rbadac (November 29, 1999)Well, it's getting close to that time of year again, and if you haven't already been exhausted by the first wave of Christmas shopping (I won't do it; everybody is getting a book from me this year. Again.), you should think about the Christmas ghost story.Which one, you say? Good response. It has been, after all, a tradition wedded rather closely with the subject matter of this group. M.R. James wrote his stories for Christmas readings. The Christmas numbers of various periodicals contributed to the income of more than one ghost story author. Richard Dalby indeed would be living in a cheaper neighborhood were it not for the Yuletide season. Besides, don't you want to be ready when the inevitable flood of enquiries hits us in the next two weeks? You know the ones I mean: 'What are some good ghost stories for Christmas?' or variants of the theme. Do we really need to trot out those same anthologies we always do every year?
Not that they won't be useful for what I have in mind, which is this: Why don't *we* determine what the ten best ghost stories for Christmas are? or which ten are our favorites? That way, when someone asks, we can simply grunt and point at the list.
You certainly can't complain about not having enough to choose from. For the purposes of this, I would venture to suggest that any ghost story which occurs at Christmas-time would be applicable, whether it is specifically themed so or not, though it should feature a proper ghost, and not a manifestation of Santa Claus or Jesus, which seem to me to be rather in a different category, more 'awwwww' than awe. And we should probably omit Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol In Prose,' just because it's so obviously Number One that voting for it would be pointless. No one's topped it yet, and it's unlikely anyone ever will. That notwithstanding, his dry run for 'Carol,' 'The Story of the Goblins Who Stole A Sexton' might still be considered a candidate.
If we're picking ten, we should name more, and see how well they fly with others' choices. Here are a few from me, in no particular order, some old standbys and a couple of new ones, to get things rolling:
At Chrighton Abbey- Mary E. Braddon
The Christmas Eves Of Aunt Elise- Thomas Ligotti
Green Holly- Elizabeth Bowen
The Waits- L.P. Hartley
Lucky's Grove- H.R. Wakefield
Two Returns- Terry Lamsley
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe- Nugent Barker
The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall- J.K. Bangs
Smee- A.M. Burrage
The Crown Derby Plate- Marjorie Bowen
The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance- M.R. James
Christmas Meeting- Rosemary Timperley
The Chimney- Ramsey Campbell
The Ruined Home- Jerome K. Jerome
The House In Half Moon Street- Hector Bolitho
The Peculiar Demesne of Archvicar Gerontion- Russell Kirk
Between The Lights- E.F. Benson
And here are some which I am curious about, not having texts at hand to examine them. Could someone enlighten us as to their possible worth?
Dear Little Ghost- Elia Peattie
(THE SHAPE OF FEAR, Macmillan; NY, 1898)The Ghost Child- Bernard Capes
(LOAVES AND FISHES, Methuen; London, 1906)The Compliments Of The Season- Arthur Machen
(THE COSY ROOM, Rich & Cowan; London, 1936)Christmas Reunion- Sir Andrew Caldecott
(NOT EXACTLY GHOSTS, Arnold; London, 1947)A Christmas Game- A.N.L. Munby
(THE ALABASTER HAND, Dobson; London, 1949)Blind Man's Hood- Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr
(BEST GHOST STORIES, Faber & Faber; London, 1945)CASTLE DISMAL- William Gilmore Simms
(Burgess, Stringer & Co.; NY, 1844)anything out of HANNIBAL'S MAN by Leonard Kip (Argus; Albany, NY, 1878)
Then there are all those ones I forgot, and which some of you might give me a hand in remembering, including the Walter de la Mare Christmas story I was sure existed, but which I looked for and did not find. <sigh>
rbadac
oOo
Evelyn (November 30, 1999)
>And here are some which I am curious about, not having texts at hand to
>examine them. Could someone enlighten us as to their possible worth?The Ghost Child- Bernard Capes (LOAVES AND FISHES, Methuen; London,
1906)
**********
No time to look it up just now, but I believe this one starts out with a man describing the death of a friend, going into a deep depression from which he tries to escape by taking a trip where he runs into friends who ask him to spend Christmas with them. They have a large brood of unruly children who are allowed to run wild in the interest of "waking up" the old house they've either rented or bought. The ghost child comes in during a Christmas Eve game of hide-and-seek. A gentle story about love and loss.I'd certainly add "Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk" by F. Cowper. And Lovecraft's "The Festival". And (pardon my lapse of memory) doesn't "Smee" take place at a Christmas gathering?
Evelyn
oOo
Evelyn (November 30,1999)
Sorry, rbadac -- you mentioned "Smee". That's what I get for trying to reply before I've finished my coffee. Apologies.
EvelynoOo
paghat (November 30, 1999)
I reprinted Capes' "The Ghost Child" in FANTASY MACABRE years ago but having become senile I completely forget the plot even with your reminder.-paghat
oOo
rbadac (December 1, 1999)
Thanks, Evelyn ! This is one of those questions that seems to telescope in the mind (provided it becomes an issue at all !); the plot you describe is actually 'The Little Ghost' by Hugh Walpole, another good one for the list, bringing to mind also 'Tarnhelm,' which also takes place on Christmas Eve.rbadac
oOo
Evelyn (December 1, 1999)
You're right, of course. As for the Capes, as soon as I looked it up, I realized that I'd confused it with the Walpole because I really don't care much for the Capes story. "Tryphena was the sole orphaned representative of an obscure but gentle family which had lived for generations in the east of England." She falls in love with an unsuitable young man, her family gives him the heave-ho, and he runs off to sea and is drowned, unbeknownst to her. She moves in with his father. The next Christmas a "prattling babe" appears at the door, .."naked, his pink, wet body glazed with ice", but impervious to the cold. He says his name is Jason, which was the name of the drowned lover. "If you are Jason," Tryphena tells him, "you must know what to call me." It's "mother", of course, she's told a few paragraphs later, as the child's "pretty features wavered and vanished." Pretty heavy-handed stuff these days, but maybe it drew a tear or two when it was written.Hmmmm...I seem to be rather cynical tonight. Maybe it's because I'm so disappointed in the "Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories" I'm half-way through reading.
EvelynoOo
Julie Long (December 2, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> This is one of those questions that seems to telescope in
> the mind (provided it becomes an issue at all !)
Ahem! It so happens that at this very moment on E-Bay there's a Dalby-edited Xmas chillers anthology, the seller of which has been thoughtful enough to list the contents. (Many don't, I guess we're just supposed to know everything). Stories include the exciting Christmas eve story by Arther Conan Doyle called "An Exciting Christmas Eve" (we'll see about that) and "The Santa" by somebody named Jessica Amanda Salmonson... It also has "Back for Christmas" by John Collier. I don't mean to plug E-Bay here but I couldn't resist this heads up.
Happy Holidays!
Julie
oOo
William Allison (December 2, 1999)
rbadac wrote:-sadly snipped-
>And here are some which I am curious about, not having texts at hand to
>examine them. Could someone enlighten us as to their possible worth?No texts on hand 'eh. I'm happy to report most of these are pretty easy to come by in some fairly recent publications:
>Their Dear Little Ghost- Elia Peattie
>(THE SHAPE OF FEAR, Macmillan; NY, 1898)This is in CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, ed. Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell, published in HC in 1987 by Arbor House and in pb by Dell in 1988. The HC used runs about $8 to $15, the pb $3 to $8. There was a Robinson tpb as well in the UK. This story is also in Dalby's GHOSTS FOR CHRISTMAS.
>A Ghost Child- Bernard Capes
>(LOAVES AND FISHES, Methuen; London, 1906)This is in GHOSTS FOR CHRISTMAS, ed. Richard Dalby, published in HC by O'Mara in the UK, Castle (and a year later, Carroll & Graf) in the US. The Castle and C & G can be had for $8 to $15. This was also in Dalby's MAMMOTH BOOK OF VIC AND ED GHOST STORIES, as well as one of those 100 or so 100 LITTLE WHATEVER tomes.
>The Compliments Of The Season- Arthur Machen
>(THE COSY ROOM, Rich & Cowan; London, 1936)A tougher one, available in RITUAL AND OTHER STORIES. The Tartarus 2nd edition is going for about $50. Moving along quickly...
>Christmas Reunion- Sir Andrew Caldecott
>(NOT EXACTLY GHOSTS, Arnold; London, 1947)This is in CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, as well as the elusive GHOSTS & SCHOLARS anthology. This one owes a lot to Hartley's "A Visitor from Down Under" and was apparently based on one of MRJ's "Stories I Have Tried to Write" (a point somewhat "tacked on" the story at the end, weakening it a bit). Still, a good story, very Hartleyesque in tone, that has me interested in checking out more Caldecott.
>A Christmas Game- A.N.L. Munby
>(THE ALABASTER HAND, Dobson; London, 1949)In CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, as well as TWELVE TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL, ed. Michael Cox, a tpb from Oxford.
>Blind Man's Hood- Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr
>(BEST GHOST STORIES, Faber & Faber; London, 1945)In the GHOSTS & SCHOLARS anthology, more easily available in REALMS OF DARKNESS, ed. Mary Danby, published by Octopus (1985) in the UK, and Chartwell (or as I like to call them- Chopwell, as they criminally cut the last 100 or so pages from the book) in the US. The Octopus can be had for $10 to $20, the Chartwell for $5 less on average- the 100 extra pages are well worth the 5 spot- go for the Octopus. If you can imagine MRJ embedding a locked room mystery in a ghost story you've got the feel of this one. A good story. I really wish Carr had done more supernatural tales (which reminds me that I need to run down a copy of THE BURNING COURT...).
>CASTLE DISMAL- William Gilmore Simms
>(Burgess, Stringer & Co.; NY, 1844)Dismal could describe the outlook on locating a copy of this book...
>anything out of HANNIBAL'S MAN by Leonard Kip (Argus; Albany, NY, 1878)
"The Ghosts at Grantley", in CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, is taken from HANNIBAL'S MAN AND OTHER TALES...
CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, for whatever reason, didn't show up on my radar when it was released (I only just picked up my copy in the last year), but is well worth seeking out to place alongside Dalby's Christmas anthologies. The complete contents are:
Introduction: The Spirit of Christmas - David G. Hartwell
Their Dear Little Ghost - Elia Wilkinson Peattie
The Curse of the Catafalques - F. Anstey
The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton - Charles Dickens
Christmas Night - Elizabeth Walter
A New Christmas Carol - Arthur Machen
A Christmas Game - A. N. L. Munby
The Great Staircase at Landover Hall - Frank R. Stockton
The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall - John Kendrick Bangs
Christmas Meeting - Rosemary Timperley
The Ghost - William D. O'Connor
Christmas Reunion - Sir Andrew Caldecott
The Ghosts at Grantley - Leonard Kip
The Christmas Banquet - Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Crown Derby Plate - Marjorie Bowen
A Strange Christmas Game - Charlotte Riddell
Calling Card - Ramsey Campbell
A Christmas Tree - Charles DickensBill A. (who freely admits to being a Grinch fan...)
--
alt.books.ghost-fiction FAQ
http://home.epix.net/~wallison/abgf_faq.htmloOo
rbadac (December 3, 1999)
wallison wrote:
>
> No texts on hand 'eh. I'm happy to report most of these are pretty
> easy to come by in some fairly recent publications:(a post I snip here, but immediately printed for my own use...)
My man Bill !! That's exactly what I needed. I can catch up on all of these now. Ho ho ho ! Many thanks.
rbadac, scrambling for his anthologies
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 3, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> And here are some which I am curious about, not having texts at hand to
> examine them. Could someone enlighten us as to their possible worth?
>
> Dear Little Ghost- Elia Peattie
> (THE SHAPE OF FEAR, Macmillan; NY, 1898)This was reprinted in Kathryn Cramer and David Hartwell (eds.) CHRISTMAS GHOSTS (1987).
> The Ghost Child- Bernard Capes
> (LOAVES AND FISHES, Methuen; London, 1906)Capes may be a bit of an acquired taste, but unlike Evelyn I liked this tale, finding it poignant, though sentimental. Unfortunately it did not make it into Ash-Tree Press' THE BLACK REAPER along with several other tales from LOAVES AND FISHES, but has been reprinted, as Paghat mentions elsewhere, in FANTASY MACABRE as well as one of the Barnes & Noble 100 LITTLE . . . volumes.
> The Compliments Of The Season- Arthur Machen
> (THE COSY ROOM, Rich & Cowan; London, 1936) Lyrical.
>
> Christmas Reunion- Sir Andrew Caldecott
> (NOT EXACTLY GHOSTS, Arnold; London, 1947)I found this very disappointing and am sorry for anyone whose first encounter with Caldecott this might be, since he is usually much better than this. This tale makes use of M.R. James' discarded "christmas cracker" plot from "Stories I Have Tried to Write". It has its moments, but is stiff and mechanical.
> A Christmas Game- A.N.L. Munby
> (THE ALABASTER HAND, Dobson; London, 1949)Like much of Munby's work, I cannot now recall anything about it.
> Blind Man's Hood- Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr
> (BEST GHOST STORIES, Faber & Faber; London, 1945)This one sets up a good historical mystery with a chilling denouement. It is a shame that Carr's few supernatural tales and novels are so difficult to locate these days.
> anything out of HANNIBAL'S MAN by Leonard Kip (Argus; Albany, NY, 1878)
There is one tale reprinted from this volume, "The Ghosts at Grantley", in Kathryn Cramer and David Hartwell (eds.) CHRISTMAS GHOSTS.
> Then there are all those ones I forgot, and
> which some of you might give me a hand in
> remembering, including the Walter de la Mare
> Christmas story I was sure existed, but which
> I looked for and did not find. <sigh>
I too was sure there was a Christmas tale by de la Mare, but, alas, I too came up short. Nor was Edith Wharton's "The Triumph of Night" a Christmas story, as I seemed to recall.
Here, however, are a few others:
Ramsey Campbell's excellent "Calling Card", which actually takes place not on Christmas, but Boxing Day. In a few antholgies as well as Campbell's collections, DARK COMPANIONS
Robert Aickman's "The Visiting Star". Reprinted many times.
Marjorie Bowen's "The Breakdown" in KECKSIES (1976), and the falsely supernatural, satirical "Marwood's Ghost Story" in Richard Dalby (ed) MYSTERY FOR CHRISTMAS.
Mrs. J. H. Riddell's "A Strange Christmas Game" in Dover's THE COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF MRS. J.H. RIDDELL (1977)
M.R. James' "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" in THE THIN GHOST, etc.
F. Antsey's "The Curse of the Catafalques" reprinted in Kathryn Cramer and David Hartwell (eds.) CHRISTMAS GHOSTS.
Mary Elizabeth Counselman's "Thirty Pieces of Silver" in HALF IN SHADOW (1978).
To paraphrase Caldecott, some of these are "not exactly ghosts".
I seem to recall that Russell Kirk's "Saviourgate" also takes place during the winter holidays, but I may be mistaken.
oOo
rpn (December 3, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
>And we should probably omit
> Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol In Prose,' just because it's so obviously Number
> One that voting for it would be pointless. No one's topped it yet, and it's
> unlikely anyone ever will.Maybe not, but in some moods I almost prefer the last of his five Christmas Books, THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN. If only someone had got Alastair Sim to star in a cinematic version of *it*!
rpn (hoping that the Lord will keep his memory green)
oOo
Luc (December 3, 1999)
If one extends the query to the whole Holiday season, how many more stories will we be able to come up with?I'll start with Wakefield's chilling "Look Up There!"; it will make you never want to celebrate New-Year's in a stately London home.
Luc
oOo
rbadac (December 4, 1999)
Egad. That and Campbell's 'Calling Card' together would make Y2K look like petunias.Unhappy New Years, anyone? I always wondered why the holidays made some people suicidal. A few stories like these would let them know how things *could* be worse.
rbadac
oOo
Robert Kunath (December 4, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> Well, it's getting close to that time of year again, and if you haven't
> already been exhausted by the first wave of Christmas shopping (I won't do
> it; everybody is getting a book from me this year. Again.), you should think
> about the Christmas ghost story.I've read all the great posts on this topic, and I fear I find myself far, far out of my league--I know only a third or so of the stories named. Kudos to rbadac for raising a topic that has generated so many new suggestions, and mingled bravos and curses to Bill A., whose splendid bibliographical work poses a serious threat to my financial stability.
Just two Christmas thoughts. Years back, my sister gave me one of the Dalby collections: *Chillers for Christmas*. I had no great enthusiasm as I looked at it (I was as yet unaware of Dalby's excellence as an anthologist). The book looked so 'born to be remaindered,' that I was not especially interested. But, dipping in, I found some wonderful stories, and the one that has stayed with me longest is "The Night Before Christmas," by Roger Johnson. The beginning is a bit off- putting, but the story is splendidly told, and it is atmospheric and chilling (I think it may be on rbadac's list, but I can't recall).
Another nomination, which I haven't seen listed yet, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's superb semi-ghost story "A Short Trip Home," set in the Christmas holiday break for college students. I first encountered it in a book of railway ghost stories (*Journey Into Fear*, I think, another born-to-be-remaindered anthology), but it is also in the excellent Oxford anthology of 20th-Century Ghost Stories (and I'm sorry to hear from Evelyn that the Australian collection is a disappointment).
I look forward to hearing more from the others about their favorites.
Dare I say 'Happy Holidays'?Robert
oOo
deathbird44 (December 8, 1999)
Jim Rockhill wrote:
> Ramsey Campbell's excellent "Calling Card", which actually takes place
> not on Christmas, but Boxing Day. In a few antholgies as well as
> Campbell's collections, DARK COMPANIONSExcellent choice and thanks for reminding me of this one.
>
> Robert Aickman's "The Visiting Star". Reprinted many times.
>Despite my success in tracking down the majority of Aickman stories via public library and second hand bookstores (too bad those complete Aickman collections didn't come out a few years ago; coulda saved me some time) this one still eludes me. Am I missing out on a real good one here? I've heard it mentioned a number of times.
John
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 8, 1999)
deathbird44 wrote:
>
> > Ramsey Campbell's excellent "Calling Card", which actually takes place
> > not on Christmas, but Boxing Day. In a few antholgies as well as
> > Campbell's collections, DARK COMPANIONS
>
> Excellent choice and thanks for reminding me of this one.Thank you and you are welcome.
> > Robert Aickman's "The Visiting Star". Reprinted many times.
>
> Despite my success in tracking down the majority of Aickman stories via
> public library and second hand bookstores (too bad those complete
> Aickman collections didn't come out a few years ago; coulda saved me
> some time) this one still eludes me. Am I missing out on a real good
> one here? I've heard it mentioned a number of times.There are not very many Aickman tales I do not like, but this is one of my favorites. It has been reprinted in the following anthologies:
Aickman (ed.) THE 3RD FONTANA BOOK OF GREAT GHOST STORIES.
Mazzeo (ed.) HAUNTINGS - with great Edward Gorey illustrations!
Manguel (ed.) BLACKWATER 2.
Dalby (ed.) MISTLETOE AND MAYHEM.Another favorite Aickman tale that is not easy to find in the U.S., but is well worth seeking out, is "The Inner Room", most recently reprinted in Dziemaniowicz, et al. (eds.) NURSERY CRIMES. Aickman also placed it in one of the Fontana anthologies, but it was not one I was able to locate.
The Aickman omnibus is a wondrous thing. Thank you Tartarus and Paghat!
oOo
Robert Kunath (December 9, 1999)
I hate to admit it, but I *can't remember* "The Visiting Star"! (though I *do* remember the great Gorey illustrations in the Mazzeo collection). I'll have to re-read it (as I can do now with all the stories--in chronological order!--with the Tartarus/Durtro edition). I am absolutely with you on "The Inner Room," though--one of Aickman's finest stories. I know of two places to find it, outside the collected edition:1. The Second Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories; and
2. The Wine-Dark Sea.Robert
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 8, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> At Chrighton Abbey- Mary E. Braddon
> The Christmas Eves Of Aunt Elise- Thomas Ligotti
> Green Holly- Elizabeth Bowen
> The Waits- L.P. Hartley
> Lucky's Grove- H.R. Wakefield
> Two Returns- Terry Lamsley
> One, Two, Buckle My Shoe- Nugent Barker
> The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall- J.K. Bangs
> Smee- A.M. Burrage
> The Crown Derby Plate- Marjorie Bowen
> The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance- M.R. James
> Christmas Meeting- Rosemary Timperley
> The Chimney- Ramsey Campbell
> The Ruined Home- Jerome K. Jerome
> The House In Half Moon Street- Hector Bolitho
> The Peculiar Demesne of Archvicar Gerontion- Russell Kirk
> Between The Lights- E.F. BensonI offer my apologies for having overlooked your prior mention of the M.R. James title when compiling my list.
oOo
paghat (December 9, 1999)
Nobody mentioned "The Santa" or "Jeremiah" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, whoever she is. They're in Richard Dalby & Jane Yolen anthologies.-paghat the ratgirl
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 9, 1999)
My profoundest apologies to Penelope Pettiwether and whoever this Jessica Amanda Salmonson is. Though I have not been able to forget the tale itself, I had forgotten that "Jeremiah" took place around Christmas. I seem to remember it also appearing in the Haunted Library chapbook HARMLESS GHOSTS (1990) and Sasquatch Press' THE MYSTERIOUS DOOM (1992). Rumor has it that it will also appear in THE DEEP MUSEUM from the Ghost Story Press one of these days. but I suspect Paghat knows more about that than I. If anyone wants to start a message board devoted to apologies, I am ready to join. Apologies all around.oOo
William Allison (December 10, 1999)
Wow, me too. That was fine work Jim, deeply moving. I'm appointing you to the post of Official Apologist of a.b.g-f... If anyone objects to that, Jim offers his (and our) sincerest apologies...Bill A. ("digging for Dalby" in the box pile...)
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 12, 1999)
"It is enough to send a man mad."
Thank you for your support and sincerity.Jim R
oOo
William Allison (December 13, 1999)
My pleasure Jim. After all, you're one of us now. Whatever we are...Bill A. (listening to King Crimson's IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING)
oOo
rbadac (December 12, 1999)
Now CUT THAT OUT !!! You guys are giving me the creeps.rbadac, who has a lot to be sorry for, but he'll be damned if anybody else hears about it
oOo
Jim Rockhill (December 18, 1999)
Guilt, the gift that keeps on giving, unless you live in Michigan, where there is scientific proof that it is Chlamydia.
--
jimrockhill@my-deja.SPAMENOSPAM.comoOo
Julie Long (December 10, 1999)
Ahem. As a matter of fact I mentioned the Jessica Amanda Salmonson story in the Dalby anthology about a million years (1 week) ago. It was on E-Bay.Neglectedly,
Julie
oOo
Robert Kunath (December 10, 1999)
I even went so far as to read "The Santa" (and very effective it was, I must say). Mr. Claus won't quite look the same to you after it--as is also the case after reading "The Night Before Christmas."Robert
oOo
rbadac (December 9, 1999)
[Christmas Ghosts, Part Two: 'Yule Be Sorry']That's right. I'm not nearly finished with this subject. In fact, I'm just getting started. Just so the thread doesn't get a hundred miles long, however, I'll run up a new header for it. I expect this to carry through right on into Christmas with no trouble at all.
Very gratifying responses to the initial discussion, and useful veins of pursuit unearthed for further research (Thanks again, Bill A.-- waiter, get him a boiled custard with a dash of nutmeg and an extra shot of Jack Daniels...the touch of nutmeg makes it, heh heh); even Luc's excellent suggestion to include New Year ! Don't think I won't either. We've already got articles on Wakefield's 'Lucky's Grove' in the archive from last summer (check 6/25/99); 'The Waits' was mentioned in a Hartley thread from 8/24/99, as well as 'Someone In The Lift'; I've included the Jerome K. Jerome link Rob provided back in September later in this text, now that its season has come. Further efforts of John Kendrick Bangs and Frank Stockton are available for those whose taste in ghosts runs to the droll, though you may have to dig for them in used bookstores or the library. Really, I wouldn't go to too much trouble though; there are better stories more easily obtained. If your criterion is for the best writers rather than the merely capable ones, then Charles Dickens, Bangs' 'Harrowby Hall', and the Jerome are probably all the 'funny' ghosts you are likely to need.
I expect Dickens' 'The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain' deserves another look; a darker counterpart to 'Carol,' its message is one of the consequences of forgetfulness rather than remembrance. I plan to give it a re-read, and will post some thoughts on it soon.
There are several stories which do no more than nod quickly at Christmas, or don't quite happen at that time; Edith Wharton's 'The Triumph Of Night' came close, occurring a few days early, as does 'Afterward'; E.F. Benson's 'The Other Bed' and 'The Gardener' vaguely embrace the Christmas holiday, but not, I think, in any specific fashion. The best writers are aware of course that seasonality is not necessary or even desireable-- many, like Oliver Onions, display a remarkable resistance to naming any calendar period at all. And that's as it should be. Ghosts are an ever-present phenomenon, and have the run of seasons we know nothing about.
Here are some spot appreciations from my reading so far:
'The Snow'-- Hugh Walpole (ALL SOULS' NIGHT, Macmillan; London, 1933)
Yet another Walpole, to go with 'The Little Ghost' and 'Tarnhelm'; Alice Ryder, 'the second Mrs Ryder', is devoted to Herbert in her fashion, but flies into selfish tempers that make him miserable. His first wife Elinor, now dead, was more understanding; but she was an older woman, plain, mousy, and unassuming-- the very opposite of Alice. Now lately, Alice has been prone to imaginings that a voice speaks to her, warning her to cease these outbursts, and a grey figure is at times visible, but only to her. It brings the sensation of chilling cold into the warmest rooms, and the impression that the house is open to the snow which falls outside this Christmas Eve.
My admiration for this story stems from its skill in characterizing Alice as not altogether 'bad,' perhaps not even in control of her tantrums, and the vengeful ghost as not altogether 'good' either; Herbert's deliberate distancing offsets his quality of being put upon, and keeps this tale from being simplistically moral. Witness this bit of Alice's inner monologue:
'...She looked at him and knew that she loved him more than ever, but because she loved him so much she wanted to hurt him, and because he had said that he thought he could get on without her she was so angry that she forgot all caution...'
'Green Holly'-- Elizabeth Bowen (IVY GRIPPED THE STEPS; Knopf, NY 1946)
The book of stories (Eng. title THE DEMON LOVER) imbued with the shadows of World War II that includes 'The Happy Autumn Fields' discussed here awhile back; 'Green Holly' is a Christmas spent in confinement. Mr Rankstock, Mr Winterslow, Miss Bates, and four others comprise a contingent of Experts 'in what, the censor would not permit me to say.' They are 'somewhere off in the country, nobody knows where, doing something frightfully hush-hush, nobody knows what.' They are in fact at Mopsam Grange, hanging holly on a portrait of General Montgomery and trying not to snap each others' heads off, having been in each others' company a good deal longer than they would wish. Mopsam Grange itself is new quarters to them, but not to the ghost that dwells there: 'Death had left her to be her own mirror, for in no other was she able to see.' She is in turn haunted by the figure of the man from that Christmas Eve long ago: 'The ghost, leaning further over the gallery, pouted down at the suicide. She said: "You should have let me explain." The man made no answer. He never did.'
And now she is in love again, this time with Mr Winterslow, the only one who sees her, though Miss Bates can see the suicide, an intriguing touch.
'The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance'-- M.R. James (A THIN GHOST, Arnold; London, 1919, and many places since then)
For continuity of course; the story is familiar to all. Told in daily letters over the Christmas season to 'Robert' from his brother 'W.R.', who is in on the investigation of the disappearance of their uncle Henry.
Not that beloved was Uncle Henry, a rector with a bad temper who never returned from his visit to a sick parishioner at an outlying cottage a couple of miles distant. As events transpire, it emerges that he must have been waylaid someplace between there and home. W.R., frustrated by a fruitless search and the tiresome chatter of his host, the idiotic Mr Bowman, falls asleep Christmas Eve and dreams...
...of a Punch and Judy show. The most horrible imaginable, in which the murders are sickeningly realistic, and for a change one in which Punch himself finally falls prey to one of his victims, 'a sturdy figure clad in black, and, as I thought, wearing bands: his head was covered with a whitish bag.'
The following day there are disturbing presentiments at the Christmas church services, which are infected with echoes of a different type of service altogether. And lastly, there is the genuine Punch and Judy show that W.R. witnesses from his window, which vantage point affords the sight of the hooded figure within the booth with the two professors, the Toby dog having already fled shortly before.
'Blind Man's Hood'-- John Dickson Carr
One good hood deserves another. Rodney and Muriel Hunter were supposed to be at Clearlawns at five for the Christmas party, but seem to be a couple of hours late. Everyone's gone off somewhere and left all the lights on and the door wide open, and only a servant left behind to tell them the story of why. So they settle in and hear the tale of spurned love from the past, and the game of Blind Man's Bluff that was played with a hood instead of a blindfold.
Note: If you've ever wondered why 'Blind Man's Bluff' (as Carr spells it) is alternately spelled 'Buff' (cf: Wakefield's story), it is the result of the newer spelling and its connotation of the players' 'bluffing' the seeker as to their whereabouts having metamorphosed from the original spelling 'buff' (Norman-French *buffe*, a blow), referring to the three buffs or pats which the blindman gets when he has caught a player (courtesy of *Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable*). This story and James' together resemble a Magritte painting I saw once.
'The Haunted Mill, or The Ruined House'-- Jerome K. Jerome (TOLD AFTER SUPPER, Leadenhall Press; London, 1891)
Well, the whole book is wonderful, and I can't even write about this story for laughing so hard. As Rob provided for us awhile back, it's online at http://tom.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/book/lookup?num=1993, and if you're lucky enough to find the 1985 paperback of it, AFTER SUPPER GHOST STORIES from Alan Sutton, with the delightful K.N. Skeaping illustrations (which look to be from the original printing), you will have found a real treat.
Arthur Quiller-Recouch
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rbadac (December 14, 1999)
[Christmas Ghosts, Part Three: 'Not Exactly Ghosts']Weird mood pieces I hate not to mention, but which I should perhaps get out of the way now, before returning to the real spectres.
'Back For Christmas'-- John Collier (FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS, Doubleday; NY, 1952)
An audacious promise. Dr. Carpenter has absolutely no intention of being back in Little Godwearing for Christmas, regardless of what his wife said to everyone. Collier crafts O. Henry-style irony into a succinct and amusing shocker, the type of story he does so well that he continues to be the reigning master of the item, though he's been a ghost himself for some time. A purveyor of deliciously witty and macabre stories, full of sly observations on the foibles and follies of a select group of men and women who ostensibly occupy various locations of prewar England and America, but who actually inhabit the prickly, unstable universe of Collier's own creation, in which their gamely- upheld logic seeks to make inroads; more of a funhouse mirror of reality than reality itself, but not without its recognizable features. His real forte, however, is devils, and their various compacts with humankind. There are some ghosts, too: 'Old Acquaintance,' and one of my all-time favorite ghost stories, 'Are You Too Late Or Was I Too Early.'
' "A Froward Child" '-- Walter de la Mare (THE WIND BLOWS OVER, Macmillan; NY, 1936)
Yes, I know the first edition is Faber & Faber, London. Why don't you get me one for Christmas? No ghosts here either, but this is the de la Mare story I was thinking of for the holiday. And maybe there *is* a ghost in it after all? Lavinia can see that the strange man who shares her railway compartment is afraid of Someone who may be on the train. He finally admits as much, but when, at his request, she goes to look, there is no one. He could have been more grateful for this news. Beautifully told, prime de la Mare. For a December ghost, try 'The House' in this same collection, which is even better, if that's possible; since de la Mare's range is so high throughout his work, it's hard to tell. I stopped worrying about it a long time ago.
'Death On Christmas Eve'-- Stanley Ellin
The family lawyer goes to visit his old friend Charlie on Christmas Eve. Old Charlie, up in that old house with only his sister Celia for company; the same Celia who threw his wife Jessie down the stairs and killed her on another Christmas Eve, but who got off for lack of evidence. Remember those great Bette Davis films of the Sixties, *Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte* and *Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?*? They'll help you capture the atmosphere of Ellin's tale. Grim. In QUIET HORROR (Dell; NY, 1958), also in Ellin's catch-all collection THE SPECIALTY OF THE HOUSE (Mysterious Press; NY, 1979)
'The Wild Wood'-- Mildred Clingerman
The woman who is immortal proof that you don't *have* to come up with a pen-name to be a great weird fiction writer. Do not miss this one if you can help it; it's in THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, SEVENTH SERIES edited by Anthony Boucher, also in Clingerman's own paperback colection A CUPFUL OF SPACE (Ballantine; NY, 1961), a must- have. If you had read this story before picking out your Christmas tree, you might have decided to settle for one of those fiber-optic monstrosities after all, because that is what Margaret Abbott has gone to do, once again, at Cravolini's Christmas Tree Headquarters, with the whole family in tow. Besides the usual tensions, Margaret must deal with the lustful proprietor, Alberto Cravolini, and his grotesque sister Angela. Here comes a candle. Horrifying, kinky, unpleasant, and fascinating. Highly recommended.
rbadac
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Julie Long (December 14, 1999)
rbadac wrote:RE: Mood pieces --
What a great posting - Mildred Clingerman! What a name. John Collier just rocks. Thanks for the valuable information.
Julie
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paghat (December 14, 1999)
Mildred Clingerman's rather misleadingly titled A CUP FULL OF SPACE has some of the best fantasy & supernatural fiction of its era & at the time had an enormous printing & was a best seller as genre books go. It was one of those books every second-hand shop had four or five copies of -- kind of like book clubs of Peter Benchly novels today -- but they must've all worn out by now as it's gotten hard to find. Yet I don't believe she ever did another book. I saw that Dan Zweig did an imperceptive lukewarm review of it as "charming but lightweight" but it's only lightweight if Jack Finney is lightweight.And speaking of Finneys, another paperback original from around the same era as Clingerman is another brilliant sleeper, THE GHOSTS OF MANACLE by Charles Finney, who stopped writing because of extreme arthritis but what a brilliant small body of work he left us.
-paghat
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rbadac (December 15, 1999)
Absolutely. That's the only short story collection I know of from CGF, and it's a winner indeed. Haven't gotten around yet to his other novel, THE UNHOLY CITY, but CIRCUS OF DR. LAO gets re-read by me every year, especially the index of characters and items in the back, which is almost as entertaining as the book itself.rbadac
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Randy Money (December 14, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> 'Back For Christmas'-- John Collier (FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS,
> Doubleday; NY, 1952)Thanks for the recommendations, rbadac. I second -- or maybe by now, third -- the Collier. I'll be looking for the others.
Randy
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rbadac (December 19, 1999)
[Christmas Ghosts, Part Four: 'What the Dickens...?']I'm sorry. I couldn't think of another title. This will by no means be a comprehensive piece on him; Charles Dickens is the ruler of Christmas stories, and wrote more chestnuts of that description than will be roasted on this open fire. In fact, I'm only going to heat up one of them for you: 'The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain.'
Or, as I fondly termed it while reading, 'the other long one.' In my paperback of Peter Haining's THE COMPLETE GHOST STORIES OF CHARLES DICKENS (Washington Square Press; NY, 1983), 'Carol' takes up 75 pages; 'Haunted Man' claims 88, and I don't mind telling you it was rough going there at first, what with my rotten attention span and the fulsome prose of that other era, but you will find it well worth the trouble, and will fall prey to the heartwarming Dickens mojo just in time for Christmas, and have an extra nimbus around your head with everyone else watching Alastair Sim on TV.
'Haunted Man' is scarier. Instead of a crotchety and deserving old Scrooge being run through the attitude adjustment mill, we have a relatively innocent victim granted a terrible power. Redlaw the chemist is not a bad man at all; he's just a little impulsive when he reflects back on his life and surmises too quickly and unwisely that he might could have done without all the unhappy parts of it. It's an easy mistake to make. But he'll settle, with some prodding from a baleful Phantom replica of himself, for the loss of all memory of 'sorrow, wrong, and trouble.'
Unfortunately, 'The Monkey's Paw' had not been written yet, so Redlaw has no inkling of the perilousness of this agreement. Then too, he is also plagued with a trick condition that stipulates he pass this callous nepenthe onto whomever he comes into contact with, supposedly so he can share his newfound 'improvement' with the rest of the world.
And now the charade of Redlaw's supposed blessing comes apart with a hideous precipitation, as we see everyone around him succumb to his curse of forgetfulness. It's not as pat a moral message as it would seem, though it plays havoc with the good people of a Dickensian universe. There's a little something extra for our benefit, which I'll come to presently.
Dickens' characters, as always, are lovingly drawn, and carry the narrative with their intensely realized identities: Redlaw's butler, William Swidger ('Mr William'), who drives you mad until the Dickens magic touches you and makes you realize that he is only a simple good- hearted soul after all, and as such deserves to be not only tolerated but admired; his sweet wife Milly ('Mrs William'), the very essence of kindness and patience; William's old father Philip, whose hilarious presence ('I'm eighty-seven !') is a veneer for even deeper wisdom; the Cratchit-like Tetterby family, which is delineated with breathtaking warmth and perception, particularly little Johnny, who bears his tyrannical baby sister (called 'Moloch' by Dickens) on his back with all the self-sacrificing grace of Tiny Tim with his crutch, but with more humor and less cloying pathos; and the nameless feral beggar child that reluctantly becomes bound to Redlaw in his misery, the only one immune to his soul-destroying Midas touch simply because he has no soul to destroy.
This being Dickens AND a story from 1848 AND a Christmas story, it is foregone that all will end well-- it's hardly a spoiler to tell you that. But don't let that ruin your holiday. I said earlier that 'The Haunted Man' was scarier, and I wasn't kidding. The thing about reading this tale in 1999 is that, had this story been a contemporary one written in the last decade of the 20th century, it would never have passed for fiction. You'll see what I mean when you observe how the people who are touched by the blighted Redlaw are transformed from the kind, thoughtful human beings that represent what Dickens saw as the best in mankind into-- the way people are now. So accurate is the likeness that you may at first wonder what the fuss is about, or if anything happened at all, until you remember that you are not in the modern world, you're in a story written 150 years ago, and these seemingly 'normal' individuals, here, are monsters and travesties. You will see, and you will shudder.
rbadac, the Ghost of Christmas Lost
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paghat (December 20, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> Or, as I fondly termed it while reading, 'the other long one.' In my
> paperback of Peter Haining's THE COMPLETE GHOST STORIES OF CHARLES
> DICKENS (Washington Square Press; NY, 1983),
[clippity]
Without grabbing my copy to double-check my recollection is it is missing at least THE CHIMES so "complete" is inaccurate. But a most useful compendium which permitted me to condense two feet of bookshelf space into a couple inches & make room for some other stuff.
-paghat
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William Allison (December 20, 1999)
I just looked at my Watts HC and can confirm the absence of "The Chimes". What is interesting is that "The Chimes" is mentioned in the introduction, so the omission in this case would not appear to be through lack of knowledge. Since the story is mentioned as involving bell goblins, and not ghosts in the strict sense, perhaps Haining felt it didn't qualify.Still, we haven't had a good caning around here in a while, so this is as good an excuse as any...
Bill A. (looking for the cane with the duck head...)
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rbadac (December 20, 1999)
I'm for that. A bell goblin is at least as much a ghost as the goblins who stole the sexton.rbadac, who has other reasons for caning Haining
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Jim Rockhill (December 20, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
> I'm sorry. I couldn't think of another title.Perhaps, in light of the recent brouhaha anent the new millennium supposedly starting this coming January(don't get me started), the next segment could be titled "What Rough Beast."
Jim Rockhill (whose chair is so uncomfortable he keeps slouching toward the window, if not Bethlehem)
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rbadac (December 21, 1999)
Hmm...not bad. Only four more slouching days left, after all.To tell you the truth, I have no idea what Part Five will be about. I've wandered so far afield it's going to take an effort to bring it all back around to a coherent whole.
rbadac
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Jim Rockhill (December 21, 1999)
Coming soon to a college bookstore near you - THE COHERENT WHOLE: A STUDY OF THE POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF ROBERT AICKMAN by Divers Hands, to be followed this Spring by THE COHERENT HOLE: AN APPRECIATION OF THE NUMINOUS IN THE FICTION OF ROBERT AICKMAN, Muddy Waters Press, Sucking Pit, Michigan.--
jimrockhilloOo
rbadac (December 22, 1999)
Ouch ! I imagine the first title would just be a collection of our recent week's postings, and the second have something to do with Courtney Love.rbadac, living through this
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Steve Wise (December 19, 1999)
rbadac mentioned Russell Kirk's "The Peculiar Demesne", which originally appeared in Kirby McCauley's landmark 1980 anthology DARK FORCES. Another good story in the same volume, Gene Wolfe's "The Detective of Dreams", has a similar theme: the one Christmas present that really counts. Also in DARK FORCES is Robert Bloch's "The Night Before Christmas", but that one is unlikely to enhance anyone's Christmas season.oOo
William Allison (December 19, 1999)
Steve! Glad to see you're still lurking, I was getting worried there...Bill A.
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rbadac (December 20, 1999)
My thoughts exactly, Bill ! Merry Christmas, Steve, our own resident ghost !rbadac
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