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Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales
Vernon Lee writes in the Preface to Hauntings, “My ghosts are what you call spurious ghosts... of whom I can affirm only one thing, that they haunted certain brains, and have haunted, among others, my own.” First published in 1890, Lee’s most famous volume of supernatural tales occupies a special place in the literature of the fantastic for its treatment of the femme fatale and the allure of the past, along with the themes of thwarted artistic creativity and psychological obsession. This collection, which includes the four stories originally published in Hauntings and three others, enables readers to consider Lee’s work anew for its subtle redefinitions of gender and sexuality during the Victorian fin-de-siècle.
The appendices, which include extensive excerpts from writings by Lee’s predecessors and peers, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and Lee’s brother Eugene Lee-Hamilton, allow the reader to see how Lee takes on the themes and preoccupations of the late-Victorian period but adapts them to her own purposes.
Preface to Hauntings (1890) -- Amour dure (1887, 1890) -- Dionea (1890) -- Oke of Okehurst (1886, 1890) -- A wicked voice (1887, 1890) -- Prince Alberic and the snake lady (1896) -- A wedding chest (1904) -- Preface to The virgin of the seven daggers (1927) -- The virgin of the seven daggers (1896, 1909,1927) -- Appendix A: From Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Notes on designs of the old masters at Florence" (1868, 1875) -- Appendix B: From Walter Pater, "Pico della Mirandula" (1871, 1873) -- Appendix C: From Walter Pater, "Lionardo da Vinci" (1869, 1873) -- Appendix D: Vernon Lee, "Faustus and Helena: notes on the supernatural in art" (1880, 1881) -- Appendix E: A. Mary F. Robinson, "Before a bust of Venus" (1881) -- Appendix F: Eugene Lee-Hamilton, "The mandolin" (1882) -- Appendix G: A. Mary F. Robinson, "The ladies of Milan" (1889) -- Appendix H: Eugene Lee-Hamilton, "On a surf-rolled torso of Venus" (1884, 1894) -- Appendix I: Vernon Lee, "Out of Venice at last" (1925).
The appendices, which include extensive excerpts from writings by Lee’s predecessors and peers, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and Lee’s brother Eugene Lee-Hamilton, allow the reader to see how Lee takes on the themes and preoccupations of the late-Victorian period but adapts them to her own purposes.
Preface to Hauntings (1890) -- Amour dure (1887, 1890) -- Dionea (1890) -- Oke of Okehurst (1886, 1890) -- A wicked voice (1887, 1890) -- Prince Alberic and the snake lady (1896) -- A wedding chest (1904) -- Preface to The virgin of the seven daggers (1927) -- The virgin of the seven daggers (1896, 1909,1927) -- Appendix A: From Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Notes on designs of the old masters at Florence" (1868, 1875) -- Appendix B: From Walter Pater, "Pico della Mirandula" (1871, 1873) -- Appendix C: From Walter Pater, "Lionardo da Vinci" (1869, 1873) -- Appendix D: Vernon Lee, "Faustus and Helena: notes on the supernatural in art" (1880, 1881) -- Appendix E: A. Mary F. Robinson, "Before a bust of Venus" (1881) -- Appendix F: Eugene Lee-Hamilton, "The mandolin" (1882) -- Appendix G: A. Mary F. Robinson, "The ladies of Milan" (1889) -- Appendix H: Eugene Lee-Hamilton, "On a surf-rolled torso of Venus" (1884, 1894) -- Appendix I: Vernon Lee, "Out of Venice at last" (1925).
351 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
139 people are currently reading
3793 people want to read
About the author
Vernon Lee
433 books120 followersViolet Paget, known by her pen name Vernon Lee, is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music, and travel, poetry and contributed to The Yellow Book. An engaged feminist, she always dressed à la garçonne, and was a member of the Union of democratic control.
Her literary works explored the themes of haunting and possession. The English writer and translator, Montague Summers described Vernon Lee as "the greatest [...] of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction."
She was responsible for introducing the concept of empathy (Einfühling) into the English language. Empathy was a key concept in Lee's psychological aesthetics which she developed on the basis of prior work by Theodor Lipps. Her response to aesthetics interpreted art as a mental and corporeal experience. This was a significant contribution to the philosophy of art which has been largely neglected.
"The Lie of the Land", in the voume "Limbo, and other Essays", has been one of the most influential essays on landscaping.
Additionally she wrote, along with her friend and colleague Henry James, critically about the relationship between the writer and his/her audience pioneering the concept of criticism and expanding the idea of critical assessment among all the arts as relating to an audience's (or her personal) response. She was a strong, though vexed, proponent of the Aesthetic movement, and after a lengthy written correspondence met the movement's effective leader, Walter Pater, in England in 1881, just after encountering his famous disciple Oscar Wilde. Her interpretation of the movement called for social action, setting her apart from both Wilde and Pater.
Her literary works explored the themes of haunting and possession. The English writer and translator, Montague Summers described Vernon Lee as "the greatest [...] of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction."
She was responsible for introducing the concept of empathy (Einfühling) into the English language. Empathy was a key concept in Lee's psychological aesthetics which she developed on the basis of prior work by Theodor Lipps. Her response to aesthetics interpreted art as a mental and corporeal experience. This was a significant contribution to the philosophy of art which has been largely neglected.
"The Lie of the Land", in the voume "Limbo, and other Essays", has been one of the most influential essays on landscaping.
Additionally she wrote, along with her friend and colleague Henry James, critically about the relationship between the writer and his/her audience pioneering the concept of criticism and expanding the idea of critical assessment among all the arts as relating to an audience's (or her personal) response. She was a strong, though vexed, proponent of the Aesthetic movement, and after a lengthy written correspondence met the movement's effective leader, Walter Pater, in England in 1881, just after encountering his famous disciple Oscar Wilde. Her interpretation of the movement called for social action, setting her apart from both Wilde and Pater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
January 31, 2020
Violet Paget (given-name of writer Vernon Lee) was a lesbian, a female dandy, a disciple of Walter Pater, and an acquaintance of Oscar Wilde, so it should not be a surprise that these four tales of the supernatural are filled with gorgeous descriptive passages (particularly of Italy ad it's art) and sexual ambiguity. What is a surprise to me is how well-crafted and scary these stories are.
Each tale (making allowances for a little inversion) is about a "la belle dame sans merci," a fairy temptress who leads the hero into a timeless world where he will be destroyed either through death or exhaustion. The fateful woman takes various forms: a prideful, bloody Renaissance princess, a six-year-old proto-Venus literally thrust forth by the sea, the fey mistress of a Jacobean country house who looks like her mysterious ancestor, and the voice of a famous castrato calling to a young Wagnerian composer across the centuries.
All four stories are good, and two of them--"Amor Dure" and "Dionea"--are as good as any supernatural short story written by either M.R. or Henry James.
February 1, 2022
Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales is a fantastic set of stories about haunting ghosts, each eerie and creepy, a phosphorescent web building around each character. Often blurring gender and reusing themes of spiritual possession, Vernon Lee never fails to fascinate. In leiu of reviewing the whole collection, which is certainly worth reading, I want to discuss my two favorite stories in the novel.
Amour Dure is a brilliantly creepy story of spiritual possession by an untouchable femme fatale. Medea, as a character, is discussed through the prism of a historian, but shines through clearly. Born in 1556, her relayed history indicates that she caused five men to kill for her. Even before her death, her power is spectral: There is never proof for any of her crimes, to the frustration of the Duke. Indeed, the narrator apologizes for her, relaying her actions as instances in which someone “was stabbed” (47), preserving the ambiguity of her nature to the outside world. She is brimming with power and ambition. Sometimes, as Vernon Lee points out speaking through the narrator, Medea is hardly even at fault: “This imperious woman is soon treated like a chattel” (56). In essence, Lee seems to suggest that Medea is on some level the victim of a false narrative and an unempathetic world. Author Catherine Maxwell describes Medea’s tactics as “a survival strategy which secures her independence at the same time as it is an act of revenge.” Yet her identity as a femme fatale is fundemantally limiting; as Maxwell also points out, Medea is able “only to influence men through her erotic power.” And she carries a weakness in that she lacks power over other women: When Duke Robert finally resolves to kill her, the two women he hires are able to resist her power. She is thus limited.
But she is not limited in her power to influence the narrator, and it is here that her terrifying power is unlocked. This half of the story is so creepy and so wonderful that it is worth simply reading on your own.
Oke of Okehurst is an eerie tale about a couple exactly like a couple beforehand. Nicholas and Alice Oke of 1626 killed the guy trying to hit on her, Lovelock, together, with her “dressed as a groom” (121). Wife Alice Oke is not hot, and we should feel for her poor husband (107). Except also, yes she is hot, she’s enthralling (113-114). Like Nicholas and Alice beforehand, their greatest moment of interaction and intimacy is when she’s dressed in drag. And their dynamic boils over through violence. Alice echoes her, repeating the old Alice into the future: “I didn’t know then that I was like the original Alice Oke; I found it out only after our marriage. You really think that I am?” (123) And the husband slowly starts seeing Lovelock, but it seems Alice has always been seeing him.
___
As I have spent some time reviewing this text that I love very much, an introduction to the legitimate academic discourse on a very important topic: Did Vernon Lee Fuck? This may seem at first glance like an easy question to answer. Contemporaries, historians, and literature majors alike agree that Vernon Lee was gay. During her lifetime, Lee was a purveyor of intensely homoerotic friendships, first and foresmost with writer Mary F. Robinson, whom she referred to as “her other self” and upon who’s wedding she reportedly broke down.
