Status Updates From The Eerie Book

“Let’s descend the darker stairs together. Let’s follow the witch into the woods. Let’s see what we find in those old hidden passages.” (xiii)

“But one thing that never seems to change about humans is that desire to slip out of the light and into the shadows; to lift up the rock; to stare at the ambulance lights. In another hundred years we will crave stories of new horrors— or perhaps these same old classic ones. As a final story in this book says: “the secret passages still survive.”” (xiii)

“We loved tales of blood and death a century ago when this book was first published; we loved them for centuries before that. I expect we will love them for centuries still to come. We may think we’re different now. We have different beliefs; we tell different stories. We are haunted by different fears.” (xiii)

“William Brown (credited as W.B.) Macdougall’s style has strong echoes of Aubrey Beardsley; the images are symbolic and somber.” (xii)

“The interest in this particular book, for me, is the curation: the way that the stories are put in conversation with one another. I’ve read ghost stories and I’ve read fairy tales, but there’s something interesting about making them stand beside one another, in making them look one another in the eye and try to find a common language.” (x)

“The Eerie Book is a collection of supernatural stories ranging from gory folk and fairy tales to Gothic short stories, to excerpts of classic novels.” (viii)

"The Masque of Klosterheim was enabled to replace himself in his patrimonial rights, and at the same time to liberate from a growing oppression his own compatriots and subjects."

What a beautiful ending

"The last prayer was prayed, the last handful of earth was heaped upon the grave. They arose, and the stranger was no longer there, but where she had knelt a silver spring burst from the sward, that gently flowed and flowed till it surrounded the tomb."

Ugh, might be my favourite excerpt so far (which is crazy bc my beloved Shelley and Poe have featured here)

"Just then the old clock on the mantelpiece struck the midnight hour. The spirit of Marshal Blücher had quietly passed away."

What sights of horror might present themselves if it were entered! Satan is the ultimus hæres of all such unclaimed property!

When they communicated the circumstances of the confession to Powleska, she said, “I was told it last night.”

But through the long years that have elapsed since that memorable summer's day, I have never for a moment wavered in my belief that, in the mysterious horseman, I had a special interference of Providence, by which means I was delivered from a position of extreme danger.

"In a moment she knew it was herself and that she was dead. Struggling to make some sound, she gave a shriek, fell face downwards on the floor, and woke up."

"They assured me that, previous to that fatal expedition into the forest, he had been a hale, hearty man, totally exempt from superstitious fancies of any sort; and, in short, wholly devoted to advancing his worldly prosperity and getting money."

Mood

"He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance."

When the noises could be endured no longer, the room was stoutly walled up, and inside sit Earl Beardie and his partner playing cards till the crack of doom.

Against the new masonry I re - erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

“Oh no,” I rejoined; “oh no; never mind facts if they don't fit into our theories.”

"Even until to - day is Tregeagle labouring at his task. In calms his wailing is heard; and those sounds which some call the “soughing of the wind,” are known to be the moanings of Tregeagle; while the earning storms are predicated by the fearful roarings of this condemned mortal."

“Hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is at all times the best! Hear me not! hear me not!” And she let her head sink down on her bosom.
And Death went away with her child into the unknown land.

"On — on went the closing sides: down — down came the ponderous roof — the fatal machinery no longer moving noiselessly, but collapsing with a hideous crash — yet not so loud as to stifle the agonising screams and shrieks that echoed from the inmate of the iron coffin!"

"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood - bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion"