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The Alleged Haunting of B-- House
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
- GenresHorror
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1899
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44 people want to read
About the author
A. Goodrich-Freer
18 booksAda Goodrich Freer, afterwards known as Adela Monica Goodrich-Freer Spoer, was a medium, clairvoyant, psychical researcher and author.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 29, 2022
Thought I'd do some spooky reading!
Ballechin House was situated near Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland. As a kid, my dad actually spent some time living on the grounds, sometime shortly before the main house was demolished. Growing up, he'd often tell us stories of living at haunted Ballechin House and seeing its ghosts (on later reflection, I think he took at least some of his stories from The Shining, but...). So when I saw they'd actually written a book about the place I figured it'd be interesting to check it out.
This book is comprised mainly of a journal kept by Ada Goodrich Freer, who was some kind of medium and who stayed in the house for a few months in the 1890s. There's also some correspondence written by others who'd been acquainted with the house and the family who had lived there. That was fairly interesting, but the book, despite not being particularly long, gets very repetitive. There's lots of descriptions of various bangings and clankings in the house. Lots of lists of who slept in what bedroom. There were a few ghostly apparitions, but mostly it was just random noises. And characters who sometimes say things like, 'I woke up and my bed was shaking, my covers were being ripped off, and a ghostly old woman who I'd never seen before was standing by my bed, but I wasn't scared.' How could you not be scared?! That sounds terrifying! This book would be fun if it were a bit more sensationalised. Also, almost all of the names are anonymised, so that gets confusing, although it doesn't really impede understanding.
Apparently Freer was denounced as a hack after this book was published. I can't speak to that, but I was kind of disappointed that she didn't have much in the way of commentary on the phenomena she'd supposedly witnessed. It really was mainly a long list of banging sounds various people claimed they heard as they rotated around the house. It's mildly interesting as an account of a Victorian-era haunted house, I guess, but not a super thrilling reading experience.
Ballechin House was situated near Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland. As a kid, my dad actually spent some time living on the grounds, sometime shortly before the main house was demolished. Growing up, he'd often tell us stories of living at haunted Ballechin House and seeing its ghosts (on later reflection, I think he took at least some of his stories from The Shining, but...). So when I saw they'd actually written a book about the place I figured it'd be interesting to check it out.
This book is comprised mainly of a journal kept by Ada Goodrich Freer, who was some kind of medium and who stayed in the house for a few months in the 1890s. There's also some correspondence written by others who'd been acquainted with the house and the family who had lived there. That was fairly interesting, but the book, despite not being particularly long, gets very repetitive. There's lots of descriptions of various bangings and clankings in the house. Lots of lists of who slept in what bedroom. There were a few ghostly apparitions, but mostly it was just random noises. And characters who sometimes say things like, 'I woke up and my bed was shaking, my covers were being ripped off, and a ghostly old woman who I'd never seen before was standing by my bed, but I wasn't scared.' How could you not be scared?! That sounds terrifying! This book would be fun if it were a bit more sensationalised. Also, almost all of the names are anonymised, so that gets confusing, although it doesn't really impede understanding.
Apparently Freer was denounced as a hack after this book was published. I can't speak to that, but I was kind of disappointed that she didn't have much in the way of commentary on the phenomena she'd supposedly witnessed. It really was mainly a long list of banging sounds various people claimed they heard as they rotated around the house. It's mildly interesting as an account of a Victorian-era haunted house, I guess, but not a super thrilling reading experience.
April 3, 2023
Boring
Confused who was speaking. Bored. Victorian language a problem. Wondered if the ebook was properly done wonder if ebooks of old, public domain are being 'wokafied' by all the blue haired Karen's out there. Amazing that they didn't make one of the ghosts a member of their club. I am going back to real books and only read ebooks if it is something unimportant. Be wary of ebooks they can be altered at any time even after downloading and anyone can be a publisher and upload books as evidenced by this book.
Confused who was speaking. Bored. Victorian language a problem. Wondered if the ebook was properly done wonder if ebooks of old, public domain are being 'wokafied' by all the blue haired Karen's out there. Amazing that they didn't make one of the ghosts a member of their club. I am going back to real books and only read ebooks if it is something unimportant. Be wary of ebooks they can be altered at any time even after downloading and anyone can be a publisher and upload books as evidenced by this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews