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Post by dem bones on Apr 8, 2009 19:53:17 GMT
Hugh Lamb - Gaslit Nightmares : An Anthology of Victorian Tales of Terror (Futura, 1988) Barry Pain - The Undying Thing Lady Dilke - The Serpent’s Head Hume Nisbet - The Phantom Model Bernard Capes - The Black Reaper Bernard Capes - The Accursed Cordonnier Robert Barr - The Vengeance Of The Dead Alice Rea - The Beckside Boggle Charles J. Mansford - Maw-Sayah Robert W. Chambers - In The Court Of the Dragon Mrs. J. H. Riddell - The Old House In Vauxhall Walk Charles Dickens - The Drunkard’s Death Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman - Luella Miller Richard Marsh - A Psychological Experiment Dick Donovan - The Mystic Spell Joel Chandler Harris - The Late Mr. Watkins Of Georgia Harriet Beecher Stowe - The Ghost In The mill J. A. Barry - A Derelict Jerome K. Jerome - The Haunted Mill J. H. Pearce - An Unexpected Journey Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks - The Pride Of The Corbyns The Countess Of Munster - The Page Boy’s Ghost Wirt Gerrare - Mysterious MaisieBlurb: A nameless terror stalks the fog-enshrouded streets of London. An abandoned ship carries a grisly cargo in its sealed hold. A sinister figure reaps corn outside a plague-struck village.
A chilling anthology of neglected Victorian ghost stories, with tales of terror from the pens of Charles Dickens, Barry Pain, Joel Chandler Harris, Lady Dilke, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jerome K. Jerome, the Countess of Munster and many more.includes: Hume Nisbet - The Phantom Model Algar Gray, a personable and talented young artist, forsakes the luxury of his Fulham studio to take an attic room in the meanest, most poverty stricken quarter of the East End to be near his perfect model, a beautiful "Ratcliffe Highway stroller" whose indifference to everything is summed up in her asking him if he's "Jacky the Terror? .... I thought perhaps you had spotted me out for the next one, not that I care much whether you are or not ..." It transpires that, six years earlier, struck down with tuberculosis, the doctors had given her four months to live whereupon she threw in her job as a match-girl and taken to the streets, preferring to die in alcoholic oblivion. She agrees to model for him and has the good grace not to expire until his portrait (a depiction of Dante's ideal love, Beatrice) is complete, but her ghost haunts him everywhere he goes, finally luring him to the wharf to share her watery grave. Barry Pain - The Horror Undying: Eve, loyal wife of the thoroughly wicked Sir Edric Vanquerest, died giving birth to an infant so monstrous his father conspired with Dr. Dennison to abandon it in nearby caves to fend for itself. Sir Edric knew his actions had damned him as he'd reneged on a vow he'd made before God, but only as his death approached, and rumours spread around the nearby village of Mansteth of a wolf thing roaming the fields, did he discover the long-term consequences. "The thing that I took to Hal's Planting is dead. Yet it will come back again to the Hall and then will the Vanquerests be at an end."A century later and the present Lord Edric, the last of the Vanderquest line and a popular fellow, nothing like his beastly ancestor, is about to wed the gorgeous Ray - family curse permitting ... The Countess Of Munster - The Page Boy’s Ghost: No nonsense account of how a desirable residence became a difficult to let property overnight. Invisible footsteps and the manifestation of the suicide's spectre scare off prospective tenants. The sort of item Elliott O'Donnell would trot out as a 'true' ghost story thirty years later but minus his flair for the sensational. Alice Rea - The Beckside Boggle: This is much more like it! As Hugh points out in his essay Victorian Terror ( Gaslight & Ghosts, 1988), the title hardly inspires confidence and then there's the Cumbrian dialect to contend with which, while by no means impenetrable, certainly holds you up. Happily, Lady Dilke is quickly into her stride. With husband Joe away on a business and booze excursion, Ann Southward is alone at the farmhouse save for her little boy when the weary Scotswoman arrives begging shelter for the night. The stranger has a shawl pinned across her face which she refuses to remove pleading toothache, and is soon happily warming herself by the fire, surreptitiously helping herself to Anne's porridge when her back is turned and repeatedly making innocent enquiries as to where Ann keeps her savings. Fortunately, the nosey visitor dozes off after a bit and Ann