8.F.G.S.- Part One

[rba...@hotmail.com]

These Fontana Great Ghost Stories reviews get unwieldy at full length, so I'm
gonna take it easy on you this time out...

'The Haunted Haven'- A.E. Ellis

Ticklas Haven has two coves, but the fishermen only use its northern one
(though the southern is more naturally suitable), and when the wind gales
from the southwest they would not willingly be near the harbor at all. Three
brothers murdered their miserly uncle and cast him into the sea during such a
gale, and each met his own death not long after. The hopelessly damaged boat
they used was hauled up onto the shingle to rot.

So why was it that an old man lost his life one night running in terror from
what he saw in the south cove, why too, three months later, from being in the
same place, that poor little girl should lose her reason and die in the
asylum, unable to do aught but shriek of 'the four dead men,' 'the dead men
in the boat !' ?

Know Your Outland Waterways. Pleasantly written, an adjectival phase I enjoy
using for horrible stories, though nothing particularly new. This tale is
squarely in the tradition of seafaring spectres, and we all know what a good
dressing seaweed is on a decomposing corpse. Yum.

'The Red Lodge'- H.R. Wakefield

Oh dear, I did this one already on Horrornet. Here's a little story that
needs no introduction folks, and if you haven't read it, it's still bad news.
Based on a real house that Wakefield visited and whose evil he attested to
personally; see his intro, 'Farewell To All Those !' in Arkham House's
STRAYERS FROM SHEOL (1961). Did Ash-Tree happen to reprint this essay in one
of their Wakefield collections?

'Midnight Express'- Alfred Noyes

Okay, I didn't care for this one, and I think I know why. It's not that it is
badly written (there are some nice passages in it); I think I've simply read
too many ghost stories. Aickman describes Noyes as 'poet, romantic, and
prophet' in the Intro, and doubtless the main body of his work, which I
haven't read, is deserving of greater praise, but this particular tale I
found to be too contrived in its premise to enjoy, almost as if it were the
single foray into the genre made by a writer who didn't usually write ghost
stories-- but that's not true ! Noyes shows two such collections in Bleiler:
WALKING SHADOWS (Cassell; London, 1918), and THE HIDDEN PLAYER (Hodder &
Stoughton; London, 1924). Imagine my toadying self-satisfaction to finds that
Bleiler didn't like him either. I know damn well *he's* read too many ghost
stories.

More to come. Comments?

rbadac

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[bbar...@jhu.edu]

In article <7e2muu$gkg$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
rba...@hotmail.com wrote:

> 'Midnight Express'- Alfred Noyes
>
> Okay, I didn't care for this one, and I think I know why. It's not that it is
> badly written (there are some nice passages in it); I think I've simply read
> too many ghost stories. Aickman describes Noyes as 'poet, romantic, and
> prophet' in the Intro, and doubtless the main body of his work, which I
> haven't read, is deserving of greater praise, but this particular tale I
> found to be too contrived in its premise to enjoy, almost as if it were the
> single foray into the genre made by a writer who didn't usually write ghost
> stories-- but that's not true ! Noyes shows two such collections in Bleiler:
> WALKING SHADOWS (Cassell; London, 1918), and THE HIDDEN PLAYER (Hodder &
> Stoughton; London, 1924). Imagine my toadying self-satisfaction to finds that
> Bleiler didn't like him either. I know damn well *he's* read too many ghost
> stories.

I love this story! At least I did when I read it, in Mazzeo's HAUNTINGS. So
I was greatly disappointed to find nothing nearly as good in THE HIDDEN
PLAYER (who is God, by the way); in fact I barely remember anything about it,
except that not much of it was ghostly, and the last story had a slight
stench of eugenics to it. You have my blessing not to bother with either
collection.

Bill B.

[rba...@hotmail.com]

In article <7e2sq1$lvb$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
bbar...@jhu.edu wrote:

> I love this story! At least I did when I read it, in Mazzeo's HAUNTINGS. So
> I was greatly disappointed to find nothing nearly as good in THE HIDDEN
> PLAYER (who is God, by the way); in fact I barely remember anything about it,
> except that not much of it was ghostly, and the last story had a slight
> stench of eugenics to it. You have my blessing not to bother with either
> collection.
>
> Bill B.

Thamks, Bill !

rbadac (pondering the stench of eugenics)

[rba...@hotmail.com]

In article <7e2sq1$lvb$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
bbar...@jhu.edu wrote:

> I love this story! At least I did when I read it, in Mazzeo's HAUNTINGS. So
> I was greatly disappointed to find nothing nearly as good in THE HIDDEN
> PLAYER (who is God, by the way); in fact I barely remember anything about it,
> except that not much of it was ghostly, and the last story had a slight
> stench of eugenics to it. You have my blessing not to bother with either
> collection.
>
> Bill B.

Thanks, Bill !