Nellie
New Member
I wasn't sure whether to put this here, or in the short stories section, please feel free to move it! :flowers:
ISBN: 9780307269249
Published: September 2008
Given it’s the spooky season, I thought I would take a look at some ghost stories. This particular anthology is great, not only does it have a great range of stories by authors as diverse as Robert Louis Stevenson to PG Wodehouse, but it is physically a very pleasing volume. It’s a small hardback with some wonderful cover art depicting some of the scenes from the stories.
The story which really left me feeling I had been touched by the supernatural was "The Horla" by Guy De Maupassant. The story follows an unnamed narrator who is haunted by a being whom he believes is controlling him and trying to suck the life from him. It starts with night terrors which leave him shaken and scared and it soon develops into a fear of sleeping and paranoia of what may befall him. The terror builds and he starts to see the supernatural everywhere, and as the reader it’s easy to get swept along in the claustrophobia of his paranoia, even though some of the things are clearly mundane. He slips further and further into insanity as he tries to work out how to overcome the torment. It wasn't until after I had read the story that I found out that Maupassant had suffered from severe mental illness towards the end of his life and I wondered how much of the terror depicted in the story was a reflection of his own terror experienced during his illness.
Overall a great Halloween read with some genuinely frightening stories which would be wonderful read aloud in front of a fire on a stormy night...
ISBN: 9780307269249
Published: September 2008
Given it’s the spooky season, I thought I would take a look at some ghost stories. This particular anthology is great, not only does it have a great range of stories by authors as diverse as Robert Louis Stevenson to PG Wodehouse, but it is physically a very pleasing volume. It’s a small hardback with some wonderful cover art depicting some of the scenes from the stories.
The story which really left me feeling I had been touched by the supernatural was "The Horla" by Guy De Maupassant. The story follows an unnamed narrator who is haunted by a being whom he believes is controlling him and trying to suck the life from him. It starts with night terrors which leave him shaken and scared and it soon develops into a fear of sleeping and paranoia of what may befall him. The terror builds and he starts to see the supernatural everywhere, and as the reader it’s easy to get swept along in the claustrophobia of his paranoia, even though some of the things are clearly mundane. He slips further and further into insanity as he tries to work out how to overcome the torment. It wasn't until after I had read the story that I found out that Maupassant had suffered from severe mental illness towards the end of his life and I wondered how much of the terror depicted in the story was a reflection of his own terror experienced during his illness.
Overall a great Halloween read with some genuinely frightening stories which would be wonderful read aloud in front of a fire on a stormy night...