Man-Size in Marble and Other Grim Tales

by E. Nesbit, Stephen Carver (introduction)

336 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2025

About the author

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.

Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.

At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.

Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).

In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.

Reviews

[Mark Redman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man-Size in Marble and Other Grim Tales a collection of supernatural stories by E. Nesbit features moments of effective, understated supernatural horror. It should demonstrate Nesbit’s skill at creating genuinely unsettling atmospheres. While the collection suffers in my opinion from inconsistency and includes several stories that don’t quite succeed, stories like “The Pavilion” and “The House of Silence" appear underdeveloped, relying on vague eeriness without sufficient narrative depth or emotional engagement to make the supernatural elements truly resonate. Although "John Charrington’s Wedding" offers an intriguing premise, its melodramatic turn and neat resolution diminish its lasting impact. In these weaker stories, Nesbit’s abrupt endings seem less like intentional subtlety and more like a missed opportunity to fully develop her ideas.

I found the stories often lacked vitality, and the frequent moral overtones tend to date the stories. As a result, the collection feels more like a patchwork of experiments rather than a cohesive work of grim, supernatural fiction. Still, for readers like me interested in early supernatural literature, a select few stories such as “Man-Size in Marble" remain the standout—its restraint and suggestion craft a haunting mood that is rarely matched elsewhere in the volume. “The Shadow” also works well, using psychological unease and suggestion rather than overt horror to create a lingering sense of threat. “The Ebony Frame” benefits from a strong central image and a more fully realised supernatural payoff, giving the story a cohesion that many of the others lack. Similarly, “The Violet Car” succeeds through its eerie atmosphere and symbolic use of the uncanny, even if its horror remains understated. Overall a very mixed bag of stories the majority of which never really satisfied.

[Pages & Cup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Read the short story Man-size in Marble for Dickens December.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read all of these tales, but we're counting it. Man-Size in Marble is a good one; perfect for a scary Victorian ghost story!