A Bottomless Grave: and Other Victorian Tales of Terror

by Hugh Lamb (Editor), Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris

Selected from the works of American, British, and French writers, 21 rare and seldom-anthologized stories include "A Bottomless Grave" by Ambrose Bierce, "The Ship that Saw a Ghost" by Frank Norris, Guy de Maupassant's "The Tomb," Richard Marsh's "The Haunted Chair," and other hard-to-find gems of the genre.


CONTENTS
The Devil of the Marsh by H. B. Marriott-Watson

A Tragic Honeymoon by G. R. Sims

The Battle of the Monsters by Morgan Robertson

The Return by R. Murrey Gilchrist

The Corpse Light by Dick Donovan

The Ship That Saw a Ghost by Frank Norris

A Bottomless Grave by Ambrose Bierce

One Summer Night by Ambrose Bierce

Ghosts That Have Haunted Me by J. K. Bangs

Haunted by Spirits by George Mandeville Fenn

A Ghost Slayer by J. Keightley Snowdon

The Tomb by Guy de Maupassant

The Man with the Nose by Rhoda Broughton

My Nightmare by Dorothea Gerard

A Life-watch by Georgina C. Clark

The Haunted Chair by Richard Marsh

Coolies by W. Carlton Dawe

The Three Souls by Erckmann-Chatrian

A Strange Goldfield by Guy Boothby

An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr

The Story of Baelbrow by E. and H. Heron

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Classics, Paranormal, Victorian

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugh Lamb's third anthology of Victorian tales of the macabre. He's picked stories and authors mostly overlooked by the anthologists of the day thus presenting a fresh collection. I believe they were all first reads for me. Lamb is my kind of editor; each story begins with an introduction to the author and where the story comes from with some background information. As is usual in an anthology some stories were better than others but the book as a whole averaged out to a solid 3/5 rating.

1. The Devil of the Marsh by H.B. Marriott-Watson (1893) - A moody atmosphere is the best feature of this short tale. A man, besotten by a creature of the marsh, meets her there and learns the true horror of her nature. OK but rather dull. (3/5)

2. A Tragic Honeymoon by G.R. Sims (1894) - Loved this one! A creepy tale of a newlywed couple spending their first night together only to find blood dripping from the ceiling and landing on the lady's hand. There has been a suicide and the strange details come to light by the end. (4/5)

3. The Battle of the Monsters by Morgan Robertson (1899) - A weird tale that was a bit ahead of its times. Tells the story of a sole black cholera cell travelling through a body as a battle is going on against influenza. Rather like "The Fantastic Voyage", only the cholera is the narrator of the story. Ends up feeling somewhat science lesson-y but has a nifty vicious ending(3/5)

4. The Return by R. Murray Gilchrist (1894) - Quite a short story and a very predictable plot that does manage to shock at the end. A man returns to his lover 20-years after promising to return when he had made the money she deserved. (2/5)

5. The Corpse Light by Dick Donovan (1899) - A simple ghost story with a predictable ending and many plot holes. (1/3)

6. The Ship that Saw a Ghost by Frank Norris (1903) - a Straightforward tale of a ghost ship. Nothing happens but well written (2/5)

7. A Bottomless Grave and One Summer Night by Ambrose Bierce (?) - The first story is macabre humour with biting whit aimed at the current state of affairs. It's a silly story but certainly, nightmarish. The second is a mere page and a half long retelling the events one evening of some grave robbers who chose to exhume a corpse who didn't believe he was dead. I like Ambrose Bierce a lot but these are two mediocre examples of his work. (3/5)

8. Ghosts That Have Haunted Me by J.K. Bangs (1898) - At this point, the editor interjects to let the reader know that the next three stories are humorous rather than terrifying. This story certainly fits the bill. The complete piece is written with wit calling sarcasm to every bit of current daily life. Then the narrator goes on to tell how he deals with ghosts, of which he is not frightened, but in the end how one did bamboozle him. (4/5)

9. Haunted by Spirits by George Manville Fenn (1867) - A man spends the night in a supposed haunted room. Any humour was lost on me and frankly, I found it boring (1/5)

10 A Ghost Slayer by J Keighley Snowden (1893) - Not exactly funny, but light-hearted. A man in town can see ghosts, foretell the future and even claims to have actually killed a bothersome spirit. (2/5)

11. The Tomb by Guy de Maupassant (1884) - A very short tale of madness written by the tremendous author of Victorian Gothic. A man is on trial for digging up the corpse of his beloved. His statement to the jury follows. (5/5)

