E. Nesbit - In The Dark/ Powers Of Darkness

[ripper]

I read The Power of Darkness a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. The course of true love rarely runs smoothly in Nesbit's stories and happy endings are rather scarce. I would recommend the Wordsworth collection to anyone who enjoys the traditional style of ghost story, especially if you like your stories to be downbeat.

[Johnlprobert]

The power and vigour of a lot of the writing surprised me (I disagree with JLP that it's genteel, I think it's quite visceral and a lot of it's as near the knuckles as anything from the period),

Good point! Perhaps I meant elegant rather than genteel .

Good stories though, aren't they?

[nathanieltapley]

They are excellent. 'The Three Drugs' actually had a point where it made me jump with surprise, something that's never happened to me otherwise with prose fiction...

[Dr Strange]

Finished this recently, and enjoyed it a lot. Nothing really to add to what's already been said, except I was quite struck by Nesbit's tendency to make her spooks decidedly solid (e.g. Man Size in Marble, John Charrington's Wedding, From The Dead), which is... ummm.... interesting... maybe. And despite being mostly quite miserable, there is actually a couple of upbeat endings in there (won't spoil it by saying which).

[cauldronbrewer]

I agree with everyone who posted above that The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror is an outstanding collection. All I have to add is that there's actually a story missing from the table of contents (both the one listed above and the one in the actual book): "Number 17," a Saki-esque little story that appears between "The Haunted Inheritance" and "The Letter in Brown Ink." It was probably just a mistake, but I like to think of it as the equivalent of a bonus unlisted track on an album.

[dem]

A short break from contemporary misery to wallow in the wretchedness and abject despair of yesteryear. Nesbit really was brilliant at this stuff.

The Violet Car: (Fear, 1910). A young nurse takes a job caring for a "mental case" at Charleston. It's anyone's guess as to which of the aged Eldridge's is her patient; both are haunted by the loss of daughter, Bessie, knocked down and killed by a "horrible" violet car on the Brighton Road. Robert Eldridge has since taken grim vengeance on the driver, which has only served to make his life even less bearable.

The Ebony Frame: (Longman's, Oct. 1891). "Oh how I wish you were a woman and not a picture. Come down! Ah, come down!' Devigne, a Fleet Street hack, is intent on marrying Mildred Mayhew, his long-term surrogate girlfriend, until Aunt Dorcas dies, leaving him a house and two portraits in the attic. The one bears a striking resemblance to himself, the other, a full length depiction of an enigmatic beauty in a black velvet gown. Who were the models, and why are the canvases bound facing one another?

[Dr Strange]

Here's another Nesbit cover, from Penguin (2016). I like it as an image, but for me it's a bit too colourful for Nesbit's gloomy writing.



Contents -

Introduction by Naomi Alderman
Hurst of Hurstcote
The Ebony Frame
Man-Size in Marble
The Violet Car
John Charrington's Wedding
The Shadow
The Five Senses
The Head
In the Dark
From the Dead
The Three Drugs
The Pavilion
The Judgment: A Broadmoor Biography
To the Adventurous

[helrunar]

You're very gracious, Dr Strange. Godawful is one word I'd use for that cover.

H.

[helrunar]

I really liked that Wordsworth cover from back in 2006.

cheers, H.

[Dr Strange]

They did a few of these as a "Penguin Worlds" series, though most of the others are Sci-Fi. I like them... very 70s psychedelia.

[helrunar]

I like the Joanna Russ and John Christopher covers. The leaves on War for the Oaks aren't oak leaves. Perhaps they are not meant to be?

H.

[dem]

In The Dark: (The Strand, Sept. 1908: as by 'E. Bland'). Haldane throttles Sir George Visger, an insufferable prig who cost him his fiancee. Visger's dying taunt is that Haldane shall be unable to dispose of his body, and so it proves. "He always did know things he couldn't know" laments the killer. Despite narrator Winston's best efforts to deliver his friend from despair, it is as though the man is a corpse magnet.

The Mystery of the Semi-Detached: (Grim tales, 1893) A young man arranges to meet his intended wife at Crystal Palace. Having waited ages and, finding her front door open, he wanders in. There's his fiancee, sprawled on the bed, throat cut from ear to ear! A policeman intervenes as he's throwing a fit on the pavement, and taking him for a drunk, locks him up for the night. The following morning he tells his story at court. The kindly officer visits the house to check upon the young lady's health. She's fine. So who was horribly murdered?

[gloomy sundae]

The Power of Darkness: (The Strand, April 1905). Edward mopes over Rose, unaware that she as in love with him as he is her. Vincent, his chum, knows this, but wants Rose for himself. He also knows that Edward fears the dark, which is why he is so keen they visit the Musée Grévin, the astounding Paris wax emporium. As you might expect, the scenes from the Revolution are a bit much, and that's before we descend to the catacombs. Vincent taunts Edward re his phobia. Does the lovely Rose know he's such a "coward"? Edward dutifully accepts a wager from his now unfriend to spend a night there alone ...

Also includes a super bonus Creepy Nun interlude-

"I hope the ghost won't worry you. She's a nun with a bunch of keys and no eyes. Comes and breathes softly on the back of your neck when you're shaving. Then you see her in the glass, and as often as not, you cut your throat."

or, at least, the version in the Wordsworth Edition does. The spectre in The Strand original is but "an old lady in a figured satin dress."

Dem

[dem]

Maurice Greiffenhagen

The Letter in Brown Ink: (Windsor Magazine, Aug. 1899). The note purports to have been written by a young woman imprisoned in the attic of the mentally disturbed Mrs Rawsley's bake house. Mr. Wharburton, a 45 year old widower, and his daredevil son climb to the rescue!

Uncle Abraham's Romance: (Grim Tales, 1893). In his youth, Abraham, who all the girls laughed at on account of his gammy leg, sought sanctuary in the churchyard. There he met a young woman, Susannah Kingsworth; loving, beautiful, a century dead ...

The House of Silence: (Windsor Magazine, March 1906). The master thief is intent on stripping the empty mansion of valuables, until he spots something lying among the overgrown weeds in the courtyard.

Maurice Greiffenhagen

[dem]

A. Michael

The Shadow: (Black and White, 23 Dec. 1905: as Portent of a Shadow). "We had told the story of the phantom coach, and the horribly strange bed, and the woman in the sacque *, and the house in Berkeley Square."

The girls prevail upon Miss Eastwick, the super taciturn housekeeper, to share a true ghost story. She reluctantly obliges, recalls the tragedy that befell the two people she most loved shortly after they wed. How can a brand new house be haunted? Will Miss Eastwick never see the last of the terrible shadow?

Hurst of Hurstcote: (Temple Bar, June 1893). Hurst, a reformed Black Magician, loves his wife too well. Before they married, he put Mabel under a hypnotic spell, forbidding her soul to depart the body until after his own death. It seems Hurst refused to consider that Mabel might preceded him to the grave. Another thoroughly miserable offering, if something of a non-putrid Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Borderline necrophilia, too, if we're in generous mood.

* Feels like I should know this "woman in the sacque"? Can anyone identify her?