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dryasdust's review
4.0
Recommended for fans of M R James:-
* Academics getting into supernatural scrapes during the “long vac.”? - CHECK!
* Hidden inscriptions with coded clues to the whereabouts of a treasure guarded by an ancient evil? - CHECK!
* Spectral wraiths stalking a holidaying Professor on a desolate beach? - CHECK!
* Pagan goings-on deep in the countryside? - CHECK!
With a supporting cast of antiquarian Anglican clergy, superstitious French priests, rich Americans, Oxford dons and creepy old Aunts...
So pour yourself a glass of port, put another log on the common-room fire and settle back in your wing back armchair as you dive into this neglected collection of classic ghost stories.
* Academics getting into supernatural scrapes during the “long vac.”? - CHECK!
* Hidden inscriptions with coded clues to the whereabouts of a treasure guarded by an ancient evil? - CHECK!
* Spectral wraiths stalking a holidaying Professor on a desolate beach? - CHECK!
* Pagan goings-on deep in the countryside? - CHECK!
With a supporting cast of antiquarian Anglican clergy, superstitious French priests, rich Americans, Oxford dons and creepy old Aunts...
So pour yourself a glass of port, put another log on the common-room fire and settle back in your wing back armchair as you dive into this neglected collection of classic ghost stories.
jmtsuruoka's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
magicalrealem's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
nickc777's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
boysmithers's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.25
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
Bedtime reading…
First published in 1929, this was Eleanor Scott’s only collection of weird stories although she wrote several books in other genres. This edition includes all nine of the stories in the original collection, plus two written by “N. Dennett”, now believed to have been a pseudonym of Eleanor Scott, which was itself a pseudonym, the author’s real name being Helen Leys. The introduction is by Aaron Worth, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Boston University, who takes a large part of the credit for inspiring my interest in weird fiction as editor of various collections I’ve read previously, so I’m always pleased to see his name pop up.
In his introduction, Worth tells us that the collection didn’t sell well on its original publication, which he suggests was more to do with poor marketing than the quality of the work. While he points out that many of the stories and the general style are rather derivative of other writers of the period, especially MR James, he suggests that Scott took the weird genre in her own direction towards what would later, quite recently in fact, come to be called “folk horror”. He also says that despite the somewhat derivative quality of some of the stories she makes them her own, and describes them as “intrinsically excellent”.
Even with my limited knowledge of weird and horror fiction, I did indeed find that many of the stories felt quite derivative, not just of James but especially of Arthur Machen, and being forced into this comparison didn’t work to Scott’s benefit, since I feel Machen is significantly better at “folk horror”, even if it didn’t exist as a genre when he was writing. On reading over my notes on each story it appears I also had some issues with her endings, being annoyed sometimes by them being left too ambiguous to be satisfying, and then with other stories lamenting that the ending was too obvious, or too neat, or too well explained. Maybe I was just in a picky, Goldilocks kind of mood! There was only one story where I felt the ending had been exactly the bowl of porridge I’d been looking for.
These criticisms notwithstanding, I enjoyed the collection overall, and there were a few stories that I thought were excellent. Scott was very good at creating an atmosphere of unease and some parts of the stories are genuinely scary, with a nightmarish quality to them. In fact, Scott claimed the stories were based on her own nightmares (although Worth amused me by commenting that “one wonders how much these were influenced by her bedtime reading”). I gave three of the stories 5 stars, one 3 stars, and all the rest either 4 or 4½, so a consistently high standard throughout with no real failures. A good collection rather than a great one for me, but an interesting addition to the BL’s always intriguing Tales of the Weird series.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
First published in 1929, this was Eleanor Scott’s only collection of weird stories although she wrote several books in other genres. This edition includes all nine of the stories in the original collection, plus two written by “N. Dennett”, now believed to have been a pseudonym of Eleanor Scott, which was itself a pseudonym, the author’s real name being Helen Leys. The introduction is by Aaron Worth, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Boston University, who takes a large part of the credit for inspiring my interest in weird fiction as editor of various collections I’ve read previously, so I’m always pleased to see his name pop up.
In his introduction, Worth tells us that the collection didn’t sell well on its original publication, which he suggests was more to do with poor marketing than the quality of the work. While he points out that many of the stories and the general style are rather derivative of other writers of the period, especially MR James, he suggests that Scott took the weird genre in her own direction towards what would later, quite recently in fact, come to be called “folk horror”. He also says that despite the somewhat derivative quality of some of the stories she makes them her own, and describes them as “intrinsically excellent”.
Even with my limited knowledge of weird and horror fiction, I did indeed find that many of the stories felt quite derivative, not just of James but especially of Arthur Machen, and being forced into this comparison didn’t work to Scott’s benefit, since I feel Machen is significantly better at “folk horror”, even if it didn’t exist as a genre when he was writing. On reading over my notes on each story it appears I also had some issues with her endings, being annoyed sometimes by them being left too ambiguous to be satisfying, and then with other stories lamenting that the ending was too obvious, or too neat, or too well explained. Maybe I was just in a picky, Goldilocks kind of mood! There was only one story where I felt the ending had been exactly the bowl of porridge I’d been looking for.
These criticisms notwithstanding, I enjoyed the collection overall, and there were a few stories that I thought were excellent. Scott was very good at creating an atmosphere of unease and some parts of the stories are genuinely scary, with a nightmarish quality to them. In fact, Scott claimed the stories were based on her own nightmares (although Worth amused me by commenting that “one wonders how much these were influenced by her bedtime reading”). I gave three of the stories 5 stars, one 3 stars, and all the rest either 4 or 4½, so a consistently high standard throughout with no real failures. A good collection rather than a great one for me, but an interesting addition to the BL’s always intriguing Tales of the Weird series.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
monsty's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
fourfootedbeasts's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lakserk's review against another edition
4.0
Unexpectedly excellent collection of ghostly and weird stories