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Ghosts and Things
CONTENTS"The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" by Henry James;"Caterpillars" by E. F. Benson;"Markheim" by R. L. Stevenson;"The Ghost Ship" by Richard Middleton;"The Novel of the White Powder" by Arthyr Machen;"Night Doings at 'Deadman' A Story That Is Untrue" by Ambrose Bierce;"Running Wolf" by Algernon Blackwood;"The Music on the Hill" by Saki;"Phantas" by Oliver Onions;"The House" by Andre Maurois;"The Lovely House" by Shirley Jackson
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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December 3, 2025PLACEHOLDER REVIEW
"The Novel of the White Powder" by Arthur Machen has a law student, attended by his sister, lean so heavily into his study that she fears for his health. After an examination, he is prescribed a daily dose of a recuperative drug, which seems to work wonders on him - until it works horrors.... This was a reread for me and I'm now much better suited for appreciating its strengths. Looking at it as an abstract, one could see it as a variation of the whole Lovecraft "Cool Air" gambit, mixed with a little of Poe's "Facts In The Case of M. Valdemar" - to be blunt, . But it is more in the aftermath that Machen makes the yarn his own, positing a philosophical position between materialism and belief in "larger powers". Nicely done.
"The House" (aka "La Maison") by André Maurois (aka Emile Herzog) is a short, pithy tale of a woman who dreams repeatedly of a dstinctive house in the countryside, until one day she stumble across it and finds it is for rent...and why... Familiar, but effective at the length.
"The Novel of the White Powder" by Arthur Machen has a law student, attended by his sister, lean so heavily into his study that she fears for his health. After an examination, he is prescribed a daily dose of a recuperative drug, which seems to work wonders on him - until it works horrors.... This was a reread for me and I'm now much better suited for appreciating its strengths. Looking at it as an abstract, one could see it as a variation of the whole Lovecraft "Cool Air" gambit, mixed with a little of Poe's "Facts In The Case of M. Valdemar" - to be blunt, . But it is more in the aftermath that Machen makes the yarn his own, positing a philosophical position between materialism and belief in "larger powers". Nicely done.
"The House" (aka "La Maison") by André Maurois (aka Emile Herzog) is a short, pithy tale of a woman who dreams repeatedly of a dstinctive house in the countryside, until one day she stumble across it and finds it is for rent...and why... Familiar, but effective at the length.
February 11, 2018
OK, so I bought it because of the title. Which is accurate, by the way. No dud stories--most of them are good, though I find the Saki story nasty even for him, and the Middleton story more labored than funny. By far the best story is "The Lovely House," by Shirley Jackson, which is indescribably creepy in the very best Jackson way. All stories by men except that one--hmmm.
October 10, 2021
I read this book in high school, I think. Several of the stories really unsettled me (especially The Novel of the White Powder) more so than most scary stories I’ve read since then. I would recommend it.
July 4, 2009
Another collection of older stories, but these are very atmospheric and I enjoyed them a lot. Good stuff by bierce, Blackwood, Saki, Onions, Shirley Jackson, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
April 12, 2017
1.5 a bit too antiquated ghost stories
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews