Concise Creepiness

One more book finished and it's still February!! It is good that I did finish one as that book count definitely has to come down. So, I better get on with this review and then get on with picking and reading the next book.


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The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror - Edith Nesbit
This is a really good collection of an author I did not really know. When reading the book I found that I did remember reading some of the stories before but not many.
One thing that I really liked about her writing style is that fact that she does not embellish that much. Some writers will put in detailed descriptions that only really seem to serve to fill out the pages, they are very descriptive. Descriptive is not always a bad thing. Charles Dickens does it very well in his books. He has more characters in his novels than most authors I know. Thomas Hardy is also not one to shy away from taking a page or two to describe a field one of his characters wanders around on. The difference is that both these authors have about 500 pages to do this in. They have enough room to not only describe but plot and develop characters as well. Short (ghost) stories do not leave their authors much time to go into extravagant details and lengthy descriptions. The authors need to get to the point, introduce their characters and develop their plot or else they run the risk of only having one paragraph left to do "the big reveal" or get to the point of their story.
Edith Nesbit does not suffer from lengthy describing-ness. She is very economical with her words and describes what she needs to in no more words than necessary. This gives her stories a good pace and makes them flow well. Yet for her conciseness she does not sacrifice the set up of the story, the character or the rounding off of her story lines.
Nesbit does sometimes have a tendency to begin her story as if something has been going on or it starts with a random thought of one of the characters in the story. There is a "sudden" introduction and then the explanation of why and how the character fits into the story.
I enjoyed almost every one of her stories and was only disappointed with a few. I will go through them in a bit more detail now.

Man-size in Marble
One of the finest ones in the book.
A boy, a girl, wedded bliss, a cottage and a curse. The End.
The reveal at the end is great. You know someone has been ghosted but end still makes you go... "aha, that's clever". Nesbit could have so easily gone overboard on it but has kept the story neat and tidy and it only needs a little scare at the end.

Uncle Abraham's Romance
A main character reluctantly drawn out to tell his tale. Strangely enough not a lot of detail in the meetings between ghost and ghosted one and yet it works. You are left to fill in the details of what happened at their meeting yourself and in the last page Nesbit wraps it up nicely. This is what I mean by the economical style of Nesbit - she realises that it is not necessary (and she does not have the pages) to give you all the details of the meetings between the two and instead focuses her attention on the ghostliness of her tale - done and dusted within 3 pages. Excellent work.

From the Dead
Love gained and lost, well denounced really. Of course then regretting the denouncing and trying to make amends, ah alas too late. But the lady can't get enough. Seems almost as if she is trying to advocate tolerance with this one and to think about your actions as they can have unwanted consequences. The man is very harsh on his wife and does not even really mean to be, yet he decides to punish her anyway and pays the price. Can also be read as the story of a woman being punished for her dishonesty.

The Three Drugs
This one had me fooled a bit. I thought this was going to be a simple story of man lured to a house that was haunted or a case of house owner being a ghost. Nope, nope and nope again. It's much weirder than that. The search for mankind for dominance over his fellow man is at the heart of this one. Yet for change, all's well that ends well.

The Violet Car
Sweet story of loss and an invisible horror. You think the two are connected somehow but when it is revealed how it still surprises you. It is a really sweet story about a couple people haunted by the past. A nurse is sent in to try and determine which one of them is the mad(der) one as both husband and wife think it's the other. You really get the feeling that Nesbit liked the characters in this one, she describes them with sympathy and love. They keep their dignity and are both released from what haunts them, in a way.

John Charrington's Wedding
This is the one I remembered reading before.
Still good on the second reading. Quick setting of the scene, the story teller, his friend, the wife to be, the moment you start to worry about the chance of a happy ending, remember that love conquers all - cue wedding.

The Pavilion
There is a bit more detail in this one, it's a bit more focused on the scenery and characters and loses a bit of structural inner strength because of it. She spends some time in trying to set up her characters and defining them (the good and evil) and then tries to build a bit of a story line around the finding of the description of the haunting but all of it leaves me with is the question: does it really need that much detail? Other stories in the book do not have it and are stronger for it. However, still a nice story and centring round a challenge made between friends about spending a night in a creeper infested pavilion (nothing is free from acting as an agent for haunting in stories, don't these people know that?). The ending drifts a bit from the main focus and seems to want to make a point... just not sure which one?

Hurst of Hurstcote
Man not willing to face that death is part of every one's life, let alone the woman he loves. So he tries to cheat death to keep his love alive. Can't end well and doesn't. A bit dark and sombre in language and feel but essentially about love.

In the Dark
Excellent one!
Two friends meet up after a long time apart. One of them hides a terrible secret. The other one is determined to help him. All is well for a while. However, all is not what it seems. The reveal is great and I'll not give it away. Nesbit even manages to give you a little chuckle in the final stages. Read it!

The Head
Things go wrong when one man tries to profiteer from another. Two men enter into a venture for different reasons and in the end both get what they deserve/want.
Seems a bit of along set up to get to the final point. One of those stories that seems to have started out life s one story and then Nesbit changed her mind, decided she had a few more pages left in her notebook and gave it a different angle. Could have been more concise and still worked.
Yet the end is a real kicker... literally.

The Mystery of the Semi-Detached
Just 3 pages of not too much tension for me. Not too much of a scare or ghostliness. More a story of premonition. Almost too short to get properly into and not enough to really hold the attention or to build up a strong connection with any of the characters. She has not even bothered to name them so perhaps that's why the connection is not there.

The Ebony Frame
A painting that fulfills a promise and a fire that ruins them. Love gained and love lost. The main story is okay but it is one that might have profited from a bit less plot development. There is a love interest but I am not sure why it' s there as it is very clear that it is not going anywhere fast. He does not really care about the woman and yet she comes to his house... really.. why? That part of it feels almost more as a distraction to the main event which could have done with some more development.

The Five Senses
In a struggle between science and love a man has to choose between his lovely potential wife or potentially being a great scientist. We all know what he should do but... he doesn't listen. The pursuit of scientific fame nearly costs him his life but not quite. Not so much a ghost story I feel as nobody really does any haunting.

The Shadow
Things moving in the shadows and death inevitably follows. There is a love story of lovers past that is told at a dance and then very handily links into the presence of someone there in the present day.

The Power of Darkness
Two men see off a woman they are both in love with and decide to spend some time together until one of them has to go back home (just skim through the first page and a half, it serves no real purpose). They end up at a museum... well more of a Madame Tussauds with scenes from history instead of celebrities. One of them is afraid of the dark, there's a bet and when all is said and done the good guy wins. Nice little plot though. The story is told through the eyes of one of them and at the end you get the perspective of the other and that explains it all.

The Haunted Inheritance
I found this one a bit too thin and flat a story. A man has to make a choice between inheriting a large sum of money or a haunted house (guess what he wants?). There's a woman involved who turns out to have unexpected links to the inheritance as well. There is some scheming going on but it all sort of does not work completely. The woman is obviously there for a reason, apart from providing the love interest. The man's actions are all set towards getting what he wants but when he does he gives it up. There are no real scares or ghosts in this one and it almost seems like it needs more developing. The characters are sort of fleshed out but are not brought to life well. The fact that the house is haunted is raised but not used to it full effect, there's more Nesbit could have done with is (and has in other stories in this book!). The ending is sort of flat and predictable, a bit to lovey. It seems to lack some of the sharpness and fierce spirit some of the other stories have.

Number 17
Nice funny ghost story that is not really a ghost story. Reluctantly told by the little man by the fire. An exercise in how to get what you want in about half an hour and alienate a few people in the process. A case of mistaken identity.

The Letter in Brown Ink
A father gets stop the past from repeating itself through his son and yet the modern, young dashing hero is not the one who reaps the rewards.

The House of Silence
Crime does not pay! Creepy atmosphere and a man locked in darkness.

The Haunted House
A deviation away from ordinary ghosts or hauntings but not a very successful one for me. Again the story rattles along a bit. There is a case of mistaken identity that leads a loner to go and investigate a haunted house where he gets into trouble (who'd have thought it). The ending seems to have been devised just to get a bit of scariness into the story or because she did not know how to end it story otherwise. Something had to be done to make it more interesting and she came up with a creepy experiment and a mad scientist. There was no room anywhere else to add the scary bit? There are characters there that are good candidates for evil doings but they are neglected (one of them even turns out to be an agent of good in the end). one of the helpers could have probably easily taken them all on and has potential for being "freaky character central" but Nesbit decides not to go there... maybe because she felt it was too obvious?

The Detective
A young man looking for a new career gets more than he bargains for. The story is told through him and feels a bit more distant to you as a reader but still a nice little one with not so much of a scare or chill as just an confirmation of a rumour.

According to the blurb on the back this book is filled with "dark delights to make you fearful" well maybe not so much dark or fearful but they certainly are a good read and it has been a delight to discover more stories from this author!


Title: The Power of Darkness - Tales of Terror
Author: Edith Nesbit
Wordsworth Editions - Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural
255 pages
ISBN 978-1-84022-531-0


Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 71