“Haunted or no, there was something so uncanny in the appearance of the old gables, fast rottering to ruin, that even in the crepuscular light and early evening, persons would hurry by it with a shudder, while later at night, many would go a long way round rather than pass its weather-worn walls.” (Quotation pos. 337 “The Phantom Riders” by Ernest R. Suffling)
Theme and Content
A collection of ghost stories set in the Victorian and Edwardian time. Written by different authors, these twenty-one old gothic tales too are multifaceted, but always gripping and spooky. The reader meets phantom riders, haunted houses and haunted rooms, the dead sexton, Mr. Morgan in Australia who always hurries home before it gets dark, and a friendly ghost who helps his descendants and real true stories about eerie appearances with no logical explanation. Mysterious things happen in these nights around Christmas, where the snow is falling and shadows might be not only shadows but also something else.
Conclusion
This selection of traditional ghost stories, written in the poetic language of the olden times, is a perfect read for the dark winter nights around Christmas time.
“This moon made the night extraordinary penetrable and showed me on the lawn a person, diminished by distance, who stood there motionless and as if fascinated, looking up to where I had appeared looking, that is, not so much straight at me as at something that was apparently above me.” (Citation pos. 1100)
Content
The Turn of the Screw
“This moon
made the night extraordinary penetrable and showed me on the lawn a person,
diminished by distance, who stood there motionless and as if fascinated,
looking up to where I had appeared looking, that is, not so much straight at me
as at something that was apparently above me.” (Citation pos. 1100)
A wealthy
Gentleman from London, guardian for his nephew and niece, looks for a governess
and hires a young woman. The two children live in his country home in Essex.
Flora, the little girl, is beautiful, well educated and just loveable and after
just one hour, she and her new governess have become friends. Her elder
brother, Miles, too is a beautiful child, gentle, with good manners. Everything
seems to be absolutely perfect – but things are not always, as they seem to be.
A famous,
celebrated and well-known Gothic novella.
The Romance of Certain Old Cloths
“One of
these days my daughter shall wear them – my rings and my laces and silks.”
(Citation pos. 2364)
Two
sisters, Rosalind and Perdita, fall in love with the same man, Mr. Arthur
Lloyd, who marries Perdita. Perdita dies in childbed. Arthur has to promise her
to keep her chest with all her belongings and beautiful dresses for their
daughter. After some time, Arthur marries Rosalind and she is very curious
about the chest.
An American
Gothic tale.
The Ghostly Rental
“The last
red light of the sunset disengaged itself, as it was about to vanish, and
rested faintly for a moment on the time-silvered front of the old house.”
(Citation pos. 2540)
One grey
December afternoon, the narrator, a young Cambridge student, takes an old road
to shorten his way. He comes to a house in an orchard of old apple-trees and he
is curious about the house. The house is haunted, he is told, but he feels that
there must be more, some secret. So he returns to the place and one day he sees
a mysterious old man enter the house. He has several more meetings with the old
man, Captain Diamond. One day in September, the old man sends for the narrator,
he is dying and has one favor to ask.
Sir Edmund Orme
“From the
first time of her seeing me she had been sure there were things I should not
escape knowing.” (Citation pos. 3224)
It is
season in Brighton and the un-named narrator falls in love with charming
Charlotte Marden. Her mother has a secret and one day something happens and the
narrator shares the secret of Mrs. Marden.
A ghost story
told by an outer narrator and based on a written report of the events by the
inner narrator.
Owen Wingrave
“He talked
about the ‘immeasurable misery’ of wars, and asked me why nations don’t tear to
pieces the governments, the rulers that go in for them.” (Citation pos. 3881)
Young Owen
Wingrave is prepared for a brilliant military career like all his ancestors,
but he prefers Goethe and books to the military life of a soldier. Therefore,
his coach Spencer Coyle, his best friend and family members come together at
Paramore House, the home of the Wingraves, the house with a haunted room, where
no one ever sleeps. Owen is against war, but not a coward as assumed by his
family and is ready to proof it.
The Friends of the Friends
“Certainly they ought to meet, my friend and
he; certainly they would have something in common.” (Citation pos. 4406)
Their
friends think that they should meet: she had been abroad with her aunt when she
sees her father waiting for her in a museum – it was the moment he had dies
back at home in England. He had been a student in Oxford many years ago, when
he saw his mother waiting in his room – it was the day when she had died in
Wales. However, for years all appointments for some reasons failed.
The Real Right Thing
“The first
night our young man was alone in the room it seemed to him that his master and
he were really for the first time together.” (Citation pos. 4895)
Mrs. Doyne
asks George Withermore, a writer and journalist, to write a biography about her
husband Ashton Doyle, who had suddenly died some months ago. Doyne, a well-known
writer and young Withermore had been very close friends. George is allowed to
work in Ashton’s study, to go through his documents and papers to get
information for the biography on his friend. After some time, George has a
negative feeling while writing about Ashton.
The Third Person
“The person
the elder of the pair had seen in her room was not – well, just simply was not
any one in from outside.” (Citation pos. 5244)
Miss Susan
and Miss Amy, second grade cousins, have inherited an old house in Marr and the
will said it should be sold. But they both were so happy about the house; they
liked it and decided to live there together, in the house of their anchestors.
One day they find a small chest full of old papers and they ask the vicar to do
some researches.
A humorous
ghost story.
The Jolly Corner
“For me it
is lived in, for me it is furnished.” (Citation pos. 5869)
Spencer
Brydon left New York with twenty-three and returned thirty-three years later.
Owner of several houses, family property, he had lived in Europe from the
leases and has come back for some renovation and construction works. Just one
of the houses remains as it is with its great, grey, empty rooms.
A story
about alternative futures and possibilities.
Conclusion
A selection of the famous Gothic ghost stories by Henry James. Family secrets and spooky tales about the unknown, the mysterious in life and occurrences that remain inexplicable. A perfect read for dark winter days.
This is Susan Hill at her best, telling characteristically creepy and surprising tales of thwarted ambition, terrifying revenge and supernatural stirrings that will leave you wide-awake long into the night. (Citation book cover)
Content – Back cover
From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the otherwordly in this unforgettable collection of ghost stories from the bestselling author of The Woman in Black.
Theme and Genre
I normally do not read short stories, because I prefer novels. But this collection of ghost stories caught my eyes and definitely did not disappoint me.
Five
gripping stories, written in the best tradition of the well-known Gothic
stories and novels of the 18th and 19th century, kept me
reading, wondering and sharing the thrills with the protagonists. Susan Hill
knows perfectly how to develop stories with hints to supernatural and ghostly
events, offering almost logical explanations to the reader, but each story
finishing with new twists, facts, that are no longer explainable.
Conclusion
For readers that enjoy a really good ghost story, safely nestled up in a wing chair on a dark November evening.
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