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Title: The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (Oxford Books of Prose S.) by Michael Cox, R. A. Gilbert ISBN: 0-19-284085-1 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: too many dull stories
Comment: some of the stories were good enough in this collection, but most were too boring too catch your attention (too obvious, boring descriptions, weak plot etc.). i guess you have to be into the old charm of the english ghost story to really appreciate this. i guess i am too modern to be scared by a guy who talks to a guy who turns out to be a ghost, and that's it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another nightmarish collection from Gilbert and Cox
Comment: The horror genre is cluttered with hackwork, and imitations of hackwork--H.P. Lovecraft seems to have spawned a particularly virulent strain of the latter. However one of its subgenres, i.e. the ghost story seems to attract a better quality of writer--perhaps because a truly frightening tale of the returned dead is so difficult to write.
(Believe me, I've tried and after almost half a century of trying, have sold exactly one ghost story).
L. P. Hartley, who wrote "The Travelling Grave" and other great stories of the supernatural, described the ghost story as "certainly the most exacting form of literary art, and perhaps the only one in which there is almost no intermediate step between success and failure. Either it comes off or it is a flop."
Cox and Gilbert have collected mostly successes (and one or two flops) in "The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories" and its companion volume, "The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories." If you suffer from what Virginia Woolf called "the strange human craving for the pleasure of feeling afraid," both of these volumes will satisfy. Each contains a good mix of familiar and lesser-known ghost stories.
Here is a sampling from 'English Ghost Stories':
"The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs -- A horrible variant on 'Be careful what you wish for. It might just come true.' This is a sad, frightening story--maybe 'the' perfect tale of the supernatural.
"The Confession of Charles Linkworth" by E.F. Benson -- A telephone call from a hanged man.
"Man-Size in Marble" by E. Nesbit -- An overly sweet Victorian marriage comes to a tragic end on All Saints' Eve.
"The True History of Anthony Ffryar" -- When a fatal epidemic sweeps through Cambridge, a scholar witnesses an unusual Mass for the Dead: "'Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine,' chanted the hooded four; and one candle went out..."
"Smee" by A.M. Burrage -- A Christmas Eve game of hide-and-seek has one too many players.
"Bosworth Summit Pound" by L.T.C. Rolt -- A haunted English canal tunnel: "Not only was the narrow cavern of crumbling brickwork as cold and dark as a vault after the warmth and brilliance of the May sunshine, but water streamed from the roof and descended in cascades from the chimneys of the ventilation shafts. He had the utmost difficulty in keeping a straight course, for the damp atmosphere exhaled an evil-smelling mist which obscured the farther end of the tunnel..."
"Hand in Glove" by Elizabeth Bowen -- A young woman on the hunt for a titled husband is in desperate need of a clean pair of gloves.
"Bad Company" by Walter De La Mare -- A haunting encounter on the Underground.
"The Judge's House" by Bram Stoker -- A likeable young man seeks solitude to study for a mathematics exam.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Collection of Classic Western Ghost Stories
Comment: This is a wonderful collection of ghost stories. Included are some of the classics of the genre. For instance, The "Monkey's Paw" (son is killed in an accident at work, parent wishes on creepy monkey's paw charm for son to come back to life, so please don't open the front door!) has been adapted a number of times for TV and film.
My personal favorite is probably "Smee," the quintessential between-the-wars British country house ghost story. Perhaps a scary little teleplay with Jeremy Irons, Hugh Grant and Judy Davis?
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Title: The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories by Peter Haining ISBN: 0786707917 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 30 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Classic Ghost Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) by John Grafton ISBN: 0486404307 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories by Michael Cox, R. A. Gilbert ISBN: 0192804472 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by M. R. James, Michael Cox ISBN: 0192837737 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Moonlit Road and Other Ghost and Horror Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) by Ambrose Bierce ISBN: 0486400565 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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