Series: Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural
Paperback: 289 pages
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions (September 10, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 184022066X
ISBN-13: 978-1840220667
Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #775,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #71 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Victorian #16674 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics
Although I bought "Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories" thinking it would be more horror-oriented than it turned out to be, the fact that it was different didn't turn out to be a hinderance. What we've got here is a great collection of stories from the 1800s (and perhaps the late 1700s and ealy 1900s as well; it doesn't mention the exact date when each tale was first published) that spans the terrain of mystery, horror, adventure and sometimes even comedy. Among the writers represented are Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, M.R. James, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edith Nesbit, among others. Horror elements are present in such tales as Edgar Allan Poe's famous "The Tell-Tale Heart", the two contributions by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu ("An Account Of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungier Street" and "Narrative Of A Ghost Of A Hand") and in Edith Nebit's "Man-Size In Marble". This last one is one of the best stories in the book, centering on a newly married couple hard-pressed for cash who find a beautiful and uncommonly affordable country cottage in a beautiful part of the English countryside; and a local superstition involving stone statues. This one's like a great Hammer horror movie. Charles Dickens presents a pair of stories - "To Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt" (whose title clashes oddly with the eerily believable nature of the story itself), probably one of the earlliest courtoom/ghost crossover stories - and "The Story Of The Bagman's Uncle". As good as "...Grain Of Salt" is, "Bagman's Uncle" is clearly the standout of the two, a delightful and exciting adventure that mixes the mystical and romantic, and the charming and the 'swashbuckling' into one of the best, and most vividly written, short stories I've ever read.
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