Get Your Copy Classic Victorian Edwardian Ghost Stories Envisioned By Rex Collings Available In Online Book

I've bought these along with Gothic short stories, . . and the purchase of both turned out to be a mistake, as this one have in some parts exactly the same stories as the one just mentioned.
So If you think of buying both of them, I suggest to pick one and buy only one, Personally I liked this one less then previous although it has it's moments,

Kupiłam tą książkę razem z krótkimi opowiadaniami gotyckimi, . . i to był błąd, Większość opowiadań pokrywa się z książką gotycką, więc jeśli rozważacie kupienie obu, sugeruję sprawdzić spis treści kupić tą która Wam najbardziej odpowiada.
Choć ta ma swoje momenty, to jednak wybór gotycki bardziej mi odpowiadał,.stars
Some amazing stories, some disappointing ones, and some stories that do not contain a ghost and do not pertain to the horror genre at least not one that I would define.

I overall enjoyed the read, even though the second half was way better than the first, I'll probably reread some of them, Great collection! Lots of fun to read around Halloween, Just finished this tonight, so I'm not sure how soundly I'll sleep, . . A book of ghost stories containing some stories with no ghosts or indeed anything supernatural, I bought this ghost stories collection from Blackwell's for, and since I love good spooky tales, I thought that I should know more of the classic ones.
However, this book is a/, Half of the stories weren't even supernatural and were quite boring, but there are some good examples, like The TellTale Heart by Poe of course, An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street and Narrative of a Ghost of a Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu one of the best horror story writers of that era, The Phantom Coach by Amelia B.
Edwards, ManSize in Marble by Edith Nesbit or Wilde's The Canterville Ghost, The three real ghost stories in the end were entertaining too, For example, I missed some story by Francis M, Crawford like The Upper Berth, whose tales were also pretty frightening, or some better stories by M, R. James, who was the master of scary short stories try Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Decent collection, not so focussed on horror/scary ghosts and included a fair few comedy pieces, Though not the slightest idea what the Story of Mary Ancel is doing in here, not a ghost in sight.
I enjoyed the Wilkie Collins story and Markheim most, Quite a slog small print, often archaic prose and fairly hit and miss on how good I thought the story was.
It's hard to rate this book since the stories are completely different from one another, Some do not even seem to have anything supernatural hinted at Anyway, some of these I really liked others not so much.
I guess three is a good average for this book though it's more of a/stars, .
There are a couple stories that made chuckle something I wasn't expecting to read here but most were the 'typical' spooky at the time stories so do with this information as you will.
Most of the tales are very familiar Nesbitt's 'ManSize in Marble', Collins' 'A Terribly Strange Bed' and of course the inevitable offering of MR James.
One or two, such as Richard Barham's 'The Spectre of Tappington' less so but nevertheless, equally enjoyable, Wonderful, spooky delights, perfect for the darker evenings and for teaching the Gothic! I read several of the stories, I really liked the Nesbit story, very chilling! One of the better Victorian horror story anthologies that I have read.
I love oldfashioned ghost stories and I'm happy to say that I had only read one of the tales included in this anthology before The TellTale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe.
I never pick this sort of book up to get scared, but mostly to enjoy the oldfashioned storytelling and hopefully to get a few chills.
As expected the stories I did enjoy the most were the two by Charles Dickens and the two by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu especially Narrative of a Ghost of Hand, which gave me such chills and stayed with me for a whole day.
ManSize in Marble by Edith Nesbit also gave me chills, Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost was a wtf scenario, but was obviously meant as a comedy, The levity of this story was much appreciated after all the doom and gloom which had been the book up until this point.
The last story was Laura by Saki, It was extremely short, but very strange, and I'm not sure what to make of it, These were the stories that stood out to me especially, but I feel like if I go to honorary mentions it will be the rest of the book, however, The Spectre of Tappington gets a mention for having a pantsobsessed ghost A School Story gets a mention for having a perfect dundunDUUUUN movieending, and Eveline's Visitant gets a mention for being so heartwrenchingly romantically told.
A couple great stories particularly from RLS and Wilde, and a bunch of others ranging from meh to bad some of the lesser M.
R. James This collection contains some fine ghost stories by masters of the genre, such as M, R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu and others, However, several of the stories feature no ghosts whatosoever, or even other supernatural phenomena, making the title of the book rather misleading.
There's nothing like a good ghost story, and these were nothing like a good ghost story, Not one scared me, not even all of them contained ghosts! There were some I did enjoy, and I particularly found the Oscar Wilde one hilarious.
But all in all, this collection was far from a good read One of the charms of ghost stories is that you do not even have to believe in ghosts to love them.
Some people struggle to enjoy stories that express different political or religious beliefs to their own, Stories advocating psychics or horoscopes may be fun if not taken too seriously, but will annoy sceptics if presented as fact.


However most people enjoy a good ghost story, Im not sure that I believe in ghosts, and the alleged true stories at the end of this book did not interest me much.
A ghost story in the hands of a good storyteller on the other hand is enormous fun,

This collection selected by Rex Collings indicates one of the reasons for the appeal of the ghost story.
It is a subgenre that lends itself to infinite variety in terms of tone and content, Stories can be frivolous, as in the case of Oscar Wildes story, The Canterville Ghost, where an American family refuse to be frightened of their ghost, and even play practical jokes on it.


Other stories may have a more biting wit, such as Sakis contribution to the book, Laura, a story in which the vindictive Laura is reincarnated as an otter, and proceeds to wreak malicious damage on the property of her friend.


A more jaunty spirit of adventure prevails in The Story of the Bagmans Uncle, one of two Dickens stories here, in which the uncle falls asleep in a carriage, and wakes to find a number of ghostly carriages, and a young lady who needs rescuing.


Dickens was in fact a remarkably good ghost story writer, The Signalman, my favourite of his ghost stories is sadly missing from here, However Collings does include To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt, which is an excellent substitute,

This shows the other side of the ghost story, its capacity to pleasantly chill the bones, The narrator sees the images of two men, one a murderer, and one his victim, Then he is asked to serve as foreman of the jury in a trial, He instantly recognises the defendant as the murderer, Throughout the trial and jury room deliberations, the dead man can be seen influencing the actions of court officials and jury members while being invisible to everyone else.


Curiously my other favourite story in this volume also has a murder victim seeking revenge, M R James is one of the most famous writers of ghost stories, A School Story is extraordinarily economic, and offers hardly any back story, but this only adds to the sense of mystery.


A new school master receives cryptic clues from the subconscious of one of his pupils that a man whom he killed and dropped down a well may be coming back to kill him.
The story ends with a grim fulfilment of the warning,

Some stories here have a dubious claim to be included in a book of ghost stories, Thackerays The Story of Mary Ancel is more about Revolutionary intrigue in France, but ends on a satisfying note, The Squires Story by Elizabeth Gaskell is about a man who insinuates himself into favour with the local gentry, only to turn out to be a highwaymen.


Still these stories are good fun, as is the Wilkie Collins inclusion here, The Travellers Story of an Incredibly Strange Bed, which has a wealthy young man winning a fortune at the casino, but making the mistake of staying overnight in a lodging that has a sinister secret.


We may question whether Markheim, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a ghost story, While the story is a little overwritten, it channels a creepiness worthy of Crime and Punishment, Markheim murders an unpleasant dealer, who buys items from the impoverished Markheim, The story has a suitably supernatural element when Markheim is approached by a sinister figure who may or may not be the devil, who seeks to tempt Markheim into further sin.


In the introduction, Collings draws our attention to how often ghosts seem to be upper class, It seems that just as only the higher echelons of society are capable of a good murder in an Agatha Christie novel, then so only the noblest of people come back as ghosts.


This is not strictly true of course, and there are a number of good ghost stories about members of the lower class.
Still there is a disproportionate number of aristocratic ghosts, Perhaps this is because we imagine that a house has to be a large size to attract a ghost, and this immediately favours nobility.
Also we

imagine that the ruling class had more interesting, and therefore more sinful lives than the rest of us.


Ghosts may return out of malevolence, or from a sense of mischief, Some are seeking revenge, or to set right an injustice, Some are merely pathetic, sad figures, This is also part of the appeal of the ghost story, We like to believe in a sense of otherworldly justice for the crimes committed here, or we want to see ghosts that are dangerous.


Not every story in the collection is a classic, but there are a number of gems, many of which will be familiar to anyone who has read other ghost story selections.
It is fun to read a few news ones and to revisit some of the fun tales that I havent read in a while.
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