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We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories
We Are for the Dark is a remarkable collection, and one that can be said to have kick-started the ‘Aickmanesque’ short story. Credit for the genesis of this sub-genre of the ghost story should be given jointly to Robert Aickman and his collaborator in We Are for the Dark, Elizabeth Jane Howard. Contributing three tales each, the authors were not identified with their own stories when the book was first published in 1951.
We Are for the Dark contains six stories: ‘The Trains’, ‘The View’ and ‘The Insufficient Answer’ are by Robert Aickman, while ‘Three Miles Up’, ‘Left Luggage’ and ‘Perfect Love’ are by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
We Are for the Dark contains six stories: ‘The Trains’, ‘The View’ and ‘The Insufficient Answer’ are by Robert Aickman, while ‘Three Miles Up’, ‘Left Luggage’ and ‘Perfect Love’ are by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
286 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
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339 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Jane Howard
54 books664 followersElizabeth Jane Howard, CBE, was an English novelist. She was an actress and a model before becoming a novelist. In 1951, she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit. Six further novels followed, before she embarked on her best known work, a four novel family saga (i.e., The Cazalet Chronicles) set in wartime Britain. The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off were serialised by Cinema Verity for BBC television as The Cazalets (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off). She has also written a book of short stories, Mr Wrong, and edited two anthologies.
Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013.
Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 8, 2021
We Are for the Dark is a remarkable collection, featuring the first ghost stories of Robert Aickman and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and as good as Aickman’s tales are (especially "The Trains" and "The View"), I feel it is Howard’s contributions that are the real highlight here. "Perfect Love" has genuinely frightening moments, and a wonderfully strange atmosphere, and "Three Miles Up" is arguably the best story in the collection. Aickman’s tales feel more experimental than hers as if he is still finding his style, while Howard reads as the more confident writer. Her last tale, "Left Luggage", is perhaps a bit too conventional compared to the other stories, nonetheless, it is still a fine ghostly tale. It is a shame that Howard did not write any more strange fiction, as hers are among the finest in the genre. Like the other Aickman collections, this begs for multiple readings. Perhaps to glean more insight into the strangeness of the pieces but also to revel in the disturbing atmosphere that permeates these stories.
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March 21, 2022WE ARE FOR THE DARK war eine "Gemeinschaftsproduktion" von Elizabeth Jane Howard und Robert Aickman, der bis dahin keine Stories veröffentlicht hatte. In der Erstausgabe war nicht verzeichnet, welche Story von welchem Autor stammte, so dass munter gemutmaßt werden konnte, wer der jeweilige Verfasser war und ob und wie die Zusammenarbeit aussah.
PERFECT LOVE (Elizabeth Jane Howard):
Erzählton und Stimmung haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Allerdings finde ich die Vorstellung von einem Geist, der "altert" (also zuerst als Baby nur mit Schreien auf sich aufmerksam macht und später dann in bester Kleinkindmanier Dinge in Unordnung bringt und beschädigt), gewöhnungsbedürftig. Demnach hätte Geister eine Lebenserwartung wie ein normaler Mensch, obwohl man doch gemeinhin denkt, dass Geister über Jahrhunderte in Schlössern etc. spuken könnten. Ob so ein Geist dann im Laufe der Jahre vernünftig wird? Eine Schule kann er ja immerhin nicht besuchen :)
Aber dieser kleinen Vorbehalte zum Trotz ist die Geschichte sehr gut zu lesen, clever arrangiert und birgt ein großes Geheimnis.
****
PERFECT LOVE (Elizabeth Jane Howard):
Erzählton und Stimmung haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Allerdings finde ich die Vorstellung von einem Geist, der "altert" (also zuerst als Baby nur mit Schreien auf sich aufmerksam macht und später dann in bester Kleinkindmanier Dinge in Unordnung bringt und beschädigt), gewöhnungsbedürftig. Demnach hätte Geister eine Lebenserwartung wie ein normaler Mensch, obwohl man doch gemeinhin denkt, dass Geister über Jahrhunderte in Schlössern etc. spuken könnten. Ob so ein Geist dann im Laufe der Jahre vernünftig wird? Eine Schule kann er ja immerhin nicht besuchen :)
Aber dieser kleinen Vorbehalte zum Trotz ist die Geschichte sehr gut zu lesen, clever arrangiert und birgt ein großes Geheimnis.
****
December 23, 2016
"The bright day is done
And we are for the dark."
Antony and Cleopatra, Act V ,Scene II
Robert Aickman wrote 48 short stories between 1951 and 1985. "Slow writing" indeed. There is no-one else like him. His "strange tales" are neither supernatural nor psychological, but hover uneasily between the two genres. Pigeon-holed as a horror writer, he is actually one of the best short story writers of the last century. "We Are For the Dark" is a collaboration between Aickman and his then lover, Elizabeth Jane Howard. Aickman was finding it hard to get published, and Howard - - a best-selling writer at the time - - kindly offered to work with him. Howard, feted during her lifetime, has been unfairly neglected since. Her novel, The Long View, is a hypnotic portrait of a marriage, and it is on Hilary Mantel's reading list for creative writing students.
The six stories in this volume were originally published without attribution. Part of the fun in reading this volume is in guessing who wrote what. I frequently guessed wrong. The strange tales in this volume show a remarkable sympathy of tone: they are shocking, explicit, and frightening.
In this volume, both writers use the fantastical and supernatural to illuminate human concerns: claustrophobic families, female friendship, depression, artistic freedoms, sexual jealousy.
Perfect Love - I found this opening tale the weakest of the bunch: rambling, confusing, and implausible.
The Trains - tight and understated, this takes quintessentially English obssessions with country walks, tea, and trains to a terrifying level.
The Insufficient Answer - a brilliant title, poorly executed.
Three Miles Up - the best of the collection: claustrophobic, perfectly paced, with a feminist message.
The View - revolving around the fear of domesticity, fascination with ageing and impossible architectural spaces, this is a classic "strange tale".
Left Luggage - the most conventionally plotted of the tales, but the dialogue in this story is beautiful.
Aickman went on to edit the Fontana books of Ghost Stories from 1964 to 1982, and he saw his "strange tales" as the "need to escape from a mechanistic world...an antidote to daily living." Howard never returned to this genre, but went on to write, equally brilliantly, in the long form novel. This collection is an essential for anyone who is a fan of either writer, or those who would like to see the source of Aickman's later works. The Tartarus Press hardback edition is expensive, but a work of art in itself.
And we are for the dark."
Antony and Cleopatra, Act V ,Scene II
Robert Aickman wrote 48 short stories between 1951 and 1985. "Slow writing" indeed. There is no-one else like him. His "strange tales" are neither supernatural nor psychological, but hover uneasily between the two genres. Pigeon-holed as a horror writer, he is actually one of the best short story writers of the last century. "We Are For the Dark" is a collaboration between Aickman and his then lover, Elizabeth Jane Howard. Aickman was finding it hard to get published, and Howard - - a best-selling writer at the time - - kindly offered to work with him. Howard, feted during her lifetime, has been unfairly neglected since. Her novel, The Long View, is a hypnotic portrait of a marriage, and it is on Hilary Mantel's reading list for creative writing students.
The six stories in this volume were originally published without attribution. Part of the fun in reading this volume is in guessing who wrote what. I frequently guessed wrong. The strange tales in this volume show a remarkable sympathy of tone: they are shocking, explicit, and frightening.
In this volume, both writers use the fantastical and supernatural to illuminate human concerns: claustrophobic families, female friendship, depression, artistic freedoms, sexual jealousy.
Perfect Love - I found this opening tale the weakest of the bunch: rambling, confusing, and implausible.
The Trains - tight and understated, this takes quintessentially English obssessions with country walks, tea, and trains to a terrifying level.
The Insufficient Answer - a brilliant title, poorly executed.
Three Miles Up - the best of the collection: claustrophobic, perfectly paced, with a feminist message.
The View - revolving around the fear of domesticity, fascination with ageing and impossible architectural spaces, this is a classic "strange tale".
Left Luggage - the most conventionally plotted of the tales, but the dialogue in this story is beautiful.
Aickman went on to edit the Fontana books of Ghost Stories from 1964 to 1982, and he saw his "strange tales" as the "need to escape from a mechanistic world...an antidote to daily living." Howard never returned to this genre, but went on to write, equally brilliantly, in the long form novel. This collection is an essential for anyone who is a fan of either writer, or those who would like to see the source of Aickman's later works. The Tartarus Press hardback edition is expensive, but a work of art in itself.
December 25, 2016
This book isn't simply a strong book of ghost stories – it's a bold statement of intent from major innovators of the form.
Perhaps galvanised by their associate L. T. C. Rolt's collection of highly traditional ghostly tales, Aickman and Howard set out to redefine the ghost story for the modern era with a selection of unfathomable and disquieting stories of liminal psychological discomfort. Aickman is most often compared to M. R. James, but his work has much more in common with the post-Henry James ghostly fiction of Walter de la Mare and Oliver Onions due to its emphasis on human psychology and neuroses, and this collection shows Howard to be every bit Aickman's equal in delineating psychological acuity.
Robert Aickman is my favourite author (ghostly or otherwise), but so important is Howard's role in the development of this style of fiction that I am contemplating no longer using the term 'Aickmanesque' to refer to it, as she deserves her rightful notice as an equal pioneer of the spectral. Aickman's classic tale The Trains may be my pick for best story here, but Howard's tales Three Miles Up and Perfect Love manage to match or top the master's other efforts, and in some ways they anticipate later themes of his. Her final story Left Luggage is starkly traditional in contrast to every other story in the book, but thankfully it is at least frightening.
As for the master himself's tales, Aickman's own The View is an acknowledged gem, while the puzzling and frustrating story The Insufficient Answer is overly busy, but also atmospheric –benefiting somewhat from close rereading due to the density of information presented. Fans of the ghostly and Aickman will likely be more familiar with Sub Rosa and Cold Hand in Mine than this book, but those classics built heavily on the work that had been pioneered and, in some places, mastered already in this book by him and his accomplished associate.
Perhaps galvanised by their associate L. T. C. Rolt's collection of highly traditional ghostly tales, Aickman and Howard set out to redefine the ghost story for the modern era with a selection of unfathomable and disquieting stories of liminal psychological discomfort. Aickman is most often compared to M. R. James, but his work has much more in common with the post-Henry James ghostly fiction of Walter de la Mare and Oliver Onions due to its emphasis on human psychology and neuroses, and this collection shows Howard to be every bit Aickman's equal in delineating psychological acuity.
Robert Aickman is my favourite author (ghostly or otherwise), but so important is Howard's role in the development of this style of fiction that I am contemplating no longer using the term 'Aickmanesque' to refer to it, as she deserves her rightful notice as an equal pioneer of the spectral. Aickman's classic tale The Trains may be my pick for best story here, but Howard's tales Three Miles Up and Perfect Love manage to match or top the master's other efforts, and in some ways they anticipate later themes of his. Her final story Left Luggage is starkly traditional in contrast to every other story in the book, but thankfully it is at least frightening.
As for the master himself's tales, Aickman's own The View is an acknowledged gem, while the puzzling and frustrating story The Insufficient Answer is overly busy, but also atmospheric –benefiting somewhat from close rereading due to the density of information presented. Fans of the ghostly and Aickman will likely be more familiar with Sub Rosa and Cold Hand in Mine than this book, but those classics built heavily on the work that had been pioneered and, in some places, mastered already in this book by him and his accomplished associate.
November 27, 2022
It's an unusual collection with each author contributing three stories. Part of the fun is figuring out who wrote each and I was largely right. The Trains is a great story I had read as part of another Aickman collection and The View was also very clearly from Aickman, not to mention the strongest story of the bunch. I had assumed Three Miles Up was also from Aickman given the canal system and his life as a preservationist. It wasn't though The Insufficient Answer was his final tale and pretty obvious in hindsight.
I hadn't read any Elizabeth Jane Howard before but will make a point to read more from her in the future.
I hadn't read any Elizabeth Jane Howard before but will make a point to read more from her in the future.
December 28, 2016
Tartarus Press came out with an edition of _We Are For the Dark_ a few years ago. However, the edition I read is one of the earlier ones, obtained via inter-library loan.
Three stories are by Robert Aickman, the other three by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Curiously, this edition does not specify who wrote what stories. One might think that these stories were written by the same person, if one didn't know that that this book had joint authors.
