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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 17, 2021 23:32:24 GMT
Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger [Ed.] - Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 (Pegasus Books, 2020)
Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger - Introduction
Elizabeth Gaskell - The Old Nurse’s Story
Harriet Spofford - The Moonstone Mass
Louisa May Alcott - Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy’s Curse
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps - What Was the Matter?
Mrs. J. H. (Charlotte) Riddell - Nut Bush Farm
Sarah Orne Jewett - The Gray Man
Olive Schreiner - In a Far-Off World
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Giant Wistaria
Marie Corelli - The Lady with the Carnations
Clemence Housman - The Were-Wolf
Emma Frances Dawson - An Itinerant House
Dora Sigerson Shorter - Transmigration
Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman - The Wind in the Rose-Bush
Herminie Templeton Kavanagh - The Banshee’s Halloween
Frances Hodgson Burnett - In the Closed Room
Olivia Howard Dunbar - The Dream Baby
Edith Nesbit - The Third Drug
Mary Austin - The Pocket-Hunter’s Story
Marjorie Bowen - Twilight
Regina Miriam Bloch - The Swine-Gods
Ellen Glasgow - Jordan’s EndThis anthology includes a number of familiar classics; of those, I'm particularly fond of the Riddell and Wilkins-Freeman tales. Still, around half the stories are new to me. I'd somehow never read Alcott's story, which features both a mummy and a deadly plant, and now I wish she'd written more like it. I also enjoyed the Phelps story, which juggles a missing aunt and a clairvoyant servant. Corelli's story is mawkish, in keeping with her usual style. Dawson's includes an interesting concept, but I found it virtually unreadable thanks to all the allusions and poetic interludes.
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Post by dem bones on May 18, 2021 7:12:51 GMT
Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger [Ed.] - Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 (Pegasus Books, 2020) This anthology includes a number of familiar classics; of those, I'm particularly fond of the Riddell and Wilkins-Freeman tales. Still, around half the stories are new to me. I'd somehow never read Alcott's story, which features both a mummy and a deadly plant, and now I wish she'd written more like it. I also enjoyed the Phelps story, which juggles a missing aunt and a clairvoyant servant. Corelli's story is mawkish, in keeping with her usual style. Dawson's includes an interesting concept, but I found it virtually unreadable thanks to all the allusions and poetic interludes. This looks very attractive. Likewise familiar with roughly half the contents, of which the Alcott is a particular favourite. Also enjoyed Marjorie Bowen's understated Twilight (feat. Lucrezia Borgia) and, though it's faded from memory The Were-wolf. Great stories for sure, but you'd have hoped the 'Old Nurse ...' and 'The Wind in the Rosebush' for two had earned a well-deserved rest by now. Hope you don't mind me scanning in the cover. There's just something about a haunted parasol girl ...   |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 18, 2021 10:34:05 GMT
There's just something about a haunted parasol girl ... I have a weakness for haunted parasol girls myself. Sadly, there are no such characters in Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Gray Man," Olive Schreiner's "In a Far-Off World," or Dora Sigerson Shorter's "Transmigration." Nor anything else memorable, either. "The Banshee's Halloween" is more entertaining, though Herminie Templeton Kavanagh laid on the phonetic Irish a bit thick for my tastes. |
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Post by helrunar on May 18, 2021 12:43:02 GMT
That's an amazing image on the cover. In an era when 99 percent of book covers are implacably banal, it's a standout.
H.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on May 18, 2021 13:03:09 GMT
There's just something about a haunted parasol girl ... I have a weakness for haunted parasol girls myself. Learned something about men. Making a note: Must buy a parasol. |
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on May 19, 2021 10:21:36 GMT
This collection looks very interesting. I prefer my authors dead. I will put it on my wish list. Thank you for posting.
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Post by dem bones on May 19, 2021 13:14:52 GMT
This collection looks very interesting. I prefer my authors dead. I'm sure that will come as a great comfort to several of our sometimes contributors. |
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on May 19, 2021 13:26:15 GMT
This collection looks very interesting. I prefer my authors dead. I'm sure that will come as a great comfort to several of our sometimes contributors. There's no hurry. They can take their time. Thanks to this site my reading list is quite large at the moment. |
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Post by ripper on May 22, 2021 11:51:49 GMT
Similarly, there is Unforgettable Ghost Stories by Women Writers (Mike Ashley, Dover Publications, 2009). It does contain more tales that were familiar to me than Weird Women, but at least that old nurse has finally been pensioned off.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 22, 2021 12:25:16 GMT
Similarly, there is Unforgettable Ghost Stories by Women Writers (Mike Ashley, Dover Publications, 2009). It does contain more tales that were familiar to me than Weird Women, but at least that old nurse has finally been pensioned off. That’s a solid anthology. I remember picking it up to get my paws on a copy of Greye La Spina’s “The Wax Doll.” |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 8, 2021 18:01:42 GMT
Sadly, there are no such characters in Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Gray Man," Olive Schreiner's "In a Far-Off World," or Dora Sigerson Shorter's "Transmigration." Nor anything else memorable, either. Not read "The Gray Man," or "In a Far-Off World," but I found this one suspenseful. Dora Sigerson Shorter - Transmigration: ( The Father Confessor: Stories of Death & Danger, 1900). Lying on what he believes to be his deathbed, Bulger wills himself to exchange bodies with Gilbert Graham, the GOOD SAMARITAN (trans: doomed person) attempting to reassure him he is not yet lost. The transfer complete, Bulger rejoices in another chance at life. An opportunity to right wrongs and unburden his soul! Or not. Bulger's euphoria is short lived. Graham's infant daughter bawls him out as an imposter shortly before he drops her from the staircase (worryingly, her mother is completely taken in). So begins a reign of terror that culminates in the shooting dead of a man he has groomed for ruination at the card table. With so many witnesses to the murder Bulger's outlook is bleak — until Graham awakens from cataleptic trance .... Also enjoyed The Giant Wistaria which, turns out, I'd not long read in the magnificently named Daisy Butcher's Evil Roots, and promptly forgot. Made more of an impression second time around. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 14, 2021 8:49:22 GMT
Corelli's story is mawkish, in keeping with her usual style. : ( Cameos, 1896). The narrator is stalked from Paris to Brittany by the sad ghost of Manou, stabbed to death by artist lover who suspected her of unfaithfulness. Rather than face justice, the young painter disposed of her body in a river, but Manou won't have a bad word said against him. She is waiting for some sympathetic person to say a prayer for the repose of her soul. Saintly narrator obliges. First sighting of ghost is on a bench beneath her portrait in the Louvre, but I realise most readers do not get as excited about such things as I do so, unless you have a weakness for the sickly, there is very little to recommend this story. Editors explain they arrived at their selections from a long-list of fifty. Would very much like to see it. |
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