Classic Horror Lovers discussion

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of "Number 13".

Ken wrote (in part):

I found the ending a little bit confusing when James mentions the book he owns with the woodcut frontispiece and the mention of Daniel Salthenius. ..."

I assumed those were the points he was trying to make. He just seemed to get off on a bit of a tangent, like maybe he was heading one way with the story, faked a left, jinked it right and then ended the story

Discussion of “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”

It’s been quite a while since I last read this one. Not my favorite by any means, but it came across as far better than I recalled. (view spoiler)[The climax in the abbot’s well is quite creepy, but my gripe is that the tale seems to take a long time to get to that point and the cryptographic element that dominates the first three-quarters is relatively uninteresting (in my opinion, of course). (hide spoiler)]

4* (of 5)

*******************"Count Magnus"*******************

I find myself getting to the end of all of the short stories and wishing they were longer. I am not sure if that is the sign of a good or bad storyteller.

I would love to know more about Count Magnus.

(view spoiler)[I would love to know more about the Black Pilgrimage and the "something or someone" that he brought back with him. (hide spoiler)]

It seems that James consistently left good story ideas hanging. Was it deliberate or was he ADD and ran from one project to the next without ever finishing the previous?

Ken wrote: "*******************""The Ash Tree"********************

This was another decent story. But, I felt it was marred by the long stretch of colloquial speech in the middle of it. It was more of a distr..."

I'm not exactly an arachnophobe...I live in a rural area with lots of mosquitoes, so my tendency is to let spiders live unless they cross my direct path (because they eat skeeters and lots of other things.) However, (view spoiler)[ the spiders' size completely freaked me out. I'm not a fan of the big, hairy type of spider. *shudder* (hide spoiler)]

Ken wrote (in part):

I find myself getting to the end of all of the short stories and wishing they were longer. I am not sure if that is the sign of a good or bad storyteller. It seems that James consistently left good story ideas hanging. Was it deliberate or was he ADD and ran from one project to the next without ever finishing the previous?

Stephen King famously noted that “what’s behind the door or lurking at the top of the stairs is never as frightening as the door or the staircase itself”, placing the horror writer in the difficult (and perhaps impossible) position of trying to determine when he or she is revealing too much or too little to the reader. Personally, I tend to prefer the less-is-more approach, which means I think James is doing just fine when he withholds details about the Black Pilgrimmage or when he decides not to paint a detailed picture of Mag. Nicholas Francken. Of course, that’s my preference; different people like that line drawn in different places.

Charlene wrote: "Ken wrote: "*******************""The Ash Tree"********************

This was another decent story. But, I felt it was marred by the long stretch of colloquial speech in the middle of it. It was mor..."

I used to have a "live and let live" policy towards spiders, even ignoring the occasional creepy critter that found its way into the house. Until....I was going to bed late one night and saw a wolf spider (see pic) about the size of a silver dollar on the wall. I figured I would ignore him and he would be gone by morning and everyone would be no worse off for it. Well, I fell asleep and about 15 minutes later jumped awake with that damn thing ON MY FACE! WTH?!?!?! Killed that one and use selective judgment to this day for any others that may do anything else stupid.

Discussion of “The Ash-Tree”.

Charlene wrote:

I'm not exactly an arachnophobe...I live in a rural area with lots of mosquitoes, so my tendency is to let spiders live unless they cross my direct path (because they eat skeeters and lots of other things.) However, (view spoiler)[the spiders' size completely freaked me out. I'm not a fan of the big, hairy type of spider. *shudder* (hide spoiler)]

Many years ago I was tasked with taking care of a tarantula over an extended period of time; that care included periodically handling it. You do that often enough and you tend to lose any fear or nervousness. (view spoiler)[Of course, that’s not to say I’d relish the opportunity to pick up a kitten-sized spider. ;) (hide spoiler)]

Ken, we have those too! Those, I cannot abide. I can't see the picture though, but we have ones we call wolf spiders here, and all together they're about the size of my hand. And they're hairy.
If one landed on my face, I might very well go insane. It's bad enough that I once found one in my shoe.

