The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions

by Oliver Onions, David Stuart Davies (Introduction)

With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.





Oliver Onions is unique in the realms of ghost story writers in that his tales are so far ranging in their background and substance that they are not easily categorised. His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives.





This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature. Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Ghost Stories, Weird Fiction, Fiction, Ghosts, British Literature

674 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2011

About the author

George Oliver Onions (1873–1961), who published under the name Oliver Onions, was an English writer of short stories and novels.

Oliver Onions was born in Bradford in 1873. Although he legally changed his name to George Oliver in 1918, he always published under the name Oliver Onions. Onions originally worked as a commercial artist before turning to writing, and the dust jackets of his earliest works included illustrations painted by Onions himself.

Onions was a prolific writer of short stories and novels and is best remembered today for his ghost stories, the most famous of which is probably ‘The Beckoning Fair One’, originally published in Widdershins (1911). Despite being known today chiefly for his supernatural short fiction, Onions also published more than a dozen novels in a variety of genres, including In Accordance with the Evidence (1912), The Tower of Oblivion (1921), The Hand of Kornelius Voyt (1939), The Story of Ragged Robyn (1945), and Poor Man's Tapestry (1946), which won the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize as the best work of fiction published that year.

Onions was apparently a very private individual, and though admired and well-respected in his time, he appears not to have moved in literary circles, and few personal memoirs of him survive. He spent most of his later life in Wales, where he lived with his wife, Berta Ruck (1878-1978), herself a prolific and popular novelist; they had two sons, Arthur (b. 1912) and William (b. 1913). Oliver Onions died in 1961.

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver Onions is probably best known for his excellent "The Beckoning Fair One," which will live in my head as one of the greatest ghost stories of all time, one that explores the tenuous connection between, as editor David Stuart Davies says in his introduction to this book, "creativity and insanity." That one I've read several times and I'd read it several times again because it's so good. It's his lesser-known stories that captured my attention here, and there are twenty-four of them in this collection. While several of these tales follow on in the same thematic mode as "The Beckoning Fair One," there are many that branch out in other directions, including (but not limited to) more traditional ghostly fare, time slips, reincarnation, murder, ghosts who enter the present via objects from the past, and strangely enough, lycanthropy and a bizarre Kali-like cult. All are a beautiful blending of the supernatural and the psychological, which is actually why I'm drawn to this author in particular. Even though I read this sort of thing for fun, I also read in order to extract what I can about different aspects of human nature, and Oliver Onions has this uncanny knack of moving deep and directly into the psyche.

While the stories are not all what I'd call perfect, The Dead of Night is a must-have collection worth owning for the home library and definitely a no-miss collection for the avid ghost story reader. I love Oliver Onions' work, and he should really be read by anyone aspiring to write horror. Not that I fit that bill, but he has a lot to offer.

very highly recommended.

http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2017...

[T.D. Whittle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of Oliver Onions until I ran across his name on Amazon whilst purchasing collections of M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and E.F. Benson. I had never read any of these authors prior to 2012, and they are all brilliant writers. Who can resist reading an author named Oliver Onions anyway?

OO is great at building character and atmosphere. The amazing thing about his stories, as well as those of the other (I believe more famous) writers I've mentioned here, is that they are still scary all these years later. They do not rely on blood and gore and shock so much as the slow-growing, inward terror of shifting states of mind: Am I going mad? What did I just see, or think I saw? Is my friend trying to kill me?

I love to read these stories late at night, curled up with my cat and a comforting cup of tea.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, these Wordsworth collections of old ghost stories often take me many months to read, probably because they are quite intense and sesquipedalian that reading any more than one or two stories together get's a bit much. Taken in small doses though, they are deeply enjoyable.

Oliver Onions, as an English writer of ghost stories in the early twentieth century, one might be inclined to compare him to M. R. James. In terms of quality and subtlety they are indeed of a kind but there the similarity ends. Onion's had by far a greater range in his work. As well as the more conventional ghost stories, he explored many other aspects of the supernatural and weird. For me, this sets him above James, controversial as this assertion might seem.

I particularly enjoyed the famous "Beckoning Fair One", a disturbing tale of a haunting by a possessive female ghost that warps the mind of her victim. "Rooum" is a weird story of a man pursued by an invisible runner that when runs through him, causes him a wrenching pain. In "Benlian" the narrator falls under the spell of a sculptor who is trying to literally put himself into his work. "Hic Jacet" explores the tension between artistic integrity and commercialisation and whether they can ever be reconciled. In "Real People", the characters in an author's novel begin to take on a life of their own. "Resurrection in Bronze" is about how much one might be prepared to give up for their art. As you can see, the artist (in various mediums) is often the focus of his stories.

I didn't enjoy all the stories herein but this is a real bumper volume containing (apparently) most of the writer's work in a supernatural vein. There are bound to be some weaker tales. But by and large, there are some real gems that made this a great collection to read.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let this review be a warning to the modern reader with limited reading time. There's some true masterpieces here, but I'm reviewing the WHOLE book which I read, in my masochistic completism.

The few great stories here subtly and skillfully build psychological suspense and release it in conclusions with emotional punch that's as undeniable as it is uncommon. These aren't "easy" stories though; some will find them elusive, overly psychological, and certainly a few are sentimental to a fault.

I can only wholeheartedly recommend a handful of these tales. In this day and age when we have access to so much literature, I can't honestly tell you to bother with most of this. I love slow, atmospheric stories, but many of these are far from even having a tinge of the supernatural and I feel Onions can get bogged in his own style. In a few cases the stories veer off into flights of vagary that left me at a loss to untangle them. I specifically love this sense of vagueness from Robert Aickman for example, but here I just felt cheated.

Like me, some will approach Oliver Onions because the style is reminiscent of M. R. James and other traditionalists. That's true, but that doesn't mean everything here is worth your time. If you want something Jamesian, read the handful of good stories (reviewed below), then go read R. H. Malden's obscure, but excellent collection "Nine Ghosts," a deeply Jamesian, under-appreciated collection. Seek out E. F. Benson; his 50+ ghost stories are consistently good. Look up H. R. Wakefield, Walter de la Mare or for a real scare seek out Sheridan Le Fanu whom James admired. Even Sir Andrew Caldecott's often mediocre stories are a blast compared to much of this. Take it up a notch to something more advanced (and more rewarding) with some Robert Aickman. For a modern author, Reggie Oliver writes some good, traditional horror stories. Regardless, with all of these options there's too much out there to bother with about 2/3rds of this book.

My issues with this collection aside, the first third is composed of generally excellent stories. There's two stories I plan to re-read "The Beckoning Fair One" and "The Rope in the Rafters," which I'd say are required reading for ghost story lovers. I'd suggest reading these slowly, one a day at most.

The Beckoning Fair One - This is one of the best haunted house stories ever written, it takes some time to get going, but it becomes subtly, vaguely and genuinely eerie. An author settles into an old house to work and becomes more of a hermit to his girlfriend and everyone as his sole focus becomes a presence in the house.

Phantas - A bit confusing at times, a sad tale but powerful and atmospheric. A captain on a slowly sinking ship hallucinates about his past life and meets another ship of the future.

Rooum - A very strange story that I like, especially for how it's told, even though it doesn't make complete sense. A man who can work miracles on a construction site fears a "runner" who is trying to catch him.

Benlian - Another obsessive artist tale, in my top five stories here. Subtle and creepy in it's perspective. A painter of miniatures becomes intrigued with a sculptor who speaks of passing "into" his creation.

The Ascending Dream - A powerful, emotional story, more a portent of disaster than a ghost tale. Throughout the ages men have dreamed of exploring farther into the unknown while their women worry after them.

The Honey in the Wall - I like this story, but a "ghost story"? No, more of a sad romance, but with a slightly ghostly atmosphere connected with an old portrait. A young woman living with her mother in a deeply indebted estate struggles with her inability to open herself up to a man.

The Rosewood Door - Very strange tale which in both length and romantic tone is similar to the previous one, albeit a little better. Like that one, it has the merest touch of the supernatural. A man gets a beautiful, bowed door and places it on his guest bedroom. A woman staying there sees a man emerge with a sword, and soon afterward her lover, feared dead in World War I returns to her, but she fears letting him get near the door, lest he be lost to her again.

The Accident - Another surreal one, I liked it even if it's not REALLY a horror or ghost story. A man meets an old friend/enemy for dinner who has "come down in life" but claims to have really lived, and done it all.

Io - A good, subtle, heady tale with a pagan feel. A girl recovering from an illness tries to recall the recurrent dreams she had during it, with a great yearning for ancient myths, much to the worry of her fiancee.

The Painted Face - At 37,000 words I really wished I could say I liked this story more, it does have a subtlety to it, an interesting theme, but it was probably the most boring thing I've read all year (over 30 story collections thus far.) I like the overall idea here, but Onions has actually written on similar themes before, and this is stretched out into a romance that drags the story and the weird/horror elements are minimal. A lot to wade through for little reward. A shy girl travels with a group of girls to Tunisia and slowly her true personality comes out, an ancient soul, cursed for a deed from long ago.

The Out Sister - On the face of it and in overall outline this is a rather average ghost story, but it's far more subtle and psychological than most. Still I can't say it was a story I'd revisit, and unless you're seeking only the lightest touch of the eerie, keep looking. A girl visits an old convent, and meets a young nun who isn't what she seems.

"John Gladwin Says..." - This was a good psychological supernatural tale, touching, melancholy, a bit of a ghost story perhaps. A man enters an old, decayed church where he has visions of meeting and marrying his wife and the great gifts and loses in his life.

Hic Jacet - I liked this story, the ending is a masterpiece of built up suspense. It's one of depth and subtlety and it maintains the interest throughout far better than many others here. At first I was asking if this was yet ANOTHER haunted-portrait story, but this one goes far deeper and has a lot to say about true art versus entertainment for the masses. The main character seems to be an obvious reference to Arthur Conan Doyle. A hack detective story writer is asked to write the biography of his friend, an obscure but talented polish painter who, unlike the writer, sought out true art. During the process he experiences more than a few supernatural struggles that make him confront the nature of his own work.

The Rocker - A story full of wintry, fireside atmosphere -- a mild little ghost story, subtle, muted, brief and minor but not bad. A gypsy can see the ghost of a woman's child which she believed only she could see.

Dear Dryad - This is as far as one can get from a ghost story or horror story, and although the middle section is a confusing muddle, I actually enjoyed the overall story. Onions rather florid language is effective here. An ancient oak inspires love between couples throughout the ages.

The Real People - I liked this story, yet again, it's hardly a ghost or horror tale, but it generates a suspense with a subtle air of the supernatural which builds quite effectively over it's novella length (21k~ words). It's humorous, and the character of the scheming little social climber is quite funny/frustrating to watch, but the central character acts like such an utter fool that he frankly gets what he deserves. A hack writer of romance novels finds one of his character's uncannily asserting herself in his story and making it scandalously more real to life and less idealistic, which will sell better. Later he meets a woman and she does this in his own well-ordered life.

The Cigarette Case - I'd read this one as part of an anthology years ago, all I recall is not being overly impressed. It seemed like a fairly average, overly predictable ghost tale of two men who unknowingly spend an evening with some ghosts.

The Rope in the Rafters - OK THIS was a great story, reminded me a little of de la Mare's "Out of the Deep" -- it's got a thick, magnificent atmosphere, and is very emotional. This story is of a lower calibre than "The Beckoning Fair One" but like that one I could see re-reading this one, and this is as good or better than anything else in the collection. A disfigured WWI veteran retreats to an isolated chateau to recover and feels an increasing isolation from the outside world, and an obsession with a ghostly presence in his bedroom.

Resurrection in Bronze - Powerful story of artistic obsession, I thought it was very effective in this regard, but this is hardly a ghost tale. Similar feel to the other tales of artistic obsession in this volume, without the supernatural elements. Not being clear on how wax-bronze molding is done (forgive my ignorance!) made parts of this much harder to grasp than need be. An artist becomes obsessed with creating a sculpture on a deadline, neglecting his wife and daughter for weeks and leading to tragedy for all.

The Woman in the Way - A decent ghost story, told in a rather whimsical way. This feels a bit like a more traditional Victorian era ghost story, M. R. James-lite, without a focus on generating fear, more investigaton. A priests account of a young man haunted by the ghost of a woman in a field in 1665 is expored, along with speculation as to why she dogs the young man.

The Smile of Karen - Once again we find a non-supernatural tale, however this is still a fairly suspenseful story, well-paced, I loved the setting and growing tension and it's better than a few of the supernatural-based stories frankly. An Englishman staying in a German-Swiss hotel during the skiing season gets involved with a simple lumberjack, his young, unhappy wife and her rake of a lover.

Two Trifles: The Ether-Hogs & The Mortal - A couple trifles indeed, yawn, ghost stories humorously told from the perspectives of the ghosts. In the first a council of ghosts wants to put a stop to radio waves which are invading their domain -- in the second a ghost dares being exorcised when he enters the room of a sleeping parson.

The Master of the House - This feels like the biggest lost opportunity in the collection; its got an interesting idea at it's base, nice setting and is almost a decent mystery with a bit of a yellow peril feel thrown in, but it just bored me. It doesn't generate the atmosphere it ought to. The last third of it I just had to barrel through. A sister and her brothers move into the house of an old man who will remain living there, but largely unseen. One of the brothers start to suspect the man's servant is a shapeshifter one of them attempted to arrest in India.

Tragic Casements - This almost feels like an E. F. Benson tale, but with added vaguery and dreamy atmospherics. A greenhouse built with used glass is found to be plagued with all manner of criminal spirits.

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to commend Wordsworth for publishing great books at such affordable prices. The covers are decent, the pages do not rip off (I have bought their edition of The Karamazov Brothers, carried it with me everywhere and my copy remains in one piece) and their criteria of what to publish is outstanding. I recently became very interested in supernatural fiction but did not know where to start. So based on the reviews by other users I have bough a handfull (about 10) of titles from the Wordsworth "Tales of Mystery and The Supernatural" collection and so far I have not been faulted. M:R: James, Lefanu, Ambrose Bierce, E. Nesbit where some of the authors I bought from said collection. And as much as I have enjoyed every one of the authors I have mentioned, I was particularly impressed with Oliver Onions. To define his short fiction as "ghost stories" is rather innacurate and reductive, for they are very diverse and many times do not mention ghosts in the least. The scope and range of his stories is suprisingly diverse, as it deals with individuals with very different backgrounds, diverse preocupations and of stronger or frailer minds. The stories that refer to the inability of an artist to dissassociate with their creation and being engolfed by it (in a particular case, "merging" with it - or did he?-) are the ones that speak out the most to me- specially the thoroughly excellent "Benlian" and "The Beckoning Fair One". All in all, a great collection that features all of Onions supernatural fiction at a great price. It seems to me quite unfair how overlooked Onions seems to be. Benlian was definatly one of the best short stories I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I suggest that this book should be read without the anticipation of a "jolly good scare", but approached as a intellectual and cerebral experience that challenges one's beliefs - for your belief or not in forces beyond our comprehension will afect how you perceive most the stories. Higly recommended.

