this time. No Deborah Shine credit this time, and the book was originally published in two volumes, Horror Stories (1980), and Mystery Stories the following year. The Luis Rey cover depicts the phantom evil-doer from: Walter De La Mare - Bad Company The narrator is lured to a decrepit London residence by the spectre of an elderly gent who shared his carriage on the train. When, on impulse, he enters the house, our man discovers what he suspected he would – a decomposing corpse slumped in a corner. But the ghost’s main reason for luring there is to reveal his despicable behaviour toward his sisters as exposed in his last will and testament … Roald Dahl – The Landlady: Young Billy Weaver, on business in Bath, takes a room at a Bed & Breakfast run by a sweet old girl who’s very particular about the type of client she’ll accept. The landlady, he soon decides, is dotty – why does she keep calling him ‘Mr. Weaver’? – but harmless. At least he got the first part right …
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Post by cw67q on Oct 25, 2010 14:00:01 GMT
Oliver Onions "the Mortal"? What's that when it's at home? I don't recognise that from any of the big Onions' omnibuses (omnibi?). Anyone know if it is an alternative tile? A rarely collected gem? A justifiably overlooked oddity? - chris
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Post by dem bones on Oct 25, 2010 14:57:57 GMT
It's the second of the Two Trifles from Cynthia Asquith's Ghost Book, Chris, and i'm almost certain it's included in the recent Wordsworth Omnibus (but not the Ash Tree). You're sure to have it somewhere!
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