Best Stories of Walter de la Mare

by Walter de la Mare

Short stories include depictions of supernatural occurrences, people haunted by strange dreams, and encounters with ghosts.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Poetry, Literature, Short Story Collection, British Literature, Canon

443 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Walter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fiction, including "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows". In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A while ago I ran across a poem, "The Listeners", which intrigued me enough that I did some research on the poem's author, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), and as a result, purchased a book of his short stories, "Best Stories of Walter de la Mare", at a local used bookstore. Hence, this review.

WdlM's short stories are not the polished gems of an Isak Dinesen or Kurt Vonnegut. In particular, he seems to fumble with the endings. Actually, that's probably not fair—the endings may very well be exactly what he intended—which is not really an ending at all. I think there are two reasons for this: first, in this collection of stories, it is clearly his intent to make the reader feel uncomfortable, and leaving the story with no clear resolution certainly helps in that regard; second, perhaps he is primarily a poet, and poems are often about a moment, or to put it another way, poems are often all about the middle. Whatever the reason for the approach, WdlM's endings left me unsatisfied, and not in a good way. I do believe it's possible to write a story that leaves some loose ends and unresolved conflicts, and yet, comes to a satisfying, if unsettling, resolution.

I think WdlM's endings would bother most readers I know, as they bothered me. For that reason, I wouldn't recommend these short stories to other readers in general. However, I do think some of my writer-friends might be interested in them. WdlM is an absolute master when it comes to creating a character or a scene, both physically and spiritually. I can't imagine any writer out there who wouldn't learn something about that aspect of the craft from reading these stories. I can't recreate the magic in a short review, but here are a couple of examples of how he dabs a bit of paint onto a portrait or a landscape:

He was so scrupulously respectable, so devoid of "atmosphere", that even a Chelsea psychic would have been compelled to acknowledge that this particular human being had either disposed of his aura or left it at home.

It was raining, the raindrops falling softly into the unrippled water, making their great circles and tapping on the motionless leaves above my head where I sat in shelter on the bank. But the sun was shining whitely from behind a thin fleece of cloud, when Miss Duveen suddenly peeped in at me out of the greenery, the thin silver light upon her face, and eyed me sitting there, for all the world as if she were a blackbird and I a snail.

My two favorite stories in the collection are:

"Miss Duveen": A child is befriended by a woman with a troubled soul, and feels both sadness and relief at her passing. Here's a nice quote from Miss Duveen: "One thing, dear child, you may be astonished to hear, that I learned only yesterday, and that is how exceedingly sad life is.

and

"The Missing": "Mr. Bleet" rejects the only offer of love and companionship he's likely to get in his life, and is shocked to discover one day that he is a lonely old man. Here's a scene (from the stranger's point of view), of Mr. Bleet, desperately trying to make a friend of a stranger he's met in a teashop in London, on a horrifically hot day:

"He looked at his hat; he looked at his ice-cream, now an insipid mush; he looked anxiously and searchingly at the table—marked over with the hieroglyphics of dark ugly marble. And at last he raised his eyes—those inexpressive balls of glass—and looked at me. He changed his hat from his right to his left hand, and still looking at me, hesitated, holding the empty hand out a little above the table. Then, turning away, he drew it back.

Bottom line: A lot of beautiful writing in these stories, but they often fall apart at the end. Not for everyone, but recommended for writers looking for inspiration.

[Jim Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not perhaps a surprise considering the title, but this is a fantastic selection of much of de la Mare's best fiction. It regrettably misses a few of his stellar horror stories, but that part of his career is represented aptly by the magnificent All Hallows, Seaton's Aunt and Crewe.

There is a stronger variety here than with the more recent tomes dedicated to his purely fantastical fiction, and overlooked stories such as The Trumpet, Missing, An Ideal Craftsman, Miss Duveen, The House, The Vats and The Almond Tree are in their way beautifully crafted, eerie, forgotten classics.

Better known for his poetry, de la Mare is ripe for rediscovery and a neglected master of the mature strange short story. His novel Memoirs of a Midget is up there with the finest I have read, and I can't imagine why any lover of strange literature wouldn't appreciate this frequently excellent selection of his finest puzzling, profound, eerie and disquieting short tales.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

R4x

Ghost Stories of Walter De La Mare

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIIEW

In "Missing," a somewhat effete young man retires to a cafe to wait out a heatwave in London, where he is buttonholed by a rural stranger who seems driven to tell of the details of his involvement in a situation in which a woman went missing from his boarding house. This is good - de la mare can be a difficult read - but I mean that in the sense that Henry James is a difficult read - in that he is mannered and dense and you have to play close attention. One could call this a "crime story" (with all lurid details scrubbed out) in a way, but it is also about how we interact with the strangers and the exhibition of intense emotion, as well as the way we lie to ourselves and others.. An involving read.

[Charles Seluzicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read Walter De La Mare's haunting collection DING DONG BELL, each of the three stories are set in a graveyard and are masterful evocations of mood. Shockingly, only this collection comes close to the 1924 edition as it was published. This man was a genius.

[Pixelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stories read on BBC4x
I really liked 3 of them, was mystified by one and found one boring. All in all a nice listen on a rainy night with a fire going and a mug of tea.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4 Extra:
A collection of spooky tales.

[S.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Seaton's Aunt" and "Crewe" were the standouts in this otherwise somewhat lackluster collection. De la Mare could really write a strange and creepy story when he put his mind to it, but unfortunately there weren't many examples included here. I found his writing in general too old-fashioned and florid to really enjoy. I wish I'd chosen a collection of his supernatural fiction instead of this to start with, but on the backs of the two aforementioned stories I'll still be checking one out in the future.

[Ruth Vanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read a few of his stories earlier but am now reading more. Many of them are superb but leave one with puzzles. For example, in "The Trumpet," is Dick Philip's brother, and if so, how? Is he Philip's father's son or his mother's son?

[Doodles McC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a very old vintage copy. Teenage me thought the story All Fallows was not great.

[Bill Borre]

The Vats is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
What Dreams May Come is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror

[Anne P. D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But my father was never long at peace in the house. Nothing satisfied him; he must needs be at an extreme. And if he was compelled to conceal his discontent, there was something so bitter and imperious in his silence, so scornful a sarcasm in his speech, that we could scarcely bear it. And the knowledge of the influence he had over us served only at such times to sharpen his contempt. "
from Walter De La Mare THE ALMOND TREE

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

The almond tree
Miss Duveen
An ideal craftsman --2
Seaton's aunt --2
*Crewe
Missing
The orgy
The nap --2
Physic
The picnic
All hallows --1
The trumpet
The house
*'What dreams may come'
The vats
***
A:B:O
Bad company
The creatures
The giant
The guardian
The listeners
The looking glass
Mr. Kempe
Out of the deep
The quincunx
A recluse
The riddle
The tree