H. D. Everett - The Crimson Blind & Other Stories

[dem]

H. D. Everett - The Crimson Blind & Other Stories (Wordsworth, 2006)

John Atkinson Grimshaw, Autumn Glory, The Old Mill (1869)

The Death Mask
Parson Clench
The Wind of Dunowe
Nevill Nugent's Legacy
The Crimson Blind *
Fingers of a Hand
The Next Heir
Anne's Little Ghost
Over the Wires
Water Witch
The Lonely Road
A Girl in White
A Perplexing Case
The Pipers Of Mallory *
Beyond the Pale *
The Whispering Wall

Stories marked * did not appear in The Death Mask And Other Ghosts, (Philip Allan, 1920)

Back cover blurb:

Mrs H.D. Everett was the last in a long line of gifted Victorian novelists who knew how to grip the reader through the invasion of everyday life by the abnormal and dramatic, leaving the facts to produce their special thrills without piling on the agony. 'I always know', says one of her characters, 'how to distinguish a true ghost story from a faked one. The true ghost story never has any point and the faked one dare not leave it out.' From the chilling horror of The Death Mask to the shocking violence of The Crimson Blind, from the creeping menace of Parson Clench to the mounting suspense of The Pipers of Mallory, these thrilling stories were enthusiastically received by readers and critics when they first appeared, and are sure to delight and terrify the modern reader in equal measure. With their haunting influences, their permeating scents, their midnight apparitions and unexplained sounds, they plunge us, along with the hero or heroine, into a state of increasing nevous excitement.

"Routine material. Indistinguished stories of literal horror ... "The Crimson Blind', which is often anthologised, is much the best story in the book." - E. F. Bleiler on The Death Mask & Other Ghost Stories.

As mentioned elsewhere, not the most obvious choice for the Wordsworth treatment. Richard Dalby introduced a collection containing the same sixteen tales for The Ghost Story Society in 1995, but i never thought we'd see a budget edition in my lifetime so well done Derek and the team! To be fair, Bleiler is not altogether wide of the mark with that "routine" jibe, as some of the stories are .... on the aenemic side.

Includes:

The Crimson Blind: In his youth, Ronald McEwen had spent a fortnight at Swanmere Rectory as a guest of his uncle, Rev. Sylvanus Applegarth. The reverend’s sons are wont to tease Ronald about his belief in ghosts and one night persuaded him to visit a derelict house which - they tell him - has a reputation of being haunted. Ronald is well aware that the boys are planning a prank, but they seem as surprised as he when an upstairs blind is raised and a deranged figure comes crashing through the glass at them. Twenty years later, when the property is incorporated into his friend’s luxurious manor house, McEwen learns the truth. It transpires that the place was once a lunatic asylum, and an inmate had tried to burn his room to the ground, killing himself when he jumped out through the window.

The Death Mask: Gloriana Enderby is fanatically opposed to second marriages. On her deathbed she requests that her husband, Tom, covers her face with a particular handkerchief she values among her possessions.
After the funeral Tom sets his cap at the new neighbours' daughter, Lucy Ashcroft. When they become engaged Gloriana haunts them, the image of her face forming upon hankies and sheets. When it glowers at them from the tablecloth as they're attempting to dine, Lucy throws in the towel.

The Lonely Road: With his transport home retired lame, Tom Pultenay is forced to walk the eight miles home from Ballymacor via a road which has attained a bad reputation on account of recent muggings. Sure enough, two rum fellows are soon on his trail, but the weaponless Tom is saved from grief by Boris, the late master's loyal dog, who takes him the length of the road before fading into nothingness. A sub-plot involves Tom's tricky courtship of the widow Margaret, but this one definitely warrants Bleiler's indifference.

Fingers Of A Hand: Much more fun. Two unmarried Aunts, Sara and our narrator Grace, take little Dick and Nancy on holiday in Cove while their father is away in India. The first two weeks are uneventful - thank God Mrs. Everett doesn't describe them in detail - but when the traditional seaside weather kicks in and torrential rain stops play, Grace finds a message scrawled on the fresh sheet of paper: "GET OUT AT ONCE". "Surely they could have been traced by no mortal hand!" Sadly, Everett again opts for a benevolent ghost whose interference prevents what would have been a terrible tragedy, but there are some neat moments involving the hand which may even have influenced W. F. Harvey's malefic The Beast With Five Fingers.

MTF

[dem]

of all the Wordsworth editions to date, Mrs. Everett's has attracted the minimum fuss, but as collections of late Victorian/ Edwardian ghosts and horror stories go, i've read far drearier! No less than M. R. James was something of a fan. In his Some Remarks on Ghost Stories, (The Bookman, December 1929), he wrote:

"H. R. Wakefield, in They Return at Evening (a good title) gives us a mixed bag, from which I should remove one or two that leave a nasty taste. Among the residue are some admirable pieces, very inventive. Going back a few years I light on Mrs Everett’s The Death Mask, of a rather quieter tone on the whole, but with some excellently conceived stories."

A Water Witch, revived by Peter Haining in his A Circle Of Witches (Leslie Frewin, 1966), is a cracker and (in the right hands of course!) would make for a neat bonnets and bosoms costume drama.

Robert Larcomb's snooty sisters are frightfully put out when he returns from holiday in 1912 having inexplicably married that blushing little wallflower, Frederica. Admittedly, the fact the bride's late father was a decorated General "did not look amiss on the announcements", but her name is too fancy, she's a simpering wet and she has little money of her own. What can he possibly see in the baggage?

Just as the sisters predicted, Frederica's constitution isn't up to childbirth and, on the death of her baby, she falls seriously ill. Mary Larcomb, our narrator, grudgingly travels across the border to Roscawen to attend her while Robert is gallivanting in Shepstow with his man. Frederica has got it into her dizzy little head that there's something very wrong about the nearby river and, it's true, several sheep and even the occasional person have gone mad and thrown themselves in to drown, but a ghost? Poppycock!

Enter Dr. Vickers, a local author who is giving Frederica 'Italian lessons', who explains that the river is allegedly haunted by a harbinger of doom known only as 'the white lady', who, neglected by her husband, took her own life and is buried at the crossroads, which might explain why the ladies' docile old nag shies whenever it nears the spot, although he's not inclined to put much store in local superstition himself.

Frederica's fears are so contagious that now even sensible Mary is hearing the ghostly dripping of water inside the cottage. She also has her suspicions about the propriety of that old lecher Vicker's tutorship of fetching Frederica who seems rather outraged about something. With the business getting on top of them both, Frederica persuades Mary that they should leave immediately. But will the lonely water witch let them go?

[Jojo Lapin X]

M R James a fan, you say? Well, the central conceit of "The Death Mask" does turn up in his most famous story.

[cauldronbrewer]

Sept 19, 2011 8:21:09 GMT dem said:

of all the Wordsworth editions to date, Mrs. Everett's has attracted the minimum fuss, but as collections of late Victorian/ Edwardian ghosts and horror stories go, i've read far drearier!

I've been on a Wordsworth binge lately. With two stories to go on this one, I'd agree with you. Along with aforementioned "The Crimson Blind," "Fingers of a Hand," "A Water Witch," and "The Death Mask," I also enjoyed the "Nevill Nugent's Legacy," which is one to add to the list of Pan-themed stories.

[Swampirella]

Just read "The Death Mask and Other Stories" over the last few days. The title story was by far the best, to me. Hope these work, for anybody interested....

The Death Mask [PDF]

The Death Mask [Ki

The Death Mask [Epub]

ndle]

[Shrink Proof]

Another excellent ghost story cover from the brilliant John Atkinson Grimshaw.

[dem]

The Pipers Of Mallory: (The Novel Magazine, May 1917: as by Henrietta D. Everett). While Jack Frazer is away fighting "the horrible Huns" in France, Cecily, his fiancee, reluctantly moves in with Aunt Winifred, Lady Heron of Mallory, in the Scottish Highlands. Family legend has it that, when the phantom pipers play, a member of the Frazer family dies. Word reaches home that Jack and his brother who nobody likes are missing in action ...

The Whispering Wall: Jack Lovell, Cambridge undergraduate, assures chum Eccles that Marchmore, the family manor house, is haunted, has been for over 150 years. Standard rigmarole; phantom footsteps on the stairs, spectral child - "little fair-haired lad in a belted pinafore" - a disembodied voice whispering urgent instruction that neither Jack or Eccles can quite decipher. Then the Great War is upon them. The best pals enlist and fight in the battle of Armentières, after which they come to understand the terrible meaning of the ghost child's warning.