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At a Winter's Fire
It so fell that one dark evening in the month of June I was belated in the Bernese Oberland. Dusk overtook me toiling along the great Chamounix Road, and in the heart of a most desolate gorge, whose towering snow-flung walls seemed -- as the day sucked inwards to a point secret as a leech's mouth -- to close about me like a monstrous amphitheater of ghosts. . . .
Bernard Edward J. Capes is generally remembered as a writer of eerie fiction, and, as you can see, he had a feel for the form.
Bernard Edward J. Capes is generally remembered as a writer of eerie fiction, and, as you can see, he had a feel for the form.
151 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1899
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 19, 2025
Unusual book. Not bad but you must like late nineteenth century gothic to really enjoy this. I thought it might interest me after reading a non-fiction mountaineering book. The first couple stories have that setting. The author was known for ghost and a little phantasmagoria. Sounds like Christmas!
Capes creates some of the weirdest images I’ve ever seen. Can’t help but laugh a little. “… a scream of anguish…caught me by the fingers with the suck of a catfish….” or “a flood of the milk of Nature dispensed from the white bosom of the hills.” I could go on but that’s probably enough. Some of his stories weren’t half bad, some hardly readable.
Capes creates some of the weirdest images I’ve ever seen. Can’t help but laugh a little. “… a scream of anguish…caught me by the fingers with the suck of a catfish….” or “a flood of the milk of Nature dispensed from the white bosom of the hills.” I could go on but that’s probably enough. Some of his stories weren’t half bad, some hardly readable.
December 12, 2021
Short story collection: weird tales of dark fantasy and adventure.
December 16, 2014
This is a collection of strange tales, adventure tales, a few ghost tales. Some of the stories ("Jack and Jill," "A Voice From the Pit") use the grandness of nature to inspire awe, like Poe did in his "Descent Into Maelstrom." But while some stories are certainly above average, like "The Moon-Stricken" and "An Eddy On the Floor," some just fall completely flat. One unfortunate thing too is Capes will often introduce (e.g. pad) a story with a lot of flowery language, references to mythology before we finally get to the...ya know...story part.
The Moon Stricken - I like this one, certainly the prose is a bit academic and the story was a bit challenging in places but everything becomes clear in the end. Also it's got a creepy idea behind it which reminds me of M R James, but is also pretty original. A man is traveling through rural Switzerland when he comes across a woman who is mother to a man who went insane one night, and is worse at times of the full moon. The man investigates the reason for it – all connected with a vast lens hidden in a cave behind a waterfall that allows one to see into another world.
Jack And Jill - Decent little adventure story. It has a sublime, strange, "descent into maelstrom" feel of the awe of nature which gives it an almost "weird tale" feel. A couple fall into the crevasse between a glacier and the land, hundreds of feet into the earth.
The Vanishing House - Very short story, humorously told, but has a creepy feel to it nevertheless. A man tells a group of friends in a tavern how his father went about playing instruments with his friends, and after getting lost, they come to a strange house which seems to appear out of nowhere.
Dark Dignum - Good story about a ghostly revenge, probably one of the more memorable stories. In a graveyard on a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea, a man tells a story of a excise-tax man buried there who got his revenge on the smuggler who murdered him.
William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" - Good story, weird and has a powerful ending to it I actually thought made it among the best in the collection. A man discovers an old house with a hidden room within it like a captain's quarters with a great window overlooking the town. He also finds the captain himself there, and a dark family secret.
A Lazy Romance - Not a horror story at all, just a little action story. A man bored at a seaside village eavesdrops on two lovers, later he sees the woman save the man's life in a real test of daring.
Black Venn - OK story, put it in the middle of the pile in this collection, a bit of a murder mystery, sort of a "conte cruelle" almost too. A man refuses to let his daughter marry her fiance until a cliff called Black Venn collapses.
An Eddy On The Floor - Good story, one of the best in the collection, but a third of the beginning could have been cut without losing anything. Once it gets going though it establishes a decent mood, and has a conte cruelle feel. A man becomes a doctor in a prison that has a haunted cell, haunted both by a ghost, and a horrible history.