*****"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'"*********

I thought in terms of atmosphere, this has been the strongest story so far.

And, again, I do wish it was longer.

(view spoiler)[I really thought that when Rogers arrived at the hotel that there would be some sort of investigation that would have fleshed out the story of the ruined church, the whistle, the linen-wrapped figure and the figure that pursued him. Instead, we get a quick, "there is really nothing more to tell" and an abrupt ending. (hide spoiler)]

Looks like I have one more story to go in this one. Do you guys want to keep going and read "More Ghost Stories"?

"A School Story"
"The Rose Garden"
"The Tractate Middoth"
"Casting the Runes"
"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"
"Martin's Close"
"Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance"

Ken wrote (in part):

Looks like I have one more story to go in this one. Do you guys want to keep going and read "More Ghost Stories"?

I’d certainly be in, Ken. For my money the stories in the second collection are nearly as strong as those in the first. Just let us know when you want to start.

I'll try to join in.

sounds good. I read the first few stories and would be up to starting up again :)

Okay, lets do it. I took off the dates because it seems we are moving at a decent pace. Jump in and discuss.

**********“The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”*******

(view spoiler)[This one seemed like an early 20th century "The Da Vinci Code" meets "Raiders of the Lost Ark", a mysterious code hidden in church relics leading to a treasure.

One thing I did notice here that I had noticed in the other short stories but not nearly as much is James' inability to foreshadow. He refers directly to certain incidents and then says "but I'm not going to tell you about that yet". Not very smooth. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of “A School Story”

I’ve probably read this story well over a dozen times and it remains one of my favorites by James in spite of its few minor problems and also in spite of the fact that it’s a bit nonJamesian. What I mean by the latter is that, unlike most of the stories to this point, there is not much of an antiquarian flavor to it — no ruined perceptories, old engravings, or illuminated manuscripts. For James (at least when considering the stories in his first two collections) this is a kind of stripped down tale. What I like about the story (at least in part) is that the setting makes it so relatable. When in the opening pages of the story James recounts the spook stories told by boys to one another, it instantly calls to mind very similar sorts of urban legends connected to my old school.

(view spoiler)[I enjoyed the events leading up to Sampson’s disappearance; the spectral messages were, I think, a particularly nice (and creepy) touch. McLeod’s description of “beastly thin” figure beckoning to Sampson is classic James. The ending is (as noted by the narrator) a tad more conventional than often seen in a James story, but it’s very well done and the last line never fails to produce in me that pleasant frisson of disquiet often associated with good horror stories. (Although I can easily imagine Ken wanting to know more about the relationship between the schoolteacher and the “other” inhabitant of the well. ;) ). (hide spoiler)]

5* (of 5)

Oh man, you guys started already?! Ok.

Charlene wrote:

Oh man, you guys started already?! Ok.

Sorry if I jumped the gun a bit, Charlene. I had a few moments last night and “A School Story” is really a quick read. I’ll probably have to slow down my pace a bit this week as it promises to be a hectic one both at work and home.

Oh, no worries! I downloaded the book this morning and will work in a few stories over the course of this week. I was just surprised is all. :)

I've been working on the Tales to Chill Your Blood Reads "The Haunters and the Haunted". I probably won't even get to James until tomorrow. BTW, "The Haunters and the Haunted" is pretty good so far. You should check it out.

Ken wrote:

I've been working on the Tales to Chill Your Blood Reads "The Haunters and the Haunted". I probably won't even get to James until tomorrow. BTW, "The Haunters and the Haunted" is pretty good so far. You should check it out.

I was thinking about re-reading that one, Ken. It’s been a long, long time. I recall being absolutely paralyzed by the initial part when I was a kid, but (without venturing into spoiler territory) being let down by the direction it eventually takes.

A School Story.

(view spoiler)[ I enjoyed this one. Despite being a very old story, it still has the ring of truth to it. I remember similar conversations at my high school. I liked the ending, but I would have liked to know who it was that was found with GWS and why they were there. (hide spoiler)]

4 out of 5 stars!

Charlene wrote:

A School Story.

(view spoiler)[I enjoyed this one. Despite being a very old story, it still has the ring of truth to it. I remember similar conversations at my high school. I liked the ending, but I would have liked to know who it was that was found with GWS and why they were there. (hide spoiler)]

Given that recent discussion has touched on the issue of dissatisfaction with James' technique of withholding background information in some of his stories, I thought it perhaps apropos to mention that Sarob Press last year published The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows (edited by the expert in all things Jamesian, Rosemary Pardoe). The twelve stories are prequels and/or sequels to James’ stories.

Sarob Press blog entry for book

That title is unfortunately sold out (although I noticed a few pricey copies were available from AbeBooks.com), but a follow-up volume is planned for 2014. In spite of my respect for the editor and for the authors involved, I have to say I had a lukewarm reaction to most of the stories precisely because they were prequels or sequels to already-existing stories; I think I would have preferred stories that took a fresh approach or utilized different subjects than the ones already staked out by James.

Hmmm, that could be interesting.

But you know, I generally prefer to stick with what the author intended.
(view spoiler)[ I usually do enjoy ambiguous endings, (I love Greg Gifune and I think he's one of the masters of ambiguous tales), but in this case it's not so much ambiguous as throwing in a little detail at the end. For what reason, I wonder? You seem to be familiar with the works of James. Does he do this often? I mean, I just don't see the point. It could have ended with only GWS in the well and it wouldn't have made any difference, would it? (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of “A School Story”.

Charlene wrote (in part):

(view spoiler)[For what reason, I wonder? You seem to be familiar with the works of James. Does he do this often? I mean, I just don't see the point. It could have ended with only GWS in the well and it wouldn't have made any difference, would it?

I think that in “A School Story” James strongly implies that Sampson had in the past murdered some unnamed person and disposed of the body in a well (hence “Remember the well among the four yews.”). And, as so often happens in these stories, the dead return to wreak their vengeance. The notion of the dead carting off the offender to the scene of the original crime is also fairly common, right? Thus, in F. Marion Crawford's 1903 story, “Man Overboard!”, a man murders his twin brother by tossing him off a ship. The murdered twin returns and bears his brother out to sea. “Oh, you want to know if they found Jack’s body? [Jack being the twin who tossed his brother overboard.] I don’t know whether it was his, but I read in a paper at a Southern port where I was with my new ship that two dead bodies had come ashore in a gale down East, in pretty bad shape. They were locked together, and one was a skeleton in oilskins.”

So, if this is what has happened, why doesn’t James just come right out and tell us? (I have the sense that both you and Ken find this failure to do so a bit frustrating.) Because (in my opinion) the story is more effective if he does not. James artfully supplies just enough detail to allow the reader to fill in the important blanks and does not supply information necessary for those other blanks that aren’t really all that critical anyway (the name of the murdered individual, why he [or she?] was killed by Sampson, etc., etc.). (hide spoiler)]

**************“A School Story”************

(view spoiler)[Yeah, you guys guessed it! I want more. I want to know more about who the thin figure was, the significance of the well and the history between the the teacher and the thin figure. There is a good story in that material.

I did like the short trip through the urban legends of the day at the beginning of the story. (hide spoiler)]

I think I would like to read "The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows". I am a big fan of pastiches of the genres that I like. In particular I have enjoyed several Sherlock Holmes and Carnacki pastiches. Sometimes I have found the copies better than the originals (Carnacki, not Holmes.....thought I had better clear up that blasphemy). There are a lot of story ideas in the James material that could produce volumes for an interested author.

I did enjoy the urban legends portion too. :)

The Rose Garden.

(view spoiler)[ For whatever reason, this one didn't do much for me. Am I missing something again or did it just fall flat? I thought it was an interesting set up for sure, but then...nothing. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of “The Rose Garden”.

