Mary Danby (ed.) - 65 Great Tales Of The Supernatural (Sundial 1979)
A. J. Alan – My Adventure In Norfolk
S. Baring-Gould – The Leaden Ring
E. F. Benson – The Bus Conductor
Ambrose Bierce – The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot
Charles Birkin – Little Boy Blue
Algernon Blackwood – Keeping His Promise
Marjorie Bowen – Kecksies
D. K. Broster – Couching At The Door
John Burke – Don’t You Dare
Thomas Burke – The Hollow Man
A. M. Burrage – Browdean Farm
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – A Vindictive Woman
Hugh Clifford – The Ghoul
Adrian Cole – The Horror Under Penmire
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
Mary Danby – The Engelmayer Puppets
Charles Dickens – The Signal-Man
William Croft Diickinson – The House Of Balfother
Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brown Hand
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Celia Fremlin – Don’t Tell Cissie
Davis Grubb – The Horsehair Trunk
John Halkin – Bobby
Pamela Hansford-Johnson – Ghost Of Honour
L. P. Hartley – Monkshood Manor
William F. Harvey – The Ankardyne Pew
Dorothy K. Haynes – Those Lights And Violins
O. Henry – The Furnished Room
William Hope Hodgson – The Whistling Room
Robert Holdstock – Magic Man
Thomas Hood – The Shade Of A Shade
Richard Hughes – A Night At A Cottage
Hammond Innes – South Sea Bubble
Washington Irving – The Spectre Bridegroom
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
M. R. James – Lost Hearts
Gerald Kersh – Carnival On The Downs
Rudyard Kipling – The Mark Of The Beast
Nigel Kneale – Minuke
J. S. Le Fanu – An Account Of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungier Street
Kay Leith – For The Love Of Pamela
H. P. Lovecraft – The Moon-Bog
Roger Malisson – A Fair Lady
Joyce Marsh – The Master Of Blas Gwynedd
Guy de Maupassant – Who Knows?
Daphne du Maurier – The Apple Tree
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Alfred Noyes – Midnight Express
Roger B. Pile – Mary
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar
V. S. Pritchett – A Story Of Don Juan
Saki – The Open Window
William Sansom – A Woman Seldom Found
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Body-Snatcher
Bernard Taylor – Travelling Light
Rosemary Timperley – The Deathly Silence
Mark Twain – A Ghost Story
Tim Vicary – Guest Room
H. Russell Wakefield – The Triumph Of Death
Hugh Walpole – Mrs. Lunt
Elizabeth Walter – The Hollies And The Ivy
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Edith Wharton – All Souls’
Dennis Wheatley – The Case Of The Long Dead LordIt seems inconceivable now, but, circa the first wave of Goth, you could pick up these modern equivalents of the
Century Books straight off the shelves of the local supermarket. There were four in all,
Supernatural,
Spinechillers,
Horror and
Realm Of Darkness, though Mary Danby also ghost-edited a number of spin-offs including
Tales From Beyond The Grave and
Chamber Of Horrors. Wonder how many young people got their first, addictive taste of horror & supernatural fiction via these dirty great paving slabs of book?
Found myself doing plenty of waiting around earlier with nothing to read, so nipped into the nearest charity shop and, as luck had it, found a beat up copy of
65 Great Tales Of The Supernatural. Here's some notes, some new, some tarted up from elsewhere, all junk.
O. Henry - The Furnished Room: A young man prowls the decrepit slums of lower West Side desperately seeking aspiring actress Eloise, the woman he loves. His search brings him to a recently vacated room in Mrs. Purdy's boarding house where a terrible tragedy took place the previous week .... A big favourite with Alice Cooper, apparently, and poignant, very poignant.
John Burke - Don't You Dare: Snide, overbearing Laura swims too close to the weir once too often, leaving husband Robert to raise their spoilt teenage kids, Michael and Candida. It was Laura's confident boast that she would outlive Robert, go find herself a real man, like that nice philandering major across the river, once Robert had been safely buried. After a respectful interval, Michael takes up with the considerate Janet, a woman he can truly love - until she begins taking on his late wife's cruel characteristics. As the dead woman takes possession of both her rival and the children, Robert's tenuous grasp on sanity finally gives out when Janet invites their odious neighbours over for an impromptu cocktail party.
This one has a similar nasty streak to
Party Games, and the youngster's are particularly well drawn. Candida is emotionally all over the map all the time, while Michael, who has just started University, comes over like he's been exposed to too much early Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention.
