Man-Size in Marble and Others: The Best Horror and Ghost Stories of E. Nesbit

by E. Nesbit, M. Grant Kellermeyer (Illustrations)

Most famous as a children's book writer who influenced J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and P.L. Travers, Edith Nesbit has a second, darker reputation as the writer of some of the English language's most powerful supernatural horror. Nesbit’s writing is absolutely crisp, evocative, and touching, and her legacy as both a children’s writer and a master of horror is well deserved, if not far overdue. The stories in this book can best be described as raw – emotionally wringing, cruel, and richly ironic – but they are at times very tender, even in the harshest of her stories. While her worldview is largely cynical – at times even Lovecraftian – there is no doubt that at the core of her horror beats a heart – tremendously bruised, horribly misused, and shamefully denied a voice. But Nesbit’s tales give voice to that heart, and its fleshy beat can be detected in an intensely intimate manner. Her stories are rife with predatory statues, demon lovers, ghostly sex, supernatural tragedies, unstoppable premonitions, haunted cars, weird tales, dark science fiction, haunted paintings, blood-sucking plants, maddening wax museum sleep overs, gothic farces, mad scientists, and brilliant, literary ghost stories that rival Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Charles Dickens. So as you turn this page and step into Nesbit’s universe, anticipate a world of painful loss, anticipate a world of emotional vulnerability, and anticipate a world of hate, jealousy, love, affection, anxiety, guilt, and fragile hope – anticipate a world of terror and dread, of sex, violence, anticipate a world of supernatural aggression, predatory spirits, and intimate horror – anticipate the world of Edith Nesbit.TALES INCLUDED in this ANNOTATED in Marble The Ebony Frame John Charrington's Wedding Uncle Abraham's Romance From the Dead The Shadow The Mystery of the Semi-Detached The Mass for the Dead The Head The House of Silence The Power of Darkness In the Dark The Violet Car The Haunted Inheritance Number 17 The Third Drug The Five Senses The Pavilion The Haunted House

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

359 pages, Paperback

Published December 29, 2015

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

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had only ever read E. Nesbit's children stories, so when I heard that she also wrote ghost stories, I knew I had to check it out. I will admit, some were hard to get through because they didn't have the same charm that Nesbit usually employs in her works and came across as a bit stuffy as a result. However, I still enjoyed a good many of them -- "Man-Size in Marble," "John Charrington's Wedding," "Uncle Abraham's Romance," "The Power of Darkness," "The Haunted Inheritance" (cousin incest aside...), "The Third Drug" and "The Pavilion". I also appreciated the introduction and the footnotes from the annotator that gave a fascinating insight into E. Nesbit's life and what drove her to write horror stories.

From a purely technical standpoint, however, the book suffers from a lack of proofreading. Typos, random paragraph breaks and sentences spliced into other sentences made a few of the stories difficult to track.

[Aninha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've listened to an audiobook of Edith Nesbit's ghost stories but I'm not sure it's this book.

Anyway, they're very good stories!
Classic victorian horror.

[Bill Boswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review is only for the Man Size in Marble short story which re-read ahead of Mark Gatiss adaption for this years BBC Christmas Horror Story, spooky and engaging quick read that very much enjoyed