can continue with her work which happens to be boiling a pan of sheep's fat. Suddenly there is a clatter on the floor. The Scotswoman, having turned in her sleep, has let a vicious knife fall from her skirt! Worse! The shawl has slipped free to reveal ..... a man in drag! Ann knows what she must do for the sake of her young son and decides it's best to strike while the would-be robber is asleep .... J. H. Pearce - An Unexpected Journey: Grim vignette concerning Preston who is jostled through the doors of the theatre at the end of the performance and boards the first hansom he reaches. "Take me home" he bids the hunched, pale-faced driver in the waterproof cape. The grim fellow obliges. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Luella Miller: Probably the most famous thing in here after Chambers' and one of the best psychic vampire stories ever. New England. Luella Miller drains the energy from all of those who attend her leaving them lifeless husks, she being either too ill or lazy to stir from her rocking chair. After a steady stream of helpers, including her own sister and physician, go to their graves, word gets around the village that Luella was responsible for their deaths and for a time she has to fend for herself. But the sight of her pathetically struggling proves too much for one kindly neighbour. More death, and the cycle endures beyond the grave .... Robert Barr - The Vengeance Of The Dead: When Bernard Heaton, missing, presumed drowned in India, returns and lays claim to part of his inheritance, David Allen, the grasping son-in-law of the late Squire, unwisely challenges him in court. Heaton's lawyer wipes the floor with him and Allen expires on the courthouse steps, cursing both men. Heaton is a scientist with an interest in the occult and perfects a technique whereby he can leave his body and venture on the astral at will. When Allen's ghost learns of this, he commandeers the empty body to commit a crime that will settle for the lawyer and see Heaton hung as a murderer. I've enjoyed every story i've read from Barr's aptly named collection Revenge up until now, but this one's as silly as it is obvious, only not in a good way.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 21, 2010 17:13:49 GMT
J. A. Barry - A Derelict: Thirty days out of London, The Minnehaha is becalmed off the African Coast and with nothing better to do, second mate Staunton leads three of the men aboard a derelict hulk. A beautifully carved figurehead of the Madonna remains in magnificent repair but the rest of the ship has been trashed and the nameplate obliterated. The boarders, uneasy from the first, begin to lose it when they encounter a gleaming human skeleton lashed to the wheel with heavy chains, but things are far, far worse in the hold. The vessel was a Coolie slave ship and, from the piles of shattered skulls and bones, it's apparent the crew mutinied and massacred the cargo. A fierce gale kicks up, leaving the terrified seaman to spend a night aboard the rat-infested floating mausoleum ...
From the sublime to the stark raving mad!
Richard Marsh - A Psychological Experiment: "The conversation had been of murder and of suicides. It had almost seemed as if each speaker had felt constrained to top the preceding speaker's tale of horror." Read opening lines like that and you know you've come to the right place. Or do you?
Back in Exeter, cowardly solicitor Andrew Rolt attacked his business partner and fellow swindler Douglas Colston, slashing his friend's face and throat with a hunting knife before absconding to Jersey. Rolt has since adopted a new identity and all is well with him until the night a stranger in a ridiculous false beard and unfeasibly swollen overcoat bowls into the smoking room of his Gentleman's Club. From this point onward, i found it very difficult to stop laughing. Lizards, creepy crawlies, a moody 'wanted for murder' leaflet, a garishly painted box and a customised children's toy - Colston has gone to lunatic lengths to achieve his revenge!
Jerome K. Jerome - The Haunted Mill or, The Ruined Home: An old miser reputedly concealed a vast quantity of gold about his Surrey Mill but no-one has been able to find it. New owner Joe Parkins is of a mind that the story is nonsense - until the spectre of a wrinkled old man appears at the foot of his bed and shows him which walls and ceilings to demolish if he wants to locate it. Preceded by Jerome's introduction to Told After Supper which delivers an affectionate brutal kicking to entire ghost story tradition.
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