Charlene wrote:

For whatever reason, this one didn't do much for me. Am I missing something again or did it just fall flat? I thought it was an interesting set up for sure, but then...nothing.

I probably liked this story a bit more than you, Charlene, but I would agree that it’s weaker than some of James’ other ones. (view spoiler)[I’m more or less on board through the opening stage of the tale in which James sketches out the background to the haunting and recounts the dream shared by Mr. Anstruther and Miss Wilkins. I’m not so keen on the second half, however — the climactic confrontation involving Mrs. Anstruther seems rather rushed and unexciting. And James seems to deal with the aftermath in a desultory fashion; I was expecting the spirit to cause a bit more damage (rather than merely rendering Collins ill) and that he would be “re-staked”. Still, even mediocre James is better than most other ghostly stories.

3.5* (of 5)

A couple of notes on the story.

1. Jacqueline Simpson has written about the origins for this story in Ghosts & Scholars (Issues 22 and 31), tracing connections between “The Rose Garden” and folklore from Jutland and East Anglia that James would probably have been exposed to. There are a number of striking parallels; for example, “many of the Jutland stories on this topic state that if you do touch the post, you will hear a voice underground saying ‘Pull! Pull!’ or ‘You pull, and I’ll push!’ “

2. The Bad Guy in question, referred to in the text as “Sir — —, Lord Chief Justice under Charles II”, probably refers to Sir William Scroggs (?1628-1683), who, according to Michael Cox, “displayed brutal zeal during the Popish Plot trials — for instance, in the case of Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, who was tried for reason in 1681, and convicted by Scroggs, on dubious evidence, to be hung, drawn, and quartered.” (hide spoiler)]

**********"The Rose Garden"**********

I liked it!

(view spoiler)[So, they had staked the Lord Chief Justice to his grave because he was haunting the village and Mrs. Anstruther unknowingly had the stake pulled up to plant an ill-advise rose garden. Heeee's back!

James again left a lot of good material on the table with this story.

I think a good alternative ending would be Mr. Anstruther staking the Mrs. to a grave, namely her own. She was annoying and he was on the verge of being hen-pecked. (hide spoiler)]

Don't think that my complaining about material left on the table with these short stories detracts much from their value in my mind. James certainly had a lot of great ideas running around in his head. Maybe part of the attraction of these shorts is the open-endedness of them. James had a much different style than reflected in the volumes of Anton Chekhov and W. Somerset Maugham that I have read. Chekhov and Maugham were able to take a few pages and paint you into the middle of a scene, tell you a story and then leave you feeling satisfied that you knew everything there was to know about the situation. But, they were dealing with known quantities, not the supernatural causes that James was dealing with, causes that could (and in most cases would) require many pages of further discussion to flesh out in full.

Randolph wrote:

I'm a little late to the game here but the absolute best you can do if you are a James fan is Ash Tree Press's e-book A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings. It's a huge volume packed with not only all the stories, but also The Five Jars and James' writing about ghost stories. If you are rich you can also look for the limited edition hardcover of this on the second hand market.

I was fortunate enough to snag a copy of the hardcover when it was initially published, although I have an e-copy as well (which, incidentally, I’m using for this group read). At one time, Chris Roden was talking about possibly putting out a second hardcover edition of Pleasing , but now that they seem to be concentrating exclusively on e-books, I assume that plan has been shelved. As I noted in a previous post on Horror Afficianados, there exist other annotated e-versions of James, but Ash-Tree’s is by far the best. Of course, the Chris and Barbara had the benefit of being able to build on prior work by Michael Cox and Rosemary Pardoe.

Discussion of “The Tractate Middoth”.

I’ve always found this story to be average James — not too bad, but not nearly as good as, say, “Casting the Runes” or “Count Magnus”.