But was she having gay sex? Contemporaries disagree. Bisexual opera singer Dame Ethel Smyth, for example, very publicly decided to say that Lee, being “the stateliest and chastest of beings,” did not have gay sex. The executor of her will, Irene Cooper Willis, said upon her dying: “Vernon was homosexual, but she never faced up to sexuality. She was perfectly pure.” Modern-day American literary critic Kathy Psomiades, however, pointed out that she may just have been biased because Vernon Lee wasn’t having gay sex with her specifically (as my English professor put it). Annamaria Jagose also pointed out the modern tendency to say Vernon Lee was or was not having sex reflects the “homophobic imperative” to “mark the lesbian as visible and undeniable.” However, this is Goodreads and I’m not mature, so I’m ignoring this excellent point in favor of how funny this discourse is. Wild times. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this introduction to academic discourse about Vernon Lee. I love being an English major.
___
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Amour Dure is a brilliantly creepy story of spiritual possession by an untouchable femme fatale. Medea, as a character, is discussed through the prism of a historian, but shines through clearly. Born in 1556, her relayed history indicates that she caused five men to kill for her. Even before her death, her power is spectral: There is never proof for any of her crimes, to the frustration of the Duke. Indeed, the narrator apologizes for her, relaying her actions as instances in which someone “was stabbed” (47), preserving the ambiguity of her nature to the outside world. She is brimming with power and ambition. Sometimes, as Vernon Lee points out speaking through the narrator, Medea is hardly even at fault: “This imperious woman is soon treated like a chattel” (56). In essence, Lee seems to suggest that Medea is on some level the victim of a false narrative and an unempathetic world. Author Catherine Maxwell describes Medea’s tactics as “a survival strategy which secures her independence at the same time as it is an act of revenge.” Yet her identity as a femme fatale is fundemantally limiting; as Maxwell also points out, Medea is able “only to influence men through her erotic power.” And she carries a weakness in that she lacks power over other women: When Duke Robert finally resolves to kill her, the two women he hires are able to resist her power. She is thus limited.
But she is not limited in her power to influence the narrator, and it is here that her terrifying power is unlocked. This half of the story is so creepy and so wonderful that it is worth simply reading on your own.
Oke of Okehurst is an eerie tale about a couple exactly like a couple beforehand. Nicholas and Alice Oke of 1626 killed the guy trying to hit on her, Lovelock, together, with her “dressed as a groom” (121). Wife Alice Oke is not hot, and we should feel for her poor husband (107). Except also, yes she is hot, she’s enthralling (113-114). Like Nicholas and Alice beforehand, their greatest moment of interaction and intimacy is when she’s dressed in drag. And their dynamic boils over through violence. Alice echoes her, repeating the old Alice into the future: “I didn’t know then that I was like the original Alice Oke; I found it out only after our marriage. You really think that I am?” (123) And the husband slowly starts seeing Lovelock, but it seems Alice has always been seeing him.
___
As I have spent some time reviewing this text that I love very much, an introduction to the legitimate academic discourse on a very important topic: Did Vernon Lee Fuck? This may seem at first glance like an easy question to answer. Contemporaries, historians, and literature majors alike agree that Vernon Lee was gay. During her lifetime, Lee was a purveyor of intensely homoerotic friendships, first and foresmost with writer Mary F. Robinson, whom she referred to as “her other self” and upon who’s wedding she reportedly broke down.
But was she having gay sex? Contemporaries disagree. Bisexual opera singer Dame Ethel Smyth, for example, very publicly decided to say that Lee, being “the stateliest and chastest of beings,” did not have gay sex. The executor of her will, Irene Cooper Willis, said upon her dying: “Vernon was homosexual, but she never faced up to sexuality. She was perfectly pure.” Modern-day American literary critic Kathy Psomiades, however, pointed out that she may just have been biased because Vernon Lee wasn’t having gay sex with her specifically (as my English professor put it). Annamaria Jagose also pointed out the modern tendency to say Vernon Lee was or was not having sex reflects the “homophobic imperative” to “mark the lesbian as visible and undeniable.” However, this is Goodreads and I’m not mature, so I’m ignoring this excellent point in favor of how funny this discourse is. Wild times. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this introduction to academic discourse about Vernon Lee. I love being an English major.
___
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October 25, 2025
"As I was passing, my eye was caught by a very beautiful old mirror-frame let into the brown and yellow inlaid wall... Behind my own image stood another, a figure close to my shoulder, a face close to mine; and that figure, that face, hers!"
A collection of four Victorian gothic short stories by Vernon Lee (the pen name of Violet Paget), first published in 1890. The stories are fiercely intelligent and playful with form - with pastiches of diary entries and letters - and in tone reminded me of Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'. The stories are unsettling, rather than scary. I found the obsession with the past (here often capitalised as "the Past") fascinating. One narrator remarks, "Those pedants say that the dead are dead, the past is past. For them, yes; but why for me?"
My favourite short story in the collection was 'Oke of Okehurst; or The Phantom Lover' about an artist visiting a manor house to paint an unhappily married couple, William and Alice Oke. I really liked the characterisation of Mr Oke, who didn't seem to belong in a story like this and was the kind of chap who might turn up befuddled at 221B Baker Street. A discussion of Vernon Lee's work by authors Gretchen Felker-Martin and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is included at the end of this edition, and their analysis of this story was really interesting, including of "the nameless painter who's our narrator who goes to so much trouble to tell us that he's definitely not in love with Alice."
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.
A collection of four Victorian gothic short stories by Vernon Lee (the pen name of Violet Paget), first published in 1890. The stories are fiercely intelligent and playful with form - with pastiches of diary entries and letters - and in tone reminded me of Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'. The stories are unsettling, rather than scary. I found the obsession with the past (here often capitalised as "the Past") fascinating. One narrator remarks, "Those pedants say that the dead are dead, the past is past. For them, yes; but why for me?"
My favourite short story in the collection was 'Oke of Okehurst; or The Phantom Lover' about an artist visiting a manor house to paint an unhappily married couple, William and Alice Oke. I really liked the characterisation of Mr Oke, who didn't seem to belong in a story like this and was the kind of chap who might turn up befuddled at 221B Baker Street. A discussion of Vernon Lee's work by authors Gretchen Felker-Martin and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is included at the end of this edition, and their analysis of this story was really interesting, including of "the nameless painter who's our narrator who goes to so much trouble to tell us that he's definitely not in love with Alice."
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.
October 9, 2018
I am SO sad, so incredibly sad, that I've finished this book, because what lies between these covers is sheer greatness.
I will have to defer posting about this book for a day or so but let me just say this for now: this is not a book for people who are looking for easy-breezy horror or weird fiction, but rather a work of literature that demands time, thought, and the reader's complete attention.
I am at a complete loss right now, considering what to read next.
I will have to defer posting about this book for a day or so but let me just say this for now: this is not a book for people who are looking for easy-breezy horror or weird fiction, but rather a work of literature that demands time, thought, and the reader's complete attention.
I am at a complete loss right now, considering what to read next.
November 15, 2025
Four ghost stories, first published together in 1890, each of which uses a haunting of one kind or another to pursue some intersection of art, obsession, history, and sex. Vernon Lee was an English Victorian lesbian, a dandy and aesthete who lived much of her life in Florence, writing ghost stories and having passionate, intellectual love affairs with other brilliant Victorian women. Personally, I didn’t find the stories very creepy. They are, however, satisfyingly queer; almost a kind of embryonic Victorian camp.
September 18, 2025
Hauntings by Vernon Lee is a collection of four stories originally published in the late 1800s that weave gender norms, feminine rage, and human expectations with obsession, desire, and psychological unravelling. This new version includes a fantastic conversation between queer authors/creatives Gretchen Felker-Martin and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya that helps modern readers understand the themes and undertones of this haunting classic.
Thank you to NetGalley, Unnamed Press, and Smith & Taylor Classics for an electronic advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This Smith &Taylor Classics version comes out October 28, 2025.
A Shadow of Queerness
This section is not part of Vernon Lee’s stories but is a modern conversation between Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya and Gretchen Felker-Martin. I recommend reading this at the end (which is where it is positioned, but for the sake of my review, I've put it first).
♦ Summary: What’s new about this work is the added conversation between these two queer author’s/creatives that adds depth and color to the 4 works by Lee and how they compare/contrast with works of the same generation and now.
♦ My thoughts: This section is SO fantastic! As a straight reader, a lot of the queerness (especially in the first three stories) completely went over my head, so to have this discussion lay it out for me really opened my eyes to the emotion and intention behind Lee’s work. I loved how they discussed the parallels between modern work and other Gothic work and what Lee captured and how allegorical the characters and plots really are. I was blown away by the run-down of gender fluidity and placing things in binary terms and how they were able to glean things like the juxtaposition of infertility and gardening. I also loved their discussion about past versus present and scrutinizing the past to make sense of the present and how literary references are really pop culture and don’t make the story outdated but rather colors the characters’ involvement with civilization. I never realized how groundbreaking these stories must have been at the time. I really wouldn’t have considered this a “horror” story before reading this section, but the way they talk about horror not being something at face value, but more of underlying things like gender anxiety and building tension using narrative POV to create intrigue. This was the perfect way for me to digest these stories.
♦ My favorite quote: “I mean, what are we really haunted by? We’re haunted by legacies of violence. We’re haunted by history. We’re haunted by our own families.”
♦ My rating for this section: 5 out of 5
Amour Dure
♥ Summary: A young Polish scholar (Spiridion) goes to an Italian town near Florence to study history (keep in mind this was written in the late 1800s). While there, he hears the tale of Lucrezia, the Duchess Madea da Carpi—a 16th century femme fatale—who was executed for manipulating and ultimately murdering men who fell in love with her. At first, he is bored with the story, but as time progresses, he can’t stop thinking about her and becomes obsessed with learning more about her and the men who fell for her. He sees signs of her everywhere he turns and, like the men before him, becomes her latest victim of obsession.
♥ Favorite Quote: “Yet is there in the world anything nobler than the huge creature, steel when she springs, velvet when she treads, as she stretches her supple body, or smooths her beautiful skin, or fastens her strong claws into her victim?”