Dinah's Mammoth - Not sure I really get this one, the end didn't make a lot of sense, although the overall story was kinda interesting, just not overly. Once again, as is the case with many of these stories, it's very padded at the beginning. A whaling ship stuck in an ice flow discovers a mammoth frozen in ice, with a family within the mammoth.
The Black Reaper - This story has some pretty unsettling moments, not exactly scary. A man recounts how in the year of a plague, to his sinful village came a mysterious stranger, preaching of how the Lord will bring down judgement on them all. After they kill the stranger, he returns for a terrible vengeance.
A Voice From The Pit - A very short story, but is effective for what it is. A man is on a mountain full of spurting lava with his guide who shows him a pit that seems to suck air, and is full of the screams of the damned.
The Moon Stricken - I like this one, certainly the prose is a bit academic and the story was a bit challenging in places but everything becomes clear in the end. Also it's got a creepy idea behind it which reminds me of M R James, but is also pretty original. A man is traveling through rural Switzerland when he comes across a woman who is mother to a man who went insane one night, and is worse at times of the full moon. The man investigates the reason for it – all connected with a vast lens hidden in a cave behind a waterfall that allows one to see into another world.
Jack And Jill - Decent little adventure story. It has a sublime, strange, "descent into maelstrom" feel of the awe of nature which gives it an almost "weird tale" feel. A couple fall into the crevasse between a glacier and the land, hundreds of feet into the earth.
The Vanishing House - Very short story, humorously told, but has a creepy feel to it nevertheless. A man tells a group of friends in a tavern how his father went about playing instruments with his friends, and after getting lost, they come to a strange house which seems to appear out of nowhere.
Dark Dignum - Good story about a ghostly revenge, probably one of the more memorable stories. In a graveyard on a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea, a man tells a story of a excise-tax man buried there who got his revenge on the smuggler who murdered him.
William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" - Good story, weird and has a powerful ending to it I actually thought made it among the best in the collection. A man discovers an old house with a hidden room within it like a captain's quarters with a great window overlooking the town. He also finds the captain himself there, and a dark family secret.
A Lazy Romance - Not a horror story at all, just a little action story. A man bored at a seaside village eavesdrops on two lovers, later he sees the woman save the man's life in a real test of daring.
Black Venn - OK story, put it in the middle of the pile in this collection, a bit of a murder mystery, sort of a "conte cruelle" almost too. A man refuses to let his daughter marry her fiance until a cliff called Black Venn collapses.
An Eddy On The Floor - Good story, one of the best in the collection, but a third of the beginning could have been cut without losing anything. Once it gets going though it establishes a decent mood, and has a conte cruelle feel. A man becomes a doctor in a prison that has a haunted cell, haunted both by a ghost, and a horrible history.
Dinah's Mammoth - Not sure I really get this one, the end didn't make a lot of sense, although the overall story was kinda interesting, just not overly. Once again, as is the case with many of these stories, it's very padded at the beginning. A whaling ship stuck in an ice flow discovers a mammoth frozen in ice, with a family within the mammoth.
The Black Reaper - This story has some pretty unsettling moments, not exactly scary. A man recounts how in the year of a plague, to his sinful village came a mysterious stranger, preaching of how the Lord will bring down judgement on them all. After they kill the stranger, he returns for a terrible vengeance.
A Voice From The Pit - A very short story, but is effective for what it is. A man is on a mountain full of spurting lava with his guide who shows him a pit that seems to suck air, and is full of the screams of the damned.
August 16, 2025
Algunos relatos muy chulos pero estarían más guapos si no se pasara no sé cuántas páginas explicando cosas que no le importan a nadie
November 29, 2010
Another great collection of Victorian ghost stories.
November 2, 2015
A solid collection of gothic horror stories. The language gets a little florid at times, but the stories deliver pretty solid creepiness.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews