The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

by Rhoda Broughton

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Classics

Unknown Binding

About the author

Rhoda Broughton was a popular British (Welsh) novelist and short story writer.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Iman Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this more as a satirical piece discussing superiority complexes in the Victorian era instead of a ghost story.

3.05/5

[Anne Bollmann (Annelise Lestrange) · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a short story, this is a master piece. The letter-format of the narrative is awesome and bold, telling the story in pieces and from different moments and perspectives. Honestly, I didn't expect a thing and I'm amazed!

And nothing will ever be as spooky to me as the last line in the book: This was a true story.

[Brooksie Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is a really charming window into its time, a bit satirical of affluent women, and also quite tragic and haunting in its realism. A great spooky tale!

[Abbie Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5✨

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this story until it was brought to my attention by The Ghost Story Book Club - Episode 2 of Series 2. And now that I have read it I honestly think it's a tale like no other I've read before. The story is told via two ladies writing letters to one another. Now I am not by any means saying it's unique, as I am sure there are lots of stories that use this particular device to tell their yarn, but I couldn't think of any instances where I had seen this done before to such effect.

It reminded me at times of the style of Bridgerton, if Bridgerton was crossed with a spooky story. Or as one reviewer put it - "Jane Austen morphs into Mary Shelley". The narrative, which I've mentioned is written in the style of letters, goes between two middle-society friends – Elizabeth and Cecelia - as Cecelia looks for a house in London. Of course this is proving to be an impossible task until she finds one that's a steal - but doesn't stop to wonder what could be wrong with this place that it's smack bang in the middle of Mayfair, available and cheap?

I won't go further into the story as it's only a short one and is in the public domain, but I will say that I enjoyed it greatly, and while I of course saw the twist coming at the end, that didn't make the discovery any less enjoyable once you got there.

[Ana Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

a nice house with low rent always hides a horrible past. we should have known this from the first season of american horror story