♥ My thoughts: This was very thought provoking, but I found the format difficult to follow. It’s laid out similar to other Gothic tales, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the story is told through journal entries from our protagonist. This story is the epitome of the line “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” except I’m not sure if Madea was scorned and then became vengeful or if she was a creature of destruction from inception. Or is it just the perception that women are vengeful against men who feel they are entitled to women’s devotion that makes Lucrezia’s story so powerful? And is she now haunting poor Spiridion because he’s in love with her or is his obsession with her more that he wants to be her (which went over my head before reading the conversations at the end between Kayla and Gretchen)?
♥ My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Dionea
♠ Summary: A child—Dionea—is found on the coast of Italy in 1873 after a shipwreck and is left to be raised by Catholic nuns. But something is “off” about her from the start—her character is deemed as “not so satisfactory” because she doesn’t want to learn sewing, washing dishes, or learning in general. As she ages, her beauty becomes the main qualifier that the narrator pays attention to, as Dionea becomes something of a seductress. Then, mysterious deaths and tragic events start to happen whenever she’s around—leading her to flee.
♠ My favorite quote: “‘How beautiful she is! Good God, how beautiful!’ No love of mere woman was ever so violent as this love of woman’s mere shape.”
♠ My thoughts: Told in the format of letters from Doctor Alessandro De Rosis to Lady Evelyn Savelli (Princess of Sabina). What I liked most about this story was the theme of women’s beauty vs. destruction and the mystery around this child. Like Amour Dure, we are only given an outsiders perspective to the main female character, thus only adding to the illusion and enigma. Dionea is something of a siren, she comes up with random, beautiful songs, but everything about her clashes with the Christianity that is so prevalent in the community she’s being raised in. That said, this story felt very similar to Amour Dure, so I found it a bit repetitive.
♠ My rating: 3 out of 5
Oke of Okehurst
♦ Summary: An artist is commissioned to move in with a strange wealthy couple in a strange manor in the English countryside to paint their portrait. During this time, the artist becomes intrigued by the manor (which is almost a character itself) and is privy to the couple’s strange marriage—the allure the wife has on her husband, who suspects her of cheating (which she doesn’t outright deny). The wife, Alice, has a likeness and obsession with an ancestor whose lover was murdered by Alice’s husband’s ancestor. Will history repeat itself?
♦ My favorite quote: “Interest and admiration, be it well understood, of a very unusual kind, as she was herself a very unusual kind of woman; and I, if you choose, am a rather unusual kind of man.”
♦ My thoughts: I liked the format of this story much more than the first two, as it’s told almost as a ghost story by the source himself. Like sitting around a fireplace in conversation with a friend. This reminded me more of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in story and theme, but with a paranormal twist. I liked that it was the perspective of a creator who is having a difficult time creating the likeness of his subject because he becomes entangled in the personalities of the manor and the couple. I was so confused by the ending though. The allegory of the mental unraveling of the husband and the wife’s obsession went clear over my head.
♦ My rating: 3.5 out of 5
A Wicked Voice
♪ Summary: A modern (late-19th century) composer slowly loses his mind while trying to reject the influence of an 18th-century castrato singer (Zaffirino). He becomes obsessed as Zaffirino’s wicked voice inundates the composer’s thought, dreams, and work—wreaking havoc on his creativity and mental health.
♪ My favorite quote: “For what is the voice but the Beast calling, awakening that other Beast sleeping in the depths of mankind, the Beast which all great art has ever sought to chain up, as the archangel chains up, in old pictures, the demon with his woman’s face?”
♪ My thoughts: Like the other stories in this collection, this is about beauty vs. destruction. But unlike the other stories, the main characters here are both male and the beauty is about a singer’s voice. Like a siren, Zaffirino’s voice beckons the composer and makes him mad with seduction. There is an undertone of nostalgia being a driving force of modernity. But again, what sets this story apart is the more apparent queerness and how art is emotional vs. rational.
♪ My rating: 3 out of 5
Overall themes of these stories
• Art as an expression of seduction and desire
• Feminine rage and gender fluidity
• Past vs. present and history repeating itself
• Obsession and madness
Thank you to NetGalley, Unnamed Press, and Smith & Taylor Classics for an electronic advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This Smith &Taylor Classics version comes out October 28, 2025.
A Shadow of Queerness
This section is not part of Vernon Lee’s stories but is a modern conversation between Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya and Gretchen Felker-Martin. I recommend reading this at the end (which is where it is positioned, but for the sake of my review, I've put it first).
♦ Summary: What’s new about this work is the added conversation between these two queer author’s/creatives that adds depth and color to the 4 works by Lee and how they compare/contrast with works of the same generation and now.
♦ My thoughts: This section is SO fantastic! As a straight reader, a lot of the queerness (especially in the first three stories) completely went over my head, so to have this discussion lay it out for me really opened my eyes to the emotion and intention behind Lee’s work. I loved how they discussed the parallels between modern work and other Gothic work and what Lee captured and how allegorical the characters and plots really are. I was blown away by the run-down of gender fluidity and placing things in binary terms and how they were able to glean things like the juxtaposition of infertility and gardening. I also loved their discussion about past versus present and scrutinizing the past to make sense of the present and how literary references are really pop culture and don’t make the story outdated but rather colors the characters’ involvement with civilization. I never realized how groundbreaking these stories must have been at the time. I really wouldn’t have considered this a “horror” story before reading this section, but the way they talk about horror not being something at face value, but more of underlying things like gender anxiety and building tension using narrative POV to create intrigue. This was the perfect way for me to digest these stories.
♦ My favorite quote: “I mean, what are we really haunted by? We’re haunted by legacies of violence. We’re haunted by history. We’re haunted by our own families.”
♦ My rating for this section: 5 out of 5
Amour Dure
♥ Summary: A young Polish scholar (Spiridion) goes to an Italian town near Florence to study history (keep in mind this was written in the late 1800s). While there, he hears the tale of Lucrezia, the Duchess Madea da Carpi—a 16th century femme fatale—who was executed for manipulating and ultimately murdering men who fell in love with her. At first, he is bored with the story, but as time progresses, he can’t stop thinking about her and becomes obsessed with learning more about her and the men who fell for her. He sees signs of her everywhere he turns and, like the men before him, becomes her latest victim of obsession.
♥ Favorite Quote: “Yet is there in the world anything nobler than the huge creature, steel when she springs, velvet when she treads, as she stretches her supple body, or smooths her beautiful skin, or fastens her strong claws into her victim?”
♥ My thoughts: This was very thought provoking, but I found the format difficult to follow. It’s laid out similar to other Gothic tales, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the story is told through journal entries from our protagonist. This story is the epitome of the line “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” except I’m not sure if Madea was scorned and then became vengeful or if she was a creature of destruction from inception. Or is it just the perception that women are vengeful against men who feel they are entitled to women’s devotion that makes Lucrezia’s story so powerful? And is she now haunting poor Spiridion because he’s in love with her or is his obsession with her more that he wants to be her (which went over my head before reading the conversations at the end between Kayla and Gretchen)?
♥ My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Dionea
♠ Summary: A child—Dionea—is found on the coast of Italy in 1873 after a shipwreck and is left to be raised by Catholic nuns. But something is “off” about her from the start—her character is deemed as “not so satisfactory” because she doesn’t want to learn sewing, washing dishes, or learning in general. As she ages, her beauty becomes the main qualifier that the narrator pays attention to, as Dionea becomes something of a seductress. Then, mysterious deaths and tragic events start to happen whenever she’s around—leading her to flee.
♠ My favorite quote: “‘How beautiful she is! Good God, how beautiful!’ No love of mere woman was ever so violent as this love of woman’s mere shape.”
♠ My thoughts: Told in the format of letters from Doctor Alessandro De Rosis to Lady Evelyn Savelli (Princess of Sabina). What I liked most about this story was the theme of women’s beauty vs. destruction and the mystery around this child. Like Amour Dure, we are only given an outsiders perspective to the main female character, thus only adding to the illusion and enigma. Dionea is something of a siren, she comes up with random, beautiful songs, but everything about her clashes with the Christianity that is so prevalent in the community she’s being raised in. That said, this story felt very similar to Amour Dure, so I found it a bit repetitive.
♠ My rating: 3 out of 5
Oke of Okehurst
♦ Summary: An artist is commissioned to move in with a strange wealthy couple in a strange manor in the English countryside to paint their portrait. During this time, the artist becomes intrigued by the manor (which is almost a character itself) and is privy to the couple’s strange marriage—the allure the wife has on her husband, who suspects her of cheating (which she doesn’t outright deny). The wife, Alice, has a likeness and obsession with an ancestor whose lover was murdered by Alice’s husband’s ancestor. Will history repeat itself?
♦ My favorite quote: “Interest and admiration, be it well understood, of a very unusual kind, as she was herself a very unusual kind of woman; and I, if you choose, am a rather unusual kind of man.”
♦ My thoughts: I liked the format of this story much more than the first two, as it’s told almost as a ghost story by the source himself. Like sitting around a fireplace in conversation with a friend. This reminded me more of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in story and theme, but with a paranormal twist. I liked that it was the perspective of a creator who is having a difficult time creating the likeness of his subject because he becomes entangled in the personalities of the manor and the couple. I was so confused by the ending though. The allegory of the mental unraveling of the husband and the wife’s obsession went clear over my head.
♦ My rating: 3.5 out of 5
A Wicked Voice
♪ Summary: A modern (late-19th century) composer slowly loses his mind while trying to reject the influence of an 18th-century castrato singer (Zaffirino). He becomes obsessed as Zaffirino’s wicked voice inundates the composer’s thought, dreams, and work—wreaking havoc on his creativity and mental health.
♪ My favorite quote: “For what is the voice but the Beast calling, awakening that other Beast sleeping in the depths of mankind, the Beast which all great art has ever sought to chain up, as the archangel chains up, in old pictures, the demon with his woman’s face?”
♪ My thoughts: Like the other stories in this collection, this is about beauty vs. destruction. But unlike the other stories, the main characters here are both male and the beauty is about a singer’s voice. Like a siren, Zaffirino’s voice beckons the composer and makes him mad with seduction. There is an undertone of nostalgia being a driving force of modernity. But again, what sets this story apart is the more apparent queerness and how art is emotional vs. rational.
♪ My rating: 3 out of 5
Overall themes of these stories
• Art as an expression of seduction and desire
• Feminine rage and gender fluidity
• Past vs. present and history repeating itself
• Obsession and madness
February 4, 2020
Vernon Lee's tale Amor Dure represents a high-mark in ghostly literature and is essential for all those seeking classic supernatural fiction. The rest of the tales included in this volume are exquisite baroque attempts at tackling the same theme, perhaps being outshone by the dazzling power of the initial story, but each tale is in its way delightful.
September 18, 2020
Vernon Lee wrote brilliant ghost stories. Subtle, erotic, atmospheric, and underpinned by an extraordinary knowledge of history, literature, music and art, the tales collected here are, in my view at least, unsurpassed by anything else in the canon of 'classic' ghostly tales. 'Amour Dure' in particular is a masterpiece - it's not an easy read first time around, but each revisiting unearths new details. We can only watch in fascinated horror as the cocksure young historian, Trepka, becomes obsessed by a Renaissance femme fatale who makes Lucrezia Borgia look cute and cuddly by comparison. The other stories here are all superb, but 'Amour Dure' is my favourite (and in my all-time top ten). My edition, the Broadview, is edited by Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham, who do a superb job of guiding the reader through the many allusions Lee makes, and indeed, the many things she expects of her readers (whom she seems to imagine were as clever and well read as she was!). Additional material such as Lee's important essay, 'Faustus and Helen', adds useful context. All in all, this is an excellent book, with the wonderful stories helpfully supported by the astute and appreciative editors.
April 5, 2009
A truly interesting and successful ghost story (in my view) has to focus on the people being haunted, on the effects that ghosts or the belief in ghosts have on the living. These four stories by Vernon Lee are perfect examples of the right way to do the ghost story. In fact they’re among the best I’ve ever read.
May 24, 2017
This is another one of my series of articles for Florence News and Events, one of our English-language expatriate publication here in Flowertown--hence the journalistic tone. Any criticisms before we go to press appreciated!
Vernon Lee’s Victiorian Hauntings
In 1889 Violet Paget’s family rented the Villa Il Palmerino in Maiano, a hamlet in the hills just north-east of Florence, between Fiesole and Settignano. She will live there, between her many travels, until her death in 1935 at the ripe old age of 70. Born in France of British parents, Florentine expatriate writer Paget is personally remarkable for her non-conformist attitudes to gender roles—she will brazenly wear men’s clothing for most of her life and adopt the nom de plume of Vernon Lee—for the literary society that she kept and brought to Florence—Henry and William James, Edith Wharton, and John Singer Sargent all visit her at Il Palmerino—as well as her many intellectual pursuits—not only writing fiction but also books of history, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, and travel writing—and the sheer volume of her production—Vernon Lee, Paget’s literary persona, left us 43 major works.
Fascinatingly, and perhaps indicative of what types of books are capable of universal appeal, and which are slightly more ephemeral, what remains in print today are Paget’s rather intellectual ghost stories. Of the first order of these is the volume of four longish supernatural narratives that she published in 1890, Hauntings, written during her first year of residence in Maiano. Appearing under her usual pen name, Hauntings has recently been reprinted in an expanded edition, featuring three additional stories from Lee’s two later collections of supernatural tales and with copious notes and appendices, by Broadview editions, who specialize in reprinting the classics and marginalia of English Gothic. Although none of the tales take place in Florence itself, Paget’s expatriate experience colors the stories insomuch as most of them recount the haunting of a protagonist who travels to a foreign place, as so many of we scholars, art historians, and students in Florence have also done, to undertake some kind of historical or artistic research.
Three of the four Hauntings deal with femme fatales who reach across the boundaries of time, logic, and particularly art, to bewitch and dominate “certain brains,” as Lee tells us in her introduction—the imaginative and susceptible brains of intellectuals: composers, historians, and local gentry. Although the antagonistic spirit of the fourth tale, “A Wicked Voice,” is male—a Venetian castrato—he rather makes the siren motif of the collection explicit: historians fall in love with the exploits of long-dead heroines, a village is visited by a Venus-like orphan, local gentry grow morbidly obsessed with a closeted murder out of family history, and a composer hears the call of a long-dead singer—these are Lee’s various Hauntings, voices of the not yet forgotten dead or, in the goddess’ case, out of the immortal realms. Here obsession conjures up the destructive specter of its object and leads our protagonists out of history, imagination, or art and into madness.
Although not quite as imagistically potent as Poe’s tales, nor as carefully crafted as her friend Henry James’s best ghost stories, Lee’s Hauntings certainly make for entertaining reading—preferably exercised under a duvet with a hot drink in hand and a gloomy rain pelting the windowpanes. The Broadview edition, edited by Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham, offers a few too many footnotes for the casual reader, but an excellent introduction and plenty of useful apparatus for any student or scholar—all in all, a terrific edition, as are all of the Broadview Gothics. The three later tales, although perhaps a bit more leisurely in pace, are also more carefully and beautifully written that the earlier stories so, with those books being out of print, it’s nice to have them here.
The Pagets’s Villa Il Palmerino is a guesthouse in Maiano now, so feel free to book a stay there—but be careful, lest Violet Paget and her Victorian expatriate Florentine life lure and haunt you with its Siren’s song of a genteel intellectual past.
Vernon Lee’s Victiorian Hauntings
In 1889 Violet Paget’s family rented the Villa Il Palmerino in Maiano, a hamlet in the hills just north-east of Florence, between Fiesole and Settignano. She will live there, between her many travels, until her death in 1935 at the ripe old age of 70. Born in France of British parents, Florentine expatriate writer Paget is personally remarkable for her non-conformist attitudes to gender roles—she will brazenly wear men’s clothing for most of her life and adopt the nom de plume of Vernon Lee—for the literary society that she kept and brought to Florence—Henry and William James, Edith Wharton, and John Singer Sargent all visit her at Il Palmerino—as well as her many intellectual pursuits—not only writing fiction but also books of history, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, and travel writing—and the sheer volume of her production—Vernon Lee, Paget’s literary persona, left us 43 major works.
Fascinatingly, and perhaps indicative of what types of books are capable of universal appeal, and which are slightly more ephemeral, what remains in print today are Paget’s rather intellectual ghost stories. Of the first order of these is the volume of four longish supernatural narratives that she published in 1890, Hauntings, written during her first year of residence in Maiano. Appearing under her usual pen name, Hauntings has recently been reprinted in an expanded edition, featuring three additional stories from Lee’s two later collections of supernatural tales and with copious notes and appendices, by Broadview editions, who specialize in reprinting the classics and marginalia of English Gothic. Although none of the tales take place in Florence itself, Paget’s expatriate experience colors the stories insomuch as most of them recount the haunting of a protagonist who travels to a foreign place, as so many of we scholars, art historians, and students in Florence have also done, to undertake some kind of historical or artistic research.
Three of the four Hauntings deal with femme fatales who reach across the boundaries of time, logic, and particularly art, to bewitch and dominate “certain brains,” as Lee tells us in her introduction—the imaginative and susceptible brains of intellectuals: composers, historians, and local gentry. Although the antagonistic spirit of the fourth tale, “A Wicked Voice,” is male—a Venetian castrato—he rather makes the siren motif of the collection explicit: historians fall in love with the exploits of long-dead heroines, a village is visited by a Venus-like orphan, local gentry grow morbidly obsessed with a closeted murder out of family history, and a composer hears the call of a long-dead singer—these are Lee’s various Hauntings, voices of the not yet forgotten dead or, in the goddess’ case, out of the immortal realms. Here obsession conjures up the destructive specter of its object and leads our protagonists out of history, imagination, or art and into madness.
Although not quite as imagistically potent as Poe’s tales, nor as carefully crafted as her friend Henry James’s best ghost stories, Lee’s Hauntings certainly make for entertaining reading—preferably exercised under a duvet with a hot drink in hand and a gloomy rain pelting the windowpanes. The Broadview edition, edited by Catherine Maxwell and Patricia Pulham, offers a few too many footnotes for the casual reader, but an excellent introduction and plenty of useful apparatus for any student or scholar—all in all, a terrific edition, as are all of the Broadview Gothics. The three later tales, although perhaps a bit more leisurely in pace, are also more carefully and beautifully written that the earlier stories so, with those books being out of print, it’s nice to have them here.
The Pagets’s Villa Il Palmerino is a guesthouse in Maiano now, so feel free to book a stay there—but be careful, lest Violet Paget and her Victorian expatriate Florentine life lure and haunt you with its Siren’s song of a genteel intellectual past.
June 26, 2012
Long out of print. I only knew of her as recommended in a book by Montague Summers, then found this accidentally in a used book shop recently. A cross between Poe and Le Fanu, and perfectly seductive and intelligent. The critic Maurice Baring described Violet Paget (her real name) as 'by far the cleverest person I have ever met in my life'. But it was a male-dominated society so she decided to write under a pseudonym. Fucking men, eh?
November 1, 2012
Psychological Horror in Oke of Okehurst.
The use of psychological horror in Oke of Okehurst is similar to many other applications within the context of Victorian fiction. Upon reading Lee’s novella, the first connection that I made was with another short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In both texts, the reader learns through the statements of their doting “loving” husbands that they suffer from nervous conditions. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the opinion of her husband, John, is originally taken as reliable due to the fact that he is a doctor and repeatedly states his concern for her well being. Similarly, Mr. Oke comments on several occasions to the painter of the unbalanced constitution of his wife. "Oh no! Alice is quite well; at least, quite as well as she usually is. My Wife…does not enjoy very good health--a nervous constitution” (Lee, Part 2). Thus far in our course reading, the issue of wellness- particularly in respect to women- and medical complaints involving mental health, are highly regarded as symptoms to the degeneration that plagued England. Mrs. Oke is described in detail in Part 3 as completely indifferent to her husband as well as her guests. “Mrs. Oke evidently did not trouble herself about her husband in the very least… Mrs. Oke simply passed over his existence” (Lee Part 3). The manner of psychological horror is separated at this point in analyzing Oke of Okehurst and the Yellow Wallpaper; and thus, the outcomes are vastly different. Both Gilman and Lee explore the horror of a repressive relationship and living under the pressure and disappointment of a mentally abusive relationship.