(view spoiler)[Some quick thoughts. The driving force behind the story — the hidden will, the machinations of Mr. Eldred, and the odd deathbed behavior of Mr. Rant — struck me as a rather trite cliché. The other foundation for the story — Mr. Garret’s attraction to Miss Simpson — highlights James’ inability to write very convincingly about emotions other than fear; the kindest word for James’ description of the developing relationship might be “perfunctory”. All this may be beside the point as what the reader is most interested in is the scary stuff and here James does a fairly decent job. I like best the library scenes. The climax once again showcases the author’s fear of spiders. (hide spoiler)]

3.5* (of 5)

“The Tractate Middoth”

(view spoiler)[ I liked this one a lot. Most especially the scenes in the library and the nasty spiders. Libraries can be such spooky places and not a lot of authors take advantage of that fact. (hide spoiler)]

A solid 4 stars.

Discussion of “Casting the Runes”.

I flip-flop a bit on the question of my favorite James story, but more often than not I’m prone to pick this one.

(view spoiler)[The tale pits good guy Mr. Dunning against bad guy Mr. Karswell. The build-up is handled really well as James makes us aware of just how dangerous and nasty Karswell is. Perhaps my favorite moment in the story occurs near the end when a ticket-taker, commenting to a subordinate about Karswell (who has just passed), says, “ ‘Ad he got a dog with him, or what? Funny thing: I could ‘a’ swore ‘e wasn’t alone”.

A couple of notes on the text:

1. In the original manuscript James describes how, on the evening following Karswell’s death at Abbeville, a local naturalist sighted a large bird “of the vulture type” heading north. “The failing light prevented the man from making an accurate observation; but he states his conviction that the creature was not in fact a vulture.” Cool passage; I sort of wish James had left in in.

2. A number of reviewers have sometimes assumed that Karswell was based on the real-life occultist, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). However, the weight of scholarly opinion seems not to agree. The main point against the theory is that Crowley didn’t achieve public notoriety until the 20’s. (On the other hand, the necromancer in H. R. Wakefield's homage to “Runes”, “ ‘He Cometh and He Passeth By!’ “, written in 1928, seems far more likely to have been patterned in part on the infamous Crowley.)

A final aside: One of my favorite horror films, Night of the Demon (1957; alternate U.S. title: Curse of the Demon) is based on James’ story. When I first saw this movie in the late 60s/early 70s it was a bit on the obscure side, but over the decades it’s managed to gain quite a following. It does have it faults. The relationship between Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummings embodies the familiar gender stereotypes of that era and thus somewhat dates the movie. There was disagreement between the movie’s producer (Hal Chester) and its director (Jacques Tourneur) about whether or not to show the demon. Tourneur wanted to make a movie that was much more ambiguous about the existence of the supernatural (as was his earlier film, the classic Cat People, 1942), while Chester thought that was ridiculous. On balance I’d fall on Chester’s side of the argument, although I wish they had opted to not show the monster quite so early.

While the film does have a few warts, it also boasts some nifty scenes; Tourneur was always very good at doing black and white stuff. Andrews’ midnight trek through the forest following a visit to Karswell (well played by Niall MacGinnis) looked terrific when I finally saw the scene on a big screen. Another aspect of the movie that I liked was the screenplay’s treatment of Andrews’ rationalism and how he stubbornly clings to that until nearly the end of the story. If you haven’t seen the film, I’d recommend it. (hide spoiler)]

5* (of 5)

Not that it’s terribly important, but starting tomorrow I’ll be traveling and my ability to contribute to this Buddy Read will likely be hampered by lack of free time and/or inability to connect to the web. I should be back home next Tuesday.

Maybe I'll have time to catch up!

Have a safe trip, Canavan!

Now that I see "Casting the Runes" is your favorite James story, I think I will read it tonight. :)

**********"The Tractate Middoth"**********

(view spoiler)[I found the incidents involving the book and Garrett's meeting the Simpsons on the train to Burnstow a bit too coincidental. Aside from that, the story was entertaining. (hide spoiler)]

**********"Casting the Runes"**********

This story had a very familiar ring to it from the get go.

Interestingly, I have just recently watched "Night of the Demon" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of...) which is an adaptation of "Casting the Runes". Also, as I mentioned in the discussion of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book", Brad Strickland must have been influenced by James when writing The Tower at the End of the World. (view spoiler)[Again, we see motifs borrowed by Strickland, namely the runic message passed to the victim declaring a certain date of death. (hide spoiler)]

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of “Casting the Runes”.

I flip-flop a bit on the question of my favorite James story, but more often than not I’m prone to pick this one.

The tale pits good guy Mr. Dunning against bad..."

The biggest "wart" in "Night of the Demon" was (view spoiler)[the demon itself. It looked like Godzilla on rollers. Laughable really. But, a product of the times. Now, I am sure they would be just as tacky, though in the other direction, by excessive use of computer graphics. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished Casting the Runes. Loved it!
I'll have to check out your spoilers tomorrow, to see what you thought Ken.

********"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"*********

(view spoiler)[James got a little wordy with the obituary and the description of the church. I thought so much so that it distracted from the underlying story.

I love that the works of Shelley, Byron and Voltaire were blamed for bringing about the evil. That damnable "rising generation". Those kids and their rock and roll. LOL!

(hide spoiler)]

********"Martin's Close"********

Once you get around all of the legalese of this short story, there is a dang good and creepy ghost story.

(view spoiler)[The legal points were interesting as well, though.

Firstly, the trial had been moved to London as the accused and his attorney thought there was no chance of a fair trial in the small town where the murder has occurred. We see this used today in the US.

Second, when the child was called as a witness, the prosecutors basically had to scare the crap out of the kid to make sure he was telling the truth. God is listening and he has the keys to Hell. And we as agents of the King have the keys to prison. So, you better be telling the truth. I liked that.

It was also interesting that when the questioning of the child began, the prosecutor started using dates. The judge basically threw that out as any child as young as this one appeared to be would know nothing of dates. He asked the child how he marked the time. The child responded that what he was witness to had occurred the day before a feast, a very marked point in time for the child. I have seen a similar method used in a case on which I was sitting as a potential juror. Was it before your birthday or after your birthday? Was it before Easter or after Easter? That enabled the court to determine an approximate date.

After Martin was found guilty, he tried to get off on a technicality. My name was misspelled on the indictment. It should be a "y" not an "i". That was discarded by the judge as a technicality and there was some evidence that the accused had used both spellings in the past.

We complain about these technicalities in the US court system and talk about how things are going down the shitter over time. But, this just shows that those things have been going on far longer than we could imagine.

I guess I am prattling on too much about the legal side. But, I just found it interesting to read something of a legal nature of this age and from a foreign country that so resembles our current setup. I think we forget that the basis for our laws in the US is British common law and that our legal system and the British legal system share the same roots. Just a thought that was interesting to me and probably nobody else.

I LOL'ed when the prisoner asked that his family be allowed to visit him before his execution. Sure, the judge says. The murdered girl can visit you too as far as I am concerned. Nice touch after the ghost story. I'm not sure he meant it in a ghostly visit kind of way but rather as a I hope you think of her constantly type of way. But, it sounded like the prisoner was more concerned about the ghost showing up again. (hide spoiler)]

Unlike the other James short stories, this one felt complete. James gives the reader all of the facts, all of the history and leaves no guessing as to any matter in the story. Except, (view spoiler)[when they start playing "Madam, will you walk?" in the town, does Ann Parker's ghost still appear? The townspeople seemed a little leery of that tune! (hide spoiler)]Leaving that little tidbit helped make the story!

I'm falling behind! I will try to catch up. :)

Discussion for “Casting the Runes”.

Ken wrote (in part):

(view spoiler)[The biggest "wart" in "Night of the Demon" was the demon itself. It looked like Godzilla on rollers. Laughable really. But, a product of the times. Now, I am sure they would be just as tacky, though in the other direction, by excessive use of computer graphics.