[Hatebeams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great stories in here, notably 'Benlian' and 'The Rope in the Rafters' as well as the invaluable 'Beckoning Fair One'. Padded with lesser stories that tend to follow a fairly deadpan supernatural romance formula, but Onions' wry characterisations and chilling atmospherics make them worth ploughing through anyway (to be fair, a couple such stories are really excellent). Artistic inspiration is a recurring theme and one which Onions handles expertly and insightfully, 'Resurrection in Bronze' meriting particular attention for its stark depiction of a sculptor sublimating everything for the sake of his creation. The frankly woeful 'Painted Face' could be avoided but I suppose that type of thing sold pretty well in the periodicals back then.
Another awesomely affordable Wordsworth Edition and the first widely available, comprehensive collection of Onions' supernatural fiction. DESERVES TO BE READ.

[James Hold · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this. I can't pinpoint why unless it's that I like stories that get to the point and Onions takes too much time doing so. I'd start the book, read a bit, set it aside, come back to it, then start skipping pages (which is always a bad sign), and finally after 3 months tossed it in my give-to-charity box. All in all a disappointing experience because I'd heard so much about how good OO is supposed to be.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection’s subtitle is rather unfortunate and misleading. Few of these stories could be described as ghost stories in any ordinary sense. Rather, these tend to be enigmatic, ambiguous weird tales focused on inner psychological landscapes of their protagonists. Supernatural is barely, if at all, present – but, even when they are slight and when their objective reality is in question, Onions’ evocations of supernatural are effective and truly unclassifiable. Uncanny really is uncanny in many of these stories. One recurrent motif here is that of artists and creative acts. Onions’ saturnine artists are always haunted, if rarely by ghosts.

Centerpiece here is “The Beckoning Fair One“, one of those endlessly reprinted stories that open themselves to nigh infinite amount of interpretations. This is psychological ghost story par excellence, up there with any of Aickman or de la Mare‘s best stories. It sets the stage for this whole collection, in its subtlety and slow pace, its ambiguity and collapsing distinction between inner and outer reality, its theme of artistic obsession…

Other stories of particular note are:
Phantas – a tale of time slip, or of a haunting told from the perspective of a ghost, or of man coming with terms with his death? Puzzling, haunting little story with superbly evoked dreamlike atmosphere.
Benlian – veritable crystallization of Onions‘ recurrent theme of obsessive artists and creative acts.
The Ascending Dream – three recurrences, in different eras, of same archetypal tale, displaying same contrast between masculine and feminine impulses.
The Rosewood Door – titular object is either a medium in the projection of animus, or in reunion of eternal soul-mates, or something else altogether. Whatever the case, there is a growing sense of inescapable tragedy, leading up to memorable finale.
The Accident – successful painter is haunted by his own anxieties and, perhaps, by his own life choices. Psychological study with no supernatural elements, one that is also something of a tribute to Decadent movement.
Io – story of a young woman given to dreaming contrasted with her fiance who appears to be this veritable incarnation of mundane modernity, this can also be seen as a tale of repressed artistic impulse seeking some form of outlet.
The Rope In The Rafters – inverted ghost story of sorts, with a perticularly bleak and tragic post-WW1 taste. Another excellent psychological study.
Resurrection In Bronze – comparable to Benlian, this is another striking tale of artistic obsession. Protagonist‘s single minded work is contrasted with her wife’s jealousy. Ultimately, they are united in his creative act, and her two-fold jealousy is satisfied, tho in this singularly tragic self-sacrificial manner. No overt supernatural elements here, but the entire artistic process is presented in this primordial magico-alchemical light.

Remaining tales that originated in „Widdershins“, as well as short novel „The Painted Face“ are also worthwhile. There are some dubious selections here, even more so since this collection would be of significant length even if some half of its contents were to be excluded. Onions can‘t be described as the easiest writer to read, compared to other weird fictionist from his time period, given the exceeding subtlety, slow pace and often novella-lengths of these stories. Unfortunate effect of this that readers can easily grow tired of him, and end up skipping some of the better stories in this collection.

[Jim Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his opening Credo, which is absolutely key to properly enjoying and understanding this book, author Oliver Onions describes the stories as ranging between the infra-red and ultra-sound of ghostly fiction, i.e. the impression of ghostiliness and the intangible other is more important to his stories than the actual appearance of spiritual apparitions. Onions crafts psychical planes in which personas murkily dimmer and flow into one another. This approach is ingeniously displayed in such fine ghost stories as The Beckoning Fair One, Benlian, The Rosewood Door and The Rope in the Rafters, each of which is suffused with a depth of psychological acuity and rich texture of character. It should be noted for those looking for traditional classic horror fiction that many of the stories contained within these pages are only faintly recognisable as ghost stories –and only then on an emotional level. In this regard Onions was working within the same penumbra of of the psychological ghostly as Walter de la Mare, and both artists were important pioneers of the kind of strange psychological ghostly fiction that was mastered more consistently by its greatest practitioner Mr. Robert Aickman.

The stories in The Dead of Night feature prose as fine as the genre has to offer. I did feel overall that the book was perhaps rather too inclusive, with many stories failing to fit even my broad definition of the ghostly tale, though this doorstop of a book's shockingly low price makes any significant complaint of 'too much content' untenable, especially considering the prior availability. Some of the stories I was unsure whether to consider ghost stories, such as The Honey in the Wall, Resurrection in Bronze and The Real People, turned out to be among the surprise highlights of the book due to the strength of the writing – though others, alas, seemed to be either overwrought or mere trifles. A word of advice would be to judiciously select the handful of essential stories to read first based on recommendations – a good place to start being his novella length masterpiece The Beckoning Fair One, which is rightly often listed as among the few greatest ghost stories ever written and frankly worth the price alone.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:

"The Master Of The House" - a somewhat different Onions story, this. The Peckovers (three brothers and a sister), just returned from a long stay in India (the oldest in Intelligence, the two younger boys in the military) find a residence they can rent for a year, provided they accept the terms that the owner and his manservant will remain on the property (in a small, separate set of rooms). But the oldest brother seems to recognize the intense and stand-offish manservant, even as the elderly landholder, an anxious but gracious man, always seems accompanied by his large, overly ever-watchful dog... So, 2/3 of this is kind of your typical "weird tale" of the time and place - beautiful, isolated little manor house in the middle of nowhere, lots of natural descriptions (and internal thoughts of Agatha, the sister, as she tries to puzzle out what is bothering her in their new abode), trouble keeping servants, etc. That other 1/3, though, is something else instead - like Onions writing in a British Pulp mode about rum doings in India, an evil-minded, Tantric magic-practicing Brit known back there who was thrown out of the country, and hints now of shape-shifting and lycanthropy. It's not bad, but perhaps sounds better than it is (Onions kind of clunkily weds the pieces) - which even holds for the ending which has some smashing action, and yet feels unresolved and unsatisfying. Strange.

"The Rosewood Door" - Mr. James scavenges a beautiful old rosewood door from the demolition of an old building and installs it as the door to the guest room. Agatha, 26 year old gay young thing and party guest, sleeping in the same room that night, finds her sleep disrupted by the inexplicably sudden appearance (the door has been fitted with a new lock) of an intense man brandishing a sword - the man disappears (although the sword remains). And then Barty, brother of fellow friend (and possible future husband) Humphrey Paton - who has been missing for 16 years - returns and Agatha immediately feels as if he is her soul-mate that she's been waiting her entire life for, even as he resembles the stranger who appeared suddenly in her room. Another supernatural romance, although this one is a bit more grim than "The Painted Face" but just as involved, specifically, with romance and the psychology of the mind. Agatha, while able to perceive Barty's flaws (a domineering near arrogance and dismissive disregard for others) cannot shake the feeling that she is fated to be married to him, but as the day approaches she becomes convinced she must stop him from entering the guest room for the first time through the door (or would it be the second?), as they are borrowing the use of the house for their honeymoon. So she contrives to have their Bridal Chamber placed in a more remote room in the house, but Barty seems overcome with an endless obsession to pass through the rosewood door. This is similar to "The Painted Face" in its trajectory of and identity subsumed by one from the past (although there we got the POV of both individuals in the romance, while here we only get Agatha's), although the ending is less quiet and more directly tragic. It was a good read, although I thought the predetermined "affiance" to Humphrey wasn't brought in as well as it could have been (less confusingly, in other words).