In a Yellow Wallpaper, John functions as the patriarchal figure that constricts the existence, mental, and physical health of his wife; however, Mrs. Oke is the repressive character in Lee’s work- much in the same way that John drives his wife to madness, Mrs. Oke pushes her husband to a mental breaking point. Although, it is possible to harbor sympathy for Alice Oke, bitter and unhappy in her marriage, the ultimate victim is her husband. Ironically, his comments regarding nervous complaints, in the end, reflect most closely to his character. Driven to the same madness of the creeping woman from Gilman’s work, William Oke’s jealousy and anxiety cause him to become the monster other. In the same way that Gilman addressed the issues of women oppressed by their husbands- the traditional Victorian male model- Lee exploits the fear that was prevalent during de fin siècle, the power that woman held in the outcome and future of Britain in the years to come.
Vernon Lee leaves her readers wondering on many levels which adds to the psychological fear element. The reader never sees the ghost- was it really real or was this all driven by Alice’s mental illness or perhaps her husband’s obsession and Alice’s ploy to toy with him over the family legend? Interestingly, the unanswered questioned in the story mirror the mental horror experience of the characters and the readers. In the end we are left with a bloody and striking conclusion and no true answers.
The use of psychological horror in Oke of Okehurst is similar to many other applications within the context of Victorian fiction. Upon reading Lee’s novella, the first connection that I made was with another short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In both texts, the reader learns through the statements of their doting “loving” husbands that they suffer from nervous conditions. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the opinion of her husband, John, is originally taken as reliable due to the fact that he is a doctor and repeatedly states his concern for her well being. Similarly, Mr. Oke comments on several occasions to the painter of the unbalanced constitution of his wife. "Oh no! Alice is quite well; at least, quite as well as she usually is. My Wife…does not enjoy very good health--a nervous constitution” (Lee, Part 2). Thus far in our course reading, the issue of wellness- particularly in respect to women- and medical complaints involving mental health, are highly regarded as symptoms to the degeneration that plagued England. Mrs. Oke is described in detail in Part 3 as completely indifferent to her husband as well as her guests. “Mrs. Oke evidently did not trouble herself about her husband in the very least… Mrs. Oke simply passed over his existence” (Lee Part 3). The manner of psychological horror is separated at this point in analyzing Oke of Okehurst and the Yellow Wallpaper; and thus, the outcomes are vastly different. Both Gilman and Lee explore the horror of a repressive relationship and living under the pressure and disappointment of a mentally abusive relationship.
In a Yellow Wallpaper, John functions as the patriarchal figure that constricts the existence, mental, and physical health of his wife; however, Mrs. Oke is the repressive character in Lee’s work- much in the same way that John drives his wife to madness, Mrs. Oke pushes her husband to a mental breaking point. Although, it is possible to harbor sympathy for Alice Oke, bitter and unhappy in her marriage, the ultimate victim is her husband. Ironically, his comments regarding nervous complaints, in the end, reflect most closely to his character. Driven to the same madness of the creeping woman from Gilman’s work, William Oke’s jealousy and anxiety cause him to become the monster other. In the same way that Gilman addressed the issues of women oppressed by their husbands- the traditional Victorian male model- Lee exploits the fear that was prevalent during de fin siècle, the power that woman held in the outcome and future of Britain in the years to come.
Vernon Lee leaves her readers wondering on many levels which adds to the psychological fear element. The reader never sees the ghost- was it really real or was this all driven by Alice’s mental illness or perhaps her husband’s obsession and Alice’s ploy to toy with him over the family legend? Interestingly, the unanswered questioned in the story mirror the mental horror experience of the characters and the readers. In the end we are left with a bloody and striking conclusion and no true answers.
December 3, 2019
This story collection was by and large a disappointment for me. Despite that, I am glad I read it. Doing so allowed me to form a definite opinion on this seminal early Weird Fiction writer. I just wish more of her stories were entertaining.
My highest recommendation goes to two and only two of her stories. They are pure magic: 1) "Oke of Okehurst", or, "A Phantom Lover", and 2) "Pope Jacynth". Only the first of these is a Weird Tale. The second is a surprisingly wonderful satire.
Also good and well worth reading are "Amor Dure" and "Dionea", both of which are Weird Tales. Two more horror stories she wrote are worth reading: "A Culture-Ghost", or, "Winthrop's Adventure", and probably "The Doll". However, I do not recommend reading these last two stories from this collection. These stories were expanded and rewritten later in life by Vernon Lee from earlier versions, which ruined them. The earlier versions of these stories, available elsewhere but not in this collection, are substantially different. They are shorter and retain their supernatural elements, giving the stories their interest.
I don't wish to summarize any plot points of Lee's short stories here. If you're interested I did so to varying extent in a group thread: (warning--you may find light spoilers in the summaries; it's hard to write meaningfully about short story plots without introducing any story elements) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... If you start reading any of the stories other than the six I recommend, I predict you will quickly come to a similar conclusion, that they lack something important these six have. In writing my review here my goal is to save you the considerable time I spent determining the stories' value.
I need to mention that the final essay included in this collection is brilliant: "Faustus and Helena: The Supernatural in Art." Not only is it exquisitely written, but her points are original and thought-provoking. The essay explains to me her thought processes on fiction, most of which strike me as valid and insightful, but they can be taken to extreme. The essay therefore supplies the information I need to make the hypothesis of the next paragraph.
I'll close by offering a hypothesis on why it is Vernon Lee wrote but six good stories during her life. These stories were all written very early in her writing career, well before she was out of her twenties. As she became older Lee began to take herself too seriously as an author, philosopher, and critic. I believe she attempted to create artworks rather than entertain, overlooking that it is possible to do both simultaneously. That is why her early stories, more than artful enough already in my opinion, were lengthened unnecessarily and stripped of supernatural elements, robbing them of all charm. If you appreciate fiction as art devoid of entertainment value, perhaps you will appreciate some of the stories I dismiss.
My highest recommendation goes to two and only two of her stories. They are pure magic: 1) "Oke of Okehurst", or, "A Phantom Lover", and 2) "Pope Jacynth". Only the first of these is a Weird Tale. The second is a surprisingly wonderful satire.
Also good and well worth reading are "Amor Dure" and "Dionea", both of which are Weird Tales. Two more horror stories she wrote are worth reading: "A Culture-Ghost", or, "Winthrop's Adventure", and probably "The Doll". However, I do not recommend reading these last two stories from this collection. These stories were expanded and rewritten later in life by Vernon Lee from earlier versions, which ruined them. The earlier versions of these stories, available elsewhere but not in this collection, are substantially different. They are shorter and retain their supernatural elements, giving the stories their interest.
I don't wish to summarize any plot points of Lee's short stories here. If you're interested I did so to varying extent in a group thread: (warning--you may find light spoilers in the summaries; it's hard to write meaningfully about short story plots without introducing any story elements) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... If you start reading any of the stories other than the six I recommend, I predict you will quickly come to a similar conclusion, that they lack something important these six have. In writing my review here my goal is to save you the considerable time I spent determining the stories' value.
I need to mention that the final essay included in this collection is brilliant: "Faustus and Helena: The Supernatural in Art." Not only is it exquisitely written, but her points are original and thought-provoking. The essay explains to me her thought processes on fiction, most of which strike me as valid and insightful, but they can be taken to extreme. The essay therefore supplies the information I need to make the hypothesis of the next paragraph.
I'll close by offering a hypothesis on why it is Vernon Lee wrote but six good stories during her life. These stories were all written very early in her writing career, well before she was out of her twenties. As she became older Lee began to take herself too seriously as an author, philosopher, and critic. I believe she attempted to create artworks rather than entertain, overlooking that it is possible to do both simultaneously. That is why her early stories, more than artful enough already in my opinion, were lengthened unnecessarily and stripped of supernatural elements, robbing them of all charm. If you appreciate fiction as art devoid of entertainment value, perhaps you will appreciate some of the stories I dismiss.
February 10, 2021
Ah, yes! I had the worst time finding the exact edition I read. My copy, via Hoopla contained:
Amour Dure
Dionea
Oke of Okehurst
A Wicked Voice
So in my absolute obsession with the book Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction I've been actively searching out the authors mentioned within and I stumbled across this collection from Vernon Lee (Violet Paget). I am being totally honest when I say I did not dislike these stories, but I now know that Paget's writing is not for me.
All of these stories are about art, basically, and being obsessed with either said art or the artist who created the art. As a result, I rather felt like Paget was an art critic trying to tell a funny anecdote who cannot get to the point because she is too busy namedropping artists.
She's a bit windy, is all I'm saying. These stories take a long time to get where they are going, and the ride isn't what I would describe as thrilling.
Of all of them, I enjoyed Dionea the most as I loved the narrator's voice and the idea of this little scamp of a girl pissing off nuns had me laughing.
Oke of Okehurst is the strongest story, but I would still feel that way even if the ghost were removed from the equation as it is a character study of an unhealthy marriage.
I gave up with A Wicked Voice and found an audio recording of it. Read (and sung!) by Gary Turner, I enjoyed it more and maybe that's the point- these stories were supposed to be shared around a fireplace, after a few sherries on a cold winter's night.
I'm sure, for her time, Paget was the bee's knees, but I feel like I read her best four and can close the chapter on her.
One classic work down for 2021!
