Michael Newton - Penguin Ghost Stories

[dem]

Michael Newton (ed.) - The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (Feb 2010, £10.99)

Acknowledgements
Chronology Of The Ghost Story 1820-1914
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note On The Texts

Elizabeth Gaskell - The Old Nurse's Story
Fitz-James O'Brien - What Was It?
Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Haunted And The Haunters: or, The House And The Brain
Mary E. Braddon - The Cold Embrace
Amelia B. Edwards - The North Mail
Charles Dickens - No 1 Branch Line: The Signalman
J. S. Le Fanu - Green Tea
Harriet Beecher Stowe - The Ghost In The Cap'n Brown House
Robert Louis Stevenson - Thrawn Janet
Margaret Oliphant - The Open Door
Rudyard Kipling - At The End Of The Passage
Lafcadio Hearn - Nightmare Touch
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - The Wind In The Rose-Bush
M. R. James - "Oh Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad"
Ambrose Bierce - The Moonlit Road
Henry James - The Jolly Corner
Mary Austin - The Readjustment
Edith Wharton - Afterward

Glossary Of Scots Words
Biographical And Explanatory Notes

Blurb:
'The ghost is the most enduring figure in supernatural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible... He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of the earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients' - Dorothy Scarborough

This new selection of ghost stories, by Michael Newton, brings together the best of the genre. From Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Old Nurse's Story' through to Edith Wharton's 'Afterword', this collection covers all of the most terrifying tales of the genre. With a thoughtful introduction, and helpful notes, Newton places the stories contextually within the genre and elucidates the changing nature of the ghost story and how we interpret it.

Aug 27, 2010 22:38:16 GMT jamesdoig said:

Have you seen the Penguin Book of Ghost Stories edited by Michael Newton? Still haven't committed to buying it because the contents are so bog standard - it's also more expensive than your average Penguin paperback.

Curse Penguin for giving it such a deuced attractive cover, and, doubtless Michael Newton's "thoughtful introduction" will be essential reading too! The editor may change but i feel like i've been buying this same selection of stories all my life. A little harsh - the Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mary Austin stories don't ring any bells - but the rest is every "Classic Ghost Stories" compilation you ever saw. It might be fun to compare and contrast the content with J. A. Cuddon's earlier anthology of the same title which, incredibly, since Jonathan listed the content, we've none of us got around to commenting upon ... yet.

[ripper]

I have the earlier Cuddon volume, and, for me, it is the more interesting selection, as it contains stories which are featured less prominantly in such anthologies than is the case with the Newton selection. There are only one or two stories in the newer volume that I do not have in other anthologies, so I doubt if I will make a purchase, though the inclusion of MN's introduction, biographical notes etc does tempt me!

[Johnlprobert]

Having just finished Wagner & Wise's Great Tales of Terror & the Supernatural, and worked my way through Michel Parry's Reign of Terror series, as Dem says more than a few of the stories are familiar. The only ones I haven't read are:

Harriet Beecher Stowe - The Ghost In The Cap'n Brown House
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - The Wind In The Rose-Bush
Mary Austin - The Readjustment

I could cut and paste my comments on the others into this, although I suspect they're quite easily found on this board anyway! I don't think I'll be buying this, though - my shelves have quite enough copies of The Haunted & The Haunters et al

It might be fun to compare and contrast the content with J. A. Cuddon's earlier anthology of the same title which, incredibly, since Jonathan listed the content, we've none of us got around to commenting upon ... yet.

I don't have the Cuddon, but looking at the contents there's far more on that that I haven't read - it certainly looks the more interesting volume for me

[dem]

agreed, rip (and John!). the Cuddon anthology contains what were (for me), some very rewarding surprise packages, decent introductory essay, too. No disrespect to Mr. Newton, but his Penguin Book Of Ghost Stories is the epitome of the 'order from the library'/ 'hope it eventually turns up in the charity shop' collection. You have to wonder what audience this is aimed at. Surely, anyone in the least interested in ghost stories will already have copies of the bulk of these several times over, and that £10.99 price tag is a lot to ask for the additional material.

[ripper]

Dem, that's exactly right. At £10.99 it is a bit steep for the casual reader browsing the shelves at his or her local bookshop, and for those whose interest is in ghost stories...well, there are just too many familiar tales in there. If it was in my local library or I had some money going spare, then the introduction etc may tempt me to give it a go, but at this moment it would be at the back of a very long list of books I would like to buy.

Lord P, the Beecher Stowe story is in Richard Dalby's Mammoth Book of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories. I have to say that it was not one of my favourite stories from that volume, and if I re-read the book then I usually skip past it.

[dem]

Ah, Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories is another we've yet to do justice. started on that last December, was getting along very friendly with it, but, as is so often the case, got sidetracked - by, of all things, bloody Reptilicus!

[Dr Strange]

Aug 28, 2010 9:04:53 GMT dem said:

You have to wonder what audience this is aimed at. Surely, anyone in the least interested in ghost stories will already have copies of the bulk of these several times over, and that £10.99 price tag is a lot to ask for the additional material.

Well, there's always the possibility that there are new people just getting interested in this stuff (and maybe there is something of a resurgence going on thanks to the Wordsworths, etc?). And if not, you would also have to wonder why any publisher would churn out more copies of Dracula or MRJ collections!

Plus there is the English Lit. undergraduate student - there seems to be quite a few university English departments running courses on the gothic and supernatural fiction traditions these days (judging by how often I stumble on them online after googling something). So collections like these, if they include some decent notes and references for further reading, have a very good chance of being "adopted" as required reading for those courses.

[humgoo]

Another starter pack is Horror Stories: Classic Tales from Hoffmann to Hodgson (Oxford, 2014/2018) edited by Darryl "Oh-MRJ-was-so-repressed" Jones. Freud inevitably features in the Introduction, and there's the unavoidable "The S*gn*l-M*n", "The Squ*w" and "The M*nkey's P*w" etc, but not half bad I think:

E. T. A. Hoffmann - The Sandman
William Maginn - The Man in the Bell
James Hogg - George Dobson's Expedition to Hell
Honoré de Balzac - La Grande Bretêche
Edgar Allan Poe - Berenice—A Tale
Sheridan Le Fanu - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Birth-Mark
Herman Melville - The Tartarus of Maids
Fitz-James O'Brien - What Was It?
Charles Dickens - No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-Man
Émile Zola - The Death of Olivier Bécaille
Ronald Ross - The Vivisector Vivisected
Robert Louis Stevenson - The Body-Snatcher
Rudyard Kipling - The Mark of the Beast
Ambrose Bierce - Chickamauga
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wall Paper
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Case of Lady Sannox
Bram Stoker - The Squaw
Robert W. Chambers - The Repairer of Reputations
Arthur Machen - Novel of the White Powder
Richard Marsh - The Adventure of Lady Wishaw's Hand
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Luella Miller
M. R. James - Count Magnus
Francis Marion Crawford - For the Blood is the Life
Algernon Blackwood - The Wendigo
W. F. Harvey - August Heat
E. F. Benson - The Room in the Tower
William Hope Hodgson - The Derelict

At least you can get rid of "Oh Wh*stle, And I'll C*me To You, My L*d", what more do you want?

[Middoth]

Oct 22, 2021 4:49:23 GMT humgoo said:

William Maginn - The Man in the Bell
How American students (commoners, no doubt), without looking at books, reproduced ancient Chinese torture.   Octave Mirbeau describes its full effect, specifying that:“I'd like to know who this man was! For here they never prescribe the torture of the bell, except for high−class criminals: conspiring princes and high officials who no longer please the Emperor. It's an aristocratic and almost glorious torture.”