Thread: Ghost stories and tales of the supernatural Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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If you really want to spook yourself out, you can't do better (IMO) than read the short stories of M.R. James. Original and gripping, they have to be the best of the genre. Some of his stories are online, if you're interested.
How about you? Have you read any particularly good ghost stories (from any era or culture) you'd recommend? Pull up a chair, ignore that strange creaking from the empty room next door, and tell us about them...
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
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Since I mentioned it a bit ago in the Styx, I would like to recommend the short story Selectra Six Ten. by Avram Davidson, written in the '50s.
It poses as a one-way correspondence in Davidson's voice, aimed at the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, in which he is apparently blowing off a deadline while hinting around at dalliances with other publications. He is using a newfangled electric typewriter, and the letters are full of strikeouts and typos-- and every once in a while a screed of all-cap, threatening-sounding pronouncements runs on for a line or two, which Davidson breezily dismisses as equipment malfunction.
It seems, as the notes progress, that Davidson has missed a deadline of intergalactic proportions, and something calling him a TREACHEROUS NON CHITINOUS BIPED is calling in accounts, using the typewriter to get his attention. It has one of the creepiest endings of any story I have ever read, and still is one of my favorites.
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on
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I'd agree with Ariel. There are people before and since who have written excellent spooky stories, but M. R. James is consistently the master.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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There are stories by M.R.James that I seriously won't read if I'm home alone at night. I've never read anyone who can use mere words to create a feeling of skin-crawling unease better than James can. I find Lost Hearts one of the most disturbing and Rats is one of those stories that has you shouting "Don't open the door!" as the protagonist nervously approaches the room at the end of the corridor. (There are no rats in the story, by the way. Just something far worse that sounds like rats...)
With James it's all about building the atmosphere. A favourite story of mine is Canon Alberic's Scrapbook, in which all is sunny and bright until we meet a nervous sacristan, and hear a sound like echoing laughter coming from the church tower. From that point on, you know nothing good will come of flicking through the book that contains the engraving of King Solomon confronting ... well, I won't spoil it.
But one of the greatest is surely the one by the other James - Henry. The novella The Turn of the Screw is just terrifying. The worst part is, you're never quite sure whether the apparitions are real, or whether the governess is going mad. *Shudder*
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on
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Oh yes. I heard Britten's opera of The Turn of the Screw on the radio a little while ago- just heard it, didn't see it- and even that managed to scare me.
[ 01. November 2012, 11:34: Message edited by: Albertus ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
Oh yes. I heard Britten's opera of The Turn of the Screw on the radio a little while ago- just heard it, didn't see it- and even that managed to scare me.
Yes, but that could be Britten's fault. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Actually, I like a lot of Britten, but I've never seen The Turn of the Screw. My favourite adaptation of the story is the film The Innocents - very, very creepy.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Yes – that’s seriously scary. One of my other favourite M.R. James stories is "The Mezzotint" - that one with the picture that changes. Though "Whistle and I'll Come to You" with the Thing in the bedclothes is enough to be going on with, or the one about the vanishing room...
One of the most frightening ghost stories I ever read is one that still lingers with me years later. I don't remember who wrote it, or much of the details, only that it was about someone who got the chance to have three wishes granted, and with their first wish, they wished that the person they loved, who had died a while ago, could come back to life again.
There was then a quite horrible moment as something shuffled up the path towards the house, followed by silence, and then a heavy, leaden, thunderous knocking at the front door, which started to splinter...
Needless to say the person's next two wishes were that this wasn't happening and that they'd never been granted three wishes!
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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Sounds like the classic The Monkey's Paw by W.W.Jacobs, Ariel.
Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on
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I love M.R. James' ghost stories, my favorite is 'The Residence at Whitminster'
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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I'll have to look that one up, Kitten ... I've either forgotten it, or I've repressed the memory.
Has anyone read E.F.Benson's ghost stories? Rather more genteel than James, and usually not as atmospheric, but still very good. He does a very nice line in monstrous creatures (e.g. in And No Bird Sings) and vampire women (e.g. The Room in the Tower. Benson was as gay as a daisy in May - do the math.)
Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I would like to recommend the short story Selectra Six Ten. by Avram Davidson, written in the '50s.
That sounds excellent; am definitely going to check that one out.
Re: Whistle and I'll Come To You. I'd seen both adaptations on tv and found them atmospheric, but not scary, until I saw the Michael Horden version on a big screen. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
The first chapter of Vampyr by Simon Clarke is scary (the rest of the book is good in patches). A young woman staying in an old hotel near Whitby finds an episode of a ghost hunting (think Derek Acorah) programme on video in her room and watches it. The episode is based in the same hotel. A picture appears from the point of view of a person walking slowly down a corridor that looks suspiciously familiar and stops in front of the room in which she is staying. At the same time she can hear footsteps come to the door, the shadow of a pair of feet in the gap underneath, a knock and then silence....
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Sounds like the classic The Monkey's Paw by W.W.Jacobs, Ariel.
Yes, I think that's it! Thanks for that.
Re "Whistle and I'll Come To You", I couldn't bring myself to watch it on TV after reading the short story. So no idea whether it translated well or not.
After M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood is probably my second favourite supernatural-story writer. His short stories aren't all frightening, but the Haunted Island was one I was glad to put down.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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I've just refreshed my memory on The Residence at Whitminster - But what an odd story: no real conclusion, just an undefined threat standing forever in the attic of the house. Several nasty moments in the course of the story, though.
The Michael Horden tv version of O Whistle is excellent. He plays the slightly dotty professor perfectly, and the production brings out the humour that adaptations of James so often miss. (The humour highlights the horror when it comes.) I didn't like the recent version with John Hurt at all. Although it had a good few scary moments, it rewrote the story from top to bottom, and - cardinal sin - gave an explanation of the whatever-it-was. James's stories rarely go very far with explanations, and are better for it.
I've liked the few Blackwood stories I've read. But (apologies to Cthulhu if he's still around) I've never liked Lovecraft, or found his stories at all scary.
Posted by Mary LA (# 17040) on
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Browsing through a review copy of Alasdair Wickham's The Dead Roam the Earth: True Stories of the Paranormal from Around the World and can't get this little anecdote out of my head:
"In the early 2000s, a little girl began appearing to employees in a call centre in Cebu City. The firm had just moved into a converted warehouse. It was a large space and, as in all call centres, people worked in close proximity, gathered in large open-plan offices, but separated into individual units by their phones and computer. It was when individuals were alone with their thoughts that the little girl came.
First she appeared as a reflection in a female employee's computer monitor, wearing the kind of smart dress Filipino girls put on for Sundays. A few days later a male employee was standing in the men's toilets when in the mirror he saw the cubicle door behind him swing slowly open, to show a little girl sitting on the toilet, looking at him. He closed his eyes and started praying; when he looked again, the girl was right in front of him, chanting the prayer along with him. He had a horrifying impression that her skin was starting to fall away from her flesh before he fled in terror."
Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on
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Second the praise for M.R. James, Blackwood, and E.F. Benson. H.R. Wakefield, whose stories are nasty little pearls of misanthropy, is also quite good.
Ash-Tree Press, a small publisher operating out of Canada, issues reprint editions of all sorts of Victorian & Edwardian ghost stories. Not cheap (around US $50 per slim volume), but many of them are worthwhile, and you won't find most of this stuff elsewhere. Occasionally a bit too genteel, but mostly very good.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Arthur Machen yet. Unparalleled in atmosphere, that one. And "The Great God Pan" is a horrific classic.
Posted by ken (# 2460) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
It seems, as the notes progress, that Davidson has missed a deadline of intergalactic proportions, and something calling him a TREACHEROUS NON CHITINOUS BIPED is calling in accounts, using the typewriter to get his attention.
Yes! That's one of "the one about" stories. When you are in a bar in a convention and chatting to someone abotu this really great story and you can't remember who wrote it or what its about and you say "Oh, you know, the one about..." and everyone knows which story you mean because it was so good it defined itself by the trope and defined the trope by itself.
The one about the subweay train that got lost. The one about the man staying in a hotel and there is an ancient sort of flute and a boy on the beach. The one about the passenger on the train who tells you this story about the shapeshifting monster in Canada. The one about the mentally disabled man who gets intelligent and then gets stupid again. The one about the world with all those suns and the stars come out. The one about this small town where every year they have a lottery and no-one wants to win. The one about the asteroid that crashed into a cornfield. The one about the little boy and when he was angry everything he thought about happened. The one about the man who is in a psychiatrists office and hallucinating tht he is on a wrecked spaceship and the doctor offers him a pill that will let him see things as they really are. The one about the garden at the end of time and the buds of the flowers are all the time that's left. The one about the crossword. The one about the man's dead wife whose image is still in the glass window.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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You're just trying to get us to guess those stories, aren't you, ken?
Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on
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I reckon I could guess some of them, but quite a few of them didn't ring a bell at all!
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by ken:
[QUOTE]The one about this small town where every year they have a lottery and no-one wants to win.
... would be Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Whic I've never read. But her novel The Haunting of Hill House was made into the film The Haunting, which is one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. (The black & white version, not the ghastly remake with Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones. What was Neeson thinking?)
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
What was Neeson thinking?)
He was thinking "I still got one more movie left on that three-movie deal I signed..."
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
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For supernatural novels, I highly recommend:
'The Ghost Writer' by John Harwood, for multi-layered edge-of-the-seat suspense.
'The Woman in Black' by Susan Hill. There are notable theatrical and screen adaptations of this but the book remains icily frightening. I've read it about five times now and I still find myself saying 'don't try to open that door!'
When I was young I borrowed 'The Haunting' by Margaret Mahy from the library more than once and now want to get a copy to own.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
What was Neeson thinking?)
He was thinking "I still got one more movie left on that three-movie deal I signed..."
He'd have been better off picking up the script of "Two hours I spent watching paint dry."
Huntress, my first exposure to The Woman in Black was a tv version - I think it must have been in the early 80s. Boy, was it scary! Later, I went to see the stage version in London - hearing a whole theatre full of people scream (including the large, straight, butch friend I was with) is quite an experience. After that, I'm afraid I found the book a bit tame when I eventually read it. Still pretty good though.
Not long ago, I read Michelle Paver's Dark Matter. Very scary, and very good. I read about the last 50 pages at one sitting (unusual for me), late one night, and then went to sleep with the light on.
Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on
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I'm sure M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood are very good. My boyfriend loves them, you all seem to think they're fab, but I WILL NEVER READ THEM. I'm just not good with ghost stories!
The creepiest book I read recently (you may laugh, but it scared me) was "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. I had to sleep with the light on for two nights after reading it. Brr!
Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on
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'The End of the Corridor' by Rudyard Kipling. It starts off as a boys-own Injah yarn, with three civil servants passing the time, but it soon becomes clear that something very horrible is happening in the bungalow where they are all staying. And the ending is really disturbing ... what did the dead man see?
I also like 'The shadow in the corner' by Mary Braddon. It's not the scariest ghost story ever, but it puts a ghostly finger on the exploitation of servants by their masters and on the dark corners of the home.
I second the recommendation of Arthur Machen, and would add Sheridan Lefanu. 'The House in Aungier Street' is a fantastic haunted house story.
Haven't read 'Dark Matter' but I found Michelle Paver's 'Chronicles of Ancient Darkness' books seriously scary. Gripping, but couldn't sleep afterwards.
[ 06. November 2012, 10:16: Message edited by: Niminypiminy ]
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Oh yes – Kipling wrote some good ones! The ones I remember particularly are one about a haunted villa in the mountains which was fine by day, just not at night; and the one where the officer came back from the dead to dance at the ball with his fiancée.
Blackwood also had a couple of stories on the theme of someone embarking on a romance with someone who subsequently turns out to be dead. There's a great one on a portrait that comes alive, and another on a young man who meets a mysterious girl by moonlight...
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
The creepiest book I read recently (you may laugh, but it scared me) was "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. I had to sleep with the light on for two nights after reading it. Brr!
I thought it was an odd book. I didn't like the narrator/protagonist. But large parts of it were very effective - the slow corrosion of the family by whatever it is that's in the house was quite gripping. I felt particularly sorry for the mother of the family.
I've never read any Machen or Kipling. I must try Machen (free!) on my Kindle. I've remembered that my favourite Blackwood story was a disturbing little number about a man who, taking a hotel room, begins to feel a depressing influence in it. The dénoument is quite shocking.
Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Mary LA:
Browsing through a review copy of Alasdair Wickham's The Dead Roam the Earth: True Stories of the Paranormal from Around the World and can't get this little anecdote out of my head:
"In the early 2000s, a little girl began appearing to employees in a call centre in Cebu City. The firm had just moved into a converted warehouse. It was a large space and, as in all call centres, people worked in close proximity, gathered in large open-plan offices, but separated into individual units by their phones and computer. It was when individuals were alone with their thoughts that the little girl came.
First she appeared as a reflection in a female employee's computer monitor, wearing the kind of smart dress Filipino girls put on for Sundays. A few days later a male employee was standing in the men's toilets when in the mirror he saw the cubicle door behind him swing slowly open, to show a little girl sitting on the toilet, looking at him. He closed his eyes and started praying; when he looked again, the girl was right in front of him, chanting the prayer along with him. He had a horrifying impression that her skin was starting to fall away from her flesh before he fled in terror."
Dear God, that's terrifying!
I love this kind of stuff, but I have to be careful what I take in. For some reason, it can be thoroughly enjoyable and then one night, late at night, I won't be able to get it out of my head and it'll be so creepy... Especially when I'm hypo-manic.
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
The creepiest book I read recently (you may laugh, but it scared me) was "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. I had to sleep with the light on for two nights after reading it. Brr!
I thought it was an odd book. I didn't like the narrator/protagonist. But large parts of it were very effective - the slow corrosion of the family by whatever it is that's in the house was quite gripping. I felt particularly sorry for the mother of the family.
I'd agree with both of these views, I thought the book was very good and built up the atmosphere and the characters well (especially the house as a 'character'). I also wasn't keen on the protagonist, as a person, but felt he was well-constructed to inspire the feelings in me which he did. It had some similarities to The Turn of the Screw in whether events were happening due to supernatural, or psychological causes.
A short stories recommendation: 'The Real Opera Ghost and Other Stories' by Gaston Leroux, edited by Peter Haining. These are not all ghost stories; others deal with the macabre and grotesque but they're chillingly great, set during the Belle Epoque and originally published in obscure French journals and later, some American ones.
Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Huntress:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
The creepiest book I read recently (you may laugh, but it scared me) was "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. I had to sleep with the light on for two nights after reading it. Brr!
I thought it was an odd book. I didn't like the narrator/protagonist. But large parts of it were very effective - the slow corrosion of the family by whatever it is that's in the house was quite gripping. I felt particularly sorry for the mother of the family.
I'd agree with both of these views, I thought the book was very good and built up the atmosphere and the characters well (especially the house as a 'character'). I also wasn't keen on the protagonist, as a person, but felt he was well-constructed to inspire the feelings in me which he did. It had some similarities to The Turn of the Screw in whether events were happening due to supernatural, or psychological causes.
Yes - the narrator was quite unlikeable, and possibly untrustworthy... I lkijed the way we were left with a number of interpretations in the trial at the end...
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on
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The one that left me sleeping with the lights on was Philippa Gregory's The Little House - it's a psychological thriller but it affected me far worse than any of the other ghost stories, including Edgar Allan Poe, although the bricking up in a cellar one was pretty horrible.
[ 08. November 2012, 10:55: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]
Posted by Mary LA (# 17040) on
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Churchgeek I found that extract I quoted so creepy that I felt sheepish about having put it up. Other Internet commenters have remarked that it has elements of Third World call centres as ghost hyperconnections, the paedophile culture (a small girl in a men's toilet) and the echoing of prayer as a kind of diabolic mimicry, flesh-eating monsters. Layers of taboo or phobic material.
It is interesting to remember that Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories were once as topical and disconcerting -- the banshee, a staple of country house hauntings had to do with
stories from colonial India and a screaming Bengali woman in a shawl who would appear and terrify retired colonels after dinner.
A friend of mine working in Kinshasa in the Congo said there are rumours of a haunted derelict hotel near the river with an upstairs bedroom -- guests who open the wardrobe at 6pm in the evening find the small body of a dead child curled up inside like a foetus. She says the story is apocryphal, the hotel closed in the early '80s, and yet the rumours persist because they express a kind of deeply felt cultural trauma in central Africa.
And I reread Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger again a few months ago -- children and animals remain staples of the ghost narrative. The scene in which the friendly old dog suddenly attacks a child is edgy stuff. Echoes too of Henry James all the way through, the hysterical governess and frightened children in Turn of the Screw.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Mary LA:
Churchgeek I found that extract I quoted so creepy that I felt sheepish about having put it up.
It was good though. I'd like to see the rest of the book.
CK - Philippa Gregory has a good line in creepy, for someone who writes historical novels. I don't know if you've read The Wise Woman? It's about a girl who goes to work as a servant in a castle, falls in love with the (married) lord, and resorting out of desperation to magic to try to get her way, creates some little wax dolls.
Reality starts to reflect what she does to the little wax dolls. After the lord's wife has a miscarriage and gives birth not to a baby, but, horribly, to a shapeless, malformed mess of candlewax, the heroine decides to have nothing more to do with the dolls and buries them at some distance from the castle. Daily life goes on and things get back to normal, until one of the servants remarks some days later that he saw the oddest thing recently: some little wax dolls which were grimy with earth, walking slowly along in the direction of the castle...
Posted by Amos (# 44) on
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Nobody's yet mentioned Augustus Hare; I remember reading something of his years ago that scared me silly. Something about something outside trying to get in. That, in the words of the poet Keats is all I know and all I need to know. It was very horribly described.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
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On the Residence at Whitminster, Adeodatus said: quote:
But what an odd story: no real conclusion, just an undefined threat standing forever in the attic of the house.