Although these stories are tied to the Gothic and ghostly genre, I think this book marked a major development in the genre. Robert Aickman preferred to describe his own work as “strange stories”, rather than horror fiction. These well written stories relate curious details and strange events and have a sense of mystery. When this type of story is done well, the plot is very interesting.
Two train stories in this book, the novella length "The Trains" and the short story "Left Luggage." I conjectured that a sign of an excellent weird/horror writer is that they wrote a fine story involving trains, and that conjecture is corroborated again here. In "The Trains", two teenagers, Margaret and Mimi, are walking through an area with train tracks and trains going by, seeking shelter. Here is an extract from the story which I think exemplifies Aickman's fiction. Here, a man tells Margaret and Mimi:
" Well, every time a train passes Miss Roper's house, someone leans out of a bedroom window and waves to it. It's gone on for years. Every train, mark you. The house stands back from the line and the drivers couldn't see exactly who it was, but it was someone in white and they all thought it was a girl. So they waved back. Every train. But the joke is it's not a girl at all. It can't be. It's gone on too long. She can't have been a girl for the last twenty years or so. It's probably old Miss Roper herself. The drivers keep changing round so they don't catch on. They all think it's some girl, you see. So they all wave back. Every train.' He was laughing as if it were the funniest of improprieties."
In the other train story, "Left Luggage"--a type of story that Grabinski could have written, I think--the protagonist is haunted by the legacy of a relative.
In the novella "Perfect Love" the narrator puts together information about the tragic life of a superb opera singer. In another medium length work, "The Insufficient Answer" a journalist meets a prominent sculptor in order to write an article about her. At her castle, the journalist interacts with two other women. An Aickman interpreter online makes a case that all three women are super-natural beings; I agree. In "Three Miles Up" two men, traveling on a canal, are led, I'm inclined to think, into a death trap. In "The View" our protagonist travelled to an island with time anomalies. Interesting that in these stories the protagonist(s) are traveling. Perhaps that is a sign of the "strange" story, like some of short fiction of Daphne du Maurier.
Three stories are by Robert Aickman, the other three by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Curiously, this edition does not specify who wrote what stories. One might think that these stories were written by the same person, if one didn't know that that this book had joint authors.
Although these stories are tied to the Gothic and ghostly genre, I think this book marked a major development in the genre. Robert Aickman preferred to describe his own work as “strange stories”, rather than horror fiction. These well written stories relate curious details and strange events and have a sense of mystery. When this type of story is done well, the plot is very interesting.
Two train stories in this book, the novella length "The Trains" and the short story "Left Luggage." I conjectured that a sign of an excellent weird/horror writer is that they wrote a fine story involving trains, and that conjecture is corroborated again here. In "The Trains", two teenagers, Margaret and Mimi, are walking through an area with train tracks and trains going by, seeking shelter. Here is an extract from the story which I think exemplifies Aickman's fiction. Here, a man tells Margaret and Mimi:
" Well, every time a train passes Miss Roper's house, someone leans out of a bedroom window and waves to it. It's gone on for years. Every train, mark you. The house stands back from the line and the drivers couldn't see exactly who it was, but it was someone in white and they all thought it was a girl. So they waved back. Every train. But the joke is it's not a girl at all. It can't be. It's gone on too long. She can't have been a girl for the last twenty years or so. It's probably old Miss Roper herself. The drivers keep changing round so they don't catch on. They all think it's some girl, you see. So they all wave back. Every train.' He was laughing as if it were the funniest of improprieties."
In the other train story, "Left Luggage"--a type of story that Grabinski could have written, I think--the protagonist is haunted by the legacy of a relative.
In the novella "Perfect Love" the narrator puts together information about the tragic life of a superb opera singer. In another medium length work, "The Insufficient Answer" a journalist meets a prominent sculptor in order to write an article about her. At her castle, the journalist interacts with two other women. An Aickman interpreter online makes a case that all three women are super-natural beings; I agree. In "Three Miles Up" two men, traveling on a canal, are led, I'm inclined to think, into a death trap. In "The View" our protagonist travelled to an island with time anomalies. Interesting that in these stories the protagonist(s) are traveling. Perhaps that is a sign of the "strange" story, like some of short fiction of Daphne du Maurier.
