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Night Shadows: Twentieth-Century Stories of the Uncanny
This fine collection of fifteen stories straddles the thin border between ordinary anxiety and existential nightmare. These tales of dread and darkness ignore the traditional demons haunting country houses or popping up from unopened graves, but instead feature characters inhabiting the familiar scenes of quotidian life. That these are tales of ordinary people makes them all the more disquieting, their horrors more sharply edged, precisely because they are set in modern, everyday reality. What the protagonists have in common, regardless of age, status, or profession, is that at some point in their lives, by imperceptible degrees or with alarming rapidity, reality turns strange, the unthinkable becomes conceivable, and the specters of uncertainty, fear, and stark, sheer terror become their constant companions.
Many are studies of compulsion, of forces so powerful they subjugate the will; others are of obsession. The energies and tensions of family life also provide fertile ground: Wharton and Graves portray tormented (and tormenting) couples, while Campbell and Aickman explore unplumbed depths in a father-son and a mother-daughter relationship. In the stories by Truman Capote and Joyce Carol Oates, the uncanny is encountered in a fateful and unsettling regression to childhood.
The supernatural has probably never been far away, usually hovering nearby as (in the words of V. S. Pritchett) "blobs of the unconscious that have floated up to the surface of the mind." In this post-Freudian world we have writers who are unafraid to explore the meanings and parameters of the supernatural. From Elizabeth Bowen to Shirley Jackson, from Ray Bradbury to William Trevor, this selection savors the shadows of these nocturnal landscapes, providing us with momentary (and always literary) encounters with this most elusive, and least tamed, landscape of the human heart.
305 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 23, 2016
These aren't stories of horror. These aren't stories of terror. These are stories of the uncanny. Which means I'm glad I finished the book, so I can start sleeping at night again.
This fine collection of eerie tales is just perfect for tilting your world off-kilter. Are the protagonists really enduring these frights or are they suffering from their own mental illnesses? Can we prevent that which we believe is about to happen? Or all we all lost?
Loved every story, some of which are shorter than others. William Trevor is not on my bookshelves, but that will now change. His story about Mrs. Acland and the man she writes to (while she's residing in an asylum) kept my attention all the way through. Robert Aickman's, The Inner Room, had me in a cold sweat, and Joyce Carol Oates, M.R. James, Ray Bradbury, Robert Graves, Edith Wharton, and Truman Capote also feature here.
But there was one story which kept me riveted. As a child, my first experience with Father Christmas came during a balmy day in Melbourne, when I found myself suddenly plopped onto the lap of a fat man in red who scared the bejesus out of me. Until then, I only knew of Sint Niklaas, who was thin and normal. My parents took a picture of me wailing at the top of my lungs, tears streaming down my face, as I tried to run away from the scary red man. In this book is a tale called, The Chimney, by Ramsey Campbell. It brought back memories of a Father Christmas who, perhaps, is not quite the jolly figure we are supposed to love.
This is a David R. Godine publication, which means it is well laid-out, nicely edited, and with the usual explanation of type used (Van Dijck).
But, oh, that chimney.
Book Season = Autumn (but I was too scared to wait)
This fine collection of eerie tales is just perfect for tilting your world off-kilter. Are the protagonists really enduring these frights or are they suffering from their own mental illnesses? Can we prevent that which we believe is about to happen? Or all we all lost?
Loved every story, some of which are shorter than others. William Trevor is not on my bookshelves, but that will now change. His story about Mrs. Acland and the man she writes to (while she's residing in an asylum) kept my attention all the way through. Robert Aickman's, The Inner Room, had me in a cold sweat, and Joyce Carol Oates, M.R. James, Ray Bradbury, Robert Graves, Edith Wharton, and Truman Capote also feature here.
But there was one story which kept me riveted. As a child, my first experience with Father Christmas came during a balmy day in Melbourne, when I found myself suddenly plopped onto the lap of a fat man in red who scared the bejesus out of me. Until then, I only knew of Sint Niklaas, who was thin and normal. My parents took a picture of me wailing at the top of my lungs, tears streaming down my face, as I tried to run away from the scary red man. In this book is a tale called, The Chimney, by Ramsey Campbell. It brought back memories of a Father Christmas who, perhaps, is not quite the jolly figure we are supposed to love.
This is a David R. Godine publication, which means it is well laid-out, nicely edited, and with the usual explanation of type used (Van Dijck).
But, oh, that chimney.
Book Season = Autumn (but I was too scared to wait)
Displaying 1 of 1 review