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Post by dem bones on Jun 26, 2021 7:57:57 GMT
Charlotte Bronte - Napoleon and the Spectre: (The Green Dwarf, 1833). In the middle of the night, the Emperor is summoned by a ghost and lead through the streets of Paris until they arrive at a lofty house on the Seine where a macabre masqued ball of the dead is in progress. And then —
Richmal Crompton - Rosalind: (The Sovereign, Apr. 1925). Heath, a Viscount of Evesham in waiting, breaks off with the artist's model he loves when she delightedly informs him of her pregnancy. Heartbroken and alone, Rosalind follows their stillborn son to the grave. A lucky escape for Heath, setting him free to marry Helen, whose social standing is compatible to that of a titled gent. But Heath can't shake the spectre of Rosalind, who haunts him wherever he goes. One day she brings along their ghostly son, too.
Antonia Fraser - Who's Been Sitting In My Car?: (Giles Gordon [ed], Prevailing Spirits, 1976). Jacobine's Mini is haunted by its previous owner, a particularly nasty piece of work who chain smokes, never empties the ashtray, and hates children. Now they've met, he wants to spend more molesting her in the car. The ghost threatens to kill her kids unless she's compliant. Quietly horrible. All three of these are very good, though I remember disliking the Bronte on first acquaintance.
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Post by ripper on Jun 26, 2021 8:58:24 GMT
Charlotte Bronte - Napoleon and the Spectre: ( The Green Dwarf, 1833). In the middle of the night, the Emperor is summoned by a ghost and lead through the streets of Paris until they arrive at a lofty house on the Seine where a macabre masqued ball of the dead is in progress. And then — Richmal Crompton - Rosalind: ( The Sovereign, Apr. 1925). Heath, a Viscount of Evesham in waiting, breaks off with the artist's model he loves when she delightedly informs him of her pregnancy. Heartbroken and alone, Rosalind follows their stillborn son to the grave. A lucky escape for Heath, setting him free to marry Helen, whose social standing is compatible to that of a titled gent. But Heath can't shake the spectre of Rosalind, who haunts him wherever he goes. One day she brings along their ghostly son, too. Antonia Fraser - Who's Been Sitting In My Car?: (Giles Gordon [ed], Prevailing Spirits, 1976). Jacobine's Mini is haunted by its previous owner, a particularly nasty piece of work who chain smokes, never empties the ashtray, and hates children. Now they've met, he wants to spend more molesting her in the car. The ghost threatens to kill her kids unless she's compliant. Quietly horrible. All three of these are very good, though I remember disliking the Bronte on first acquaintance. I haven't read the Crompton story, but certainly agree that the offering from Antonia Fraser is rather unpleasant. It's the kind of tale that you don't forget in a hurry. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 26, 2021 9:30:05 GMT
I haven't read the Crompton story, but certainly agree that the offering from Antonia Fraser is rather unpleasant. It's the kind of tale that you don't forget in a hurry. The horribleness of it quite took me by surprise. From the tone of the opening paragraphs, I was prepared for something jolly. Might have to give her Quiet As A Nun another go (first time around, I only managed the opening chapter). I'm reading 2006 hardcover version of Virago Book of Ghost Stories, a ringer combining selections from Volumes 1 and 2 and the Victorian Ghost Stories, hence the Crompton and Bronte stories. Thanks for reminding me of its existence. As with so many anthologies, it seems to improve from a distance. |
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Post by ripper on Jun 27, 2021 9:42:28 GMT
After much too long a time I read Rosalind by Richmal Crompton, and I'm glad I did. If this is an indication of the quality of her supernatural stories, it's a shame that they are not better known.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 27, 2021 13:46:18 GMT
After much too long a time I read Rosalind by Richmal Crompton, and I'm glad I did. If this is an indication of the quality of her supernatural stories, it's a shame that they are not better known. Yeah, I liked that one a lot. Two more. Chalk and cheese. F. M. Mayor - Miss De Mannering of Asham: ( The Room Opposite: And Other Tales of Mystery & Imagination, 1935). "What do you bet me that in one season I shall successfully assault the virtue of the three most innocent and immaculate maids, old are young, in Bath?" Such is the wager offered by the all conquering Captain Frederic Phillimore, man of fashion and celebrated rake, on his return to England. Innocent and awkward, Miss de Mannering is easy prey. Abandoned, frightened and with child, she returns home to Asham Hall and takes to her room, her faithful nurse paying discreet visits to comfort and console. The child survives but three hours. Terrified that Mr. de Mannering should learn of her disgrace, Miss de Mannering wonders how to dispose of his body .... Rosemary Pardoe - The Chauffeur: ( The Angry Dead, 1986). Among Miss Jane Bradshawe less traumatic supernatural adventures, this charming tale of Mr. Watkins, so happy in his employment he refuses to take retirement even in death. Jane's removal of certain weeds from his grave frees the chauffeur to continue his harmless haunting. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 28, 2021 7:52:45 GMT
Celia Fremlin - Don't Tell Cissie: ( By Horror Haunted, 1974: Mary Danby [ed.], 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural, 1979). Narrator Lois and Rosemary resolve to hunt the "ghost" said to haunt the latter's newly acquired weekend cottage. For obvious reasons, it is imperative they conceal their intentions from mutual friend, Cecily Curtis, a well-meaning accident-prone disaster on legs. Joan Aiken - The Traitor: (Richard Dalby [ed.], The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century: Volume 2, 1991). Laid off from Birklethwaite library after 25 years service, Miss Lucy Grey takes work as live-in companion for a wealthy invalid. It soon transpires that Miss Cranshaw is the sister of the Judge who sentenced Lucy's father to 25 years imprisonment for passing secrets to the Soviets. Worse, Miss Cranshaw's new home in Stillingley is that which Lucy grew up in after dad died two years into his jail term. The friendly ghosts of her loving former neighbours make themselves known to Miss Cranshaw, even push her wheelchair on occasion, but studiously ignore poor Lucy. Should she confide in her employer that she's the daughter of the "traitor"? A proper critic might argue that this story relies too much on weird coincidence, but I am no critic of any stripe, and found The Traitor crushingly sad. Why are so many reasonable people doomed to a life of painful loneliness?
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Post by dem bones on Jul 9, 2021 9:46:59 GMT
To prevent it's feeling left out, here's Vol 2: The Twentieth Century. We met several of these in the Virago Book of Ghost Stories 2006 hardcover. Richard Dalby [ed.] - Virago Book of Ghost Stories: Vol II (Virago, 1991)  "Cover shows a detail from a portrait of Violet, Duchess of Rutland in a private collection by Sir James Jebusa Shannon. Courtesy of Bridgman Art Gallery."
Richard Dalby - Preface
Sarah Maitland - Introduction
A. S. Byatt - The July Ghost
Mary Butts - With and Without Buttons
Celia Fremlin - Don't Tell Cissie
Margaret Irwin - The Book
Rebecca West - The Grey Men
Daphne du Maurier - The Pool
Ann Bridge - The Station Road
Penelope Lively - Black Dog
E. Nesbit - No. 17
Pamela Sewell - Prelude
D. K. Broster - The Pestering
Jean Rhys - I Used to Live Here Once
Clotilde Graves - A Spirit Elopement
Eleanor Smith - Whittington's Cat
Ruth Rendell - The Haunting of Shawley Rectory
Margery Lawrence - Mare Amore
Antonia Fraser - Who's Been Sitting in My Car?
Elizabeth Fancett - The Ghosts of Calagou
Edith Wharton - Afterward
Mary Williams - The Thingummajig
Mary Elizabeth Counselman - The House of Shadows
Richmal Crompton - Rosalind
Dorothy K. Haynes - Redundant
A. L. Barker - The Dream of Fair Women
Rosemary Pardoe - The Chauffeur
Joan Aiken - The Traitor
Elinor Mordaunt - The LandladyBlurb: ‘More than most anthologies, Richard Dalby’s excellent collection invites you to dip in and choose a story to make your flesh creep’ — Punch
‘A shivery treat’ — The Times
‘An eerie Collection’ — Guardian
The first volume of The Virago Book of Ghost Stories met with huge acclaim. Following its outstanding success, this further volume offers yet more deliciously chilling tales. A.L. Barker, A.S. Byatt, Richmal Crompton, Antonia Fraser, Celia Fremlin, Penelope Lively, Daphne du Maurier, Ruth Rendell and Jean Rhys are amongst the writers whose stories reveal the extraordinary range and development of a genre that has thrilled readers for over two hundred years. Here lost loves, past enmities and unwanted memories mingle with the inexplicable as unquiet souls return to repay kindnesses, settle scores and haunt the imagination.
Featuring some of the finest writers of the twentieth-century ghost story, this is an absorbing, unsettling and irresistible read. Dim the lights and welcome the supernatural ... |
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Post by samdawson on Jul 9, 2021 11:35:38 GMT
A very strong choice of painting as cover there
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Post by helrunar on Jul 9, 2021 12:20:13 GMT
Interesting selection for the 20th C. Mary Butts was such a strange writer. Years ago after reading a fascinating article about her--might have been a review essay in TLS or LRB--I checked out one of her books from the library, but was unable to get very far with it.
And I keep meaning to track down a Dorothy K. Haynes collection. I don't think I've read "Redundant." As you know, Haynes was one of the authors RCH liked, and I first read something by her in Welsh Tales of Terror--"Mrs Jones," it was (I just had to look it up), and a very good story of which, as usual these days, I have only a vague recollection.
Lovely to see our own Rosemary Pardoe included! And something by Joan Aiken, about whose work another resident was inquiring recently. I did read a very evocative book of short stories by Aiken in the mid 70s, but I looked through the titles on her website and had no memory at all spring forth of the title.
ISFDB helpfully points out that this anthology was also published under the title Modern Ghost Stories by Eminent Women Writers.
I noticed that Dalby did a collection of ghost stories by writers in the style of our Provost... I will have to check Abebooks.
cheers, Hel
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Post by Middoth on Jul 9, 2021 13:21:32 GMT
Hope you will find a Dorothy K. Haynes collection.
I am eager to hear something new about her.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 9, 2021 16:10:56 GMT
Interesting selection for the 20th C. Mary Butts was such a strange writer. Years ago after reading a fascinating article about her--might have been a review essay in TLS or LRB--I checked out one of her books from the library, but was unable to get very far with it. Quite by chance, I have just finished reading her story, taken from a posthumously published collection. It's very good! Mary Butts - With and Without Buttons: ( Last Stories, 1938). Two sisters resolve to shake up their neighbour, Mr. Trenchard, by fabricating a ghost story connected to his half of Stone Cottages. Between them they dream up Miss Blacken, "a dirty old woman, nice about her hands," who keeps a trunkload of single gloves - they have found such a collection in the attic - on account of she invariably leaves one wherever she goes. Over tea one afternoon, the girls let slip that to their neighbour that his half of the property is the village haunt. How odd, he explains. Perhaps it is the ghost who has been leaving gloves about the place? There is such a thing as a cruel prank going too far, and this one has already taken on a horrible unlife of its own. Mary Williams - The Thingummyjig: ( The Haunted Valley and Other Ghost Stories, 1978). Little Clarissa lives in terror of her great-grandfather, a perma-livid despot who is forever demanding the child be punished. Her existence is a misery until she befriends the Thingummyjig, a hairless, balloon-bodied, legless blob in a clowns hat, who assumes the form of a monstrous shape when danger threatens. One blessed day, Great-grandad is found dead on the marsh. No-one can explain how his wheelchair came to get there. Clarissa is sent away to school, graduates at university. On her aunt's death, she inherits Frogetts. Clarissa returns for the funeral. Her sinister playmate of childhood awaits ... Pamela Sewell - Prelude: (1991) Bad enough that he had everything his own way during their marriage, now the ghost of Yves has returned to torment Elaine by inflicting piano lessons on their six-year-old daughter. Elaine sees him off by taking an iron poker to the keyboard. |
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Post by Middoth on Jul 9, 2021 16:28:20 GMT
Mary Williams - The Thingummyjig The Thingummyjig similar to Barabajagal. |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 11, 2021 8:31:01 GMT
Eleanor Smith - Whittington's Cat: (Satan's Circus, 1934). Martin, comparatively rich on the death of his father, develops an obsession with pantomime following the impulsive purchase of a set of spangled prints from a curiosity shop. The posters - depicting Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother, Peter Pan, the Demon King, the ugly sisters and Co. - decide him to research a book on a subject in which he has shown no prior interest. Each night he dutifully attends the performance at the Burford Hippodrome until folk begin to wonder about him. On one occasion - and he's lived in dread of such a moment - Dick Whittington's cat singles him out for torment during its customary prowl through the audience. Worse, far worse, whatever it is inside the furry costume follows him home and claims the best bedroom - Martin's - for his own. Dr. Browning, whose daughter, Gwen, is sweet on the shy, awkward loner, grows increasingly concerned for his sanity, as well he might.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 11, 2021 13:08:47 GMT
Nice notes about the "Whittington's Cat" story. I wonder if it's somehow a skit on Le Fanu's "Green Tea."
I may have to get this one for my September commute reading. It's hard to believe that September is starting to creep closer to the corner...
So sorry you have to miss the book fair Dem.
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Aug 3, 2021 8:13:31 GMT
Penelope Lively - Black Dog: (Pack of Cards, 1987). Brenda Case, 54, is haunted by a big black dog in the garden only she can see. Despite the irked "pull yourself together"s of husband John and grown up daughters, Brenda keeps a stick by the back door to fend off the hound should it become adventurous or hungry. Eventually John is forced to concede that a holiday in Marrakesh, redecoration of the house, and lovely floaty Prozac is not the miracle cure he'd hoped. Worse, Brenda's delusion is contagious. Moral; agoraphobia, depression, encroaching old age, and a sense of futility are none of them a joyride.
E. Nesbit - Number 17: (The Strand , June 1910: As by 'Edith Bland'). A crafty commercial traveller relates his terrible experience in a hotel room where three successive male guests took a razor to their throats.
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