12. The Man with the Nose by Rhoda Broughton (1879) - A bit longer than the other stories in this book but a very fast read. A well-written tale of a couple on honeymoon in Germany. The woman sees a man with an unusual nose in their room one night, chalked it up to be a nightmare. However, the man is glimpsed in daylight and then makes his strike when the husband has to go home for a bit for the death of his benefactor. (5/5)

13. My Nightmare by Dorothea Gerard (1892) - A Lancer recounts the story of the Colonel's servant disappearing and the subsequent finding of him in an abandoned stone cellar. The setting gives this one its atmosphere. (4/5)

14. A Life-Watch by Georgina C. Clark (?) - One of the best stories so far. A young couple rent to a lodger, an old eccentric woman. For many years she lives there and her only possession is a large, heavy box which the couple wonders is full of either riches or books.Upon the lodger's death, she gives the lady of the house a letter explaining everything. A good building of excitement until the story finishes with a surprising twist ending.(5/5)

15. The Haunted Chair by Richard Marsh (1902) - Several members of the "Club" each encounter a former member who suddenly disappears as do their valuables While all this time said thief is supposed to be in Ceylon, starting a new life. This all happens in the smoking room where the "ghost's" chair is located. Well-written, with rising tension to the reveal and shock ending. Another of the best stories here. (5/5)

16. Coolies by W. Carlton Dawe (1895) - This story does not belong here, imo, as it is about a mutiny and hardly nightmare inducing. From the title one can tell from the get-go that this 19h century story is going be called racist by 21st century standards. However, I personally always judge books from the time in which they were written never imposing 21st-century values upon them. This said the story was hard to read through what is clearly a racist narrative even of the times. The words used to refer to the Chinese didn't bother me so much as that then each time the derogatory terms were accompanied by various demeaning adjectives. This made the story a chore to read and the plot is simply of a mutiny that got dangerous but was eventually overturned by those in charge. (2/5)

17. The Three Souls by Erckmann-Chatrian (1859) - It's 1815 and a student of philosophy talks with a metaphysics student. The discussion, the soul or the various numbers of souls to be exact. Our narrator is taken by the metaphysical theorist to come see his experiment in which he has proven the existence of three souls in a human: plant, animal and human. Setting eyes on the experiment our narrator is horrified and quickly becomes an experiment himself. Though faulty by today's theories, it was fun reading a mid-19th-century discourse on the scientific evidence of the soul. I'm a theologian myself and discussion of the soul, no matter how mad, is always interesting The story is quite Poe-ish and more nightmare inducing than others here. (5/5)

18. A Strange Goldfield by Guy Bootthby (1904) - A ghostly story by an Australian set in the Australian Outback. Three men are crossing the desert when they come upon an abandoned goldfield town which none had known was there. The guide hazards his best guess as to its name. They have a quick look about finding a skeleton in the saloon and quickly leave. Camping nearby they see a wild man running around who they manage to capture and invite to their camp. This is when the experience turns otherworldly. An enjoyable story. It evoked a creepy atmosphere while only hinting at the possible ghostly goings-on. (4/5)

19. An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr (1893) - This uses a typical device for when a husband or wife (or both!) are considering killing the other. But in 1893 Barr may have been the first to use it. A well-paced story with a mean plot twist at the end (4/5)

20. The Story of Baelbrow by E. and H. Heron (1916) - A bit of a wierd one. Flaxman Low, a detective in the paranormal, is called in to look at a haunted house in which the benign ghost has become vicious resulting in one death. certainly well written but with a decidedly awkward explanation of just what has been causing the deathly rampage. (4/5)

[Vilija · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I have three points: first, there's a good reason why these authors aren't as famous as, say, Stoker or Poe--their stories are simplistic and rely on description, not emotion or atmosphere. Second, generally, these fail to truly frighten the modern reader because we take horror so much further these days in our own entertainment. Third, having said that, reading these stories is a bit like watching old silent horror films--through them, you can study an antiquated psyche to better appreciate a long-gone cultural appreciation for what (to them, anyway) was once scary.

Ok, one more point: the best stories in this collection are the (intentionally) funny ones, like those by Ambrose Bierce. Reading his stories evoked, for me, my favourite ghost story of all: Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost. Read it.

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The whole point of this anthology is to reintroduce some lesser known Victorian horror stories to modern readers, but I think it's possible there's a reason most of these can't be found among the more famous classics. There were a few I really enjoyed: "A Life-Watch" and "The Haunted Chair" are genuinely creepy; "The Three Souls" is a good, familiar story in the "man is the greatest monster" vein; the title story "A Bottomless Grave" is fun and funny; "The Battle of the Monsters" is, if nothing else, imaginative. But the majority of the stories had weak endings and weren't that creepy, and I found myself bored more than anything else.

[Vicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really hoping for some scary tales, but I guess what was scary in the Victorian era is tame in our times. Most of the stories were dull, in my opinion. There were 3 tales that I really enjoyed. Their titles: The Haunted Chair, The Story of Baelbow, and The Man with the Nose. In the Baelbow story, I really enjoyed the fact that there was a paranormal sleuth, a la Sherlock Holmes, only with spectres. I noticed in many of the stories the women had premonitions of trouble and the Victorian man chalked it up to women's hysteria. They were proved otherwise. This is not a keeper on my shelves.

[Willen P · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word "hissen" brought me to this collection.

Overall, it was nice to read stories of the Victorian area relating to macabre or terror. Though a lot didn't impress me and some were a bore to read through.

My favourites were:

"The Battle of The Monsters" by Morgan Robertson
"My Nightmare" by Dorothea Gerard
"A Life-Watch" by Georgina C. Clark
"The Three Souls" by Erckmann-Chatrian
"An Alpine Divorce" by Robert Barr (though predictable)

None of them would give me nightmares though. They were more entertaining to me.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of Victorian horror short stories is more fun than scary. I felt that I should have been sitting in front of a roaring fire with a snifter of good brandy while reading aloud. Ambrose Bierce's title story made me laugh out loud. The others were all good in their own fashion. Some were a bit more difficult to read than others but all were satisfying.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I've read better Victorian terror

[Hinda Rochel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most anthologies, a mix. Some interesting stories, a few amusing ones, and a few authors whose other works I would like to search out.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This old-timey stuff doesn't do it for me. To hard to follow the way the narratives are written and the payoff isn't there.

[Serenity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Bottomless Grave & Other Victorian Tales of Terror is a collection of mostly little-known horror stories, mostly from England, but also from America and even Australia. Hugh Lamb has collected them from various sources. Since I have not read any of the stories and not even heard of most of the authors, I can only say that Lamb as editor has succeeded in finding obscure tales that contain a few masterpieces.

My favorite story was Frank Norris's "The Ship That Saw a Ghost," about an encounter with a ghost ship off South America. I also liked E. and H. Heron's "The Story of Baelbrow," with a ghost hunter named Flaxman Low; Erckmann-Chatrian's "The Three Souls," with its Hoffmanesque quality; and the Conradian W. Carlton Dawe's "Coolies" about a mutiny enroute to Singapore.

Many of the best horror stories I have read have been in paperback editions from Dover Publications, such as this one. Highly recommended for Halloween!

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished my Halloween read this morning. I give the editor props for introducing me to Victorian writers I'd never heard of before, and it is fascinating to me how so many published 70 books in their lifetime and then disappeared into obscurity. But, big but, most of the stories weren't really that great. My favorite two were "The Bottomless Grave" by Bierce and "An Alpine Divorce" by Robert Barr. Apparently I dearly love stories about miserable marriages. For fans of ghostly horror, I'd still highly recommend The Haunted Looking Glass Ghost Stories and say to give this a pass.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of 19th and early 20th Century weird tales. There is a mix of psychological horror, and ghost stories, and the stories range from serious and creepy to darkly comical.

The ones I liked the best were:
"A Tragic Honeymoon" (G. R. Sims)
"The Battle of the Monsters" (Morgan Robertson)
"The Return" (R. Murray Gilchrist)
"A Bottomless Grave" (Ambrose Bierce)
"Ghosts That Have Haunted Me" (J. K. Bang)
"A Life-Watch" (Georgina Gerard)
"An Alpine Divorce" (Robert Barr)

One that was simply awful was a racist "Yellow Peril" story by W. Carlton Dawe, "Coolies."

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read if you like your scares with a Victorian sensibility. I enjoyed every story in this volume, although one story which describes a human body's response to an infective invading organism, was a bit hard to get through. On the shorter side, you could probably finish this in a couple of days.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can you say? Hit and miss again. The best, the very most wonderful of these is, in fact, the title story, which was so funny and so clever and so terrible that I kept re-reading it. Even if you don't read this book, read this story online somewhere.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of these are scary, although many are at least interesting. Most of the writing is pretty dry. Bierce's "A Bottomless Grave" is the best by far.

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victorian Nightmares is a book of very old short stories. They are mostly English writers. The stories are very good.

[Karen]

some were a tad spooky. some not so. a fun read if you enjoy victorian parlour ghost stories. just not hugely scary to todays reader.

[AshO · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked a lot of the stories. Not very scary, but an interesting and fun read.