asenath
Crab On The Rampage
The Thing on the Doorstep
Posts: 32
|
Post by asenath on Mar 15, 2012 23:09:05 GMT
This is the book that re-introduced me to the English ghost story after my first meeting in the Tales to Tremble By books I read as a child. I purchased Lost Souls as an undergrad writing papers about the supernatural in short fiction. In the ancient, pre-internet days, I had to write a letter to Columbia University Press to inquire about price and purchase. The trade paperback edition was on sale for an amazing 10$. My money order was in the mail ASAP. In 1983, most of these authors and stories were difficult to find in the States. Dover publications made some of them available but many had disappeared into literary obscurity. I will be forever grateful to Jack Sullivan for gathering these tales all together in one marvelous volume. Lost Souls
Edited and with an introduction by Jack Sullivan
Beginnings
Sheridan Le Fanu--Schalken the Painter, Green Tea
The Antiquarian Ghost Story
M.R. James--Count Magnus, The Ash Tree
Walter de la Mare--A:B:O.
L.P. Hartley--The Travelling Grave
E.G. Swain--The Man with the Roller
Sir Arthur Gray--The Everlasting Club
H.R. Wakefield--"He Cometh and He Passeth By"
Sir Hugh Walpole--The Silver Mask
E.F. Benson--The Bath-Chair
R.H. Malden--Between Sunset and Moonrise
The Visionary Ghost Story
H.G. Wells--The Plattner Story
Arthur Machen--The White People
William Hope Hodgson--The Voice in the Night
T.H. White--The Troll
R. Murray Gilchrist--The Return
Algernon Blackwood--A Haunted Island
R.H. Benson--The Watcher
Alfred Noyes--Midnight Express
L.T.C. Rolt--The Mine
The Contemporary Ghost Story
Elizabeth Bowen--Hand in Glove
Gerald Kersh--Men Without Bones
Rosemary Timperley--Harry
Walter de la Mare--Bad Company
Robert Aickman--The Same Dog
Ramsey Campbell--The Scar, The InvocationEver the scholar, Mr. Sullivan includes a useful bibliograpby and reference guide at the end. Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Mar 16, 2012 13:41:22 GMT
Nice collection, but quite a few stories there that don't feature any ghosts!
|
|
asenath
Crab On The Rampage
The Thing on the Doorstep
Posts: 32
|
Post by asenath on Mar 16, 2012 14:49:38 GMT
Nice collection, but quite a few stories there that don't feature any ghosts! Jack Sullivan uses the word 'ghost' in the larger sense of 'supernatural' and with the idea that ghosts can take many forms. Also, as Mr. Sullivan points out in his introduction the "Victorian chain rattlers" were getting a bit stale for the average reader. Aunt Sally's ghost can only appear on the stairs so many times before the reader begins to yawn and says, "Oh, her again..." The monkey in Le Fanu's "Green Tea" isn't a ghost in the traditional sense, but it haunts Mr. Jennings nonetheless and is certainly more frightening than Aunt Sally's dull apparition. The implication that the world is haunted by unnamed and unseen forces, some of them indifferent, others striking with malign intent into the everyday world, is the most frightening ghost story of all. |
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Mar 16, 2012 15:03:45 GMT
Jack Sullivan uses the word 'ghost' in the larger sense of 'supernatural' and with the idea that ghosts can take many forms. Ahhh, the Humpty Dumpty approach to word meaning. I might just about accept the monkey in Green Tea as a sort of ghost, but definitely not the reanimated corpse in Schalken (for example). There isn't even anything "supernatural" in WH Hodgson's The Voice In The Night, as another example. |
|
asenath
Crab On The Rampage
The Thing on the Doorstep
Posts: 32
|
Post by asenath on Mar 16, 2012 19:23:56 GMT
Jack Sullivan uses the word 'ghost' in the larger sense of 'supernatural' and with the idea that ghosts can take many forms. Ahhh, the Humpty Dumpty approach to word meaning. I might just about accept the monkey in Green Tea as a sort of ghost, but definitely not the reanimated corpse in Schalken (for example). There isn't even anything "supernatural" in WH Hodgson's The Voice In The Night, as another example. In regards to "Schalken the Painter" and the use of the word 'ghost', the reanimated corpse isn't the spirit of a living being returned from the afterlife, nor is the monkey in "Green Tea" the spirit of a monkey returned from the hereafter to haunt Mr. Jennings. But Rose is "haunted", indeed terrorized by the living corpse she is forced to marry. Just as Mr. Jennings is "haunted" by the monkey-neither a spirit nor a ghost, but the intrusion of a malign universe or the projection of his own mind. Or maybe it's just that damned green tea!  In Hodgson's tale, the voice of the title has always struck me as the "ghost". The narrator first hears the voice "from out of the surrounding darkness". The reader learns that John, the voice, will soon die a hideous death and perhaps become a literal ghost. (yes, I'm extrapolating a bit) If not that, then John will certainly lose his humanity when overtaken by the fungus (if I can imply that; watching Matanga!, a Japanese film inspired by Hodgson's story, may be influencing my 'loss of humanity' interpretation.) I don't think Mr. Sullivan, the editor, intended for his use of the word "ghost" (or supernatural) to be interpreted literally. Just as when I was a kid, my friends and I told ghost stories, one of the especially creepy tales involved a re-animated skeleton. Hardly a ghost, but the effect was the same since none of us could walk home without a backward glance. BTW, I don't mean to sound argumentative; I'm really a pretty laid back person, just chatty.  |
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Mar 19, 2012 9:48:57 GMT
BTW, I don't mean to sound argumentative; I'm really a pretty laid back person, just chatty. Ditto that. It's just one of those things that seem to (slightly) annoy me for no very good reason - I always feel somehow cheated when I read stories in "themed" anthologies that (IMO) don't fit the theme. Anyway, it's still a great collection of stories. |
|
asenath
Crab On The Rampage
The Thing on the Doorstep
Posts: 32
|
Post by asenath on Mar 20, 2012 4:00:08 GMT
BTW, I don't mean to sound argumentative; I'm really a pretty laid back person, just chatty. [/quote ] Ditto that. It's just one of those things that seem to (slightly) annoy me for no very good reason - I always feel somehow cheated when I read stories in "themed" anthologies that (IMO) don't fit the theme. Anyway, it's still a great collection of stories. Yes, I understand where you are coming from, Dr. Strange. Jack Sullivan explains his choice of stories in the intro as they relate to the title of the book. When I have a little more time and mental energy, I will toss out some quotes from Mr. Sullivan. There ia also a companion volume, non-fiction, Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood. |
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Jul 7, 2020 5:48:11 GMT
This is the book that re-introduced me to the English ghost story after my first meeting in the Tales to Tremble By books I read as a child. I purchased Lost Souls as an undergrad writing papers about the supernatural in short fiction. In the ancient, pre-internet days, I had to write a letter to Columbia University Press to inquire about price and purchase. The trade paperback edition was on sale for an amazing 10$. My money order was in the mail ASAP. In 1983, most of these authors and stories were difficult to find in the States. Dover publications made some of them available but many had disappeared into literary obscurity. I will be forever grateful to Jack Sullivan for gathering these tales all together in one marvelous volume. Lost Souls
Edited and with an introduction by Jack Sullivan
Beginnings
Sheridan Le Fanu--Schalken the Painter, Green Tea
The Antiquarian Ghost Story
M.R. James--Count Magnus, The Ash Tree
Walter de la Mare--A:B:O.
L.P. Hartley--The Travelling Grave
E.G. Swain--The Man with the Roller
Sir Arthur Gray--The Everlasting Club
H.R. Wakefield--"He Cometh and He Passeth By"
Sir Hugh Walpole--The Silver Mask
E.F. Benson--The Bath-Chair
R.H. Malden--Between Sunset and Moonrise
The Visionary Ghost Story
H.G. Wells--The Plattner Story
Arthur Machen--The White People
William Hope Hodgson--The Voice in the Night
T.H. White--The Troll
R. Murray Gilchrist--The Return
Algernon Blackwood--A Haunted Island
R.H. Benson--The Watcher
Alfred Noyes--Midnight Express
L.T.C. Rolt--The Mine
The Contemporary Ghost Story
Elizabeth Bowen--Hand in Glove
Gerald Kersh--Men Without Bones
Rosemary Timperley--Harry
Walter de la Mare--Bad Company
Robert Aickman--The Same Dog
Ramsey Campbell--The Scar, The InvocationEver the scholar, Mr. Sullivan includes a useful bibliograpby and reference guide at the end. I've just reread the editorial material of LOST SOULS. One Ramsey Campbell of this parish comes off very well. The book is worth getting. |
|
|
|
Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 10, 2020 11:53:59 GMT
For years I would read tales to folk at Jack's apartment on the upper West Side - T. E. D. Klein, Gahan Wilson, Peter Straub, Tom Disch, Kirby McCauley, even once Fritz Leiber.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 10, 2020 13:10:30 GMT
For years I would read tales to folk at Jack's apartment on the upper West Side - T. E. D. Klein, Gahan Wilson, Peter Straub, Tom Disch, Kirby McCauley, even once Fritz Leiber. The Manhattan years. |
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Jul 11, 2020 6:32:58 GMT
For years I would read tales to folk at Jack's apartment on the upper West Side - T. E. D. Klein, Gahan Wilson, Peter Straub, Tom Disch, Kirby McCauley, even once Fritz Leiber. Were they sitting comfortably? |
|
|
|
Post by Knygathin on Jul 11, 2020 7:53:35 GMT
For years I would read tales to folk at Jack's apartment on the upper West Side - T. E. D. Klein, Gahan Wilson, Peter Straub, Tom Disch, Kirby McCauley, even once Fritz Leiber. The Kalem Club still going strong after all those years, even after Lovecraft's passing, with new members gradually replacing elder ones over the decades. I would guess it even existed before Lovecraft gave it its name, in an unbroken chain back into the 1800s, maybe even the 1700s, and further back. I can't help but marvel at the wonders of success and fame, being invited into secret societies ... and what have you not. The perspectives open up astounding and reeling. ... The impossible journey into the Illuminati, Rosemary's Baby, Eyes Wide Shut, Rothschild, Epstein, ... but better stay away from this last group, if to retain one's soul. |
|