Well, this is what happens when people behave sensibly in ghost stories. "Don't do that! It's dangerous!" "Oh, OK, I won't then". [Nothing happens]. Although it does leave you wondering what will happen when someone comes along and decides NOT to be sensible.
'Mr Poynter's Diary' was the M R James story that had me too scared to turn out the light.
I liked Dark Matter too, but it's really put me off holidaying in the Arctic... perhaps 'like' is the wrong word. It scared the bejazus out of me, anyway.
There are some rather fine short stories in Ash Tree Press's collections, eg 'Shadows and Silence'.
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
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Ariel - The Wise Woman is indeed extremely creepy and better written, IMHO, than Ms Gregory's more recent works.
Jane R - My current favourites from Ash Tree Press are the stories of Margery Lawrence, which suck me in and are well-layered. I wish I had sufficient funds to buy a lot of their publications!
Book recommendation: The Virago Book of Ghost Stories edited by Richard Dalby; a book of ghost stories written by female authors, some of whom I had never heard of / read any supernatural fiction by, before. My first experience of reading Margery Lawrence was 'The Haunted Saucepan' which is included in that anthology. I'm now on the look out for the collected Margaret Irwin ghost stories; 'The Book' is included in the Virago tome and is soooooo creepy and the chilling 'The Earlier Service' crops up in some other collections.
[ 11. November 2012, 11:15: Message edited by: Huntress ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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A radio version of The Woman in Black starts tonight on Radio 4Extra, and BBC iplayer. Live broadcasts are tonight at 6.30pm, repeated at 00.30am Thursday. iplayer should be available throughout the week.
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
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Thank you for posting that Adeodatus, I'll be sure to listen on Iplayer during daylight hours!
Spooky book recommendation:
I've just finished reading The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones. It's a novel (though not a very long one). The setting is a remote country house - 'Sterne' - in the early 20th century on the day of Emerald Torrington's 21st birthday. Her (slightly dysfunctional) family are facing losing their home and, amidst these worries, domestic chaos, arriving guests and various personal misunderstandings, the tension is ramped up by the time the celebration is due to begin. The plans begin to fall apart, however, because a train has crashed nearby and the Railway requests that the survivors be accommodated at Sterne. Most are third class, and are shut away in the morning room. One is a first class passenger, who is invited to dine with the family.
I liked how many of the characters were drawn and the evolution of their behaviour during the night's events. The book kept surprising me and it managed to combine eeriness and sinister overtones with comedic moments which felt natural, because the characters (and animals) were believable constructs.
Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on
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I'm a huge fan of Avram Davidson.
Not a ghost story exactly, but The Golem by Avram Davidson is available online.
He wrote "Peregrine Primus" the story of the bastard son of the last pagan king of lower middle europe, and "The Phoenix and The Mirror" about Vergil Magus, a medieval sorcerer.
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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I've no idea who wrote it, but the scariest ghost story I've ever come across was made into a Radio 4 play - a group of people meet at a country cottage which has recently been renovated for Christmas celebrations. Two hundred years before, however, the inhabitants of that cottage starved to death because of the cruelty of the local land owner - and although the house is full of food, the present day visitors suffer the same fate.
Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on
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They're not ghost stories but several Agatha Christie books have terrified me, the most recent being Destination Unknown. I think Murder In Mesopotamia and The Man In The Brown Suit were the scariest though.
Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
A radio version of The Woman in Black starts tonight on Radio 4Extra, and BBC iplayer. Live broadcasts are tonight at 6.30pm, repeated at 00.30am Thursday. iplayer should be available throughout the week.
NOW he tells me! I'm actually listening to it as an audiobook from Audible, having paired it with The Woman in White (read by Gabriel Woolf - what a voice!) Now I'm concerned it may be too scary for me (ulp!)
Mrs. S, looking over her shoulder with wild surmise ...
Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on
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A long time favorite of mine is Carnacki, The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson. I find the book to be deliciously scary.
When my kids were younger I offered to read them a story. They poo pooed me, but I got them to let me read a little. When the story was finished they were scared silly.
The book is certainly the right price now.
Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on
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When I was ten and my sister eight I remember the Clifton House Mystery scaring her shitless. I still only have to hum the little military tune from the music box...
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Tortuf:
A long time favorite of mine is Carnacki, The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson. I find the book to be deliciously scary.
Oh yes! That was a really good read - The Hog, and the horse's hoof, and the ship at sea - really imaginative stories. I haven't read those in years but they're still vivid memories.
Thanks for the prompt - will get my copy off the shelf when I get home.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
NOW he tells me! I'm actually listening to it as an audiobook from Audible, having paired it with The Woman in White (read by Gabriel Woolf - what a voice!) Now I'm concerned it may be too scary for me (ulp!)
Mrs. S, looking over her shoulder with wild surmise ...
The radio production is dramatised in 4 parts. The other evening was part one, and it covered happening till just after the funeral. You know, the funeral attended by a solitary pale-faced woman in a black dress ...
It's still on iplayer. I've been assuming it'll be a weekly thing. It's got a couple of very good voices - John Woodvine as the older Arthur Kipps and Robert Glenister as the younger.
But Gabriel Woolf! I must hear that. Woolf is famous for his two voice roles in Doctor Who - the first as the Egyptian god Sutekh ("All life is my enemy. All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh!"). The second as ... well ... the Devil, I suppose, in The Impossible Planet ("Don't turn around ... I'm right behind you ... I could touch you ..."). A superlatively creepy voice.
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
When I was ten and my sister eight I remember the Clifton House Mystery scaring her shitless. I still only have to hum the little military tune from the music box...
After reading your post I discovered the series on the internet's best-known video website and watched it all during this afternoon / evening and really enjoyed it for the ghostly happenings, the history lesson and also seeing Peter Sallis as the psychic phenomena expert.
A supernatural stories recommendation (although a clergy friend would advise me to use the term 'transcendental' instead, but that's by the way): Star Over Bethlehem and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (yes, that Agatha Christie). The website linked to contains synopses of each of the stories, including the 'punchline' so don't scroll down to them if you don't want spoilers!!
I read these stories in an AC 'Complete Short Stories' book (though they are available to buy in their own volume) at Christmas two years ago when recovering from an operation and needing to rest up. They really moved me and, although sometimes perceived as being for children because of a couple of lighter pieces and poems, they have definite adult themes and messages.
I think my favourite is 'Promotion in the Highest' which is set in the then 'future': New Year's Eve 2000. A vicar wants to have the 15th century rood screen in his church restored - it is so damaged that the saints painted on it have all but disappeared. Meanwhile, a strange group of people wearing odd robes are spotting walking along the road: including a young woman with a wheel and a man carrying a gridiron....
Very moving is 'The Island' which imagines part of the life lived by Mary and St John in the years following the events of the first Easter.
[ 15. November 2012, 23:50: Message edited by: Huntress ]
Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
NOW he tells me! I'm actually listening to it as an audiobook from Audible, having paired it with The Woman in White (read by Gabriel Woolf - what a voice!) Now I'm concerned it may be too scary for me (ulp!)
Mrs. S, looking over her shoulder with wild surmise ...
The radio production is dramatised in 4 parts. The other evening was part one, and it covered happening till just after the funeral. You know, the funeral attended by a solitary pale-faced woman in a black dress ...
It's still on iplayer. I've been assuming it'll be a weekly thing. It's got a couple of very good voices - John Woodvine as the older Arthur Kipps and Robert Glenister as the younger.
But Gabriel Woolf! I must hear that. Woolf is famous for his two voice roles in Doctor Who - the first as the Egyptian god Sutekh ("All life is my enemy. All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh!"). The second as ... well ... the Devil, I suppose, in The Impossible Planet ("Don't turn around ... I'm right behind you ... I could touch you ..."). A superlatively creepy voice.
Must get those from the iPlayer - thanks Adeodatus!
GW was a superb Narrator, and St. John, in the BBC version's of Dorothy L. Sayers' 'Man Born to be King' series; also Detective Inspector Parker to Ian Carmichael's Lord Peter Wimsey in the BBC adaptations of those stories, which were just brilliantly done - I know the stories almost by heart but the plays were so cleverly put together that you never noticed the joins.
/tangent alert/GW has one of those voices that don't come between you and the story, but is just lovely to listen to. IMHO Simon Russell Beale has a fab voice too - but possibly not for St. John? /tangent over!/
Mrs. S, thinking the BBC really did do some excellent stuff
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
Oops! It turns out that The Woman in Black is being aired daily, not weekly - so the final episode is this evening at 18.30. But all four episodes should be on iplayer for a week after tonight. I think I'll treat myself to all four at once sometime over the weekend.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
:
Agatha Christie did write some supernatural stories for adults too - I remember being terrorised by the cover of my parents' copy of 'The Hound of Death and Other Stories' when I was little. And by (some of) the stories themselves when I was old enough to read them. The full-length mystery story 'The Pale Horse' also has a supernatural theme.
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
Agatha Christie did write some supernatural stories for adults too - I remember being terrorised by the cover of my parents' copy of 'The Hound of Death and Other Stories' when I was little. And by (some of) the stories themselves when I was old enough to read them. The full-length mystery story 'The Pale Horse' also has a supernatural theme.
Ah yes, they'd briefly slipped my mind whilst I was thinking of the religious ones, they are really good too - the one about the medium and the mysterious client was updated for Radio 4 a few years ago. The stories in 'The Mysterious Mr Quin' are also supernatural, truly weird.
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
:
Gracious! Gabriel Woolf played Sutekh and Chief Inspector Parker? I shall never listen to the Lord Peter Wimsey stories the same way again!
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Not a lot of people know this but E. Nesbit also wrote ghost stories. They're not as sophisticated as some, but some of them still pack a bit of a punch.
There was a lot of good ghost and supernatural fiction around in the Victorian era: it seems to be a genre that's altogether less popular these days. Marie Corelli's "The Sorrows of Satan" is a pretty good novel in which the narrator, Geoffrey Tempest, is befriended by a very charming, very handsome, worldly man who helps him to achieve anything he wants. The clues are there early on in the novel, but the bit where Tempest finally realizes the real nature of the "man" who's been his companion is quite spine-chilling - well, I found it so, anyway.
[ 16. November 2012, 18:02: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
:
Wordsworth publishes the ghost stories of quite a few 19th and early 20th century authors and they seem to be easily available in the county library system. I've so far read 'Uncanny Stories' by May Sinclair and 'The Bell in the Fog' by Gertrude Atherton.
Posted by AdamPater (# 4431) on
:
I have never been able to track down a ghost story that my teacher read to the class in second grade. Had nightmares for a week.
I think it was called something like "The Blue Light". Something about two boys going to a church grave-yard at midnight on a dare to see the eponymous light, which would show or reflect the face of the next local person to die. One boy is foolhardy enough to see his own face and dies two days later.
I guess it's a common trope - shades of The Ring - but does it ring any bells?
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Huntress:
Wordsworth publishes the ghost stories of quite a few 19th and early 20th century authors and they seem to be easily available in the county library system. I've so far read 'Uncanny Stories' by May Sinclair and 'The Bell in the Fog' by Gertrude Atherton.
Brilliant, thanks for that, I'm bookmarking it. I see they even have Mrs Gaskell, too.
[ 17. November 2012, 09:27: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by AdamPater:
I have never been able to track down a ghost story that my teacher read to the class in second grade. Had nightmares for a week.
I think it was called something like "The Blue Light". Something about two boys going to a church grave-yard at midnight on a dare to see the eponymous light, which would show or reflect the face of the next local person to die. One boy is foolhardy enough to see his own face and dies two days later.
I guess it's a common trope - shades of The Ring - but does it ring any bells?
That sounds vaguely familiar. When I was a (strange, macabre) kid I read a lot of children's ghost and horror stories. They would've been published by Pan or Puffin or some-such. You could try looking up those sort of sources.
For some reason, when I read you post, a similar story popped into my head. A girl, I think, is dared to go to a haunted meadow at night. There's a rhyme that goes "He who walks on moonlit meadow / Shall live no longer than his shadow." Obviously, the children think, this is nonsense. But when the girl is walking home from the meadow, in full moonlight, she fails to notice that she no longer has a shadow ....
Posted by Huntress (# 2595) on
:
Did anyone else read Armada Ghost Books? There were at least 12 I think and the paperbacks had quite scary cover illustrations. They were aimed at children but I still reread mine.
Whilst I'm thinking back to children's literature; Moondial, both the book and the BBC TV series, was one of my favourites.
[ 17. November 2012, 12:06: Message edited by: Huntress ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
Armada! That was the series of children's ghost/horror stories I was trying to think of. I don't think I ever had them: I borrowed them from the school library.
I'm sure one of them included E.F.Benson's The Bus Conductor - a classic vignette, which if someone had come up with it now would have become an urban legend.
Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Mary LA:
Churchgeek I found that extract I quoted so creepy that I felt sheepish about having put it up. Other Internet commenters have remarked that it has elements of Third World call centres as ghost hyperconnections, the paedophile culture (a small girl in a men's toilet) and the echoing of prayer as a kind of diabolic mimicry, flesh-eating monsters. Layers of taboo or phobic material.
It is interesting to remember that Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories were once as topical and disconcerting -- the banshee, a staple of country house hauntings had to do with
stories from colonial India and a screaming Bengali woman in a shawl who would appear and terrify retired colonels after dinner.
A friend of mine working in Kinshasa in the Congo said there are rumours of a haunted derelict hotel near the river with an upstairs bedroom -- guests who open the wardrobe at 6pm in the evening find the small body of a dead child curled up inside like a foetus. She says the story is apocryphal, the hotel closed in the early '80s, and yet the rumours persist because they express a kind of deeply felt cultural trauma in central Africa.
And I reread Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger again a few months ago -- children and animals remain staples of the ghost narrative. The scene in which the friendly old dog suddenly attacks a child is edgy stuff. Echoes too of Henry James all the way through, the hysterical governess and frightened children in Turn of the Screw.
That is really fascinating. And I think it makes a lot of sense. I wonder how much scholarly attention has been given to that sort of analysis?
(And I think the echoing prayer was the bit that scared me the most - since prayer is my go-to when I'm scared. It's basically saying, "Your prayers can't save you now." Which is really terrifying. Now you make me curious - when that element exists in a ghost tale, especially the ones that purport to be "true" (v. the ones scripted for Hollywood, which knows that trope well), how often is it a commentary on some situation such as colonialism or some similar exploitation?)
Posted by Flossymole (# 17339) on
:
Posted by Eigon
quote:
I've no idea who wrote it, but the scariest ghost story I've ever come across was made into a Radio 4 play - a group of people meet at a country cottage which has recently been renovated for Christmas celebrations. Two hundred years before, however, the inhabitants of that cottage starved to death because of the cruelty of the local land owner - and although the house is full of food, the present day visitors suffer the same fate.
It's called 'The Exorcism' and is by Don Taylor. It's about the enclosures. We did it at our local amdram theatre one Christmas. An excellent modern morality play (Samuel French hold the performing rights)
Margaret Oliphant wrote some quietly atmospheric Victorian Scottish ghost stories eg 'The Window' and 'The Open Door'. Has anyone read my favourite - 'Marsyas in Flanders' by Vernon Lee - another model of atmospheric story-telling? I wish I could find some more of his works.
Posted by Egeria (# 4517) on
:
M.R. James stands alone--and he's especially effective for readers who happen to be historians, archaeologists, or museum curators! I can still remember my first James story--"the Mezzotint"--read in a quiet college library, and how it made my flesh creep.
I've read two stories by Vernon Lee, both set in Italy. Excellent, but not quite as convincing as James.
Kipling wrote some pretty spooky stuff, too--"At the End of the Passage" is the one that sticks in my memory.
And "Escort" by Daphne du Maurier (the only one of her works I've read): cargo ship steaming through submarine-haunted waters, a cold dark night, skipper down with appendicitis, and a very strange ship looming up out of the darkness... I don't know why this one doesn't show up in more anthologies.
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on
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A lot of Daphne du Maurier's writing is haunting, The House on the Strand remained with me. Rebecca is all about ghostly presences.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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A dramatisation of James Herbert's The Secret of Crickley Hall begins this evening at 9pm on BBC1. You can see a trailer here.
I've only ever read one of Herbert's novels - The Ghosts of Sleath - and didn't like it. I'm afraid what let it down was mostly that the errors he made in how the CofE works suggested he'd probably bothered to do less than half an hour's research.
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by AdamPater:
I have never been able to track down a ghost story that my teacher read to the class in second grade. Had nightmares for a week.
I think it was called something like "The Blue Light". Something about two boys going to a church grave-yard at midnight on a dare to see the eponymous light, which would show or reflect the face of the next local person to die. One boy is foolhardy enough to see his own face and dies two days later.
I guess it's a common trope - shades of The Ring - but does it ring any bells?
I seem to remember one or two stories from about fifty odd years ago about people who performed rituals either at Midsummer or New Year's Eve. These were supposed to reveal the future and turned out to reveal their own death. They were presented as being true and an awful warning not to meddle in the supernatural.
I suppose they would now be classified as urban myths. Indeed some of them may still be circulating as such.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
:
Actually they sound like rip-offs of folk tales, Enoch. Going past the churchyard on some significant date, seeing a parade of people who will die in the coming year and recognising yourself is a fairly well-known trope.
Yes, I read Armada ghost stories too in my misspent youth. I can't believe nobody's mentioned Joan Aiken yet (or did somebody mention her when I wasn't looking?) Hers range from gentle tales of ghosts that you wouldn't mind meeting (Humblepuppy springs to mind) to absolutely terrifying, leave-the-light-burning-all-night stuff (some of the stories in 'A Fit of Shivers', for example).
And then there's Robert Westall. A friend once challenged me to name a good full-length horror story and the only one I could think of off the top of my head was his 'The Wheatstone Pond'.
