Ghost Stories
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
A new anthology of classic ghost stories—the second volume in the beautiful and collectible Pocket Classics format. The chilling classic stories gathered here offer a remarkable variety of approaches to the theme of haunting. Revenge comes from beyond the grave in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Body-Snatcher,” while visions of the dead come between the living in Henry James’s “The Friends of the Friends.” P. G. Wodehouse gives us a farcical take on the haunted house in “Honeysuckle Cottage,” and in L. P. Hartley’s “W.S.,” a writer is fatally stalked by his own aggrieved creation. Here are ghosts of every stripe and intent in stories from writers as varied as Elizabeth Bowen and Jorge Luis Borges, Eudora Welty and Vladimir Nabokov, Ray Bradbury and Edith Wharton, among others. In the hands of these masters, the ghost story ranges far beyond mere horror to encompass comedy and tragedy, pathos and drama, and even a touch of poetry.
Reviews with the most likes.
What a truly mixed bag! I'm a little confused by this book - what inspired these particular selections? There are a LOT of magnificent public domain ghost stories out there, but Washington went out of his way to secure rights to some right clunkers, and some stories that aren't remotely ghostly. Why?
Anyway, high points were:
“The Body-Snatcher”
“Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad”
“The Open Window” (this made me round up to a 3-star rating)
“The Looking Glass”
“The Highboy” (the nicest surprise in the bunch aside from Saki)
Middling:
“The Monkey's Paw” is rightfully a classic, but not a ghost story.
“The Daughters of the Late Colonel” - disturbing account of a haunting without the need for any supernatural element
“The Happy Autumn Fields” - what's going on? somewhat intriguing and poignant, but didn't know where to go with the concept
“The Visit to the Museum” - highly effective weird tale that is not a ghost story
Painful:
“Clytie” - neither ghostly nor well written. Why does “depressing story about a strange family” read as “quality literature” so often, regardless of actual merit?
“The Circular Ruins” - akin to an acquaintance regaling you with their latest dream - both in content and tone, and in relevance or entertainment value
“Another Fine Mess” - not only entirely without plot or any engaging content, but more schmaltzy than a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. This may literally be the worst thing Bradbury ever wrote. It would put off even Rachel Bloom.