"The Painted Face" - Xena Francavilla, daughter of a wealthy Hotelier, is a pious, sheltered, timid young woman when she accompanies a group of other woman her own age on a tour or Tunis. But while there she changes, coming to know love with the neophyte young British businessman Verney Arden, while also feeling a conflict within herself between her religious upbringing/beliefs and the Classical Greek and older religions that surround her, whose drives and passions seem true as well... are her impulsive, romantic (and aggressive) actions just the flowering of first love or something darker? Onions really blooms in the novelette form, sketching out a real-life scenario (young women on a tour of a foreign locale with a chaperone) in which all the characters feel familiar and true to life - from the blustery Mrs. Van Necker who oversees everything (and may have eyes on the widowed, wealthy patriarch) to her overly flirtatious daughter Maggie, to the balanced, pragmatic, perceptive American young artist Amalia Sherren (a really great side character, always quietly, semi-wryly noting truths). Then there's the pull of ancient Gods and beliefs, with a wonderful visit to see some Greek relics retrieved from the sea (a truly wonderful scene, as Xena feels herself pitied by a statue of Dionysius) versus Xena's pious upbringing. In truth, it's a story that could be best classified as Supernatural Dark Romance. While, ostensibly, we are reading about Xena's identity being subsumed under that of a more powerful, cursed femme fatale of the past, the story never "front-loads" its supernatural aspect (so to speak) - the closest we get is a somewhat disturbing memory Xena has of her mountaintop conflict with Verney, of losing her identity, and of waiting passively as the Ancient (one presumes Greek) Gods reassemble the world before deciding how best to use her. The ending brought a tear to my eye.

"John Gladwyn Says" - we hear of a man's near car accident and how it led him to a ruined, abandoned church in the countryside, and a reflection on his life. It must be said that while there are tons of "sentimental ghost stories" (although, to be precise, this is not *exactly* a ghost story), and it is not my favorite form, occasionally you hit one where the author has enough skill and human sympathy to make the endeavor something more than a treacly slog. This is one of them... a touching, sad piece about a life lived, spun into a golden, gauzy haze by Onion's superb prose.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The four stars are in recognition of the presence of the undeniable classics like The Beckoning Fair One and Roumm and the general high quality of Onions' writing. This is far and away the best value collection of Onions' short fictionthere is: it's cheap and it's just about complete. However, the ghost story fan should be aware that about half the stories aren't ghost stories at all. The collection included here, 'Ghosts by Daylight', would have misled people when it was first published, for there is little of the truly ghostly contained within it. Even less so in 'The Painted Face', although the title story does have a supernatural element (and is reminiscent of Daphne DuMaurier). Despite the frustration of finding so few stories truly coming under the 'ghost' or 'weird' bracket in this massive tome, Onions is such a fine writer that I enjoyed being introduced to his work. When a story turned out to have a spook in it, it was a bonus. I read it in chunks, going online to find out which stories were in which original collections.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oliver Onions is the author of some of the finest stories of supernatural terror ever put to paper, and almost all of them are contained in The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions. I cannot recommend this Wordsworth edition highly enough, but here I am trying to do so. A five-star rating doesn't do it justice. Read it.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this thick collection for two reasons-1. It was the right kind of twisted, ghostly and odd stories collection to pull me in and hold me captivated so I kept returning to it over and over more than any other story collection I own. 2 Oliver Onions was one of my late fathers favorite writers; I searched for one of his books for years and I found one finally and I am not letting it go. I will return to it whenever I need a ghostly tale or twisted weird to get me through a dull weekend.