I’ll take mild exception, Ken. I don’t like the fact that the demon is showed as early or as often as he is, but as for the effect itself — it personally strikes me as a relatively good one, especially in comparison with what one typically saw during that era. (If you want to see a really bad effect, take a look at the creature in The Giant Claw, a film released the same year as Night of the Demon. Perhaps this is an age-related phenomenon; that is, while I didn’t see Night when it was first released, I recall seeing the demon’s photograph reproduced countless times throughout the 60’s in periodicals such as Famous Monsters of Filmland. As a youngster I was pretty darned impressed; and seeing the same effect today (perhaps through those same youngster’s eyes), it doesn’t strike me as “laughable”. To be honest there is only one brief moment (where the monster is clawing Karswell) that makes me wince with a faint trace of embarrassment.

I read somewhere that the producers initially tried to sign on the great Ray Harryhausen to do the special effects; that would have been interesting to see. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion for “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”.

I think of this story as very good — if not great — James. It starts a little slowly for my tastes (even for Monty), but if that’s a blemish, it’s certainly not a major one. I would also note that, although not a prerequisite, it helps if one has some foreknowledge of church/cathedral architecture (e.g., at one point the author is making reference to the cathedral’s reredos and baldacchino). (view spoiler)[The story is at its best in its description of Haynes’ persecution by malign forces, told mostly in epistolary form. Many lesser writers who have attempted this technique often do it quite badly, incorporating vast and lengthy passages that sound absolutely nothing like an actual diary entry. In contrast, the way James excerpts some of Haynes’ entries sounds (to me anyway) almost pitch perfect. One of the entries includes one of my favorite lines from a James tale, chilling in its simplicity: “There is no kitchen cat.” (hide spoiler)]

4.0* (of 5)

Discussion for “Martin’s Close”.

Heh, heh. I suppose, Ken, given our somewhat different tastes, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that the story you seem most to appreciate is the very one that I think is the weakest of the collection. So why don’t I like this one? I suppose for a number of reasons. (view spoiler)[One is possibly for the very reason you do like it. The plot strikes me as (a) too straightforward and (b) it relies on the too-familar device of a lower-class woman haunting her murderer, an upper-class cad. I feel as though I’ve read countless such stories; the class separation trope seemed to strike a real chord for the British of the 18th and 19th centuries. Two, the effectiveness of the haunting is diminished because it's viewed through the lens of this rather corny trial transcript. I say corny because, although I imagine James had fun writing it, it contains far too many unnecessary asides during which the Lord Chief Justice seems to banter with the accused and the prosecutors to no real purpose. More important, the device of the transcript dilutes the effectiveness of scenes which ought to be horrific, but instead come off sounding a bit banal. A prime instance of this is the section in which the young boy describes the emergence from the pond of Ann Clark. This should sound chilling, but the description is so bare it's instead kinda boring. (hide spoiler)]

2.5* (of 5)

Canavan wrote: "Discussion for “Martin’s Close”.

Heh, heh. I suppose, Ken, given our somewhat different tastes, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that the story you seem most to appreciate is the ..."

(view spoiler)[I agree with you on the scene of Ann Clark coming out of the pond. That could have been absolutely horrifying. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of “Mr. Humphrey’s and His Inheritance”.

The collection ends on a fairly solid note. This story is, in some ways, reminiscent of “The Rose Garden”. (view spoiler)[In “The Rose Garden” our protagonist missteps by removing a post that ought to have been left alone; in the present story, Mr. Humphrey unlocks a hedge maze, producing the unintended consequence of releasing the essence of the elder Mr. Wilson.

The third (and penultimate) time Mr. Humphrey sees this revenant (the scene involving the black dot on the maze map) is really well done (in my opinion). I did find some of the lead-up to this crisis point a little puzzling, particularly the faux sermon/parable in which a number of horrors associated with traversing a maze are outlined — puzzling because all the really spooky and scary stuff ends up taking place outside the maze. (hide spoiler)]

3.5* (of 5)

Charlene wrote:

I'm falling behind! I will try to catch up. :)

There's no rush from my perspective, but I am looking forward to hearing your opinions on the remaining stories, Charlene.