April 7, 2012
It's early Aichman. "The Trains" and "Three Miles Up" are the best stories here. The others seem rather plain, though in them you can see him developing that sense of the disquieting detail that makes his later stories so chilling and compelling.
September 24, 2024
I’ve re-read this & most Aickman writing multiple times and each time I get a different take on it. Without knowing ahead of reading, I still have a hard time discerning which of these stories was written by Howard, which by Aickman. There is what is now known as the Aickman voice throughout. A Paul Bowles that never left home or smoked kif. Sublime uncanny atmospheres. “The Trains” is an all time classic.
January 28, 2023
A fine introduction to one of horror's evergreen authors.
March 12, 2012
Ghost stories are read for "a pleasing terror", but what motivates someone to read stories that are self-notified as "strange" rather than being satisfactory narratives with head, middle, tail etc? I had been drawn towards this particular volume (first published by Cape in 1951, printed again by Tartarus as per their high standards) on the basis of inputs from some highly knowledgeable & well-read horror affictionado-s who had recommended this volume as a seminal work in the evolution of ghost story in the 20th Century, and I was not disappointed.
This book contains six novellas of varying length. The shorter and more compact pieces are by Elizabeth Jane Howard, who had written the following pieces:
1) Perfect Love: search for answers to certain intriguing questions concerning the life & living of a mysterious artist.
2) Three Miles Up: what happens when a ride on the marsh & reed infested canals suddenly become strange & delirious, in the presence of a mysterious girl named Sharon?
3) Left Luggage: exactly what (or who) was left to the protagonist as a legacy, by his uncle?
Each of these three stories are examples of tight narratives, and irrespective of their open-ended nature and lots of ambiguous hints thrown here & there, these stories can be enjoyed by any lover of ghost stories. But Aickman's works belong to a different & more difficult league. His novellas are:
1) The Trains: a suffocating tale of sexual tension and creepy atmosphere piling up under the open sky as well as in a house infested by memorablia from trains, and where every human & material activity is personified by the numerous trains passing by!
2) The Insufficient Answer: a gothic tale of ghosts, cruelty, desolation, exhaustion, frustration, imprisonment (physical/spiritual) and God knows what else, except for a narrative that binds up the loose ends.
3) The View: another strange tale where the only thing that happens is the changing views from the protagonist's room (in the strange mansion where his co-passanger & later lover had graciously allowed him to stay), eventually rushing onto a rather over-traditional ending.
To conclude: I will try to find out more works by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and I would try to stay away from Aickman & anyhting Aickmanesque, because such stuff, as I have now realised, are really not "my cup of tea".
This book contains six novellas of varying length. The shorter and more compact pieces are by Elizabeth Jane Howard, who had written the following pieces:
1) Perfect Love: search for answers to certain intriguing questions concerning the life & living of a mysterious artist.
2) Three Miles Up: what happens when a ride on the marsh & reed infested canals suddenly become strange & delirious, in the presence of a mysterious girl named Sharon?
3) Left Luggage: exactly what (or who) was left to the protagonist as a legacy, by his uncle?
Each of these three stories are examples of tight narratives, and irrespective of their open-ended nature and lots of ambiguous hints thrown here & there, these stories can be enjoyed by any lover of ghost stories. But Aickman's works belong to a different & more difficult league. His novellas are:
1) The Trains: a suffocating tale of sexual tension and creepy atmosphere piling up under the open sky as well as in a house infested by memorablia from trains, and where every human & material activity is personified by the numerous trains passing by!
2) The Insufficient Answer: a gothic tale of ghosts, cruelty, desolation, exhaustion, frustration, imprisonment (physical/spiritual) and God knows what else, except for a narrative that binds up the loose ends.
3) The View: another strange tale where the only thing that happens is the changing views from the protagonist's room (in the strange mansion where his co-passanger & later lover had graciously allowed him to stay), eventually rushing onto a rather over-traditional ending.
To conclude: I will try to find out more works by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and I would try to stay away from Aickman & anyhting Aickmanesque, because such stuff, as I have now realised, are really not "my cup of tea".
Want to read
August 10, 2011Great short stories... unsettling, sometimes creepy, open to interpretation. Aickman is a marvelous writer.
December 17, 2015
Didn't work for me.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews