First of all I have to address the book count.
I have no idea how it happened but somewhere along the line something seems to have gone awry with the count. According to my tally on the Blog I should have a starting total of 84 unread books waiting patiently for me. However, today I did a head count (several times) and counted 81 on the shelves, this is minus the two I have now finished. Even I can work out that that meant that I had only 83 to begin with. No idea where the little straggler has gone? I have been through my boxes of books to check if there was one that ended up in the wrong pile and the wrong box with the move or something, but no. So.... either I have ghosts or my counting is off.
However much I would like to have a haunted flat I think the most logical conclusion is that I miscounted.
Therefore..... Books to be read: 83
The good news is that this means I am one book less addicted to book buying than I thought I was and I have one less book to read. I am sure I can address both and see them through to a satisfactory conclusion.
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The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories - Richard Dalby (Ed.)
This one took me a long time to finish. Anthologies usually seem to take longer to read anyway I always find. Not sure why as they are all short stories and there should be no real difference in reading 10 short stories of 10 pages to reading one book of 100 pages. And yet.... there seems to be. I have to say that the pages in the Ghost story book are bigger that those of the average pocket I read so perhaps there is something in that? Anyway.... this one is done and dusted. As usual with these anthologies most tales selected are good, some are really good and there was one surprising lowlight for me.
Schalken the Painter - JS Sheridan Le Fanu (highlight)
Partly a good one because it is set in Holland and it characterises the Dutch as "honest and blunt". Also good because the story is dark and involves a blushing bride trying to get away from a relentless husband who is hell bent to claim her for his own.
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Lost Room (highlight)
This one shows that you need to make sure that you remember where you leave things, never trust a servant that is too smiley and that things are not always what they seem. A man leaves his oh so familiar quarters only to have them visited by some unwelcome guests.
Charles Dickens - No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman (highlight)
Really good one!
Right amount of tension in the story. It runs over only a few days but from the start you know things are not going to end well for one of the main characters. There is a tunnel and a misty, foggy world below on the railway lines. Perfect territory for a ghost story where echoes from the past seem to predict the future.
Henry James - The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (highlight)
A nice one about the love and hate that can exist between two sisters when there is a man involved. Even after death one is able to reach out to the others and not in a good way. Would probably be described by a man as "a lot of fuss over some frocks".
Mary E. Braddon - John Granger (highlight)
Finally a man who is loyal to the woman he loves. There are star crossed lovers, a pot of money, false identities and intercontinental travel. A nice little tale of a deserving man trying to do the best for the woman he loves even though she marries someone else and being thwarted by the lowly, weaselly looking cousin.
Theo Gift - Dog or Demon (highlight)
This tale illustrates really well that you should never mistreat an animal. This one has a bite that catches people out beyond the grave as a poor woman and her little newborn find out.
One of the best starts to a ghost story I ever read: "At last she is dead!".
Richard Marsh - A Set of Chessmen (highlight)
When you buy a chess set make sure that you do not say even one bad word about the previous owner. Two men try to play each other at their own game but there is something stopping them.
Bram Stoker - The Judge's House (highlight)
Part of the "will-they-never-learn" type.
A guy goes looking for trouble and surely finds it. Extra scary as there are rats involved..... I hate rats. Even more now than I ever did. Oh... and one very mean hanging judge.
Ambrose Bierce - The Moonlit Road (highlight)
There are 3 people in this one. Each tells his\her perspective of what happened, as far as they know it. In the end you end up with the complete picture. A nice way of telling the entire ghost story. Short and sweet.
Sabine Baring-Gould - H.P. (lowlight)
I am not sure what this one actually wants to be. It certainly is not a ghost story.
It seems to be more of a moralistic tale against modern man and society in general.
Man is trapped in a cave and has a conversation with the "spirit" of some Iron Age man who is seemingly jealous of the world that the modern man lives in. One of those that made me go "Whatever!?" and is more social commentary than ghostly tale.
Bernard Capes - A Ghost-Child (lowlight)
I had to start this one twice as it seemed to be about a girl first and then mentioned a boy. It did not get much better after that. Some vague story about lost love and a little kid that has the soul of her lost lover. Tries to pull the heart strings and fails.
Henry James - The Jolly Corner (lowlight)
A surprising lowlight for me. I have read some of his stories and liked them but this one just seem to witter on. Half of it was descriptions, no essential descriptions of hallways, rooms, feelings and actions. So much so that it made me skim read part of the story because nothing was happening. Also one of the most disappointing ends ever to a story.
Alexander Harvey - the Forbidden Floor (lowlight)
This one claimed to be "pleasantly erotic". If it was then I must have missed it.
Did not care much for the story either. A writer is to write a biography and for some reason seems to need to stay in the house as well. There is the lady of the house who seems to not say much and a son who keeps to his rooms at the other floor (you guessed it the "forbidden one") most times. Then we have the sullen housekeeper and we have our set complete. Some female ghost turns up and tempts our boy up the stairs. We then find that the son was tempted/haunted by the same ghost... Two sentences later all is well and our writer and lady of the house are married as is the son, to a woman who used to come to dinner.. or something - the end. Not a great story, not a great ending... no trace of eroticism for me.
These are not all the tales but they are the ones that came back to me most vividly when thumbing through the book again for this review. The other tales in this anthology are good as well but this selection is purely based on something in the story that tugged at my brain or made me smile.. or wince.. or put another light on.
Title: The Mammoth Book of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories
Author: Richard Dalby (Ed.)
573 pages
Robinson
ISBN nr 1-85487-338-5
Books to be read: 82
Now.... there is another one I have finished but I will have to leave the review for that one for tomorrow. I can reveal that it is a Dean Koontz one. Not one of his standard works and perhaps the better for it.
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