Amour Dure
Dionea
Oke of Okehurst
A Wicked Voice
So in my absolute obsession with the book Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction I've been actively searching out the authors mentioned within and I stumbled across this collection from Vernon Lee (Violet Paget). I am being totally honest when I say I did not dislike these stories, but I now know that Paget's writing is not for me.
All of these stories are about art, basically, and being obsessed with either said art or the artist who created the art. As a result, I rather felt like Paget was an art critic trying to tell a funny anecdote who cannot get to the point because she is too busy namedropping artists.
She's a bit windy, is all I'm saying. These stories take a long time to get where they are going, and the ride isn't what I would describe as thrilling.
Of all of them, I enjoyed Dionea the most as I loved the narrator's voice and the idea of this little scamp of a girl pissing off nuns had me laughing.
Oke of Okehurst is the strongest story, but I would still feel that way even if the ghost were removed from the equation as it is a character study of an unhealthy marriage.
I gave up with A Wicked Voice and found an audio recording of it. Read (and sung!) by Gary Turner, I enjoyed it more and maybe that's the point- these stories were supposed to be shared around a fireplace, after a few sherries on a cold winter's night.
I'm sure, for her time, Paget was the bee's knees, but I feel like I read her best four and can close the chapter on her.
One classic work down for 2021!
July 17, 2015
Hauntings is a collection of short fiction by a somewhat little known late 19th/early 20th century writer. Most of the stories don’t deal with actual hauntings, per se, but rather with weird, possibly supernatural events.
Some of the stories, like “Amour Dure,” pulled off the suspense quite well. Others, like “Dionea,” were weaker. Regardless, they all had interesting ideas behind them.
“Oke of Okehurst” and “A Wicked Voice” worked well as a pair (and kudos to the editor for putting them together) – one centring the story around art and the other around music.
All of the stories showed an impressive depth of knowledge and a brilliant mind, but they lacked “tightness” and narrative skill. It was truly a shame because I found the stories so interesting, but had to struggle through their dryness.
If you’re interested in the time period and want to read something from a more off-the-beaten-track author, I do recommend giving Hauntings a try.
Some of the stories, like “Amour Dure,” pulled off the suspense quite well. Others, like “Dionea,” were weaker. Regardless, they all had interesting ideas behind them.
“Oke of Okehurst” and “A Wicked Voice” worked well as a pair (and kudos to the editor for putting them together) – one centring the story around art and the other around music.
All of the stories showed an impressive depth of knowledge and a brilliant mind, but they lacked “tightness” and narrative skill. It was truly a shame because I found the stories so interesting, but had to struggle through their dryness.
If you’re interested in the time period and want to read something from a more off-the-beaten-track author, I do recommend giving Hauntings a try.
May 6, 2018
In Written Lives, Javier Marias says of Vernon Lee that "her stories about ghosts or the supernatural are written with a mastery that approaches that of Isak Dinesen." I had never before heard of her, but I'm glad I took a chance on this collection. Each of the stories has wonderfully described landscapes (usually in Italy) and atmospheric creepiness. The stories concern men obsessing over art and mysterious women via epistolary formats, which means a fun time with unreliable narrators and ambiguous occurrences.
May 6, 2019
Worth reading. Decent prose with passages of beauty. And best of all a glimpse into the mind of Violet Padget.
August 13, 2025
Para que un autor se convierta en uno de mis favoritos necesita, por lo menos, cuatro cosas: fantasmas, una imaginación desbordada, ambientaciones verídicas en escenarios del pasado y un lenguaje exquisito. Vernon Lee (o más bien debería llamarla Violet Paget) es una de esas autoras, siendo Embrujada (Hauntings), su primer libro, una auténtica joya de la literatura fantástica británica del siglo XIX. Confesaré que mi fascinación no fue inmediata, ya que mi primer encuentro con la autora en la Antología universal del relato fantástico, por medio del cuento ''Amour Dure'', fue un tanto fatigoso. Sin embargo, la situación cambió cuando decidí comprar este precioso volumen en el Gran Outlet de Libros de Sincelejo. Tan grande fue el placer que me produjo esta lectura que quedé con ganas de leer más cuentos parecidos o, de ser posible, olvidar los argumentos para leerlos otra vez.
Tal como dijo José María Guelbenzu sobre La voz maligna, recopilación de cuentos de Lee editada por Atalanta, sus narraciones son piezas de anticuario, pero de aquellas que dejan al lector con una inmensa sensación de felicidad. Son textos sensuales, atrevidos, elegantes y muy absorbentes. Uno se ve a sí mismo como otro personaje más, y no es posible abandonar el libro hasta llegar a la última página. Si el talento de un autor se midiese en la capacidad que tiene para fascinar a un lector, Lee ha de ser considerada una de las más grandes de la Historia.
Ahora, hablemos de algo igual de importante: los fantasmas. Los de nuestra autora están a medio camino entre los fantasmas clásicos y los que son productos de la mente. Se llega a ellos (o ellos llegan a nosotros) a través del arte de un periodo histórico pasado, ya sea un texto literario, una escultura, una pintura o una canción. Asimismo, muchos de estos fantasmas están asociados a la figura de la mujer fatal, que la autora, acaso por ser mujer, desarrolla de una manera que se siente más convincente y más amenazante, pues su encanto no radica solo en la atracción sexual, sino en algo que va hasta el fondo de la conciencia de los personajes que caen rendidos a ellas.
En resumen, es este un libro maravilloso, una experiencia que ningún apasionado a la literatura fantástica y a las obras clásicas debería perderse. Dicho esto, dejo aquí mi reseña de los 4 cuentos que lo componen:
- Amour Dure (*****): escrito en formato de diario, sigue la historia de Spiridion Trepka, un profesor polaco de 24 años enviado a la ciudad italiana de Urbania para escribir un libro sobre su pasado. Mientras investiga, descubrirá la historia de una antigua marquesa con fama de mujer terrible que poco a poco lo irá arrastrando hacia la locura. En esta segunda lectura descubrí lo maravilloso que es este cuento. Perturba y absorbe como ningún otro, y, aunque intuyamos el final, el desarrollo de los hechos es único. Comprendí que la narración histórica era necesaria para entender el desarrollo de la trama, y esta vez me pareció más corta y menos densa. Por otro lado, el nombre del protagonista también ayuda a que sea memorable.
- Dionea (*****): una misteriosa niña rescatada de un naufragio trastorna la paz de un pueblo entero al formar uniones amorosas insospechadas. Sin embargo, el asunto empeorará cuando un escultor se obsesione con esculpir una figura a su imagen y semejanza. Un cuento exquisito que renueva la figura de la diosa Venus y su no tan grata influencia en los amores humanos. Son deliciosas las referencias eruditas, la descripción de los escenarios y el carácter de la niña, y la constante sugerencia de un retorno del paganismo en el mundo moderno. Imprescindible.
- Oke de Okehurst (*****): un pintor se hospeda en la mansión de una joven pareja que lo contrató para hacerles un retrato. Pronto será partícipe de la equívoca relación de los esposos debido al singular carácter de la mujer, obsesionada con parecerse a una antepasada con un pasado oscuro que amenaza con hacerse presente en sus vidas. Otro cuento exquisito y muy absorbente de mujer fatal en donde lo sobrenatural se confunde con lo psicológico (por más cliché que esto suene), si bien su final se siente algo apresurado. Me resulta inevitable compararlo con narraciones de Robert Aickman como ''Madera'' y "Ravissante" debido a su gran carga de sugestión y su atmósfera de fiesta perversa.
- La voz maldita (****): un músico wagneriano residente en Venecia se obsesiona con el modo de cantar de un soprano famoso del siglo XVIII del que, asimismo, se dice asesinó a una mujer de la nobleza después de cantarle tres canciones. Un cuento decente, pero menos apasionante que los tres primeros. Lástima, porque su premisa y título me llamaban muchísimo la atención. Quién sabe si también necesite una relectura para tomarle el gusto.
Tal como dijo José María Guelbenzu sobre La voz maligna, recopilación de cuentos de Lee editada por Atalanta, sus narraciones son piezas de anticuario, pero de aquellas que dejan al lector con una inmensa sensación de felicidad. Son textos sensuales, atrevidos, elegantes y muy absorbentes. Uno se ve a sí mismo como otro personaje más, y no es posible abandonar el libro hasta llegar a la última página. Si el talento de un autor se midiese en la capacidad que tiene para fascinar a un lector, Lee ha de ser considerada una de las más grandes de la Historia.
Ahora, hablemos de algo igual de importante: los fantasmas. Los de nuestra autora están a medio camino entre los fantasmas clásicos y los que son productos de la mente. Se llega a ellos (o ellos llegan a nosotros) a través del arte de un periodo histórico pasado, ya sea un texto literario, una escultura, una pintura o una canción. Asimismo, muchos de estos fantasmas están asociados a la figura de la mujer fatal, que la autora, acaso por ser mujer, desarrolla de una manera que se siente más convincente y más amenazante, pues su encanto no radica solo en la atracción sexual, sino en algo que va hasta el fondo de la conciencia de los personajes que caen rendidos a ellas.
En resumen, es este un libro maravilloso, una experiencia que ningún apasionado a la literatura fantástica y a las obras clásicas debería perderse. Dicho esto, dejo aquí mi reseña de los 4 cuentos que lo componen:
- Amour Dure (*****): escrito en formato de diario, sigue la historia de Spiridion Trepka, un profesor polaco de 24 años enviado a la ciudad italiana de Urbania para escribir un libro sobre su pasado. Mientras investiga, descubrirá la historia de una antigua marquesa con fama de mujer terrible que poco a poco lo irá arrastrando hacia la locura. En esta segunda lectura descubrí lo maravilloso que es este cuento. Perturba y absorbe como ningún otro, y, aunque intuyamos el final, el desarrollo de los hechos es único. Comprendí que la narración histórica era necesaria para entender el desarrollo de la trama, y esta vez me pareció más corta y menos densa. Por otro lado, el nombre del protagonista también ayuda a que sea memorable.
- Dionea (*****): una misteriosa niña rescatada de un naufragio trastorna la paz de un pueblo entero al formar uniones amorosas insospechadas. Sin embargo, el asunto empeorará cuando un escultor se obsesione con esculpir una figura a su imagen y semejanza. Un cuento exquisito que renueva la figura de la diosa Venus y su no tan grata influencia en los amores humanos. Son deliciosas las referencias eruditas, la descripción de los escenarios y el carácter de la niña, y la constante sugerencia de un retorno del paganismo en el mundo moderno. Imprescindible.
- Oke de Okehurst (*****): un pintor se hospeda en la mansión de una joven pareja que lo contrató para hacerles un retrato. Pronto será partícipe de la equívoca relación de los esposos debido al singular carácter de la mujer, obsesionada con parecerse a una antepasada con un pasado oscuro que amenaza con hacerse presente en sus vidas. Otro cuento exquisito y muy absorbente de mujer fatal en donde lo sobrenatural se confunde con lo psicológico (por más cliché que esto suene), si bien su final se siente algo apresurado. Me resulta inevitable compararlo con narraciones de Robert Aickman como ''Madera'' y "Ravissante" debido a su gran carga de sugestión y su atmósfera de fiesta perversa.
- La voz maldita (****): un músico wagneriano residente en Venecia se obsesiona con el modo de cantar de un soprano famoso del siglo XVIII del que, asimismo, se dice asesinó a una mujer de la nobleza después de cantarle tres canciones. Un cuento decente, pero menos apasionante que los tres primeros. Lástima, porque su premisa y título me llamaban muchísimo la atención. Quién sabe si también necesite una relectura para tomarle el gusto.
July 16, 2022
4.5/5
Pffft, PFFFT. Había querido leer este libro desde que salió (2018), pero la verdad es que no sabía que esperar de Violet Paget (Vernon Lee); leí el prólogo a esta recopilación y debo admitir que no me gustó mucho, así que iba un poco escéptica y UAU, UAAAAAAAAAAAAAU <3
La prosa, la construcción del ambiente opresivo e inquietante, los temas que trata, las referencias eruditas, el elemento sobrenatural y la pérdida de cordura de los protagonistas o personajes de los relatos son increíbles. De verdad que Paget es, con total seguridad, una de las mejores escritoras de terror/sobrenatural que dio la lengua inglesa. Cuando terminé el libro, lo único que podía pensar era que necesitaba leer más, todo lo que Violet Paget escribió (@ Páginas de espuma o Valdemar o CUALQUIER EDITORIAL: ¿pa' cuándo una edición de todos los cuentos?).
Embrujada (Haunting en inglés) tiene cuatro de los cuentos más famosos de Paget: "Amour dure", "Dionea", "Oke de Okehurst" y "Una voz maligna", que reseñaré muy brevemente:
En Amour dure presenciamos, mediante el diario de un joven historiador, la fascinación y posterior obsesión que éste desarrolla por una condesa del siglo XVII; aquí me encantó la forma en la que la cordura del protagonista avanza, sin prisa pero sin pausa, hacia la locura, así como las múltiples referencias a pasajes históricos y cómo la historia de Medea (also, genial referencia a la cultura clásica) se siente y se lee como una verdadera crónica italiana. 5/5.
Dionea, por otra parte, cuenta los primeros años (infancia-juventud) de una misteriosa niña encontrada en una playa y que altera por completo la vida del pueblecito costero que la acogió. Todo está narrado mediante las cartas que el protector de Dionea envía a la protectora de ambos, una condesa italiana radicada en roma. Lo que más me gustó aquí fue, por supuesto, la increíble caracterización de Dionea y la creación del ambiente, aun cuando todo está escrito mediante cartas; además, aquí abundan las referencias a la cultura clásica (particularmente la griega) y la forma en la que Lee va dejando, como un camino de migajas, pistas sobre la verdadera identidad de la joven. Este cuento, si bien no es de terror realmente, sí tiene un fuerte aire a folk horror que... chef's kiss. 5/5.
Oke de Okenhurst, además de ser el relato más extenso, también es el que tiene forma mucho más inglesa, por decirlo de alguna manera. Aquí, mediante la voz narrativa de un pintor que va a vivir un tiempo con el matrimonio Oke, somos testigos del ambiente de opresión inquietante que se vive en una vieja casa del condado de Kent, Okenhurst, donde una joven está convencida de que es la reencarnación de una antepasada y, por lo mismo, de el antiguo amante asesinado de ésta ha regresado para estar con ella. Si bien, al principio parece que Alicia es sólo una joven con demasiada imaginación a quien le gusta torturar a su marido, al final la sensación que deja es mucho más inquietante: ¿realmente había un fantasma o todo eran sugestiones de los solitarios habitantes de Okenhurst? De este cuento quisiera destacar, principalmente, el ambiente que se va haciendo más opresivo e inquietante conforme pasan las páginas, así como el descenso a la locura del pobre señor Oke; sin embargo, sentí que la historia tardaba demasiado en arrancar y que, quizá, habría sido más efectiva con algunas páginas menos. 3.5/5.
Finalmente, Una voz maligna relata el ¿acecho? (haunting) del que es víctima un joven compositor por parte de un castrato del siglo XVII... o, más bien, por parte de la voz de dicho cantante. Aquí, al igual que en todos los textos del libro (aunque sobre todo en el cuento anterior), también hay una ambigüedad muy fuerte en cuanto al componente sobrenatural: ¿en verdad la voz acechaba al compositor o era todo un sueño febril? Creo que lo que más me gusto de este relato fue, además de que está ambientada en Venecia (la ciudad inquietante por antonomasia), fueron las referencias culturales e históricas al siglo XVII así como la historia dentro de la historia que se relató, la del cantante Zaffirino, la voz maligna. 4/5.
Como se puede ver, aquí (al igual que en los cuentos de M.R. James) los protagonistas suelen ser personas, si no intelectuales, sí cultas y con oficios pertenecientes a las humanidades y a quienes fuerzas más allá de su compresión (no necesariamente fantasmas) los acechan; además, también hay uso gratuito de latín, ¿QUÉ MÁS PUEDO PEDIR YO DE LA VIDA? 10/10
Ahora, unas palabras sobre la edición: en general, para el precio, está bastante bien. La maquetación es bonita y, aunque no tiene ilustraciones o ningún detalle que lo haga especial, tanto la letra como los márgenes ayudan a que la lectura sea muy fluida. La traducción, por otra parte, pese a que no es mala y cumple su función, sí tiene varios errores que me hicieron pensar "yikes"; por ejemplo, en la p. 84, no se tradujo la palabra "marchioness" (marquesa) y, además, se cambió el género de la persona a quien se referían los adjetivos; otro error garrafal ocurre en la p. 144, donde se menciona que el linaje de los Oke se remonta "hasta Norman, casi hasta la época de los Saxon" ???, obviamente aquí se refieren a los normandos y a los sajones... una persona que sepa inglés y el mínimo de historia de Inglaterra podría haber traducido esa oración sin ningún problema y sin dejar cosas tan raras como "Norman" y "Saxon" que no dicen nada en español. También, una vez más, vengo a quejarme de que DEJEN LOS NOMBRES DE AUTORES LATINOS O GRIEGOS EN SU FORMA LATINA (que es como están en inglés) Y NO EN ESPAÑOL, COMO DEBERÍA SER. Aquí, ocurre en la p. 83, donde se menciona al novelista "Longus" (LONGO), no entiendo por qué los traductores no buscan, al menos, en Wikipedia cómo se dice ese nombre en español, porque evidentemente no es que quieran conservar los nombres tal y como están en el original inglés, porque aquí, unas páginas después, se habla de "Catulo", así, en español. Por otra parte, noté que en muchas ocasiones, el nombre de "Okenhurst" estaba escrito "Okenhurts" y, por supuesto, el latín no está traducido.
Pffft, PFFFT. Había querido leer este libro desde que salió (2018), pero la verdad es que no sabía que esperar de Violet Paget (Vernon Lee); leí el prólogo a esta recopilación y debo admitir que no me gustó mucho, así que iba un poco escéptica y UAU, UAAAAAAAAAAAAAU <3
La prosa, la construcción del ambiente opresivo e inquietante, los temas que trata, las referencias eruditas, el elemento sobrenatural y la pérdida de cordura de los protagonistas o personajes de los relatos son increíbles. De verdad que Paget es, con total seguridad, una de las mejores escritoras de terror/sobrenatural que dio la lengua inglesa. Cuando terminé el libro, lo único que podía pensar era que necesitaba leer más, todo lo que Violet Paget escribió (@ Páginas de espuma o Valdemar o CUALQUIER EDITORIAL: ¿pa' cuándo una edición de todos los cuentos?).
Embrujada (Haunting en inglés) tiene cuatro de los cuentos más famosos de Paget: "Amour dure", "Dionea", "Oke de Okehurst" y "Una voz maligna", que reseñaré muy brevemente:
En Amour dure presenciamos, mediante el diario de un joven historiador, la fascinación y posterior obsesión que éste desarrolla por una condesa del siglo XVII; aquí me encantó la forma en la que la cordura del protagonista avanza, sin prisa pero sin pausa, hacia la locura, así como las múltiples referencias a pasajes históricos y cómo la historia de Medea (also, genial referencia a la cultura clásica) se siente y se lee como una verdadera crónica italiana. 5/5.
Dionea, por otra parte, cuenta los primeros años (infancia-juventud) de una misteriosa niña encontrada en una playa y que altera por completo la vida del pueblecito costero que la acogió. Todo está narrado mediante las cartas que el protector de Dionea envía a la protectora de ambos, una condesa italiana radicada en roma. Lo que más me gustó aquí fue, por supuesto, la increíble caracterización de Dionea y la creación del ambiente, aun cuando todo está escrito mediante cartas; además, aquí abundan las referencias a la cultura clásica (particularmente la griega) y la forma en la que Lee va dejando, como un camino de migajas, pistas sobre la verdadera identidad de la joven. Este cuento, si bien no es de terror realmente, sí tiene un fuerte aire a folk horror que... chef's kiss. 5/5.
Oke de Okenhurst, además de ser el relato más extenso, también es el que tiene forma mucho más inglesa, por decirlo de alguna manera. Aquí, mediante la voz narrativa de un pintor que va a vivir un tiempo con el matrimonio Oke, somos testigos del ambiente de opresión inquietante que se vive en una vieja casa del condado de Kent, Okenhurst, donde una joven está convencida de que es la reencarnación de una antepasada y, por lo mismo, de el antiguo amante asesinado de ésta ha regresado para estar con ella. Si bien, al principio parece que Alicia es sólo una joven con demasiada imaginación a quien le gusta torturar a su marido, al final la sensación que deja es mucho más inquietante: ¿realmente había un fantasma o todo eran sugestiones de los solitarios habitantes de Okenhurst? De este cuento quisiera destacar, principalmente, el ambiente que se va haciendo más opresivo e inquietante conforme pasan las páginas, así como el descenso a la locura del pobre señor Oke; sin embargo, sentí que la historia tardaba demasiado en arrancar y que, quizá, habría sido más efectiva con algunas páginas menos. 3.5/5.
Finalmente, Una voz maligna relata el ¿acecho? (haunting) del que es víctima un joven compositor por parte de un castrato del siglo XVII... o, más bien, por parte de la voz de dicho cantante. Aquí, al igual que en todos los textos del libro (aunque sobre todo en el cuento anterior), también hay una ambigüedad muy fuerte en cuanto al componente sobrenatural: ¿en verdad la voz acechaba al compositor o era todo un sueño febril? Creo que lo que más me gusto de este relato fue, además de que está ambientada en Venecia (la ciudad inquietante por antonomasia), fueron las referencias culturales e históricas al siglo XVII así como la historia dentro de la historia que se relató, la del cantante Zaffirino, la voz maligna. 4/5.
Como se puede ver, aquí (al igual que en los cuentos de M.R. James) los protagonistas suelen ser personas, si no intelectuales, sí cultas y con oficios pertenecientes a las humanidades y a quienes fuerzas más allá de su compresión (no necesariamente fantasmas) los acechan; además, también hay uso gratuito de latín, ¿QUÉ MÁS PUEDO PEDIR YO DE LA VIDA? 10/10
Ahora, unas palabras sobre la edición: en general, para el precio, está bastante bien. La maquetación es bonita y, aunque no tiene ilustraciones o ningún detalle que lo haga especial, tanto la letra como los márgenes ayudan a que la lectura sea muy fluida. La traducción, por otra parte, pese a que no es mala y cumple su función, sí tiene varios errores que me hicieron pensar "yikes"; por ejemplo, en la p. 84, no se tradujo la palabra "marchioness" (marquesa) y, además, se cambió el género de la persona a quien se referían los adjetivos; otro error garrafal ocurre en la p. 144, donde se menciona que el linaje de los Oke se remonta "hasta Norman, casi hasta la época de los Saxon" ???, obviamente aquí se refieren a los normandos y a los sajones... una persona que sepa inglés y el mínimo de historia de Inglaterra podría haber traducido esa oración sin ningún problema y sin dejar cosas tan raras como "Norman" y "Saxon" que no dicen nada en español. También, una vez más, vengo a quejarme de que DEJEN LOS NOMBRES DE AUTORES LATINOS O GRIEGOS EN SU FORMA LATINA (que es como están en inglés) Y NO EN ESPAÑOL, COMO DEBERÍA SER. Aquí, ocurre en la p. 83, donde se menciona al novelista "Longus" (LONGO), no entiendo por qué los traductores no buscan, al menos, en Wikipedia cómo se dice ese nombre en español, porque evidentemente no es que quieran conservar los nombres tal y como están en el original inglés, porque aquí, unas páginas después, se habla de "Catulo", así, en español. Por otra parte, noté que en muchas ocasiones, el nombre de "Okenhurst" estaba escrito "Okenhurts" y, por supuesto, el latín no está traducido.
September 12, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher Smith and Taylor Classics for an early copy of this new edition of Hauntings. I loved this collection of short stories by a semi-forgotten gothic author of the 1800s. Each story feels alive. Includes all the lovely aspects of gothic fiction— the past haunting the present, lush landscapes, old buildings, mystery, and madness. My favorite story was the third one “Oke of Okehurst.” The stories are subtly queer, which is made more explicit through the conversation between Gretchen Felker-Martin and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya in the afterword. All the relationships are strange and odd, at times the characters seem to be having a conversation with the idea of gender, is the man singing truly a man when his voice sounds like a woman’s? A lovely read, very flowery.
Some quotes I loved below:
“Shall life for me mean the love of a dead woman? We smile at what we choose to call the superstition of the past, forgetting that all our vaunted science of today may seem just such another superstition to the men of the future; but why should the present be right and the past wrong?”
“What music could ever compare with this great silence, with this great concert of voiceless things that sing within one’s soul?”
“I am too skeptical to believe in the impossibility of anything, for my part!”
Some quotes I loved below:
“Shall life for me mean the love of a dead woman? We smile at what we choose to call the superstition of the past, forgetting that all our vaunted science of today may seem just such another superstition to the men of the future; but why should the present be right and the past wrong?”
“What music could ever compare with this great silence, with this great concert of voiceless things that sing within one’s soul?”
“I am too skeptical to believe in the impossibility of anything, for my part!”
February 26, 2022
👌OK ghost 👻listening 🔰😀
Another will written ghost 👻, hauntings, and horror thriller adventure novel by Vernon Lee about Italian people who are interesting and informative. I will say that this was not what I expected. Give it a try. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 some will be great 👍, others not good 👎. 😈😡2022
Another will written ghost 👻, hauntings, and horror thriller adventure novel by Vernon Lee about Italian people who are interesting and informative. I will say that this was not what I expected. Give it a try. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 some will be great 👍, others not good 👎. 😈😡2022
September 20, 2025
Thank you so much to Unnamed Press for the e-arc!
3.5! rounded up
I really loved the way these were written, there's just something so different about how ghost, horror, gothic stories were written and the atmosphere they gave off.
I wished I loved the collection more but still a stunning collection regardless.
3.5! rounded up
I really loved the way these were written, there's just something so different about how ghost, horror, gothic stories were written and the atmosphere they gave off.
I wished I loved the collection more but still a stunning collection regardless.
April 29, 2020
While this started promising, as the author is quite adept at descriptions, it quickly devolved. The outcomes of the stories were so obvious from a few pages into each, that there was really no mystery. Also, the homoerotica embedded within one story was nauseating.
November 23, 2012
Some of the most atmospheric, well written ghost stories I've ever read.
March 16, 2013
Absolutely cool. Love Vernon Lee.
November 21, 2025
Violet Paget, conocida mayormente por su identidad masculina Vernon Lee, es una escritora inigualable que combina lo esotérico y lo macabro para revelar el horror en la belleza, el espectro mismo del amor y lo sobrenatural.
En estos relatos podemos analizar la perspectiva del pensamiento de la época, la debilidad masculina sobre la duda y la feminidad, el dominio de la música, la brujería y el origen, la sumisión en aspectos inimaginables.
Violet usa un lenguaje extravagante para narrar sus historias, dando a entender su gran y poderoso manejo del lenguaje; demostrando su gran nivel intelectual.
En estos relatos podemos analizar la perspectiva del pensamiento de la época, la debilidad masculina sobre la duda y la feminidad, el dominio de la música, la brujería y el origen, la sumisión en aspectos inimaginables.
Violet usa un lenguaje extravagante para narrar sus historias, dando a entender su gran y poderoso manejo del lenguaje; demostrando su gran nivel intelectual.
October 7, 2020
Flowery but fun 1890s ghost stories from the prolific Vernon Lee. Many of the stories have a gender element to the horror (masculine women, effeminate castrati), and they all drip with artful details and aesthetic language. Think Henry James or Oscar Wilde--but Vernon Lee was a queer woman (who chose an androgynous name and style of dress).
This edition includes a useful introduction and notes for context, as well as stories originally published in other places.
This edition includes a useful introduction and notes for context, as well as stories originally published in other places.
March 5, 2019
Of the stories I read, “Oke of Okehurst” was definitely my favorite. Though I really liked “Amor Dure” and “The Wicked Voice.” It’s fun to see Lee making statements by playing with tropes, all the while creating some pretty exciting stories.
July 2, 2024
Spiridion walked so Joe Goldberg could run
November 4, 2021
“𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴," 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥, “𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘭𝘺. 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦, 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.”
——
I’ve been wanting to read some of Vernon Lee’s work for ages and this was perfect for a Halloweeny read. This book compiles the short stories included in her book Hauntings along with others to create a fascinating collection. The stories ranged from that of a man’s obsession with a historical murderess, to a couple’s tormented marriage as it starts to mirror events that took place generations before, to the story of an orphaned girl who despite being the “protégée” of a duchess and raised by nuns turns into a throughly “wicked” woman. I really enjoyed the stories in the collection and they’re definitely worth checking out if you like dark academia. A subject she’s really interested in exploring is the idea of history and how it’s presence and obsession affects the modern day. As is the case with all story collections, not all of them were hits but this was definitely a great read.
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I’ve been wanting to read some of Vernon Lee’s work for ages and this was perfect for a Halloweeny read. This book compiles the short stories included in her book Hauntings along with others to create a fascinating collection. The stories ranged from that of a man’s obsession with a historical murderess, to a couple’s tormented marriage as it starts to mirror events that took place generations before, to the story of an orphaned girl who despite being the “protégée” of a duchess and raised by nuns turns into a throughly “wicked” woman. I really enjoyed the stories in the collection and they’re definitely worth checking out if you like dark academia. A subject she’s really interested in exploring is the idea of history and how it’s presence and obsession affects the modern day. As is the case with all story collections, not all of them were hits but this was definitely a great read.
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