"Michael let it be known that he would eventually become something in television. It was a phrase much used by his friends. He was not sure, any more than they were, of quite what that something was to be; but he wore a pink shirt and a sandy beard in readiness for the day when he was discovered ... His favourite word during the first few weeks of this Easter vacation, when he and Janet got to know each other, was 'plasticity'. Last year it had been 'conceptual'. Robert felt that he was a nice healthy boy at heart."
Bernard Taylor – Travelling Light: Gideon is forced to share a room with Travers due to a mix up at the hotel. Watching the stranger shave with a cut-throat razor reminds Gideon of the recent series of motiveless murders which have the police baffled: eight women have been slashed in public by their husbands – “it’s like some terrifying disease.” The following morning Gideon’s wife is due to meet him in the lobby. He has a hangover which is odd as he didn’t drink the previous day. He looks in the mirror and …
Elizabeth Walter – The Hollies And The Ivy: Gus and Judith Pentecost move into The Hollies, previously owned by old Mrs. Dyer whose husband vanished, presumed murdered by wife, although no body was ever recovered. From the first, Gus fights a losing battle versus the unruly ivy which clings to the walls and taps on the windows at night. Come Christmas, they’re entombed by the fist-thick roots.
Charles Birkin - Little Boy Blue: Cleeness, Lincolnshire. Moira Lattern takes son Oliver to a holiday home to recuperate after an illness. Oliver becomes playmates with Sammy, another youngster who Moira at first takes to be her little boy’s imaginary friend. A photograph in an old album of a lad in a sailor suit soon disillusions her and, after a leisurely build-up, the story picks up a gear as it moves toward its inevitable horrifying climax on the quicksands.
Pamela Hansford-Johnson - Ghost Of Honour: “Until the fall of this house I will walk within it, and when the last brick crumbles to dust I will walk the site of it. Only one grain of mercy will I leave with you: never shall living soul behold my face.” Such was the dying speech of Jeremiah ‘Beefy’ Dunbow, as he choked on a fish bone fed him by his wife and fellow stage performer and, three hundred years later, he’s sticking to his guns. The St. Pancras family are rather fond of their ghost who daily bangs out a mean tune on the organ, but their guest, Mr. Robertson isn’t amused. When Jeremiah visits him in his room after dark, Robertson even accuses him of reneging on that “one grain of mercy” consolation ….
H. Russell Wakefield – The Triumph Of Death: Mrs Redvale the rector’s wife is concerned about Amelia, the maid of all work at Carthwaite Place. The young woman is showing the strain of skivvying for the seriously embittered Miss Prunella Pendleham, the last of a notorious line who, disappointed in love has waged a war versus her own sex ever since. It doesn’t help that Carthwaite Place is haunted, quite possibly by Amelia’s immediate predecessors, who were driven to their deaths, or that her ladyship delights in having Amelia read to her from the career of Gilles de Rais with the occasional M. R. James ghost story thrown in by way of light relief. Can Mrs Redvale persuade her spineless husband to stand up to Miss Pendleham and prevent another tragedy?
I’ve seen Wakefield’s post-1940′s work dismissed as rather misogynistic variations on well worn revenge themes, but this one certainly has a spirited nastiness about it.
Roger Malisson – A Fair Lady: Police sergeant Jack Merrill moves his young family home to sleepy Hobston village, North Yorkshire, after serving nearly two decades in London. His investigation into the disappearance of a pretty young hippy hitch-hiker unearths disturbing evidence of a Druid cult presided over by his severe former head mistress.
V. S. Pritchett – A Story Of Don Juan: Quintero, heartly sick of his legendary guest bragging of his sexual conquests, gives him the room haunted by his dead wife’s ghost to teach him a lesson. He reckons without Don Juan’s indifference to whether or not his lovers possess a pulse.
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.
Roger Malisson – A Fair Lady: Police sergeant Jack Merrill moves his young family home to sleepy Hobston village, North Yorkshire, after serving nearly two decades in London. His investigation into the disappearance of a pretty young hippy hitch-hiker unearths disturbing evidence of a Druid cult presided over by his severe former head mistress.
Rosemary Timperley – The Deathly Silence: A woman poisons her unbearable husband, a compulsive reader prone to giving her the silent treatment for weeks at a time. But when she returns home from the funeral, yet another book is open on the table. A page turns.
A. M. Burrage – Browndean Farm.: The narrator and author friend Rudge rent the old farmhouse for the inevitable ridiculously low price, later to learn that it's remained unoccupied since the previous occupant, Stanley Stryde, was hung for murder. Stryde, the village Romeo, maintained his innocence to the last, claiming the dead girl took her own life and he’d only buried her out of fear that the police wouldn’t believe him. Popular local opinion has it that he was telling the truth. Now the eighth anniversary of the “murder” is approaching and a ghostly presence makes itself known at Browndean Farm .....
