A Certain Slant of Light

by Peter Bell

Paul Ferrers had been in post at King’s College, Cambridge, for over a year before he made any effort to explore the eastern counties in search of associations with M.R. James. His Visiting Professorship in Gothic Literature – which, at thirty-one, he had done well to achieve – was imposing a more considerable burden than such an esteemed position would have done in the days of the Great Man.

Cambridge, moreover, had proved to be no longer the tranquil realm of cyclists and scholars, but a vulgar, traffic-ravaged den of nouveau riche iniquity. It was a difficult and pricy place to find a property commensurate with his status, not to speak of his startlingly meagre salary, which scarcely matched that of a junior professor back at his alma mater in New Hampshire. He had settled for a suite of draughty rooms in College, which certainly showed little change since Dr James had read his candlelit tales.

Genres: Horror

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if this book is the prime example of what I call ‘ghorror’ (a word I coined recently as a result of a typo, pronounced ‘gore-or’) where ghost story trappings are accompanied by gory upstagings of one’s very soul. But that is just me idly rambling from the other side of the page. Or foolhardily rambling like Bell’s protagonists … to seek some oxymoron of destiny. A fate that is only sleeping. Or slanting from the vandalised past toward you with some mixed hope and despair for the future.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

“Lamia” (2012) ✭✭✭✭
“Bewitched” (2012) ✭✭½
“Millennium Ball” (2002/2012 rev.) ✭✭½
“Conservation” (2012) ✭✭✭½
“The Barony at Rødal” (2008/2012 rev.) ✭✭✭✭
“Merfield House” (2010/2012 rev.) ✭✭✭½
“Archangel” (2008/2012 rev.) ✭✭✭✭
“Only Sleeping” (2004/2012 rev.) ✭✭✭✭✭

[Franco · Rating 5 out of 5]

a superlative Anthology of ghost tales.. nothing to add , buy it if you can.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had developed very high hopes regarding Peter Bell after reading his collection "Strange Epiphanies" (undoubtedly one of the finest collection to have graced my shelf), but I found this "Jamesian" stories rather slow, tedious, pretentious and off-balance. Unlike some of the other books, this one took an inordinately long time to be completed because the stories were rather soporific. No, now that the nights are becoming longer, something more chilling and yet compact is required. Perhaps the "Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows"?