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Midnight Express
- GenresShort Stories
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About the author
Alfred Noyes
491 books58 followersAlfred Noyes was the son of Alfred and Amelia Adams Noyes. His father was a teacher and taught Latin and Greek and in Aberystwyth, Wales. In 1898, Alfred attended Exeter College in Oxford. Though he failed to earn a degree, the young poet published his first collection of poetry, The Loom of Years, in 1902.
Between 1903 and 1908, Noyes published five volumes of poetry including The Forest of Wild Thyme (1905) and The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907). His books were widely reviewed and were published both in Britain and the United States. Among his best-known poems from this time are The Highwayman and Drake. Drake, which appeared serially in Blackwood's Magazine, was a two-hundred page epic about life at sea.
Noyes married Garnett Daniels in 1907, and they had three children. His increasing popularity allowed the family to live off royalty cheques. In 1914, Noyes accepted a teaching position at Princeton University, where he taught English Literature until 1923. He was a noted critic of modernist writers, particularly James Joyce. Likewise, his work at this time was criticized by some for its refusal to embrace the modernist movement.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/alfred-n...
Between 1903 and 1908, Noyes published five volumes of poetry including The Forest of Wild Thyme (1905) and The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907). His books were widely reviewed and were published both in Britain and the United States. Among his best-known poems from this time are The Highwayman and Drake. Drake, which appeared serially in Blackwood's Magazine, was a two-hundred page epic about life at sea.
Noyes married Garnett Daniels in 1907, and they had three children. His increasing popularity allowed the family to live off royalty cheques. In 1914, Noyes accepted a teaching position at Princeton University, where he taught English Literature until 1923. He was a noted critic of modernist writers, particularly James Joyce. Likewise, his work at this time was criticized by some for its refusal to embrace the modernist movement.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/alfred-n...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 29, 2020
“It was the story of a man who, in childhood, long ago, had chanced upon a book, in which there was a picture that frightened him.”
Midnight Express is a dark short story which tells the tale of a twelve year-old boy’s fear of a battered old book, bound in read buckram. The old book names “The Midnight Express” had the strangest fascination for the boy even though he had never quite grasped the story itself, having tried to read the book night after night but keeps falling asleep, and never remembering its details the following day. The fear lay in the illustration on the fiftieth page, an illustration at which he could never bear to look at. “It showed an empty railway platform at night lit by a single dreary lamp. There was only one figure on the platform, the dark figure of a man, standing almost directly under the lamp with his face turned away towards the black mouth of a tunnel. Eventually he forgets about the book, but recalls it suddenly thirty-eight years later when he finds himself one night in a dark railway platform facing a shadowy figure standing beneath the single lamp post.
This is an astounding little story which made every hair on the back of my neck stand up as a very real chill ran down my spine. It has a symmetry that cannot fully be explained, it has to be discovered for oneself. The horror comes from something primal, from a deep rooted nightmare that you one day wake up to find you are living. Very few tales of horror have been able to bring a satisfied smile to my face at being so frightened. I could discuss this story all day with someone, and I am happy to have discovered it!
Midnight Express is a dark short story which tells the tale of a twelve year-old boy’s fear of a battered old book, bound in read buckram. The old book names “The Midnight Express” had the strangest fascination for the boy even though he had never quite grasped the story itself, having tried to read the book night after night but keeps falling asleep, and never remembering its details the following day. The fear lay in the illustration on the fiftieth page, an illustration at which he could never bear to look at. “It showed an empty railway platform at night lit by a single dreary lamp. There was only one figure on the platform, the dark figure of a man, standing almost directly under the lamp with his face turned away towards the black mouth of a tunnel. Eventually he forgets about the book, but recalls it suddenly thirty-eight years later when he finds himself one night in a dark railway platform facing a shadowy figure standing beneath the single lamp post.
This is an astounding little story which made every hair on the back of my neck stand up as a very real chill ran down my spine. It has a symmetry that cannot fully be explained, it has to be discovered for oneself. The horror comes from something primal, from a deep rooted nightmare that you one day wake up to find you are living. Very few tales of horror have been able to bring a satisfied smile to my face at being so frightened. I could discuss this story all day with someone, and I am happy to have discovered it!
April 1, 2022
I read this story when I was sixteen. I liked the plot and the writing style which made the story more suspenseful. I narrated this story many times to 10-12 year old young boys and girls, and even to adults while camping in the woods or spending the night in a beach house. All loved the story. Now at age 75, I found the story on internet. I read it again and discovered that I never forgotten the details of the story.
October 3, 2018
Amazing short story!!! Great gothic atmosphere and suspense.
November 5, 2018
A good gothic tale.
January 16, 2019
It's not a very bad short "scary story", and the basic idea is great (although mixed up with some over-used motifs), but feels very unpolished. I think it would have made a great story if the idea would have been used by someone like Poe or Ambrose Bierce.
August 27, 2019
Nice book with adventure
November 18, 2023
I listened to this as part of the Classic Tales of Horror - 500+ Stories. It was very enjoyable 2023
September 27, 2024
3/5 estrellas.
No fue taaaan aterrorizante como esperaba, pero sí mantuvo un ambiente sombrío y misterioso.
Me gustó.
No fue taaaan aterrorizante como esperaba, pero sí mantuvo un ambiente sombrío y misterioso.
Me gustó.
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September 26, 2018Ajja
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews