The House Of The Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

The House Of The Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales (1967)

I've recently been looking at "The House Of The Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales" chosen by Kathleen Lines, which contains the fine Jamesian story, "Curfew" by Lucy Boston. This book was in my primary school's library and I suspect it was my first introduction to M.R. James, since "A School Story" is in it and I remember swathes of that from my childhood. I'd previously assumed it was from the "Spine Chillers" series on the BBC. Now I'm not so sure. I also recall reading and re-reading the traditional tale "Mr Fox".

I wonder if reading a book like this at such an early age explains the way my interests developed in later years...

The book is split into two sections, the first, larger section containing fiction, the second containing allegedly true accounts.

The House Of The Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales
Chosen by Kathleen Lines

Originally published by The Bodley Head (1967)
Later editions published by Puffin Books

CONTENTS-

Foreword - Kathleen Lines

FROM IMAGINATION
The House of the Nightmare - Edward Lucas White
The Hauntings at Thorhallstead - Allen French
His Own Number - William Croft Dickinson
Gabriel-Ernest - Saki
Hand in Glove - Elizabeth Bowen
Mr Fox - Traditional
Curfew - L.M. Boston
John Bartine's Watch - Ambrose Bierce
The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs
My Grandfather, Hendry Watty - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
A School Story - M.R. James
The Red Cane - E.F. Bozman
A Diagnosis of Death - Ambrose Bierce
Bad Company - Walter de la Mare
Proof - Henry Cecil
The Amulet - Thomas Raddall
The Hair - A.J. Alan
The Return of the Native - William Croft Dickinson
The Earlier Service - Margaret Irwin

FROM LIFE
'Here I am Again!' - Charles G.S.-, Esq.
The Man who Died at Sea - Rosemary Sutcliff
The Wish Hounds - Kathleen Hunt
The Man in the Road - F.M. Pilkington
My Haunted Houses - M. Joyce Dixon
In Search of a Ghost - Eric Roberts
The Limping Man of Makin-Meang - Sir Arthur Grimble

Acknowledgements

[valdemar]

This book was on our English syllabus at school - strange but true, and we were told to read only the story that pertained to the next lesson or for homework. Sod that, I thought, as I discovered the quality of the stories within. I read them all, over a weekend , and loved them, despite being troubled by Mr Fox, and His Own Number, and really rather disturbed by The Earlier Service, which I still rate as a horror story, and still gives me great pleasure on re-reading. Of course, MR James' much anthologised A School Story made me want to read more of his work, and I wasn't disappointed when I did. My school copy 'mysteriously' vanished from school, reappearing on my bookshelf, and read until the binding gave way. I have a copy next to me now, in a box set bought from a charity shop for £1. The Puffin set, called 'A Box Of Ghosts' contains, as well: 'Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery'; 'Mr Corbett's Ghost' [very, very dark], by Leon Garfield; 'Ghosts, Spooks, And Spectres'; and 'Earthfasts' by William Mayne. A pound well spent, methinks.