Fear in the Blood: Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird

by Mike Ashley (Editor), Frederick Marryat, Florence Marryat

Through eighteen dark tales bubbling with the ghostly and the occult, Mike Ashley traces the phenomenon of families in which a talent for channelling the Weird passes down the generations, showcasing six lineages whose names echo through the halls of speculative Dickens, Hawthorne, Le Fanu, Pangborn, Marryat and Aiken.

With a story each from selected members of these families along with introductions on the history of their bloodlines, this collection explores unexpected connections and the strange influences that define us while offering a rare selection of chilling Weird fiction.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Gothic, Anthologies

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2024

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

"As I stooped to reach it I felt someone pull my dress from behind. I fancied I had caught the train in something, and I turned to disengage it. But the folds were perfectly free, and I returned to my original design of ringing the bell... My first impulse was to examine my dress. Yes! There on the new velvet was the distinct impress of a little hand where the material had been grasped and pulled, just about on a level with my knees" (Florence Marryat).
A British Library tales of the weird collection. This collection of weird tales is grouped into six family collections with a total of eighteen stories. The first set is the Marryat family, Frederick and his daughter Florence. The other family groups are Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Dickens, Pangborn and Aitken.
There are some stand out stories. These include Fran Nan’s Story by Sarah LeFanu, set in the foot and mouth outbreak in 2000 and by a feminist writer I have recently discovered. Old Fillikin by Joan Aitken is about a boy who is having problems with his Maths teacher, the solution is rather interesting. Wogglebeast by Edgar Pangborn is rather melancholic and sad.
The Secret Ones by Mary Danby (great great granddaughter of Charles Dickens) says a good deal about our current issues in relation to asylum seekers and migration:
“The husband, the wife and the wife’s sister arrived by boat one fear-grey dawn. Nobody saw them as they sidled down the gangplank and hurried nervously to the shelter of a deserted warehouse. They had been many days without food, hidden and afraid in the lurching hold, huddling for warmth in the relentless dark. And as the sun rose behind the cranes and girders of the quayside, they blinked uncertainly and trembled in the unaccustomed chill of an east wind that sought out their hiding place with no mercy.”
“They … were disheartened to find the land of their dreams to be one of hate not plenty.”
A powerful story with a shocking ending.
As always with these collections the quality varies, but on the whole, this is a good collection.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection has a great premise - exploring families which have authors from several generations who wrote 'weird lit', however the fact that the majority of these authors are little known doesn't result in a particularly strong or engaging collection. A lot of the stories are unoriginal or forgettable.


Krantz's Narrative • Frederick Marryat ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Haunted Nursery • Florence Marryat ⭐⭐
The Watcher•Sheridan Le Fanu ⭐⭐
What it Meant•Rhoda Broughton ⭐⭐
Fran Nan's Story • Sarah LeFanu ⭐⭐⭐
Young Goodman Brown•Nathaniel Hawthorne ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Mysterious Case of my friend Browne •Julian Hawthorne ⭐⭐
Unawares•Hildegard Hawthorne ⭐⭐
A Child's Dream of a Star•Charles Dickens ⭐⭐
My Fellow travellers •Mary Angela Dickens ⭐⭐
To Reach the Sea•Monica Dickens ⭐⭐⭐
The Secret Ones•Mary Danby ⭐⭐⭐
The Substitute•Georgia Wood Pangborn ⭐⭐
Wogglebeast•Edgar Pangborn ⭐⭐
My Name is Samantha•Mary C. Pangborn ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Silent Snow, Secret Snow•Conrad Aiken ⭐⭐⭐
The Pipe-Smoker•Martin Armstrong ⭐⭐⭐
Old Fillikin•Joan Aiken ⭐⭐⭐

[p. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies bound by the authors' biographies rather than a common theme or topic are risky. Sometiems they can produce excellent books (like the British Library's "Queens of the Abyss") or very uneven results - like the current book. It is unfortunate but the mismatch of styles this time around let the collection down.

In spite of this, there were several stories worth highlighting: "Krantz's Narrative" by Frederick Marryat, "The Haunted Nursery" by Florence Marryat, "The Watcher" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, "Fran Nan's Story" by Sarah LeFanu, "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (unmatchingly atmospheric!!), "My Name is Samantha" by Mary C. Pangborn and "The Pipe-Smoker" by Martin Armstrong. "A Child's Dream of a Star" by Charles Dickens deserves a shout out for how touching it was.

[Tana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Marryat Family
Krantz's Narrative by Frederick Marryat: 2.5*
Story/Plot: a tragic tale narrated by the son of a German serf, whose family escaped Hungary when their father turns into a fugitive hiding in the Hartz Mountains (think Carpathian?) due to committing a crime of passion against his Lord.
The father encounters the Evil Spirits of the Mountain who are disguised as humans, a father and daughter duo. The daughter is a werewolf who eats two of the children. The father then kills her. But then the surviving members of family perishes away due to vengeance for the killing.

Enjoyed the tale as it had the best bits of a gruesome fairytale (think Little Red Riding Hood combined with Hansel & Gretel) but didn't like the ending.

The Haunted Nursery by Florence Marryat: 3*
A tragic but sweet tale. The spirit of a toddler is running around the house and crying because the grief of his mother is preventing him from moving to Heaven. The new tenants and their servants are thus disturbed by spirit baby until the mother visits the house one day and is asked to release him.

The Sheridan & Le Fanu Familles
The Watcher by Joseph Le Fandu: 1*
Would have been good if the writing didn't drag. Tragic tale of much deserved vengeance against the arrogant elite. Sir James Burton, a respectable sea captain returns to Dublin where he becomes engaged to a lovely but penniless young gentlewoman. Until his cruel past from eight years ago of ruining a young girl and killing her father catches up with him.

What It Meant by Rhonda Broughton: 0*
Tedious drivel of a woman's premonition of the death of a family member.

Fran Nan's Story by Sarah LeFanu: 3*
Chilling story that starts off benign. A young girl making general chitchat with her client in a hair salon, recounting the events that occured at her grandma's neighbours house during a foot and mouth disease episode.

The Hawthorne Family
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorn: 0.5*
I'm not sure I understood this story. Based in the infamous town of Salem, a young man called Goodman Brown, from a puritanical family, dreams up a witches Black Sabbath. Or did he?

The Mysterious Case of My Friend Browne by Julian Hawthorne: 1.5*
Improvement on the story above. Mystery involving an ancestral revenge that skipped a generation. A Man finds an engagement ring and gives it to his fiancé unbeknownst to him that it's been cursed by the original owner.

Unawares by Hildegarde Hawthorne: 2*
Sweet very short story but nothing earth shattering or frightening. Elderly couple devoted to each other have only one regret. Being unable to have children. Suddenly a child appears and calls them grandma and grandpa but they're unaware they're in the afterlife.

The Dickens Family
A Child's Dream of a Star by Charles Dickens: 2*
Not a horror, ghost or paranormal. Similar to the sweet story above on afterlife and family connections.

My Fellow Travellers by Mary Angela Dickens: 1*
I didn't understand this one. Woman recounts how alone in a train carriage she sees what appears to be 2 ghostly passengers. The male passenger kills the female passenger. She enquired and discovered that it occured 2 years ago and there were no eye witnesses. But what I didn't understand was if the author is suggesting the woman recounting the story is the actual victim and her spirit is now wanting justice.

To Reach the Sea by Monica Dickens: 0.5*
Weird story about a haunted wig. Didn't understand it.

The Secret Ones by Mary Danby: 3*
Not horror in the traditional sense but gruesome and engaging enough to be a decent read. It was obvious that "The Secret Ones" were rats.

The Pangborn Family
The Substitute by Georgia Wood Pangborn: 4*
Not a horror story in the frightening horrible way. Poignant. A widow with two children dies. Prior to dying she visits her spinster friend who is lonely and craving family to see her children. When the friend realises what has occurred she takes the children as her own.

