Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil

by Emily Vincent (Editor)

Through the electric silence of the séance, a terrible, hurtling force draws near. A play with the planchette invites a diabolical visitor to Radley Manor. A medium’s summoning of a lost child pitches them into mortal peril.

In this haunting new collection, Emily Vincent presents fourteen chilling classics and lost gems of séance fiction which evoke the most thrilling and thought-provoking aspects of the popular Victorian movement of spiritualism.

Featuring tales by practising mediums, sceptics and ghost-seekers including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Florence Marryat and F. Scott Fitzgerald, this volume is a suffusion of spectral frights and satirical skewerings, destined to linger with the reader long after the door to the séance has closed.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Ghost Stories

303 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2024

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Whoever came up with the British Library Tales of the Weird series is a publishing genius, and also I want their job. Literally just going "OK, dig out a bunch of weird shit by forgotten writers, and the theme is [rolls random dice] mushrooms. Alcohol. Cornwall. London Transport."

Anyway this one is all about spiritualism and seances. Lots of good stuff including a fun F Scott Fitzgerald piece I hadn't read. I think it's too skewed to scepticism, myself, and it was definitely a mistake to start with Dickens' incredibly laboured multi page extension of a joke that wasn't that funny at one line. Still, lots of fun.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of stories about seances from a time when spiritualism was a major pastime for the idle and credulous, starting with Charles Dickens and ending around the start of WWII.

There are no bad ones, although if I’m honest I was completely indifferent to the Dickens, which is more a satirical sketch for a magazine than a story as such. The poem by Robert Browning is great, but like a lot of classic poetry requires much concentration and probably reading aloud.

I like how the British Library assembles works by super famous writers and then mixes them with lesser-known ones, and some outright obscure to a point where little biographical detail exists. The tone varies too, between straightforward horror tales to folkloric pieces and comic takes, in the latter a camp and amusing entry by F Scott Fitzgerald of The Great Gatsby fame, called “The IOU”.

It’s hard to pick a favourite, but I enjoyed the pulpy thrills of “Mrs Morrel’s Last Seance” by Edgar Jepsen and a short piece that closes the book attributed to Olga L Rosmanith, simply called “Seance”. Both are possessed of nasty stings in their tales.

Strangely, one of the more intriguing stories is “The Seance at Radley Manor” by Katherine Drake, a relatively artless piece of evangelical propaganda against spiritualism. It feels reminiscent of US Christian propaganda from the 1980s and ‘90s that was warning of occult dangers in Dungeons & Dragons and tolerance, but written in 1926 and set among stock English characters - generals, vicars, and aristocrats.

It’s limited by its genre - the need to propagandise means that characters tend to just announce their thoughts and feelings according to their role while lectures are given about true faith. But it’s a fascinating window into fears about seance practices a hundred years ago.

Other highlights include a funny and cockeyed detective story by Florence Marryat, an inverted crime tale from Lettice Galbraith, and a good fun romp with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - infamous for his belief in spiritualism - spinning a yarn about a spectral unicorn.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

dawson and fitzgerald’s stories were the stand outs for me

[Steven West · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvellously eclectic collection, ending on a brutal, bleak note with Olga L Rosmanith's 'Seance' and with various lovely diversions on the theme. F. Scott Fitzgerald's early "fake news" tale 'The I.O.U.' is a treasure: "Could you love a man who wore floating underwear?"

[p. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5☆

Perhaps I had too high expectations for this since I ended up not enjoying it at all. If anything, it almost put me into a bit of a slump. The stories were well selected in relation to the theme so I suspect that the theme itself might have not been as strong as one woud think.

Favourite entries: "A Midsummer's Nightmare: Or, the Amateur Detective" by Florence Marryat, "In the Seance Room" by Lettice Galbraith (though I am certain it has been included in previous Tales of the Weird books and I loved it back then, too), "The Light of Pentraginny" by Elizabeth d'Esperance, "The Seance at Radley Manor: A Warning" by Katherine Drake

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the British Library's “Tales of the Weird” titles, collating supernatural stories from chiefly Victorian and Edwardian writers. This one featured all new-to-me titles aside from the Conan Doyle offering. Emily Vincent has done an excellent range of uncovering a wide range of intriguing titles loosely linked by a spiritualist theme, presenting them here in order of publication.