[ 18. November 2012, 15:54: Message edited by: Jane R ]
Posted by The Intrepid Mrs S (# 17002) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
Yes, I read Armada ghost stories too in my misspent youth. I can't believe nobody's mentioned Joan Aiken yet (or did somebody mention her when I wasn't looking?) Hers range from gentle tales of ghosts that you wouldn't mind meeting (Humblepuppy springs to mind) to absolutely terrifying, leave-the-light-burning-all-night stuff (some of the stories in 'A Fit of Shivers', for example).
I love, love, love Joan Aiken's work but have never read any of her ghost stories.
/tangent - I wrote her a fan letter once, and she replied so charmingly, enclosing one of her books, that I was her slave for ever. That was for Mortimer and Arabel, and for the Battersea stories of Dido Twite though - incomparable!/end tangent
Mrs. S, lost in happy reverie
![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
Posted by fletcher christian (# 13919) on
:
Adeodatus, I would agree 'The Ghosts of Sleath' is pretty terrible, but I'm reliably informed that 'The Secret of Crickley Hall' is good.
I'm surprised that nobody has yet mentioned any Stephen King novels. I know I'm lowering the cultural tone though ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
By far his best (although still with some silly bits and bad writing) is 'The Shining'. So many people have seen the film, which did a wonderful job of conveying the broody, black atmosphere of the book, but it's one of the most frightening ghost stories I've ever read. There is one very simple device he uses right through the book that sounds very silly when I describe it, but as the plot develops it becomes a truly spine tingling, skin crawling device. He simply repeats two words, randomly throughout - 'it creeps'.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
:
<tangent> Many years ago my Other Half was asked to review a CD-ROM about Stephen King. It was very odd - it must have had some games on it or similar, but the only thing I remember about it now is that it featured a video clip of The Great Man typing. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
There is a supernatural element to this story; the CD-ROM must have been possessed, because our old Mac was never the same again after running it... </tangent>
Anybody else ever read 'Companions on the Road' by Tanith Lee? She did some other supernaturalish tales for young adults, but this is the best one.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
Well, I really enjoyed* the first part of Crickley Hall. Nicely understated horror, and excellent acting all round - especially, I thought, from Suranne Jones, the great David Warner, and those fantastic girls who played Cally and Loren, the daughters. I'll certainly be watching the rest.
(* "Enjoyed" = "had the crap scared out of me by")
Posted by AdamPater (# 4431) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by fletcher christian:
By far his best (although still with some silly bits and bad writing) is 'The Shining'.
I haven't been able to look a topiary rabbit in the eye since.
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Well, I really enjoyed* the first part of Crickley Hall. Nicely understated horror, and excellent acting all round - especially, I thought, from Suranne Jones, the great David Warner, and those fantastic girls who played Cally and Loren, the daughters. I'll certainly be watching the rest.
(* "Enjoyed" = "had the crap scared out of me by")
Seconded!
And what a great thread - many suggestions for throatgrippingly-fearful reading for a long time to come
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
:
Yes indeed, some great suggestions here!
Mary LA's anecdote about the little girl ghost seems very real in those small-hours trips to the bathroom. ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
I'm having to remind myself of Moaning Myrtle by way of antidote.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Mary LA's anecdote about the little girl ghost seems very real in those small-hours trips to the bathroom.
That's when it gets you too, eh?
It reminds me of a nightmare I once had. I dreamed I woke up in the middle of the night. I could hear someone moving around in my house downstairs. In my dream, I got up and went out of my bedroom. My bedroom door opens onto the landing, and immediately to the right of it and at an angle is the bathroom door.
I could see a dim light downstairs, and could still hear movement. Nervously, I looked over the banisters and down the stairs.
And as I did, out of the very corner of my eye, I saw the bathroom door swing open, and a shadowy figure moved swiftly towards me.
And that's when I woke up.
On Stephen King: I've only ever tried one of his books, Pet Sematary, and didn't much like it. He seemed to spend too much time telling too little story. Worth a second chance, though, and a few weeks ago I picked up a second hand copy of Salem's Lot, which is on my to-read list.
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
:
King talked about a time when he could write anything and people were reluctant to edit him-- he called it his "Bestsellerasaurus Rex" period. I am pretty sure Pet Sematary is one of the books he was talking about. I am positive Tommyknockers is.
Salem's Lot is good, but if you want really amazing, check out The Stand, The Dead Zone, Or Dolores Clayborn.
Also, his collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman is amazing.
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Mary LA's anecdote about the little girl ghost seems very real in those small-hours trips to the bathroom.
That's when it gets you too, eh?
It reminds me of a nightmare I once had. I dreamed I woke up in the middle of the night. I could hear someone moving around in my house downstairs. In my dream, I got up and went out of my bedroom. My bedroom door opens onto the landing, and immediately to the right of it and at an angle is the bathroom door.
I could see a dim light downstairs, and could still hear movement. Nervously, I looked over the banisters and down the stairs.
And as I did, out of the very corner of my eye, I saw the bathroom door swing open, and a shadowy figure moved swiftly towards me.
And that's when I woke up.
Goblins and ghosties and ghoulies, oh my!
quote:
On Stephen King: I've only ever tried one of his books, Pet Sematary, and didn't much like it. He seemed to spend too much time telling too little story. Worth a second chance, though, and a few weeks ago I picked up a second hand copy of Salem's Lot, which is on my to-read list.
I haven't read Pet Sematary but I did once see the film, which gave me the willies, especially the buried cat that comes back to life - I can see it now, running into the house... yuk!
I have read several other Stephen Kings, and Bag of Bones scared me witless, as I recall. It was the thing in the woods...<shiver>
Posted by Hilda of Whitby (# 7341) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Also, his collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman is amazing.
Peter Straub's 'Ghost Story' stayed with me for a long, long time and I have re-read it several times. One of the best ghost stories I have ever read.
'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson is a masterpiece.
"The Turn of the Screw" is way up there on my list of creepiest stories I have ever read.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Huntress:
Wordsworth publishes the ghost stories of quite a few 19th and early 20th century authors and they seem to be easily available in the county library system. I've so far read 'Uncanny Stories' by May Sinclair and 'The Bell in the Fog' by Gertrude Atherton.
Brilliant, thanks for that, I'm bookmarking it. I see they even have Mrs Gaskell, too.
Have now asked for some of these for Christmas. I want to spend some of the festive season totally spooking myself out.
Posted by AdamPater (# 4431) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
There are stories by M.R.James that I seriously won't read if I'm home alone at night. I've never read anyone who can use mere words to create a feeling of skin-crawling unease better than James can. ...
With James it's all about building the atmosphere. ...
You inspired me to chase him up. I skimmed through some reviews and went to the Book Depository. James' Collected Ghost Stories turned up today, seems to have a Weeping Angel on the cover.
And now I might be too scared to look past the contents page.
Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on
:
OK, when I say what I am about to say, please read it understanding I am a huge horror buff, and have been so all my life, and I do not run toward the squeamish in my reading choices.
I read Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk a few years back, which is a quasi-haunted house story about a bunch of would-be writers on a retreat that they suspect is a reality show, in what may or may not be a haunted house, trying to top each other with horrifying stories. Two stories in this book disturbed me so much that I had to put it in the waste basket, put stuff over it so I couldn't see the cover, and carry it out of the house the next day. I was going to provide a link to the Wikipedia summary of the book, but the summary alone is ghastly.
Don't look it up. I mean it. Palahniuk makes Steve King look like Beatrix Potter.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Don't look it up. I mean it.
Kelly, if people paid any attention to the Don't open that door/ read those runes/ spend the night in that house/ dig up that pharaoh instructions, there would be no horror genre.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Don't look it up. I mean it.
Kelly, if people paid any attention to the Don't open that door/ read those runes/ spend the night in that house/ dig up that pharaoh instructions, there would be no horror genre.
"Don't eat that apple..."
AdamPater, we clearly need to find you a "safe" M.R.James to start with. I'm sure that there are some that aren't too scary. I've never found The Mezzotint too creepy, and there's one I've never read called The Haunted Doll's House which can't be too bad, as it was commissioned for the Queen's Doll's House back in the 1930s or whenever.
I think the problem with James is that he plugs into a whole range of people's suppressed fears, so different people are scared by different stories. He also has this thing about touch and texture - a man resting his hand on a carved wooden cat suddenly feels he's touching fur, for example. And peripheral vision, too - Denniston in Canon Alberic's Scrapbook thinks he sees something resting on his desk, out of the corner of his eye; and the archaeologist in A Warning to the Curious reports seeing someone watching him digging, but again only ever out of the corner of his eye ...
Actually, maybe there isn't a "safe" story to start with!
Oh, and when you look at the cover of that book ... don't blink.
Posted by AdamPater (# 4431) on
:
This is the volume I have. Haven't blinked for hours! (I know it's face isn't covered, but it's eyes are closed.... they're clever like that.)
I girded my loins and, fortified with a nice hot cup of tea, read through There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard and Rats, selected for length.
(Who can die of fright in only six pages, after all) (Especially with PaterMinor scoffing in the background.)
Filled with confidence, I shall start reading from the beginning.
But I'm not following up Kelly's link. No ways, PJs. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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quote:
Originally posted by AdamPater:
This is the volume I have.
Not the optimal image IMO. One of the most sinister stories takes place on a bright, hot, summer's day...
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Don't look it up. I mean it. Palahniuk makes Steve King look like Beatrix Potter.
I looked it up.
I may now have to find a way of tearing my memory out and burning it.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
:
OK, I am NOT going to look it up. I would probably also leave the 'Do Not Open' box closed and run screaming from the haunted house at the first sign of ectoplasm.
If you've read 'The Mezzotint' you already know the plot of 'The Haunted Doll's House', more or less... personally I find both stories gruesome but not frightening in the same way as 'Mr Poynter's Diary' is.
Posted by Amos (# 44) on
:
As I read the second lesson in the Morning Office today (from Rev. 16) I realized where M.R. James had got his horrible demonic things that resemble frogs.
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
As I read the second lesson in the Morning Office today (from Rev. 16) I realized where M.R. James had got his horrible demonic things that resemble frogs.
Were you in a James story, you would have noticed, as you closed the lectern bible, that the leather had a soft, cold, reptilian feel to it....
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
As I read the second lesson in the Morning Office today (from Rev. 16) I realized where M.R. James had got his horrible demonic things that resemble frogs.
Were you in a James story, you would have noticed, as you closed the lectern bible, that the leather had a soft, cold, reptilian feel to it....
And when you get home and open your front door, a particularly large frog jumps out, brushing stickily against your ankle as it vanishes into the shrubbery....
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
:
And that night, and every night thereafter, you cannot sleep for the persistent sound of croaking, until...
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
... you're woken one night by a tapping, or a knocking, or rather a slapping noise against the window of your room, and become aware of things moving within the room itself, at floor level. And fear clutches at your throat as you feel something fall, or land, on the blankets near your feet....
Posted by AdamPater (# 4431) on
:
Maybe Kelly's thing isn't so bad to look up after all...
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
... you're woken one night by a tapping, or a knocking, or rather a slapping noise against the window of your room, and become aware of things moving within the room itself, at floor level. And fear clutches at your throat as you feel something fall, or land, on the blankets near your feet....
... this is usually one of the cats buggering about...
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
:
But not this time.
That evening in Hall, you start back in horror as the servitor places dessert in front of you.
'What's the matter?' exclaims the Regius Professor of Ancient Greek. 'Don't you like tapioca pudding?'
[ 29. November 2012, 15:03: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
But not this time.
That evening in Hall, you start back in horror as the servitor places dessert in front of you.
'What's the matter?' exclaims the Regius Professor of Ancient Greek. 'Don't you like tapioca pudding?'
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
Fantastic! But isn't that more like Hammer horror than James? Surely in James you'd just be found dead the next morning by your maid, your mouth and lungs mysteriously full of pond-water.
(And for Pine Marten's sake, let's not mention the story that features the cat....)
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