flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2011-09-21 09:53 pm
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Wordsworth Editions has a line of classic horror and ghost stories, all available at the Blue'n'white bookstore. Sheridan Lefanu, whom I think I've read and not that long ago, but nothing sticks in my memory except a sense that Lefanu wasn't all that scary. Ambrose Bierce, ditto. RH Benson, who wrote Mapp and Lucia-- how scary can he be? The Monk, which is giggleworthy.

But. But. They also have an edition of M.R.James, thirty of his classics. Which I would love to read, or reread in the case of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. But the absolute prerequisite to reading James, for me, is having a Significant Other to share one's bed and keep the night terrors away after reading him; and that, alas, I do not have.

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
Awww ... could you borrow a cat from next door or ... something? And are they really scary?

I am sorry to say that I have not heard of any of those persons (Although the title itself - or it could just be the 'Antiquary' part that sounds familiar.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
Cats won't do. (Also next door's cat has returned to his original home.) Has to be reassuringly large and warm and human, and capable of talking. Yes, M.R. James is scary. He's available online (http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mrjames.html). Try 'O whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad' or 'Lost hearts' or 'Count Magnus', all of which frightened me into hysterics when I was eleven.

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
Ahhh thanks for those links ... hmmm I guess even if he doesn't sound familiar, some of those stories do. But I won't know till I seek him out. Which I just might. (she says hopefully) ^_^

At that age my benchmark for scary was Wilkie Collins. Is it 'The Moonstone' or 'The Woman in White' kind of scary .... mind you ...'The Hound of Baskervilles' made me forever grateful that I had never ever encountered big dogs on dark nights (Sometimes big dogs on dark nights still DO scare me) and made me glad I shared a room.

[identity profile] tammylee.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
D:
*looks him up on kindle*
OOOH! For free on Kindle! Thank you for this post! I'm always looking for good, scary stories!

Is there a lock on your bedroom door? Do you have a fan to make white noise? Those tend to help me when I sleep alone after reading scary stories.

*hugs*

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
No lock, but I have a fan for white noise. Doesn't help. Ghosts can go through doors.
incandescens: (Default)

[personal profile] incandescens 2011-09-22 09:10 am (UTC)(link)
I was at boarding school when I first read James.

Retelling the stories to the juniors on the nights when I was on "make sure they stay quiet in the half-hour before bedtime" dormitory duty rota was one of the few things that worked at keeping them quiet. Of course, that only worked until I ran out of stories.

(It's difficult to be really scared in that respect when sharing a dormitory with thirty other people.)

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2011-09-22 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Agreed. Thirty young living energies would keep most ghoulies away.