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Post by ropardoe on Jun 5, 2016 9:48:19 GMT
I've always enjoyed the tales of EF Benson but from what I recall (it's been awhile), many of the stories are marred by a somewhat unduly "cozy" tone in the literary style. This was emphatically not the case with The Room in the Tower. H. Nor with "Negotium Perambulans". Brrr! Incidentally, when glancing through this thread and reading about the fantasy casting of "Nigella (Marilyn) Lawson" as Mrs Amsworth, my brain saw it as "Marilyn Manson". Hmm! Now there's a fantasy casting and a half! Is it weird that I'd really like to see that?
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Post by helrunar on Jun 5, 2016 16:40:35 GMT
Oh yes, Rosemary, I don't remember anything about what happened in Negotiam perambulans, but I still get a shivery feeling just from the title! When Benson was "on," he really had the stuff. I just want to say how much I enjoyed the essay you and Jane Nicholls wrote about the Black Pilgrimage in Count Magnus: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArticleTwo.htmlBrilliant work! And a grand bit of fun, too! Best, H.
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Post by ropardoe on Jun 5, 2016 18:19:39 GMT
Why, thank you. That article is probably the most pirated thing I've ever written (though I also have certain rights over MRJ's "The Fenstanton Witch", which tends to turn up on the Net without any awareness that it's still in copyright).
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Post by andydecker on Sept 22, 2020 8:20:56 GMT
After reading The Caterpillars in the Evans volume I really got curious about Benson, whom I never have read. Even if had one or two odd stories in anthologies I have. So after studying the threads in the Vault I got me the Benson megapack edition from Wildside, which collects a lot (most?) of his stories.
I started with the classic The Room in the Tower and was astonished how good this is. Absolutely nightmarish set-up and a well-done ending. "I have given you the room in the tower." Brillant use of repetitions of a catch phrase in a text, nowadays this is an old hat, but this could be another Patient Zero so to speak.
I will space this out; I guess it is easy to overdose fast on Benson's golfing bachelors.
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 22, 2020 9:12:28 GMT
I think you might be surprised at how often Benson can be that good. And even his weakest ghost stories are readable. But if you've got them all, then small doses far apart is probably the best way. Some of my personal favourites are - The Sanctuary, "And No Bird Sings", Negotium Perambulans, The Temple, and Mrs Amworth.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 22, 2020 12:46:20 GMT
In order of merit, these are the best E.F. Benson stories that I have recently re-read. The Room in the Tower (one of the few genuinely frightening stories that I have ever read) Mrs Amworth Negotium Perambulans “And No Bird Sings” The Wishing-Well The Sanctuary The Outcast The Step The Temple The Horror-Horn Gavon’s Eve The House with the Brick-Kiln Caterpillars The Face The Confession of Charles Linkworth The Other Bed The Bed by the Window The Thing in the Hall The Corner House The Bus-Conductor Monkeys Most of his other stories are readable but routine compared to the above. I made the list for my own use. As for the following original cover illustration, I can't quite make it out.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 22, 2020 14:13:23 GMT
“The Room in the Tower” is great, and the suggestions above include all my favorite Benson stories. I particularly recommend “The Face,” which is Benson at his most bleak and haunting.
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Post by andydecker on Sept 22, 2020 16:56:08 GMT
Thanks for the suggestions. I am really curious.
And thanks for the scan, Michael. Fascinating stuff, especially the list on the back. Always intereting to see which writers went into obscurity. I know of Mundy, which I read about and also have one of those Megapack collections which I still didn't look into. I have come to hoard them as they tend to disappear. (I still fume that I didn't buy the early edition of McDowell's Blackwater complete when they were avaiable; I put the last two on the wishlist instead of ordering them. Now the edition got pulled and there is only the compilation for sale. I now have an incomplete text with no chance to ever get the rest. ) And I heard of Lowndes. But Dawson and Stockley seem to have been forgotten.
Was 2/6 the price? How much is this in today's currency?
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Post by samdawson on Sept 22, 2020 17:47:25 GMT
Two shillings and sixpence, aka half a crown, is 12 and a half (New) Pence
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Post by andydecker on Sept 23, 2020 16:42:24 GMT
Two shillings and sixpence, aka half a crown, is 12 and a half (New) Pence Thank you. Compared to the 14.30 GBP you have to pay for the last King hardcover this must have been an affordable edition back then. (Or I am writing nonsense because I don't have a clue about yesteryears currency)
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 23, 2020 19:42:01 GMT
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Post by andydecker on Sept 23, 2020 21:14:19 GMT
Me too. I think the last SK novel I bought was Bag of Bones. That was 22 years ago. I am old. Great link. Thanks.
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Post by weirdmonger on Sept 17, 2022 11:08:27 GMT
THE OUTCAST by E.F. Benson. Why have I not read this one before? Fear of its bag of knees and elbows? Or of the charming woman from Mapp and Lucia?
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Oct 19, 2022 23:11:54 GMT
There's a Benson story in an anthology out yesterday, Christmas Gothic Short Stories, edited by Jerrold E. Hogle for Flame Tree Collections. Most of the authors aren't listed and none of the story titles are. "New stories from open submissions join the classic tales of Algernon Blackwood, James Joyce, E.F. Benson, Elizabeth Gaskell and more." An educated guess could be made based on other recent Christmas ghost story anthologies, though: Between the Lights (1912)
Spectres in the Snow: A Third Collection of Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas (2015) Winter Night Classics: Literature’s Best Christmas Ghost Stories (2015) Fireside Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve: An Anthology of Winter Horror Stories (2017) Victorian Christmas Stories: 13 Scary Ghost Stories to Read on A Dark, Snowy Night (2020) Very Haunted Victorian Christmas (2021) The Other Bed (1908)
Winter Night Classics: Literature’s Best Christmas Ghost Stories (2015) Fireside Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve: An Anthology of Winter Horror Stories (2017) Boxing Night (1923)Weird Winter Tales: A Fifth Collection of Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas (2018) How Fear Departed the Long Gallery (1911)
Seth's Ghost Stories for Christmas (2017) I'd venture guesses that the Blackwood is "The Kit-Bag" (or, less likely, "The Transition"), Joyce is "The Dead," and Gaskell is "The Old Nurse's Story." Hopefully they're more inspired choices. What's up with not listing content? EDIT: Found a list of the new stories & authors, and a list of the republished authors but not of their stories:https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/gothic-fantasy-successful-submissions-christmas-gothic The cover of the book is quite nicely done, and maybe the new stories will make up for unoriginal selections if these guesses of mine were indeed the choices: Grant Allen: "Wolverden Tower" John Kendrick Bangs: "Thurlow's Christmas Story" S. Baring-Gould: "Glámr" J.M. Barrie: "Ghost of Christmas Eve" Sir Andrew Caldecott: "Christmas Re-union" Charles Dickens: "Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "Shadows on the Wall" John Berwick Harwood: "Horror: A True Tale" Nathaniel Hawthorne: "The Christmas Banquet" Jane Margaret Hooper: "Bring Me a Light!" M.R. James: "The Story of a Disappearance and An Appearance" Jerome K. Jerome: "Ghost of the Blue Chamber" Charlotte Riddell: "Strange Christmas Game" Frank Stockton: "Great Staircase at Landover Hall," or "Old Applejoy's Ghost" I've read so many Victorian Christmas ghost stories that I'm tempted to write an anonymous one and pass it off as something I found in an old newspaper. That would be very NAUGHTY though.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 20, 2022 1:20:01 GMT
I hope you write that story, toff! John Linwood Grant has a story in that new anthology (I only know this because I read about it on his social media page) and that's enough to have me at least mildly curious.
cheers, Hel
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