Wogglebeast by Edgar Pangborn: 1*
Didn't understand it but I think it's about fairies?

My Name is Samantha by Mary C. Pangborn: 1*
Black magic, witches and being stuck. Would have been good if there was more than a jealous witch.

The Aiken Family
Silent Snow, Secret Snow by Conrad Aiken: 0*
Mental illness or paranormal magic stuff?

The Pipe-Smoker by Martin Armstrong: 0*
A hermit goes crazy and thinks one of his reflections has killed himself. The reflection is one of 5, the only one that smokes a pipe (all the other reflections, whom he sees when he faces the window while he eats his meal, smoke ciggies.

Old Fillikin by Joan Aiken: 0.5*
A boy, who lives with his eccentric grandmother and farmer father (people mistaken her for a witch and the father sounds like a traveller (aka gypsy) dreams up a familiar who kills his maths teach.

[Carolina Búho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ésta ha sido una de mis antologías favoritas de las Tales of the Weird de la British Library (la otra es la de Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings ), me pareció muy interesante el concepto de rastrear "familias literarias" cuyos miembros escribieron historias del género weird, además de que me gustaron mucho las introducciones que Mike Ashley proveía para cada familia y cada integrante, descubrí así mucha información sobre escritores que ya conocía y, también, conocí a autores de los que nunca había oído hablar (pero que seguramente buscaré).
Ahora, si bien no todos los relatos me encantaron, todos me agradaron (excepto por Silent Snow, Secret Snow de Conrad Aiken, que me aburrió muchísimo y se me hizo un sinsentido) y la lectura se me hizo muy amena y, en muchos casos, inquietante. Mis relatos favoritos fueron: The Watcher de Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Secret Ones de Mary Danby y My Name is Samantha de Mary C. Pangborn.
Así pues, pese a que esta antología no tiene relatos con un tema homogéneo que los una, sí que provee una perspectiva distinta sobre las herencias familiares y cómo éstas pueden (o no) influir en la escritura de las personas. Recomendada totalmente.

[Magdalena Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the best collections in the British Library Tales of the Weird series. It has an original premise as we get to read stories by literary family members written in the 19th and 20th centuries. Collectively, my favourite were the first two families - the Marryats and the Sheridan & Le Fanu families, but looking at individual stories, these were the most spooky / entertaining / memorable:
- 'Krantz's Narrative' by Frederick Marryat
- 'The Haunted Nursery' by Florence Marryat
- 'Fran Nan's Story' by Sarah LeFanu - my absolute favourite!!!
- 'Unawares' by Hildegarde Hawthorne
- 'Wogglebeast' by Edgar Pangborn

[Tom Andersson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tyvärr är denna boken en besvikelse för mig. Jag tolkade bokens tema som skräck kopplat till släktskap. Som huset Uschers fall etc. Men detta handlade istället främst om olika familjer av författare som har skrivit olika typer av ”skräck”. Det är väldigt olika nivå och tilltal i berättelserna och många kan knappt klassas som skräck och var så fruktansvärt vaga att jag fick googla berättelsen i efterhand för att se om jag förstått rätt. Jag skulle säga att de första berättelserna är ganska bra men sedan blir de bara nästan sämre och sämre. Likaså är temat med familjer av författare ganska krystat.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting concept for an anthology: a collection of stories by famous writers and members of their families (offspring, siblings, modern day descendants, etc.): Marryat, Sheridan and Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Dickens, Pangborn, and Aiken, that demonstrate that writing talent can indeed be a family trait. Some of these stories are quite creepy, and some are just weird an unsettling, but they are all quite enjoyable. Recommended to lovers of weird fiction.

[Michael John Paul McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm only giving Fear in the Blood four stars as there were a couple of short stories that totally confused me and didn't seem frightening enough. That said, it's another great addition to the British Library of the Weird cannon. Looking forward to the next book arriving in the post.

[Jen Hodgson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sadly a DNF. Although the blurb and concept of this collection of short stories had a lot of promise, sadly I didn't get on that well with the authors prose which although was just a style of the time I struggle to enjoy reading it.