From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

How Fear Departed the Long Gallery: A Ghost Story for Christmas

E.F. Benson,

Seth (Illustrations)

Start date: December 8, 2024

Finish date: December 15, 2024

Discussion: Group Reads

Discussion leader: Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂

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What Members Thought

Dec 08, 2024 Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: christmassy, keeping-it-short, paranormal, horror-show

Calling this one Christmassy is a stretch - it takes place at a country manor just after Christmas Day & there is nothing Christmassy about this very short story (I read at Gutenberg Australia; the Seth edition must be very heavily illustrated to get a 52 page count)

Mildly witty & the horror is at the lower end of the scale.

So far Benson hasn't put a foot wrong for me & he is now one of my favourite authors.

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16 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2024 Valerie Book Valkyrie rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-story

4 Spectrally Sympathetic Stars
Spectacular specter suffused short story! The Peveril family members have an unctiously understated attitude toward their revenant relatives...

"CHURCH-PEVERIL is a house so beset and frequented by spectres, both visible and audible, that none of the family which it shelters under its acre and a half of green copper roofs takes psychical phenomena with any seriousness. For to the Peverils the appearance of a ghost is a matter of hardly greater significance than is th ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 05, 2024 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, tbr-retro

One of my favorite comic writers, E. F. Benson, brilliant creator of the Lucia books (first is Queen Lucia), also wrote horror. Normally not at all my thing, but the Retro Reads group here on GR is reading this short story set at Christmas - I enjoyed it very much, despite being a wimp about scary stuff!

He really sets a mood, but manages to start with his customary humor, as he introduces the Peverils at their country estate, explaining their generally blasé acceptance of living alongside the gh ...more

1 like · Like · see review