[Stephen Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story in this collection (the frequently anthologised The Beckoning Fair One) will be of interest to anyone of a writerly bent. A stalled novelist moves into a new house with the intention of finishing his book but ends up distracted by whitewashing the walls, putting up curtains and napping. Then things turn spooky. It's a tale of procrastination as horror.

Elsewhere, one or two of the tales share the icky, off-kilter flavour of the short stories of J.G. Ballard or Roald Dahl, particularly Benlian, in which an artist attempts to blend his soul with a statue of a god. It feels remarkably modern and woozy.

Stories like these make the anthology well worth picking up. That said, there were more than a few which I couldn't be bothered to finish: slim ideas bulked up to forty-odd pages. It was an effort of will to get to the end of The Ascending Dream and The Painted Face.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edward Gorey loved Onions' work. He incorporates a certain amount of mysticism, ideas of reincarnation, and a certain gothic dreaminess in his stories, many of which are quite long. He is more like Henry James and Edith Wharton, less like the run-of-the-mill wraiths and bloody bones, demonic possessors and the like, which one finds in a lot of contemporary horror films and stories. He deserves to be re-read, to glean all of the atmosphere and portent in his work. He often deals with the Promethean follies of sculptors and other artists, who are literally haunted by their creations. If you like your hauntings more on the psychological side, check out Onions.

[Charlene Morris]

Credo
The Beckoning Fair One
Phantas
Rooum
Benlian
The Ascending Dream
The Honey in the Wall
The Rosewood Door
The Accident
Io
The Painted Face
The Out Sister
'John Gladwin Says...'
Hic Jacet
The Rocker
Dear Dryad
The Real People
The Cigarette Case
The Rope in the Rafters
Resurrection in Bronze
The Woman in the Way
The Smile of Karen
Two Trifles
The Master of the House
Tragic Casements

[Dylan Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great shame that Oliver Onions isn't better known when you consider Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Aickman considered him to be one of the greatest horror writers of the 20th century, his stories blend the supernatural with the psychological an absolutely fantastic writer in every regard

[Susi Haisty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are a bit unusual, not many ghosts in this except for the first story. But they were interesting tales, rather different, and very art-involved, in that most of the stories are about artists. Interesting to read.

[Tony Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories linger in the memory, just like the name of their author. Much less well known than MR James, but just as unsettling.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply excellent. It takes a lot to creep me out, and Onions succeeded more than once.

[Chiefdonkey Bradey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew, whilst reading these stories, I might wake up in the dark and feel, again, the delicate shuddering unease they evoked

[Signor Mambrino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good, some BORING

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐

"From ghoulies and ghosties. And long-leggedy beasties. And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" — Traditional Old Scottish Prayer.


Introduction by David Stuart Davies ✔
Credo ✔
Simply put Oscar Onions' creed in his own words is "Ghosts, it is advanced, either do not exist at all, or else, like the stars at noonday, they are there all the time, and it is we who cannot see them. The stories in the following pages were written on the second of these assumptions."

The Beckoning Fair One 5⭐
Phantas 4⭐
Rooum 3⭐
Benlian 3.25⭐
The Ascending Dream 2.5⭐
The Honey in the Wall 2.75⭐
The Rosewood Door 3.5⭐
The Accident 3.25⭐
Io 2.5⭐
The Painted Face 4⭐
The Out Sister 3⭐
'John Gladwin Says . . .' 3.25⭐
Hic Jacet 5⭐
The Rocker 3⭐
Dear Dryad 2.5⭐
The Real People 3.5⭐
The Cigarette Case 4.25⭐
The Rope in the Rafters 5⭐
Resurrection in Bronze 4⭐
The Woman in the Way 3.25⭐
The Smile of Karen 4⭐
Two Triffles 2.75⭐
The Master of the House 3⭐
Tragic Casements 2.75⭐

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection, great stylist, not just Henry Jamesian psychological abstraction, but genuine mostly genuine tales of the supernatural, strange and weird.