Lafcadio Hearn - Oriental Ghost Stories

[dem bones]

Lafcadio Hearn - Oriental Ghost Stories (Wordsworth Editions, 2007)

Nathan Clair

David Stuart Davies - Introduction

Kwaidan

The Story Of Mimi—Nashbi-Hoichi
Oshidori
The Story of O-Tei
Ubazakura
Diplomacy
Of A Mirror And A Bell
jikininki
Mujina
Rokura-Kubi
A Dead Secret
Yuki-Onna
The Story of Aoyagi
Jiu-Roku-Zakura
The Dream of Akinosuke
Riki-Baka
Hi-Mawari
Horai

In Ghostly Japan

Fragment
Furisode
Incense
A Story Of Divination
Silkworms
A Passional Karma

Some Chinese Ghosts

The Soul Of The Great Bell
The Story Of Ming-Y
The Legend Of Tchi-Niu
The Return Of Yen-Tchin-King
The Tradition Of The Tea Plant
The Tale Of The Porcelain-God

Blurb:
‘ – and the man saw that she had no eyes or nose or mouth – and he screamed.’

Lafcadio Hearn’s fascinating and unsettling ghost stories are a reinterpretation of oriental legends, and folktales. They are a potent blend of weird beauty and horror. Hearn, who referred to his narratives as ‘stories and studies of strange things’, believed that the spectral world was part of the oriental landscape. Lakes, mountains, ruined castles and terraced fields were the natural locale of ghostly spirits, and their intervention in human affairs was part of the natural order of things. Hearn’s apparitions are not a violent intrusion upon everyday reality; they are already a part of that reality, co-existing with the living.

This collection contains the best of the work of this neglected master of the supernatural tale. Prepare to be charmed and chilled in equal measure.

Excuse the stub post, but landed three Wordsworths from a market stall this morning, and as two have yet to feature on the board, now seemed as good a time as any to update checklist. Lafcadio Hearn 's work has featured in a number of multiple-author supernatural horror anthologies - Peter Haining, Hugh Lamb, Richard Dalby, and Marvin Kaye number(ed) among his admirers - sometimes, I suspect, specially retitled for the occasion. Several of the tales included here-in run to a tidy two or three pages, suggesting Oriental Ghost Stories will make for ideal book-in-the-background reading. The Story Of Ming-Y, Jikininski (featuring a corpse-eating former priest), and Mujina, are top-notch creepers, even if Hearn is sometimes prone to the happy-ish ending.