We begin with WELL-AUTHENTICATED RAPPINGS, a humorous account by Dickens of a man's digestive ailments and their causation by a mischievous spirit. It's rather laboured but works as a lighthearted piece. Following this is an except taken from Robert Browning's MR. SLUDGE, “THE MEDIUM”, which satirises the profession in a cutting way. I'm no fan of excerpts as they appear in anthologies but I'm glad to have made acquaintance with this famous title.

Florence Marryat's A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE; OR, THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE is the first narrative short story and it tackles the subject in an amusing way. The protagonist is an investigator who travels to Norwich in search of a missing man, but ends up staying in a haunted house. For me, the combination of likeable narrator and touches of character humour make this one a winner. Following this is Lettice Galbraith's excellent IN THE SEANCE ROOM, which ably mixes a sinister crime story with a spooky séance scene. The psychological approach works very well and the clinical tone gives this the impact of a true crime tale.

Jean Lorrain's THE SPECTRAL HAND is a short effort about a summoned apparition foretelling doom. It's straightforward enough, but suitably atmospheric with it. Unfortunately, Emma Dawson's “ARE THE DEAD DEAD?” is the one I liked least of all, a muddled romance in a haunted house which feels like nothing more than an excuse for the author to repeatedly show off her learning. Elizabeth D'Esperance's THE LIGHT OF PETRAGINNY is much better and one of the best here: a saga-like story of Cornish shipwrecks and second sight, loaded with atmosphere and tragic characters. It summons up a mood of doomed inevitability and is all the better for it.

Next up is another except, this time from H.G. Wells's LOVE AND MR LEVISHAM, and not for me either; I wasn't a fan of the way it discusses spiritualism in a rather dry fashion, and I wouldn't rank it as one of the author's many decent pieces of writing. Conan Doyle's PLAYING WITH FIRE I already knew, and I've always had a ball with this one. It offers an exciting set-piece in which an unexpected apparition makes its appearance at a suspenseful séance. Following this is Edgar Jepson's MRS. MORREL'S LAST SEANCE, which I'd rank the finest in the book. It's a thoroughly frightening read in which the strained atmosphere of the séance is depicted very well, and the unusual events which take place are handled superbly, leaving me feel uneasy and full of questions after I'd read it, which is the desired effect of any ghost story.

Jessica Adelaide Middleton's AT A SEANCE is a short-short that commendably tells a complete story in just two pages, while F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE I.O.U. is a wonderfully droll effort in which the publication of a spiritualist memoir comes a cropper due to an unexpected development. For me, this hilarious story is every bit as assured as the likes of GATSBY, and easily on par with other comic favourites of mine, like the works of Wodehouse. THE SEANCE AT RADLEY MANOR: A WARNING, by Katherine Drake, is the longest story collected here, a novella in which a group of characters assemble at a country house for a séance, but there's a violent visit from an interloper. It's not for all tastes, containing long passages of dialogue which the author uses to explore the spiritualist landscape of 1925, but I found the discussion fascinating and enjoyed the narrative overall. The last tale, Olga L. Rosmanith's simply-titled SEANCE, is another brief story about a bickering couple, but it has an appropriately chilly twist which works very well.

Altogether this is an intriguing collection which is a must for anyone with an interest in spiritualist history or indeed ghost stories as a whole.

[J. Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

OOOH...I'm on the final story in this anthology. I am reading them in sequence, which is a bit unusual for me, as sometimes I choose a story by length first, or by favorite author. There was a passage by Dickens and a poem by Robert Browning to start, and I confess that neither grabbed me.
And I looked forward to the selection by Florence Marryat who knocked me senseless with her novel Blood of the Vampire...but it turns out that this story was whimsical and not as pithy. All good, glad to read it, but again, a wee bit of a disappointment.
And I'm sorry to say but the offering by F. Scott Fitzgerald didn't do much for me.
There's a whopper by Lettice Galbreath--she's amazing, and In the Seance Room has been anthologized much for its greatness.
But oh, I think I've got a new favorite--well worth the price of admission, this one! I've heard the name Edgar Jepson but am not familiar with him; this will change! Mrs. Morrel's Last Seance is a doozy!
A couple lost their little girl Maisie; they come to the seance in hope of contact. Boy, oh boy, do they get it!
A perfectly creepy ghost story for Christmas, as it takes place in early December.
Some of the stories make fun of Spiritualism, which was/is rife with charlatans preying on the grief-stricken. But this one is a warning to those who waltz in both realms as mediums...
I've got the last, longish story still to go, but I'm firm about this collection--as stated earlier, I can't rave about all the stories, but if classic ghost stories is your thing, you need this collection.

[LayDownYourSoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection. But I enjoyed this almost more as a set of historical notes and anecdotes about authors interest or scepticism in the supernatural, with stories to back that up, than a set of great stories.

Interesting seeing how pervasive the trend of spiritualism and seances was at a certain point in time, and the attitudes of so many prominent authors towards this. Kind of surprising how many of these stories are against the practice - either as being trickery or evil. That made them a bit less fun though, than indulging the idea of it being real.

These collections can often stretch the definition of weird, but there really wasn't much of that here at all - most of the stories even pointedly had nothing supernatural.

But I did end up reading and enjoying a whole Jean Lorrain collection based on being introduced to his work here. And this book was very interesting from a history of literature point of view.

[Magdalena Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for anything that deals with séances and Spiritualism, so I knew I would enjoy another book in the British Library Tales of the Weird series. I really liked the intros by Emily Vincent, both to the book and to each story. My favourites were 'In the Séance Room' by Lettice Galbraith, 'At a Séance' by Jessie Adelaide Middleton, 'The I.O.U.' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and 'Séance' by Olga L. Rosmanith. It was also nice to revisit an excerpt from Love and Mr. Lewisham, a novel I read and enjoyed a few years ago.

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

Absolutely brilliant book. The British Library of the Weird never fails to impress me. Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil, edited by Emily Vincent is one of the best in the Weird Tales series. All the short stories are excellent, but my favourite tale was The Séance at Radley Manor: A Warning by Katherine Drake. It had everything in it. Believers, sceptics, terror and of course séances. Well worth purchasing if you like tales of spirits and séances. 10/10

[Lyn Lockwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some amazing stories here from famous writers like F Scott Fitzgerald and Conan Doyle, and some obscure writers. I've never attended a seance and this has put me off for good! If you like quirky writing from 1880s to about 1940s with a supernatural element then you will love this. An interesting collection.

[A_Place_In The_Orchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughly enjoyed it until the last but one story - which was also, by far, the longest in the book. Elsewhere, I'd say this volume contained some of the best writing I've read in this series. The tale of Radley Manor, on the other hand, featured some of the worst. (And it told an unforgivably weak story as well.)

So, a five star read, deducted one for wasting so much space.

[Bighairyken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the strongest collection of stories - couple of decent ones - some great writing from Arthur Conan Doyle - a good punchy little story at the end, and one awful, long-winded, preachy, moralistic conversation masquerading as a story.

[Jim Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable and diverse collection - including by the wonderfully named "Lettice Galbraith". I almost gave up after the first 2 works - an irritating short piece by Dickens followed by a tedious 10 pages of Robert Browning poetry - but the rest is interesting and often funny.

[Samantha T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed it however I found the first few tales a struggle. Others were fine and some were quite enjoyable. It’s not a bad collection, I just feel like it was too focused on delivering stories on topic than it was on how enjoyable the stories were, or maybe it’s just me.

[Theofilos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection, some good stories and thankfully only one bad, and that's the first story, by Dickens, oh boy, talk about a bad start! after that it was a smooth ride, only notable story that I thought it should have been included is "the last seance" by Agatha Christie.

[Ghengis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. The Dickens piece I thought was unreadable, the rest are stylistically "of their time" but uninspiring even by those standards.

[David P. Kuzma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

One of the best anthologies yet. The stories were all intriguing and easy to read. A nice change of pace from the typical ghost stories.

[KDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

(review to follow later)

[Samuel (Still Reading Sam) M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up
Really not for me