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Post by dem on Feb 21, 2010 13:11:13 GMT
Louisa Baldwin & Lettice Galbraith - The Shadow On The Blind (Wordsworth Editions, 2007) Louisa Baldwin The Shadow On The Blind
The Shadow On The Blind
The Weird Of The Walfords
The Uncanny Bairn
Many Waters Cannot Quench Love
How He Left The Hotel
The Real And The Counterfeit
My Next Door Neighbour
The Empty Picture Frame
Sir Nigel Otterburne's Case
The Ticking Of The Clock
Lettice Galbraith The Trainer's Ghost
The Case Of Lady Lukestan
The Trainer's Ghost
The Ghost In The Chair
In The Seance Room
The Missing Model
A Ghost's Revenge
The Blue RoomBlurb: The late Victorians had an insatiable appetite for the macabre and sensational: stories of murder and suspense, ghosts, the supernatural and the inexplicable were the stuff of life to them. The two writers in this volume well represent the last decade of the nineteenth century, and are of interest in themselves as well as for their contribution to the chilling of the Victorian spine. Mrs. Alfred Baldwin attempted as a child to contact her dead sister through a seance, and took to writing when stricken by a mysterious illness six weeks after marriage. She was also the mother of the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Lettice Galbraith is herself no less mysterious than the stories she wrote. She appeared on the literary scene in 1893, published a novel and two collections of stories in that year, a further story (The Blue Room) in 1897, and then nothing more. Readers of The Empty Picture Frame, The Case of Sir Nigel Otterburne, The Trainer's Ghost and The Seance Room will recognise the Victorian spirit at its finest. Two relatively little known practitioners of the strictly 'No Sex Please, We're Victorian' school brought together in one slim (256 pages) volume. At first glance, surely one of the strangest entries in the David Stuart Davis Library of the Occult to date! Am vaguely familiar with Mrs. Baldwin's work, if only through various Richard Dalby ghost anthologies, but can't say her stories have lasted long in my memory. E. F. Bleiler writes of her collection The Shadow Of The Blind, "Fairly conventional, commercial Victorian ghost fiction" and if How He Left The Hotel is representative - Mole, the lift operator at The Empire Hotel, takes Colonel Saxby down to the ground floor, only to learn the old boy passed away in his room five minutes earlier - he is not wrong. Bleiler overlooks Lettice Galbraith altogether, but in his The Mammoth Book Of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories, Mr. Dalby describes New Ghost Stories as "one of the best collections in the genre published in the late nineteenth century (unjustly forgotten today)." Up until now, have only read The Trainer’s Ghost and it's a peach. On the eve of the big race at Ebor, Slimmy the tout and his cronies from The Cat And Compass attempt to knobble the favourite to improve the chances of their own nag, The Ghoul. They reckon without Ould Coulson, the trainer, fifteen years dead but still possessed of a fiercely competitive spirit, and not one to stand by and watch cheats prosper!
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Post by cw67q on Feb 21, 2010 21:03:59 GMT
Imust get this book, I have read most of the Baldwin tales in the slimish Ash-tree press collection. I was actually sent the book by accident, I had ordered a bunch of ATP books at a ridiculous knockdown price on amazon marketplace a few years back and got the Baldwin in the delivery in place of one of the Russell kirk volumes. Decided to keep it once it had arrived anyway.
I remember enjoying it much more than some of the more celebrated female Victorian authors of ghosts tories such as Amelia Edwards, it had a folkier approach which I rather liked at the time, although at this remove I'm blessed if I can remember many details. IIRC the hotel story was one of the duller entries, I think the likes of "the Weird of the Waltons" (say goodbye Jimbob) was better. Many of the old school vitorian authors come off better read in small doses, IMO, although there are certainly exceptions.
I think I have read a Galbraith tale in one of Hugh Lamb's collections (Gaslight Nightmares ?) you tend to remember a name like lettice). But nothing that stuck in my mind against the general background of Victorianna.
- chris
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Post by monker on Feb 23, 2010 7:46:12 GMT
Yeah, I deliberately 'hand' picked eight of the Wordsworth's to order from my local and, as well as replenishing my copy of the collected M.R. James, this was one of the eight I chose.
I have only read TWOtW so far but If others are like that, I think I know what cw67q means by "folkier".
Anyway, I only came on here to see if anybody dug it, I've nothing profound to add only that Bleiler sounds a bit inconsistent with his critiques.
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Post by dem on Feb 23, 2010 18:02:44 GMT
Many of the old school victorian authors come off better read in small doses, IMO, although there are certainly exceptions. - chris Yeah, I prefer the *ahem* dip in and out method - can never stay focused on the same anthology for long, let alone the same single author collection, Victorian or otherwise. The Ash Trees are beyond my means, so only know a number of the Wordsworth authors by reputation or via the odd story in Hugh Lamb and Richard Dalby collections. I've mostly picked them up four, six at a time - makes the stagger to and from the West End worthwhile - so it's been a lot of books to get my head around in a short space of time. You can call me "chris" btw. cw67q is a crap name that I got used to using after my first email account, wish I'd changed it years ago :-( - chris chris if you want to change your name go to Profile/ modify profile/ Account information and write what you'd like to be known as on the board in 'Display name'. Now go to the foot of the page, press 'modify profile' and you're done! I've nothing profound to add you've come to the right board then. you're doubtless correct that Bleiler's critiques are "inconsistent", it's just i've not really noticed it. one thing i couldn't miss, he's brutally dismissive of most between the wars commercial horror fiction. his screamingly funny Dennis Wheatley reviews go some way toward making up for this, mind. |
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Post by monker on Feb 24, 2010 0:13:32 GMT
I dunno, I've never read any of Bleiler's work except snippets I've read off the internet. I suppose 'inconsistent' is just code for 'I don't always agree with them'. Considering the scope of his work it is perhaps natural that he makes a few generalisations and having read so much fiction, perhaps he is more choosy than average.
Anyway, it was Jack Sullivan, not Bleiler, who dismissed Manly Wade Wellman's stories as, to paraphrase, "not classics of the genre" so that's one crime I can't accuse him of.
*Edit* My mistake, It wasn't even Sullivan who said those words but one 'G.C', Sullivan was the editor.
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Post by dem on Oct 9, 2018 9:22:54 GMT
Three by Lettice Galbraith. Proper Victorian. Pretty gloomy. Non boring. Great fun. Particularly enjoyed the first couple.
In The Seance Room: Dr. Valentine Burke, phoney psychic, is on the brink of marrying money in the shapely form of Miss Elma Long, when a ghost from his recent past threatens to ruin it all. A passing fancy, Miss Katherine Greaves, is destitute and pregnant with his child. Fearful of scandal, Burke puts Katherine under hypnosis and persuades her to jump in the lake at Regents Park. He jumps in after her but is, of course, unable to "rescue" her. Burke, feted as a hero, marries Elma's lovely loot and continues with his lucrative career. All is well until the night he attends Madame Delphine's seance ...
The Missing Model: Gordon Mayne, struggling artist, has high hopes for his new painting, Avenged, if only he can find a suitable model. Enter Violet Lucas, "brunette, statuesque - the reverse of grotesque," the most gorgeous creature to ever sit for him. Avenged meets with huge critical acclaim, but Mayne is mortified at Violet's sudden disappearance. He and friend Faucet turn detective to hunt down the missing girl. A search of a Hampstead property unearths a pile of human bones. Violet was two years murdered when she posed for Mayne's masterpiece, and the culprit is an associate of theirs.
The Ghost In The Chair: Brilliant young company director Curtis Yorke assures the boardroom that he would sell his soul to rescue the troubled San Sacrada Gold Mine project. Unfortunately for Curtis, the Devil overhears and takes him at his word. That same night a phantom hand helps him draw up the contract. Knowing he's damned, Curtis calls for one last emergency meeting with the creditors. Even as he descends to Hell, his ghost delivers a rousing speech to turn around company fortunes.
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Post by ripper on May 28, 2021 10:15:06 GMT
I read the first 3 stories last night. I enjoyed the Weird of the Walfords the most. How that bed led to the destruction of the narrator's family even after it had been chopped up was rather well done, I thought. The Uncanny Bairn was a little off-putting with the Scots dialect--I think the author could have toned it down a bit as for me it broke up the flow of the narrative a tad. The Shadow on the Blind was okay, but rather a long build-up for the pay-off. Still, I was in the mood for a bit of Victorian/Edwardian ghostly goings-on, and, while nothing special, it certainly fitted the bill.
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Post by ripper on May 30, 2021 18:50:51 GMT
My Next-Door Neighbour is just a standard spirit returning to guide lost love into the afterlife tale that has been done better and worse before. A bit ho-hum.
The Ticking of the Clock. I enjoyed this far more, even if the supernatural aspect is tenuous at best. It even gave me a chuckle over the dominoes scene.
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