E.F. Benson Ghost Stories

[Michael Connolly]

On October 6, Vintage Classics is publishing a collection of E.F. Benson's stories as Ghost Stories: Selected and Introduced by Mark Gatiss. The book collects "Spinach", "In the Tube", "The Man Who Went Too Far", "Mrs Amworth", "The Room in the Tower", "The Bus-Conductor", "Negotium Perambulans", "'And No Bird Sings'" and "Caterpillars".  It's a good selection and is a good introduction to new readers.

[clarence]

Thanks for the information Mike

Clarence

[Michael Connolly]

Here's Virgil Finlay's version of Mrs Amworth from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1950. 





She's not the "big and energetic" widow described in the story. 

[elricc]

I always liked this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMpwNOPFGN0

[Michael Connolly]

Jan 9, 2017 17:10:45 GMT elricc said:

I always liked this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMpwNOPFGN0

I remember watching that. It was updated to the then-present days of 1975.

[clarence]

I recently watched this on you tube.
Good film - I was unaware of this story as I have not read any of E F Benson's work.
This will be rectified soon.

Clarence

[Swampirella]

May 16, 2017 13:55:27 GMT clarence said:

I recently watched this on you tube.
Good film - I was unaware of this story as I have not read any of E F Benson's work.
This will be rectified soon.

Clarence

Lots of them can be read for free here gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html


at Project Gutenberg Australia. You can also google the story name and see if it comes up at the site. I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I did; my personal favorite amongst many  is "The Confession of Charles Linkworth"

[helrunar]

Thanks, Scarlett, for mentioning "The Confession of Charles Linkworth."  I do not think I have ever read that one, so I will have to have a look.

I did love "Mrs. Amworth" back in the early 70s when I first read it.  I watched the film version a couple of years ago on Youtube.  I had mixed feelings about the adaptation, but I enjoyed it for what it was.  That Virgil Finlay drawing seems to have more to do with the Universal Dracula films than the Benson tale--but beautiful work taken in and of itself.

My personal favorite EFB yarn has to be "The Room in the Tower."  It always leaves me chilled.

cheers, H.

[Swampirella]

May 16, 2017 14:39:01 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks, Scarlett, for mentioning "The Confession of Charles Linkworth."  I do not think I have ever read that one, so I will have to have a look.

I did love "Mrs. Amworth" back in the early 70s when I first read it.  I watched the film version a couple of years ago on Youtube.  I had mixed feelings about the adaptation, but I enjoyed it for what it was.  That Virgil Finlay drawing seems to have more to do with the Universal Dracula films than the Benson tale--but beautiful work taken in and of itself.

My personal favorite EFB yarn has to be "The Room in the Tower."  It always leaves me chilled.

cheers, H.

You're welcome, Helrunar! The C. of CL is definitely available at PG Australia to read online or download. "Mrs. Amworth" and "The Room In the Tower" are also a few of my favorites and as you probably know, "much anthologized".....

[Dr Strange]

We had a bit of a discussion about favourite Benson stories a while back - vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/17205/thread

This is was what I said at the time:

What I don't like about Benson -

1. His banging on about golf, cars, tennis, fishing, and other gentlemanly pursuits of the well-to-do bachelor. But especially the golf.
2. I mostly don't go for his straight-up "ghost" stories - i.e. where there is an actual ghost (as opposed to, e.g. a big slug thing). His handling of those is very repetitive and cliched (misty figures, feeling someone invisible brush by, etc.)
3. And I don't go for the "occult science" stuff he sometimes (too often) throws in - especially the cod-Einsteinian space-time continuum nonsense he sometimes uses to try to explain "premonitions".

Having said that, I really like some of his stuff. So here is my 13 (in no particular order) -

1. Gavon's Eve (set not far from where I grew up)
2. The Thing In The Hall (hypnotism, seances & elementals)
3. Negotium Perambulans (very Jamesian)
4. The Room In The Tower (much-anthologised vampire story)
5. Mrs Amworth (another vampire - and if 2 is too many, I prefer this one)
6."And No Bird Sings" (something evil in a Surrey wood)
7. The Wishing Well (Cornish witchcraft)
8. The Sanctuary (Satanic black mass story)
9. Caterpillars (I'd like to see Cronenberg film this one!)
10. The Bus Conductor ("room for one inside" is such a creepy line)
11. Monkeys (Benson's take on the mummy's curse)
12. The Temple (ancient druidic evil)
13. The Confession of Charles Linkworth (a relatively straight ghost story, notable for early example of "EVP")

[helrunar]

"And no bird sings" was included in a hardcover vampire anthology I remember being given as a present in the early 70s.  It might have been edited by Haining.  I still find that a very creepy tale.

H.

[mcannon]

May 16, 2017 16:33:23 GMT Dr Strange said:

We had a bit of a discussion about favourite Benson stories a while back - vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/17205/thread

This is was what I said at the time:

What I don't like about Benson -

1. His banging on about golf, cars, tennis, fishing, and other gentlemanly pursuits of the well-to-do bachelor. But especially the golf.

I believe it was Dem who noted the recurring obsession with newspapers.

I think that "sea-bathing" and bridge were mentioned quite frequently as well.

To be fair, I think I mainly noticed these recurrences because a few years ago I read the entire Wordsworth "Night Terrors" collection in only a couple of weeks. If I'd read just a single story every now and then they probably wouldn't have been quite so obvious.

Mark

[Michael Connolly]

I think about twenty of E.F. Benson's ghost stories are worth reading. When I first read "The Room in the Tower" in primary school, it scared the life out of me. When I re-read it two nights ago, it scared me again.

[Michael Connolly]

From E.F. Benson "The Terror by Night": "Some ghosts are seen, some heard, some felt, and though I know of no instance of a ghost being tasted...". What in hell was he expecting?

[Michael Connolly]

Jan 9, 2017 13:38:40 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Here's Virgil Finlay's version of Mrs Amworth from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1950. 





She's not the "big and energetic" widow described in the story. 

This looks familiar: