The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories(The
Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories #5)
by Peter Haining
I know what you're thinking. For some reason, the publishers of this book didn't think literature would sell, so they
geared the title and cover art to make you believe this was a collection of shocking-but-true ghost stories that
would leave you with a good scare. So, if that was you're assumption, and you're thinking "That's not my thing"
then let me tell you, you're wrong.
This is a fabulous collection of literature, that just happens to deal with the supernatural. (Think "A Christmas
Carol" -- technically a ghost story, but so much more than that.) Authors such as Daphne du Maurier, Arthur
Conan Doyle, and Henry James are featured, as well as other great writers I'd never heard of. The anthology tracks
the development of the art of "ghost story" through the 20th century, beginning with classic tales of hauntings
and ending with a supernatural story from 1997 that leans decidedly toward science fiction.
The stories themselves range from chilling to psychological, and from humorous to poignant. Overall, a
compelling argument for not judging a book by its cover.|Editor Peter Haining does a good job choosing the
selections for this collection of ghost stories. Rather than emphasizing pieces featuring moaning phantoms,
clanking chains and other staple but simplistic fare common to the genre, Haining sought stories heavy with eerie
mood and tone. As with any anthology like this one, some vignettes are better or more effective than others. That
said, the overall quality of the selections is consistently high. Some of the tales surely will curdle a reader's blood
late in the dead of a stormy night. The compilation makes clear ghosts are as often specters within us as without,
and there can be no haunting absent the haunted.|This one took me a very long time to complete since nearly half
of the collection of stories were either painfully dull and tame (surprisingly by well known authors whose stories
may have frightened or terrified readers at the first-half of the 20th century, but are "ho-hum" by today's horror
standards), or had little or nothing to do with ghosts (just a vague notion of the supernatural), and still others read
like bad urban legends with predictable endings. But nonetheless I read them all from beginning to end. However,
the book is by no means a complete loss since the other half of stories collected are well worth the read (which is
like bad urban legends with predictable endings. But nonetheless I read them all from beginning to end. However,
the book is by no means a complete loss since the other half of stories collected are well worth the read (which is
why I gave the book an overall 3-star rating). So, if you happen to pick up this book, the stories I recommend
reading are: A.C. Benson's "The House at Trehale", Arthur Gray's "The Everlasting Club", A.N.L. Munby's "Number
Seventy-Nine", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Playing With Fire", Rudyard Kipling's "The House Surgeon", John
Buchan's "The Grove of Ashtaroth", Somerset Maugham's "A Man from Glasgow", George Minto's "The Ghost of
U65", Algernon Blackwood's "Vengeance is Mine", Sir Alec Guiness' "Money for Jam", Edith Wharton's "The Lady's
Maid's Bell", Eudora Welty's "Clytie", Daphne du Maurier's "The Pool", James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got
In", Eric Keown's "Sir Tristram Goes West", Ray Bradbury's "Another Fine Mess", E.F. Benson's "A Light in the
Garden", Hammond Innes' "South Sea Bubble", Fritz Leiber's "Smoke Ghost", A.E. Van Vogt's "The Ghost", and
Philip Pullman's "Video Nasty".
|I read the first two sections of this book (The Modern Tradition and The Golden Era), but have to stop for now to
return this to the library and fulfill someone else's hold.
There are no real standouts so far- every tale is more or less the same as the one before it. Nabakov's and D.H.
Lawrence's contributions the genre are frankly bizarre- not so much ghost stories as supernatural tales about the
time-space continuum playing tricks on unwitting protagonists. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with Rudyard
Kipling's "The House Surgeon," the closest to the modern day "haunted house" formula.
Something I find interesting: many of these earlier supernatural writers from the 19th and early 20th century are
super-concerned with race and religion. There's an obvious strain of mistrust and fear running through several of
the tales- the Christian/Protestant narrators are wary or disapproving of anyone deriving from a "mystical,"
"ancient," or "Mediterranean" culture, no matter how far removed these people might be from their roots. Blood,
it seems, is inescapable. Greeks, people with Jewish heritage... all much more susceptible to hauntings and curses.
This is consistent with other, more modern ghost stories that I've read, where Catholics are lumped into the same
category.
Good fodder for somebody's Ph.D. dissertation, I'm sure.
I look forward to returning to this book later, to read interpretations by Edith Wharton, Eudora Welty, Daphne Du
Maurier, and Joyce Carol Oates.
|As this is an anthology, I'm rating each short story individually and averaging those ratings out for the book's
overall rating.
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"Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M.R. James
The House at Treheale by A.C. Benson
The Richpins by E.G. Swain
The Everlasting Club by Arthur Gray
Number Seventy-Nine by A.N.L. Munby
Playing with Fire by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The House Surgeon by Rudyard Kipling
The Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buchan
A Man from Glasgow by Somerset Maugham
The Last Laugh by D.H. Lawrence
The Visit to the Museum by Vladimir Nabokov
The Bowmen by Arthur Machen
The Ghost of U65 by George Minto
"Vengeance is Mine" by Algernon Blackwood
The Punishment by Lord Dunsany
The Haunted Chateau by Dennis Wheatley
Pink May by Elizabeth Bowen
A Gremlin in the Beer by Derek Barnes
Money for Jam by Sir Alec Guinness
The Lady's Maid's Bell by Edith Wharton
The Duenna by Marie Belloc Lowndes
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The Duenna by Marie Belloc Lowndes
Clytie by Eudora Welty
The Pool by Daphne du Maurier
A Spot of Gothic by Jane Gardam
The Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells
Full Fathom Five by Alexander Woollcott
The Night the Ghost Got In by James Thurber
Sir Tristram Goes West by Eric Keown
Who or What Was It? by Kingsley Amis
Another Fine Mess by Ray Bradbury
Only a Dream... by Rider Haggard
The Haunted House by Edith Nesbit
The Light in the Garden by E.F. Benson
The Prescription by Marjorie Bowen
Christmas Honeymoon by Howard Spring
South Sea Bubble by Hammond Innes
Ringing in the Good News by Peter Ackroyd
Smoke Ghost by Fritz Leiber
The Ghost by A.E. van Vogt
The Party by William F. Nolan
Underground by J.B. Priestley
Haunted by Joyce Carol Oates
Video Nasty by Philip Pullman
My Beautiful House by Louis de Bernières